The general animosity toward other people. That and people are to Angry/sad/annoyed/Spamy/overzealous.


I like teh long words.

Hasn't it always been like that?

No not always.

..Well, actually..

People wanna know why it sucks? Back in the day, CC was a very small community. Everyone got to know each other on a more personal level. The weren't very many members but the members that were on were very active. Now, we have many many members however many of them barely have 100 posts. I don't want one of those forums where there is no discussion, just a topic and then everybody posting one comment about that topic. I want discussions going on in that topic.

With the many members that we have now, we are losing that small community feel. Happy? There's your damn reason.

I'm sorry for being all pissy, but I don't like it when people need for a reason to be spelled out to them. It's obvious that the forums changed, anyone that doesn't realize that is oblivious.

I know everyone, and considering what I'm used to this is a small community.

1) Not everyone spends their entire day on this forum. There are people who neither want nor need to get to know everyone at a personal level. Six times out of ten, a user is only on here to ask a question from experienced users -- then they might never post again.

2) The fact that there are non-active members has no bearing on the social status of this forum. If they are inactive, they are not contributing (either negatively or positively)--and therefore have no effect on the status of this community.

3) Not every topic needs an in-depth discussion. Please consider that there is no official manual for this game so far, so people are going to come in with their questions--expecting and wanting answers. A thread long the lines of "how do I install modz??" is not going to require 20 posts worth of discussion because the answer is--what--20 words long, maximum?

3a) I expect you're going to say "well the people who ask stupid questions are detrimental to the forums." To a degree, you are right--insofar that there are people who will consistantly ♥♥♥♥♥ and moan that no real discussion goes on--just "n00bs who dont kno shyt." Instead of complaining, how about you do something to alleviate the problem. Post helpful responses to newbish questions. Help newcomers learn the ropes.

4) We haven't lost that "small community feel" for the same reason in response #2. Most of these new people are not contributing to the community at all, outside of asking questions, so theres no way the negative attitude that is prevalent on this forum is their fault. In reality, the negative atmosphere is enhanced by the users who -do- post on a daily basis.

5) It's only obvious to you if you feel there is a problem. There are plenty of people who don't think there is a problem with this forum. Sure, there are some: There are members with attitude problems, members with general hostility to new users, and a general division of the forum into three or four factions. Those problems are infinitesimal compared to common board problems such as complete and utter spam, lack of discipline with the user base, and a lack of moderating staff.

If you'd like, I can outline you each and every solution I've suggested to every problem I've noticed on this board. Actually, I'll go ahead and do this.
---
A majority of the users who join this board only do so to download mods and learn how to install said mods and play the game. After that, they dont desire to come back. This is solved by removing the mods from the forum, forcing users who only desire mods to ask their questions elsewhere and download content elsewhere. My solution to this was using MediaWiki software. removing the mods off of the forums would prevent questions like Y I GET ERROR o HOW I INSTALL off the forums and onto the Wiki--where they can be properly moderated by volunteers

A majority of the active users exert a large amount of negative influence over new members. There are still, to this day, way too many instances where a moderator has to yell at an experienced member for biting a new person's head off. When experienced, high-post users pwn the newbies, the reputation of the forum fails. One of two things needs to happen here: A comprehensive manual needs to be created, or a group of users who are more newb-friendly should dedicate themselves to answering such questions. Such volunteers would be the only people who should be responding to questions (and users who flame people over simple questions should refrain from replying).

There are many sections in the forum that helps new users with modsa and the game in general:

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3105

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1956

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 06&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1425

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 03&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 69&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5398

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 26&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 96&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 03&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 72&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 10&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 79&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5882

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1655

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 02&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 50&start=0

http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtop ... 87&start=0

Those are tutorials, rules and help threads, noobs have no excuse to post the type of questions that they do.

And saying that many members join just to ask a simple question is stupid when they can look at one topic to explain everything.

Trust me, we had a small community of active members that were respective of each other. Now we have many members that post just to degrade the forum. How many posts have we seen from spammers that's sole purpose is to annoy people?

And your getting two things in my post mixed up. When I said that we need to discuss, I mean we need to discuss important topics, not "How do i install mod" topics. Those, we need to redirect to one of the 18 help topics listed above.

Posted after 4 minutes 27 seconds:

Oh, and that's not even counting the ones that aren't stickied, and one of them links to five more topics.

I never said the topics didn't exist.

I said they need to be codified into one central post/article for easy access.

The reason why "noobs" post repetitive threads is because they can't be bothered to use the search thread. That can't be helped. You emphasized the number 18 with well-placed italics. Good job. But you also highlight the inherent problem: 18 topics.

Thats absurd.

Again, instead of bitching about how the forum is not setup properly, you do something constructive with all of that negative energy.

Go through all those links you so assiduously collected and collate them into one giant help post that I will be happy to sticky for you. Isnt that more productive than just saying "gawd i h8 how dis forum is run."

And I didn't say that people weren't respectful to each other, but you can't deny that 99.9% of the time, a small cadre of users (and we all know who they are) are completely disrespectful to new users.

Guess what, the priority of this forum is to promote Data Realms. That is its first priority. If you feel that increasing the number of people with exposure to this forums hurts your ability to socialize, thats too bad.

As it stands, the function of these forums are to facilitate -all- users of Cortex Command, not just the ones that have a high posts-per-day ratio or post count.

I implore you, again, to do something about this "dilemma" you feel so passionate about instead of making someone else remedy a problem only you seem to see.

The problem is the 18 topics?

A new user goes into the mod section looking for some cool mods for this cool new game he found. He sees the mods and wonders how he should install them. He remembers that he had seen some stickies at the top of the mode firum. He looks at the rules and sees that questions should be in mod making. he goes to mod making. BOOM! There is a sticky called "Video Tutorial: How to install mods"

I'll admit, some of the tutorials should be in different places (How to install mods should be in mods section) but the reason that they are in different sections is that each help topic is about that forum, if "How to install mods" was in general, It wouldn't make sense. They are split up for a reason. They are split up so taht you may get the help that you need at that one forum. If there was one giant tpoic that just said "Help Topic" the newcomers would want to know what it helps with. With specific titles for specific forums, it helps much more.

Mods have said it themselves, vague titles don't help, one vague topic isn't going to help anyone.

Okay, so you can compromise by splitting related topics into their relevant forums.

Mod-making gets its own thread of help topics, General gets gameplay help topics, and Modding gets basic installation topics.

Its fairly easy.

So instead of bitching about this thing you have a problem with, go fix it. Go, shoo. Stop posting here and be productive.

There are no problems with this forum, there are fights no matter where the hell you go, it's human. There will be problems here and there, but that isn't a problem, it's human. I demand a lock.

Umm... yeah, I can't, I'm not an admin.

I'm telling you so that you can fix it. Or tell WJ about it. If anyone tells WJ themselves, he won't listen. WJ listen's to mods and other admins. I did my part, so go do yours.

Posted after 5 minutes 57 seconds:

I'm pming WJ now.

You can make a thread.

Everyone in here has thread-creation permissions.

Go make it. Post in this thread less. Scat.

Posting a thread doesn't do a whole lot. I PMed WJ directly. And besides, if I did, you would just tell me to "Stop bitching about this forum".