PC sucks, I'm leaving!

[Squirrel]

What do you think PC is missing as a forum and what would you do/change/add to make it better?

 

[starseed galaxy auticorn]

I really don't think PC needs to change. I mean, I've been here for twelve years I think, and the forums have been through a lot of shit. It's a lot better than it has been before as well. The community is a lot better and people are much nicer. Everything has been more under control.

 

[Abnegation]

What I liked about PC when I joined was that it was a pioneer for creativity. With it's variety of styles, clever forum collections, events and features in general. Somewhere along the way it lost that drive of originality. You look at features such as Daily and even the Social Media outlets - they're clearly a brilliant step in the right direction, however there's nothing truly groundbreaking or new coming through those channels. Much of PC's pushes to expand as a forum and be fresh reflect other forums and news sites to truly stand out.

It may seem negative, but it's more of a neutral comment. The newer ideas and features do a lot to make the forums more interesting for existing users, but they lack the ingenuity and originality to really draw new people to the forum.

 

[moon]

We clearly need more pink. Maybe a pink RP mod would do the trick?

 

[Cinderizer]

WHAT! Why! Everbody here, LOVES YOU, your a smart, kind and wonderful person! if you think the forum is bad, then at least stay for your friends!

 

[Arsenic]

To switch do Discorse

 

[Pebbles]

Spoiler:

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I'm thinking that some people didn't actually read the contents of the thread. ;D

I think we're missing a mobile style which for me is pretty dang bad. Mobile has become such a massive thing and right now it's incredibly inconvenient and annoying to browse PC via mobile. It's a big step that we're quite behind on, so hopefully we can see that in the future.

I could not agree more. I'm often out which forces me to browse PC via my phone and I simply can't do it effectively. I'd be able to get so much more done if we had a mobile friendly theme. 8(

 

[Squirrel]

The main thing I'd focus on would be similar to the incentives post above. Daily etc have definitely be steps in the right direction for PC and for attracting new members, but I feel an up-to-date incentives system could do wonders for the longevity of some members. It's tough to say exactly what this should take the form of - I remember a while ago there was some new scheme being tested but not sure whether or not this was staff only so I won't mention it just in case, but it feels to me like this should be the next frontier for the forum.

WHAT! Why! Everbody here, LOVES YOU, your a smart, kind and wonderful person! if you think the forum is bad, then at least stay for your friends!

Spoiler:

You guys did read the thread right?

 

[Astinus]

Apparently what PC needs is members that don't just leap to post without reading the actual content of the thread first.

I also wish that PC had more discussions actually on the forum. I know Discord is the shiny new thing, and it's great that we have a chat room there, but... PC members should be talking more to each other on the forum.

Adding my voice to the thought that we do need a good mobile style. On my old phone, I couldn't do much on PC because it took forever to browse the forums. I know that there's a UI update in the works but...

 

[Astinus]

I know that we do need something to bring people back to posting on PC. It needs to be an extrinsic reward, and emblems are too hidden away to be of much worth to people.

While giving away games are great incentives, that's a little too much effort to put on staff. Never mind the money to get enough awards (or even to buy the right region for the game) to reward plenty of people. (I'm sure there's also some legal-ese, but I Am Not A Lawyer.) But it is true that something like that brings in a lot of activity to the site. Just ask someone on the social media team how many entries they got when PC gave away a code to get Red/Blue/Yellow on the virtual console.

Believe me. I know that something else needs to be done to reward people for posting, aside from the emblems that we currently have. (Even though some members still ask for those.) I want some more incentives to get people posting here, so PC is no longer a shell of its former self. There have been talks of revamping the emblems system, but I won't say more other than that it's on the same list as PC 2.0 and the UI update: it's being worked on and will be released "soon."

 

[Her]

i still believe in the reputation system
i have not lost faith in what it could have been and i still cling to my rosary beads and pray for the acceptance of the vanity rife amongst all of us, for the reputation system died so that our vanity could be free

 

[Arsenic]

I know that we do need something to bring people back to posting on PC. It needs to be an extrinsic reward, and emblems are too hidden away to be of much worth to people.

While giving away games are great incentives, that's a little too much effort to put on staff. Never mind the money to get enough awards (or even to buy the right region for the game) to reward plenty of people. (I'm sure there's also some legal-ese, but I Am Not A Lawyer.) But it is true that something like that brings in a lot of activity to the site. Just ask someone on the social media team how many entries they got when PC gave away a code to get Red/Blue/Yellow on the virtual console.

Believe me. I know that something else needs to be done to reward people for posting, aside from the emblems that we currently have. (Even though some members still ask for those.) I want some more incentives to get people posting here, so PC is no longer a shell of its former self. There have been talks of revamping the emblems system, but I won't say more other than that it's on the same list as PC 2.0 and the UI update: it's being worked on and will be released "soon."

I decided to simplify this to just say

I dont think we need more incentives other than a massive modernization of basic flow on the site. I made a small list of things I see people liking about Discord over PC (Mostly things that are shared by the Discourse forum system)

-Real time posts. That mean when you click submit on your post others should be able to see it without the need to refresh.

-Easier media usage. Both Discord and Discourse support automatic embedding of media when you just link it in your post. Discord also has a great feature of only playing Gifs when you hover your mouse over it

-Easy reference others: All you have to do in either Discord or Discourse is throw an @ before someones name and they'll get a live notification. No messing around with ghost quotes just to get someones attention

-Extremely mobile friendly: Discord is a lot sleeker on a mobile device than PC is sometimes. The same goes for Discourse.

-No pages: This one would probably need to be optional but it's a feature I love. No page changes. No need to click those little pg buttons to see everything the website loads more replies as you scroll.

 

[antemortem]

it was empty without ozzy but now that he's back it is GOLDEN

 

[Squirrel]

it was empty without ozzy but now that he's back it is GOLDEN

bbgurl i know you miss me but we're trying to think of things that aren't totally obvious

 

[antemortem]

bbgurl i know you miss me but we're trying to think of things that aren't totally obvious

you are the hero pc needs

 

[Hiidoran]

Just ask someone on the social media team how many entries they got when PC gave away a code to get Red/Blue/Yellow on the virtual console.

Yeeeeeah, that was a horrendous nightmare of bureaucracy. Such a simple idea, so not easily executed. Still, I wouldn't be opposed to facilitating another give-away, despite the headache that it was last time. I even have another idea in mind... but more on that later.

Give-aways and incentives aside, what keeps people coming back is an active community. While PC is certainly an active place, I just don't think we've adapted to the trend that internet communities are headed in quite yet. This place has a loyal following of members (myself included, of course), and while I'd love to see more growth of the forums... don't you think smaller, forum-based communities are kind of on the decline? When you've got giant places like Reddit to quickly post questions and discuss things until your heart's content on any content, Facebook to share your moments, and Twitter to post about your day... what's left for the smaller forum communities?

I think we're making giant steps in the right direction with our extremities: Daily, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Discord. I feel like maintaining presence and growing with these extensions of PC is critical, and we're still doing just that with them - growing. However, I agree with Gavin, those extensions alone won't save us entirely. While I certainly don't think PC is really going to disappear anytime soon, we do need to work on features that are uniquely us. We've always been such a warm, welcoming bunch in the fandom. We are unique, and I think we're more than capable of creating a better community - maybe not necessarily a better forum.

Just my $0.02, of course.

 

[moon]

Apparently what PC needs is members that don't just leap to post without reading the actual content of the thread first.

I also wish that PC had more discussions actually on the forum. I know Discord is the shiny new thing, and it's great that we have a chat room there, but... PC members should be talking more to each other on the forum.

Adding my voice to the thought that we do need a good mobile style. On my old phone, I couldn't do much on PC because it took forever to browse the forums. I know that there's a UI update in the works but...

Well, to be fair it doesn't have a "Serious" prefix so it's basically anything goes here (8

As for getting people back to the forums, I've been thinking like you in the past, but now I see it a bit differently. We are not just a forum, we are a community. It's not the actual place where we talk, that is the important thing, but the fact that we do talk with each other and share a bond through the knowledge that we belong to the same online community. As popular as live chatting through Discord might get, it won't replace the forums themselves, since this is where our actual profiles and base for discussions lie.

I used to think that it would be better if roleplayers chatted in threads, for instance, but I'm forced to admit that live chatting (voice chatting even!) just brings people closer in ways that bulky slow forum posting can't. Forum posting is however much better for proper discussions and all kinds of organized content. But live chatting knits the community together, I believe.

Ideally, we embed a Discord client into PC's UI so that people don't really feel like they're leaving PC when they go to chat on Discord, but so that they at the same time can still use it for their other servers too. Maybe that's not even possible but hey, wishlist!

/me starts up RP Discord again

 

[gimmepie]

Honestly, just make me the supreme ruler of everything.


Jokes aside, I think that PC 2.0 whenever that happens is going to be a big thing. We're always going to be a forum first but we need to expand past this old school forum style and become something bigger. The social media push and Daily are excellent steps in the right direction but we need to do something to at least make us appear more modern. Things like implementing an on-site IM client (whilst retaining the current private messages separately please), updated profiles etc. Basically it'd do us wonders if we emulated social media profile and instant message communication but kept the forum structure over that. Further forays into other media etc would be great too. Like Rika and Hiidoran said, really emphasise that we're not just a forum but a community.

More tangible incentives would be nice on occasion and I think that is something that staff should look into. I'm not sure exactly how plausible giveaways and the like are, but if we can make something work without bankrupting ourselves or breaking laws we should look into ways to make it happen. I personally like the emblem system still as well, but something else is in the works to replace/compliment that (at least it was, is it still?).

You really should just make me the supreme ruler of everything though.

 

[Syndrome]

Fox of the Week is cool and all but we need Dog of the Week.