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Khushrenada:
I'm surprised you're addicted to this site. With Lucario gone, there's been so little happening here that I have been checking in here less and less due to natural disinterest.

NWR_insanolord:
Historically when there's been very little happening around here you've had the tendency to take matters into your own hands to ensure there were far more things happening than there ever should be.

Stratos:
No Spak! Don't leave us!

Khushrenada:
This is a long post so I'm going to break it up over a few posts to make it more readable.


--- Quote from: NWR_insanolord on July 06, 2016, 09:56:19 PM ---Historically when there's been very little happening around here you've had the tendency to take matters into your own hands to ensure there were far more things happening than there ever should be.

--- End quote ---

That's true. And I've found that by doing so, I've yet to be given moderator status in view of my contributions and ability to create activity so now I'm trying a different tactic.

You know, from time to time, UncleBob has complained about the time he's had to spend doing some moderation clean-up. I'm not going to poo-poo that statement but just remind us all of that famous statement that time is money. While he may not get paid for his time, he does have the benefit of being a moderator which does have its positives with its negatives and so one could say there is a bit of compensation there.

However, for the average forum user, they do not get any of those responsibilities or rewards. Their reward is being able to find like-minded people who they share some of the same interests with and can converse with on these subjects. There is some camaraderie and bonds they can make. While this can be nice for awhile, even that plus can wear off. People they bond with my fade away and disappear from the forums. New voices may arise that they disagree with. They may get upset or frustrated with other user's viewpoints. They may even begin to dislike the initial Nintendo product that brought them to this sight in the first place. If that happens, they may move on to a new site and start the process over there. If enough people do that, then the forums will die off. With people leaving to other sites, it could affect the fan base of the NWR site as a whole serving to reduce its output and affect its long-term future. Although one can reach people through other media like Youtube, Twitter and Podcasts, I do think the forums here still provide the best feedback the producers of content for this site can get and make the best gathering place. Do you really want to swap 3DS codes on the YouTube comments page?

How do you retain forum users then? The way I see it is in the very basic requirement for any site. Content. Now content can mean different things. It can mean the videos and podcasts and news articles we see posted all the time. But those can be limited by the purpose of the site which is to focus on Nintendo news. That's why I believe the community forums are some of the most important to this site because it allows for content beyond this site's purpose. The ability to talk about tech, movies, music, TV, cooking. That can all be found in General Chat.

Although some people want to turn up their nose at the thought of Nintendo using meme jokes in their localization of games, plenty of people like them as shown by Lucario using his thread to post many images of them. People like to laugh and just have some silly fun and that's what makes the Funhouse great. It can be a chance to break a few forum rules (within reason, I'm told) and just post nonsense (or complain some more). Even in there, serious discussion and debate can arise but when it can catch fire with some wild silliness, it is one of my favorite places on the internet.

Plus, one can even play games in it. The Mafia forum highlights the game aspect of content although myself and others have thrown out some other game ideas in the Funhouse from time to time. People come here to this site because of their gaming hobby so it just makes sense people here may be interested in playing games while visiting as well. And I think time has shown that having this broader type of content has served these forums well and has kept many users coming back here over the years because of it.

Khushrenada:
NWR/PlanetGameCube is an internet success story in a way. There are not many sites that have been on the web as long as it has existed and there have been some great sites that have come and gone in that time because of failure to provide cost or generate enough traffic. Other sites can change and those communities can wither and die from those changes. That we have so many people still around from 5 - 10 years (and for a select few even longer) is pretty remarkable especially when a lot of these long time members often talk about not being able to play many videogames like they used to or even any at all as they advance in life/age. That is a unique thing to be excited about and to cherish with this site. Even if a familiar face pops in just to say hi or they can't believe this site is still around and then disappears again, we get excited about it because of the history we have with them and this site has. I do believe that having these community forums with discussions beyond videogames has helped in achieving this longevity. It's easy to get excited and discuss the new possibilities for a brand new console or game but when you have slow years like the last year of the Gamecube or the last two years of the Wii or this past year, there's not a lot to get excited about or content to be made on the videogame front. That makes the community forums more crucial perhaps with helping to keep people posting and sticking around here and not fading away.

But where does that content come from? The staff is mostly concerned with the output for the main page and all that entails. It's been obvious from over the history of this site that the staff doesn't leave a lot of time left to post much on these forums. (Congrats on Shaymin for being able to post more regularly than most.) You could say it falls under the Community Manager to produce the content then but to expect one person to do it all is going to lead to forum burnout also. Thus, the content falls on the community and the humble forum user. NWR has been blessed by having many forum users producing it on their own because they were passionate about posting that content and in fostering a community spirit and keeping this place lively. I believe I have shown myself to be one such poster and I've enjoyed much of what I've been able to contribute here.

Yet, we've had other such posters with this spirit who have left. Bill and Maxi come to mind. What happened to bring their contributions to an end? Dissatisfaction with the community they had spent much time in contributing towards. As I mentioned at the start of this long-winded pondering and musing of the forums, time is money. Time spent here is time not spent elsewhere. Thus, does the user find value in their spending time here or not? If they don't, then it is going to cause them to leave. If they do, then they'll stay. It seems to be the very thing Spak-Spang is right now working out. Since the average user is not usually going to obtain the potential benefits of moderator status, then their ability to find value is going to be in what they find for content here and in the community. If those spending time making content don't find any value in the community, then they are going to stop making content and leave. That's basically what happened with Bill and Maxi. Their goodbye speeches were about not finding the value they once did in the community and leaving. That can make a hole in the content of the site which can have a domino effect. Other users miss that content so then they leave which means less contributions to the site and forum which means more people leave as the value of content and community erodes. To prevent that domino effect, one has to hope that either a new person comes in and fills that hole or someone else steps up and fills that content gap. For awhile in the early Wii years, we often saw enough people rotating in and out of this site to make up for those that left. But with Nintendo's marketshare and meager game offerings in the past 5 years no doubt having an effect on the amount of people looking for Nintendo news, the site has seen fewer and fewer new people come in to fill in the gaps for those who left while older ones just don't have the time to step up and fill in that content gap either.

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