How would you describe the forums?

[S-MAN]

I have my own opinion, but how do some of you personally feel? Something feels off imo. Maybe it's just the enormous amount of young people but who knows.

I'm not really wanting this to be a discussion because people like to say this and that.. and then you got people crying over spilled milk.. and then people are expected to apologize.. yada yada..
So just try to focus on the polls and reflect on it. If you must comment, keep it very brief.

And for further clarification- the different forum themes available doesn't change the feel of the community. Kind of just wanting to see if users in general are okay with the direction and if maybe there have been a different culture compared to say X amount of years ago.
This isn't a case of "is it better or worse" but really just an questionnaire type of thing . I may just be getting older- and might not remember how teenagers tend to act, but yeah I don't know how else to describe what I am seeing.

Some useful information that could gleam some light on this would be an average of the statistics of gender and age.. Maybe country as well. And on that note, of the users that have currently used this site in the past 2 years or so..

 

[noa]

First of all... wtf is with that poll? Who cares about any of that?

My honest opinion about the forums is that I feel PC has lost it's way a little bit but that's to be expected considering there was a massive scandal here that basically anyone tangentially related to Pokemon forums knows about. Obviously, it's hard to bounce back from something like that. But we have a great admin and mod team now, at least in my opinion.
I don't think it's the same as it was before the scandal, and it never will be, but I still do feel a sense of community here even though it feels much quieter.
As for the culture aspect, I can't really say. Ashamedly I don't participate in any forum contests or events or offsite activities, if there is any. I'll try to change that.
Also a big part of all of this is that forums are dying in general anyway? Like, PC isn't the only one suffering from the decline of forums

 

[Arcaneum]

Something feels off and you're asking essentially about gender and expecting people to not get upset about that, cry over spilled milk etc.

Yeah.....what the fuck man I'm just going to pretend this is a troll thread because that's the easiest way to process what is happening.

 

[S-MAN]

I want to say it's definitely quieter. Like I said I don't know what is off about it compared to a few years ago. Maybe Pokemon in general is less interesting to people? I don't know. I wouldn't mind changing the polls for more direct/relatable feedback.
If the forums isn't as active as before maybe that's something that can be discussed some more whether it is important or not?

 

[professor plum]

I've closed the poll, as I don't see how a Forum can be masculine or feminine. We can, of course, discuss the direction of PC between its inception and its current status. If you would like it reopened, PM me and I'll reopen it with more appropriate questions.

PC was founded in 2002 as a coalition of various Pokémon fan web sites (The Unknown Dungeon, Pokémon Palace Network, PokéSafari, and PE2K to name a few) to create a united, active Pokémon fan discussion forum. PC hence became its own entity and abandoned the associated fan web sites in 2008 or 2009 I think. After that, it was run by Steve aka Rukario. After March's incident, PC was later sold to a different group, Pomador, who then dropped us like we're hot in December of last year. Sheep, aka Janna, is the official owner as of December 2018, and I feel incredibly confident about the direction PC is headed.

While I don't think things will necessarily ever be quite like they were prior to the incident in Feb/March of 2018, I'd say the fact that we're still around after such an event is amazing. Activity has steadily been increasing again since Janna took over. Will we ever hit numbers of 2015/2016/2017? Perhaps not. But achieving even our current numbers in a world where forums are simply not as active as they used to be (in favor of Social Media/etc), is great. :)

 

[Limey-chan]

Aye, it's canny

 

[Fleurdelis]

id describe it as my secret shitpost palooza

 

[S-MAN]

Yeah I don't really care for the poll at this point. I kind of just come and go and it seems different lol. It's good to know that it's steadily increasing- I didn't even know. Not trying to sew any anxiety or anything among the users, but I did notice and I didn't know why or how to ask. And yeah that's a fair point- forums aren't as popular as they were before (I am getting older)... I appreciate you breaking down the history as well. It never occurred the amount exchanges that took place over the years. Has the site ever considered trying any experimental ways of communicating as an alternative to forums-type chatter or is that out of the interests of the community maybe at this point in time?

 

[noa]

Has the site ever considered trying any experimental ways of communicating as an alternative to forums-type chatter or is that out of the interests of the community maybe at this point in time?

Genuinely don't know if you're trolling, but i'll answer sincerely- PC already has an immensely popular discord channel.

 

[professor plum]

Yeah I don't really care for the poll at this point. I kind of just come and go and it seems different lol. It's good to know that it's steadily increasing- I didn't even know. Not trying to sew any anxiety or anything among the users, but I did notice and I didn't know why or how to ask. And yeah that's a fair point- forums aren't as popular as they were before (I am getting older)... I appreciate you breaking down the history as well. It never occurred the amount exchanges that took place over the years. Has the site ever considered trying any experimental ways of communicating as an alternative to forums-type chatter or is that out of the interests of the community maybe at this point in time?

We do have a Discord Server that's pretty popular :) Beyond that, I don't think we've tried to shift things too drastically. A lot of what draws existing members back to PC is the nostalgia associated with a forum - we have posts on here that go back to late 2002. So, if someone ever wanted to try to access their old account, they would be able to do so and start posting again. It's a weird/surreal sensation - I can attest to this, as I was largely inactive from 2011 - 2018. Once I started chatting frequently again, that sense of familiarity and nostalgia hit me hard, and I haven't been able to leave since.

I attribute my initial desire to stick due to the awesome regulars we have on the Discord server.

 

[S-MAN]

I haven't checked out your discord yet but I have never been able to have fun in any discord rooms I ever joined. Probably just me being weird tbh. I was referring to like site-layout, but honestly that would probably just be a waste of resources compared to what else can be done. Time to walk my dog and reflect on my own life owo....

 

[Austin]

I'm incredibly confused here

 

[Kolar™]

Wot! Never thought that forum can have gender lol.

I know about the Rukario incident, but never knew the consequences. The post of Erik Destler, shade some light tho. Ah, leave the past. Maybe, i can become a regular here and help a bit.

 

[colours]

But achieving even our current numbers in a world where forums are simply not as active as they used to be (in favor of Social Media/etc), is great. :)

just going to emphasize this part of tyler's post because I feel like whenever people downplay PC's activity, they don't realize how well we're doing in the bigger picture of Pokemon forums in general. i'd say we're pretty comfortably first as far as active Pokemon forums go, which is incredible given the events of last year which truth be told, hurt this site quite a bit

even though activity may eventually decline again because forums aren't the hot thing anymore, what's always been important is to treasure what you have. we still have some activity and our discord channel is kicking back up again after the events of last year and we're still trying to make good memories out of it. it's not 2016 by any means but i feel like the more we look to the past, the more we just stop appreciating the present.

and we should appreciate the present and looking forward to what the future brings.

 

[Alex]

I have no idea what you're asking

Has the site changed? Not even close. I joined in 2007 and it's stayed the exact same. The userbase has always been the same. The topics of conversation have always, generally, been the same - whether it be related to Pokemon or not.

I'm not really wanting this to be a discussion because people like to say this and that.. and then you got people crying over spilled milk.. and then people are expected to apologize.. yada yada..
So just try to focus on the polls and reflect on it. If you must comment, keep it very brief.

This is the vaguest paragraph in the history of PC's paragraphs. What exactly are you saying? What's your point here?

Kind of just wanting to see if users in general are okay with the direction and if maybe there have been a different culture compared to say X amount of years ago.

Again, super vague. Can you elaborate on your perceived direction in which PC is going? The culture has always been the same: a bunch of anime nerds gathered together to talk about Pokemon and other anime and video games.

 

[moon]

it's less binary these days

 

[mishy.]

it's less binary these days

maybe i should change my name back to binarypeaches

real talk though while this place might not never have the activity it'll have before the events of 2018 and with the decrease of forum popularity as a whole, this place is comfortable, imo. it's the place i find the most comfort in right now and that's so important to me.

 

[Palamon]

The forums haven't really changed, in my opinion? I mean, they were very clique-y back in the day in 2009, I guess? There were like huge staff friend groups or something. idk.

Outside the incident in 2018, anyway.

 

[moon]

maybe i should change my name back to binarypeaches

be nonbinary peaches instead. :sloheart:

 

[S-MAN]

I have no idea what you're asking
Again, super vague. Can you elaborate on your perceived direction in which PC is going? The culture has always been the same: a bunch of anime nerds gathered together to talk about Pokemon and other anime and video games.

I'm already over it. This pandoras box is going to stay shut. I'm not going to comment any more on this.