Is it just me?

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Is it just me or have the forums changed since I have been here roughly 6 months ago? No one is haning out in the chat anymore, the forums are slow. Maybe its just me, but has anyone else noticed this?

[Ergi]

No, I have the same feeling. Somehow most topics no longer interest me. It could be me, but I don't believe that I have changed that much. Maybe we should think about lifting the politics ban, after all, there is little disagreement about what has to be done now in Iraq, and randomly bump some old threads.


EDIT: And distributing smilies all over your post will surely boost morale among the board members.

BTW, if anyone made a chat call while I'm online he wouldn't be alone for long.

[C5]

Well I was considering starting such a thread myself last week. It seems to me that, at least for the Trek part of the forum, everything has becoming slow and sluggish. No new species, ship, or campaign write ups, or if there are, they don't meet many answers.
Every Trek discussion eventually leads to a debate about either the quality of Enterprise, the death of Trek, or a comparison between the quality of the different series. It even seems to me that the most active threads now are the ones that aren't remotely connected to Trek or Trek RPG.

Either it's just temporary (after all I remember seeing such concerns being expressed a year or so earlier), just a coincidence (it happens that a lot of key members are interested in something else or just don't have the heart to participate right now). But it seems to me I haven't seen invitations for chat sessions or birthday wishing threads for some time...

And I'm not sure lifting the ban on political threads would solve that. It could make the forum more active indeed, but I'm not quite sure it's the activity we'd like to see. There are still plenty of subjects to disagree on right now.

[First of Two]

It's because there are no new sourcebooks to talk about.

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[Ineti]

The LOTR RPG threads are going great guns, even without a lot of new releases. Which sort of suggests to me that a slight revision of the board's name might be in order. I mean, who'd think to go to a Trek board for LOTR RPG info?

It's probably a cyclical thing, though with the lack of any decent Trek series or movies, I imagine the interest from new blood has thinned.

[Ramage]

I think part of the problem is the fact that there is a relatively small group of people even visiting these boards. Most of us "know" each other (not physically, possibly, but certainly by handle) and there is relatively little "new blood". Due to that, we have hashed through most of our issues.

I have been visiting the boards much less frequently simply because I not only do not have a game of Trek running, but am unlikely to have one with my current gaming group, as 3 out of 5 of them are rabidly opposed to Trek (vile heathens that they are!). This means I think less about Trek and therefore have less to write here.

I don't know about other stores, but at my FLGS the Decipher version of Trek is not selling particularly well, especially when compared to Star Wars and Transhuman Space. This might also be compounding the problem.

The current 404 message is probably also cutting traffic down, despite the notice of the open boards -- I know a lot of people who just give a pass to any site when they see a 404 message.

So, those are personal takes. Any and all comments are acceptable.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Ramage
The current 404 message is probably also cutting traffic down, despite the notice of the open boards -- I know a lot of people who just give a pass to any site when they see a 404 message.

What 404 notice would that be, then?

[Ergi]

Originally posted by Ramage

The current 404 message is probably also cutting traffic down, despite the notice of the open boards -- I know a lot of people who just give a pass to any site when they see a 404 message.

Do you have troube accessing the forums?
Since the last time I was unable to visit them has been several months ago I assume it must have something to do with your system/provider. Or did I miss anything?

I believe that Decipher has to take at least part of the blame. First of Two is right that some new sourcebooks might change a lot around here. Besides, the only forum most possible members know about or will ever discover is the Decipher Trek "forum". IIRC LUG had links to this page, since this used to be the official place for questions. The way I see it Decipher is doing very little to support this site.
Maybe everyone should add one new adventure seed to the thread in the narrator's ready room section as a sign of good will. I mean most of you have been playing Trek in the last year, haven't you? I know that I have and therefore will add something before Christmas.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Ergi
Do you have troube accessing the forums?
Since the last time I was unable to visit them has been several months ago I assume it must have something to do with your system/provider. Or did I miss anything?

I haven't had problems with the forums in ages. Everything's great on this end.

[Snake_Plissken]

No new species, ship, or campaign write ups

mmmh that would be an interesting invitation. I haven't touched the starship book in months. Gee, I wonder if I still remember how to design a starship. I used to do them a dime a dozen. Well maybe for the sake of the board I'll post one or two new designs sometimes this week. Maybe that'll be enough to get the ball rolling for other ship design vets (why am I looking in your direction Sea Tyger? ) to contribute here and there.

And besides, who wants to get into yet another endless thread about how Enterprise sucks eggs and should be cancled and it rots and B&B are assholes for destroying the Holy Canon...

Exactly. And that's touching the bigger problem at large: the lack of interest for Trek at large. I think many Trek fans suffer from "trek burnout". The only common thought that seem to unite the various factions within the Trek fan base is that the best years of Trek were in the past, not in the future. That's why I think that the TNG and DS9 boxed sets have sold like hot cakes. I think this proves that there's still a LOT of interest for Trek somehow, but only with the material we're already familiar with.

Going back to B&B bashing; it seems to me now that the trend is fading away (except for a few die hards) and is being replaced by the Old BSG Vs New BSG 'battle'. Ditto for the 'Lucas sucks' thing: its seems that the fans of both franchises have accepted that there are problems with the heads of their beloved francshises and in the end they don't really care. The BSG issue seems to be the latest discontent fad.

So given the current state of affairs of sci-fi on screen it is not too suprising that the boards are maybe not up to what they used to be.

[JonA]

Sorry,

Haven't I been saying this for some time.

Ho-hum.

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by Snake_Plissken
Maybe that'll be enough to get the ball rolling for other ship design vets (why am I looking in your direction Sea Tyger? ) to contribute here and there.

*Dives for cover*

What???!!



I actually just finished with a major event in my D&D campaign and am now starting to work on my campaign background for the upcoming Star Wars campaign.

But I'll see if I can whip out a couple designs this week.

[redwood973]

This place has not been the same since we lost LUG/ICON. It seems to me this place was a hive of activity and ideas back then.

[Ramage]

Originally posted by Ineti
What 404 notice would that be, then?

http://www.trek-rpg.net/trek/index2.htm

On the entry page