Well this thread certainly turned out long and as such it takes a while to read through all the pages, but I can see it gathered quite a bit of interesting material over all this time. I used to be "quite" active back in the fabled "old" community, hence I believe I can actually post something of value. It should also put this thread back on track.
@Illy: I can really appreciate what you're trying to do for this community. Maybe not because I particularly care where Planeshift is going (although it is nice to see it is going somewhere), but because I used to do pretty much the same thing - try to guide the community towards some decent direction. I experienced better and worse results, but as I look back at those days, my sincere advise is:
Don't push it too much, don't turn yourself into a martyr - it's not worth your frustration.
Auran is almost right in saying people don't listen to logical arguments (it's pretty basic knowledge in social psychology); almost - because this knowlege applies
mainly to vocal communication - one, where the listener is faced with the difficulty of maintaing their attention and given little time to analyse received information or the current situation.
Should you ever be tempted to listen to Auran and manipulate people on discussion boards, don't. That's stupid. Most techniques that work like charm in vocal conversations will make you look like a goof should you use them in here. Even in vocal conversations you need to use proper intonation, register, etc. What are you going to do on discussion boards?
Bold your text?
This having been said, I did read your posts and, sadly, I do have to agree with Auran that you will not achieve much by just trying to be rational with the community members. This doesn't mean all those who attack your ideas are necessarily stupid, or jerks. It just shows that people automatically reject the idea that they're wrong. Leave it be. The more you argue with other people, the more you force them to prove to
themselves that they are right and you wrong. If you leave it alone, with time they will cool down and perhaps start to question their own ideas.
Remeber, this isn't a vocal conversation. Use it to your advantage - your ideas remain written in your threads, you don't need to repeat them. The seed has been planted and has a chance to grow into a plant, eventually.
And if not? I say don't worry. The present community is already great in my opinion.
Don't listen to these tales of of how Planeshift used to be 7 or 8 years ago. These things Annah, Auran and Phinehas are saying? Nothing but fables.
Annah simply misses being important and having his friends around. It's not that the community was better in his times. He never regained his postion within the community. Simple as that.
Auran keeps talking about how "we", the players managed to create scenarios that pushed the community forwards. It was, in fact, quite the contrary. His idea of creating an evil force was actually abusing the fact there was hardly any moderation on forums and no such thing as Game Masters ingame (in other words troll-fest). It was completely OOC behaviour, just as about 90% of things that were happening ingame. If there was rivalisation going around, more often than not it was player vs player. Our inability to seperate game from real life was defining this "splendid" community and resulted in us jumping to one another's throats. Sure, now that we look back it all appears so fascinating, but at the time it was hell. I'm really amazed by how you guys handle these things. Even if there's some OOC still going on, it's not
nearly as common as 7 years ago.
And as to what Phinehas is saying... Well he's Phinehas, c'mon...
Anyway, the community today is great, seriously. I'm not really playing Planeshift anymore, but it's not because of the community. Sure, I think you guys take this realistic roleplay business a bit too seriously (being sort of "old school", I believe rp should be light-hearted, sometimes goofy, but above all enjoyable and fun), but hey, whatever works for ya. I'm sure you guys find it fun one way or another.
I would definitely play Planeshift the way it is now. It's just that I'm not much of a gamer anymore
so it would be hard to dedicate myself to the community. Plus, it won't run on my ye olde 'puter.
I think the same applies for other oldbies. They just moved on with their lives and now it would be hard to find oneself in the community again - no matter how great it is \o/
