Octopus Overlords

naednek wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:59 pm

JCC wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:48 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:28 pm I think the problem is that the site integration doesn't do it any favours given the size of the community.

Absolutely this. As soon as I first looked at the "new" Gaming Trend, I knew that it was dead to me as a forum. Forums are dying in general, and OO isn't exactly bustling either, but GT was doomed as soon as they made the foolhardy decision to not offer a separate forum from their site content which I never cared about.

I believe we did have it seperate initially and then with the latest designed it was merged into one.

No, the difference with the new GT is that the old site was never integrated with the forums, and with the new forum software it is, something which they were aiming to do, so any articles posted automatically become forum posts. This drowns out any user-content and discourages posting as it's less personable and welcoming. Site content can still be this way, but it needs to have its own forum area that doesn't interfere with the actual forum community rather than being all in one boat. One simply can't compete against the insurmountable amount of site content. I can't count the times I've seen many sites die off and be abandoned because of this approach. Some can claim that forums are dying all they want, but approaches like these certainly don't help things either.

There was a brief time before what you see now where there was a subforum specifically for what was posted on the main page. It didn't last long due to the database went kaput. During that time the forums were upgraded from the old one to a newer php version. During that upgrade is when they had that subforum. Shortly after that it is when the database went kaput and now you see what we have now, all in one place. You may have forgotten because it wasn't there long. I'm mod there and remember seeing that subforum.

Wasn't it done manually though? As far as I'm aware, there was no automatic posting due to there not being any integration with the main page.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:16 pm Wasn't it done manually though? As far as I'm aware, there was no automatic posting due to there not being any integration with the main page.

i used to do reviews for GT a looooooong time ago (10 years?). Even way back then, there was talk about integrating the front page with the forums to drive more discussion about the front page content.

I don't know for sure, but my guess is that became an automated process with the forum upgrade. Once an article is posted, it creates a new forum topic.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:20 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:16 pm Wasn't it done manually though? As far as I'm aware, there was no automatic posting due to there not being any integration with the main page.

i used to do reviews for GT a looooooong time ago (10 years?). Even way back then, there was talk about integrating the front page with the forums to drive more discussion about the front page content.

I don't know for sure, but my guess is that became an automated process with the forum upgrade. Once an article is posted, it creates a new forum topic.

That is correct. It would post automatically. The review would have a link to the discussion on the subforum.

Ok, so the main difference now seems to be tighter integration and site content not having its own section. The current setup actually seems to encourage less discussion since it's so hostile to posters. If it could return to a similar setup of site content given its own section, then it would be the best of both worlds. But that's a long shot, I know.

Unfortunately, at this point a huge portion of the community will have found new homes, the same way we lost a lot of Gone Gold members to Console Gold and Qt3.

I just popped over there to take a look and saw that this happened. Mannnnnnnn, that's a lot of stuff just GONE.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:16 pm Wasn't it done manually though? As far as I'm aware, there was no automatic posting due to there not being any integration with the main page.

We did have automatic posting with our last forum, for a few years, actually, but it wasn't a very good integration.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:48 pm Ok, so the main difference now seems to be tighter integration and site content not having its own section. The current setup actually seems to encourage less discussion since it's so hostile to posters. If it could return to a similar setup of site content given its own section, then it would be the best of both worlds. But that's a long shot, I know.

<shrug>We had almost zero discussion before the crash, so we figured we might as well try SOMETHING.

Also, we can change things up from the current configuration- there is considerable flexibility with this software. It would be nice if we didn't have to go to another site for feedback like this, though...

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:40 pm Unfortunately, at this point a huge portion of the community will have found new homes, the same way we lost a lot of Gone Gold members to Console Gold and Qt3.

Frankly, the old forum was right on the precipice before this happened. Most of the discussion we see these days is on social media and twitch.

JCC wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:48 pm GT was doomed as soon as they made the foolhardy decision to not offer a separate forum from their site content which I never cared about.

Attitudes like this is why forums have largely died out, I reckon. We spent well over a decade bending over backwards to prop up forum software that crippled our server time and time again. Every attempt to improve it and try to draw new people in results in comments like that.

Doesn't really give us much incentive, does it?

End of an era. The GT forum will close on Aug 10th.

Yep, definitely the end of an era. Thanks to Mike for hosting OOers while this forum has had outages.

Edit: Probably should change the thread title to something like 'closing permanently'.

I think they were "offline" for longer than they were online.

Won't lie, that hits me in the feels.

There was a very long stretch when I considered GT as my primary online home, with OO as a fun backup hangout. GT always had much more robust discussion around console games (for those who recall, the console forum here was a ghost town until we merged it), which have always been my first gaming love.

While I haven't been over there really at all since the crash, I have a so many fond memories of the place. Sad to see it go.

I think GT is the only forum I've posted on where I've gotten any sort of ban.

It'll be missed but that forum is a shriveled husk of what it used to be.

The Buddha wrote:Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Can't claim membership, but I'd be heartless to ignore the history between Gone Gold, Gaming Trend and this site - particularly as it relates to the gaming hobby. And in that, we're all still part of a community, albeit one that apparently doesn't like to forum as much anymore.

Requiescat in pace

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 4:09 pm

The Buddha wrote:Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

Can't claim membership, but I'd be heartless to ignore the history between Gone Gold, Gaming Trend and this site - particularly as it relates to the gaming hobby. And in that, we're all still part of a community, albeit one that apparently doesn't like to forum as much anymore.

Requiescat in pace

I got moved in the other direction because it was Console Gold and I've always been a PC gamer (though I know they tried to be welcoming of PC gaming after the lights got turned out at GG). Heck, after laying my Internet serviced Handspring to rest in 2005, I didn't even get a smartphone until this year (mandated by work because we expect availability in our human capital like we do our data) and I still don't game on it.

I'm sorry for those who lost their home. When last I poked my head, I though the forum was pretty spiffy (linked topic wise to content) though it was still a ghost town.

GT used to be part of my daily routine, a place I'd bounce into after reading OO until they changed the forum software and made it unnavigable. There wasn't enough content there to make it worth figuring out, although I did bookmark the "Post a picture" thread and dip into it from time to time. Sad to see it finally go, even though it went a long time ago as far as my own participation is concerned. It was also the last place on the internet where I was still Ironrod.

That sucks. For those that don't remember, when Gone Gold died, KD over on GT (then Console Gold) didn't just offer us a place to hang, he changed the forums around to better fit us, and it always functioned as a sort of 'sister site' - we were both spin-offs of Gone Gold.

I never posted over there regularly, but I was a member, and I did post from time to time, and lurked a fair amount (all prior to the loss of all of the old stuff.)

I hope any wayward GTers can find a home here!

Man, that's wild. I spent more time around GT for a while when I was writing for them, and then about 6 years ago when all the turmoil was happening in my personal life, I wandered away. I hadn't been back until recently and it was unrecognizable. Sad to see it go. Another piece of the internet, just sliding away.

Damn. I can't remember the last time I was over there, but for a long time GT was my main online hangout.

I have tons of good memories of the forums both in the Console Gold era and the Gaming Trend era. For a long while GT was my first stop and OO was #2. I wish the site the best of luck even if it's time to say goodbye the forum section.

I was only there for about a week until I found OO.

End of an era. I forgot about how all of us oldest-timers migrated from Gone Gold to OO with a stopover at Gaming Trend.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:45 pm I hope any wayward GTers can find a home here!

We already have most of them other than the staff.

I guess I could follow GT on twitter... but I don't actually log in to twitter.

Fireball wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:46 am End of an era. I forgot about how all of us oldest-timers migrated from Gone Gold to OO with a stopover at Gaming Trend.

There was a very serious discussion between staff and Ron about simply folding the Gone Gold community into Console Gold (Gaming Trend) at the time, with all GG staff becoming GT staff. The main reason we didn't do so was because we'd been working under a third party's rules and limits for so long that we really wanted to try and make a go of doing things our own way for once. Thus we formed Brutesquad.com (no, really - that was a working alternate URL/name for a while, and the choice between the two names was probably our first big controversy.)

GT does really good game reviews, and I'll definitely keep checking out their content.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:01 pm

Fireball wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:46 am End of an era. I forgot about how all of us oldest-timers migrated from Gone Gold to OO with a stopover at Gaming Trend.

There was a very serious discussion between staff and Ron about simply folding the Gone Gold community into Console Gold (Gaming Trend) at the time, with all GG staff becoming GT staff. The main reason we didn't do so was because we'd been working under a third party's rules and limits for so long that we really wanted to try and make a go of doing things our own way for once. Thus we formed Brutesquad.com (no, really - that was a working alternate URL/name for a while, and the choice between the two names was probably our first big controversy.)

Did Brutesquad become OO? I remember them being separate?

Fireball wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 1:59 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:01 pm

Fireball wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:46 am End of an era. I forgot about how all of us oldest-timers migrated from Gone Gold to OO with a stopover at Gaming Trend.

There was a very serious discussion between staff and Ron about simply folding the Gone Gold community into Console Gold (Gaming Trend) at the time, with all GG staff becoming GT staff. The main reason we didn't do so was because we'd been working under a third party's rules and limits for so long that we really wanted to try and make a go of doing things our own way for once. Thus we formed Brutesquad.com (no, really - that was a working alternate URL/name for a while, and the choice between the two names was probably our first big controversy.)

Did Brutesquad become OO? I remember them being separate?

Fireball wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 1:59 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:01 pm

Fireball wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 11:46 am End of an era. I forgot about how all of us oldest-timers migrated from Gone Gold to OO with a stopover at Gaming Trend.

There was a very serious discussion between staff and Ron about simply folding the Gone Gold community into Console Gold (Gaming Trend) at the time, with all GG staff becoming GT staff. The main reason we didn't do so was because we'd been working under a third party's rules and limits for so long that we really wanted to try and make a go of doing things our own way for once. Thus we formed Brutesquad.com (no, really - that was a working alternate URL/name for a while, and the choice between the two names was probably our first big controversy.)

Did Brutesquad become OO? I remember them being separate?

They were always the same. We got both urls while we were deciding (although I think we actually got brutesquad.net, IIRC).

Oops, yep. .net it was.

I do miss the HT logos (and the pro logo that we never went with.)

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:55 pm Oops, yep. .net it was.

I do miss the HT logos (and the pro logo that we never went with.)

Or the magazines...
God, we were much younger then...

I miss HT more than I can say. His work is just brilliant.

I was under the impression you had to say Hell's Taco three times to make him appear.

Hell's Taco
Hell's Taco
Hell's Taco


... anything?

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:06 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:55 pm Oops, yep. .net it was.

I do miss the HT logos (and the pro logo that we never went with.)

Or the magazines...

Spoiler:

God, we were much younger then...

omg she's flashing the "OK" symbol

Call your doctor and ask about which low T treatment would make the most sense for you.

{we're all old now so this is a relevant joke)