The Status of our Community?

[gtw5812]

Hello Folks,

I have been around here for quite some time ,and I was curious, does it seem that less people are participating in our forums? I use to see a lot more screenshots and and discussions...and nowadays it seems less. I look at other boards (like Train Sim Community) and they are using "Discord", which I personally do not like. Is there something we can do to "drum up business"? Just thoughts......

R/
Galen

[august1929]

I am just a casual here at the moment though I was once pretty regular (certainly going back to the days of Rich Garber and shortly after).

I can't get on with Discord - the little I have dipped into it on matters relating to train sims it appears that along with the "nice" people there are a load who are neither particularly nice or with whom it would be any pleasure to spend time with on line.

The only DTG forum I go on is the content-developers one and even that has its fair share of Gimme Pigs.

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/forums ... -area.102/

A lot of the cohesion went out of the community in the UK with the closure of UK Trainsim (I know, even that had its share of right pains in the...) but the one below is friendly and has some pretty informative contributors.

http://railworks.freeforums.net/

There are an incredible number of new freeware developers across the UK side of the Pond who have their own websites and who, long before the demise of UK Trainsim, were just working away in company of a few like minded developers and who did not seem to need to put themselves out there as part of a larger community. It may be just that the community is there but doesn't communicate...ironic really.

I come to RWA to get an old time pleasurable hit from people who are regularly around and who have a good sense of humour...or is that humor

Here is a random screenshot, just for fun...



Rod

[buzz456]

It kind of ebbs and flows. For instance there have been 86 members on here in the last 24 hours when absolutely nothing is going on. When something new comes out it goes up dramatically and there hasn't been a whole lot of action lately in that department. Additionally the twits and other assorted trouble makers have apparently decided that there are greener pastures elsewhere than on a forum that is actually moderated.
It's hard telling how many visitors come to use the library since there are all these bots on doing whatever the search programs have them doing. We just need more creative people to give us something to talk about. Sometime I wonder why anyone bothers when on many forums the creators are immediately nit picked into oblivion.
In any event I am a believer in quality over quantity and in that regard I think the library and the forum are both in pretty good shape.

[bpetit]

still around just doing other things.

[Cardinal51]

The new normal is to enjoy your hobby in a secret community behind closed doors.

Good example is the freeforms forum ( url higher up) is a secret place no one can see what is going on unless you subscribe. And probably not indexed by Bing or Google. In my opinion that is totally nuts and bad for the TS community. The various non sense discork channels are doing the same thing.

UPDATE - Just noticed that RWA is the same, no idea when that happened, forum is kept secret and for members only :-(

[buzz456]

That may be the result of all of the spam hack attacks recently from our "friends" in Russia who kept spamming us here. Several of us spent considerable time deleting and banning junk from the forum. Some may not have wanted to spend the time or effort so they just hid themselves. I wanted very much for us to remain open to all who wanted to access our site here so I manually deleted them by name, e-mail, and IP until it appears at least for now they have gone off to more fertile fields to ruin someones day or week or month or whatever.

[Cardinal51]

I think they do it the wrong way. Reading rights should be for all people and searchengines. That causes no spam at all. I was full admin and programmer of a 200 000+ community for years and now am simply co-admin of a 500 000+ community.

Is a LOT of work but very doable. Problem often is that gather a team around you that is as dedicated as you are.

PS: Besides standard options (like admin approval before accepting a new member, or no free posting untill the 2nd) there are excellent paid and free anti-spam tools available for popular forums like these.

[gtw5812]

Well, I agree with you on the subject of Discord. I find it very unorganized and not so "user" friendly. I am glad to see the responses to this post! It just seemed that if you looked at all the subjects through the board, a lot of dates for the posts are from two to three years ago. I believe that this is the best place on the internet with the most to offer. Between the file library and the helpful people, you always get the answer or help the you need.

[Cardinal51]

Perhaps this forum need an Admin Assistant that focusses on bringing more traffic. There is a lot that can be done.

[Unoriginal]

I stick more to the trainsimcommunity server on discord (for convenience, since I also talk to other friends on that platform too) though I do still occasionally frequent forums such as here, trainsim.com, and elvastower. Might be harder for older folk to join in on there since the formal responses you usually get while chatting on forums isn't seen on there as much. I will agree that some people on there probably aren't as nice as you'd want them to be.

[goddrauG]

In my case, I still kinda lurk and I’m looking for a time to sit down and properly package up the final iteration of the Queen Mary Island Railroad. Truth be told, though, I’ve just been phenomenally busy. My last day of my senior year in university is next Monday and the last semester has been packed with all sorts of busyness and excitement. I actually have been reached out to do marketing for a few railroads if you can believe it!

I would love to be doing more, and publicize it more, but I’m somewhat preoccupied as of late. I still post in the ARAE2024 thread, and DM people on occasion about possible repaints (I saw some B&M blue geeps being painted by Buzz ) but I’m just taking it easy to avoid insane burnout. I had that happen once and I left train simming for literally years, I would not want to have that happen again, especially since I enjoy this hobby and the supportive community that we’ve been blessed with here.

[buzz456]

Perhaps this forum need an Admin Assistant that focusses on bringing more traffic. There is a lot that can be done.

And what would be the purpose on doing that?

[Cardinal51]

Purpose would be to try to change what was mentioned by Galen.....

...does it seem that less people are participating in our forums? I use to see a lot more screenshots and and discussions.......

[gtw5812]

Purpose would be to try to change what was mentioned by Galen.....

...does it seem that less people are participating in our forums? I use to see a lot more screenshots and and discussions.......

The problem with bringing more traffic is that we would have to watch who shows up, so as not to "pollute" our community.

[mindenjohn]

There have been a few "rogue" postings recently - attempts to promote themselves, annoying everyone else (imho).