Huh, I forgot I had this in the backlog for months now.
Audi_t When change causes the forums to become a barren wasteland, something wrong has been done.
No, seriously, think about it.
Most of the new user activity in the forums is nearly restricted to:
- The poorly formatted weapon request that fades off after a week at most.
- Frequent moderation appeals.
Don't get me wrong, there will be those one-off posts that are truly unique and useful (take Darkman's contributions for instance), but those are rarer than rare. Moreover, even these users frequently fade into obscurity.
When an entire group of people feels alienated to the extent that they either do not want to return and create worthwhile content, or are fearful of what happens next, what has come of the "change" that you so praise?
takeusername , saladguy , Torush1 , B_olts , SilverKnite, Q_71 etc...
While life manners may account for quite a few of them (Torush specifically), where are the rest?
A good majority of these members, however, still lurk around on other mediums, like Discord and Steam.
They are actively avoiding this place.
Why?
Because the environment here is beyond oppressive.
And before you say that these members were part of the toxicity that plagued the old forums and are a menace to the new forums, they aren't.
Each one of them have spotless records on the old-forums, having no reason to fear the very same policies that are only now being enforced.
Those who have tried compromise are ignored. Those who act out are banned.
The only people who aren't banned are the subservient and the fearful.
If you still wish to disregard each and every original user who have either left or remain in the shadows as bigots and bull-heads, then be my guest.
Yet there is one glaring issue that still prevails here.
If a safe environment has truly been created not only for new users, but for developers to communicate with the community, then where are they?
Dev activity is rare to non-existent on these forums, similarly so to the old-forums. Even Sema, where this forum is their brainchild, is gone. StyLiS has mostly cut their losses with these forums, and moved on.
