Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ScienceFair]

So... I was thinking about how this forum seems fairly dead and I can't help but think of some of the reasons why that...

I'm not sure.

But in any case, I bet it would be much more lively if there was a section for buying and selling junk. Even if Mike were to sell some sort of glorious bitmaps with all sorts of comedic genius on them... It would give us things to talk about. The troops would be all rallied and junk...

Anyway, it's obviously not important enough. Doing things like that require a consitantish schedule and time to work on it, which Mike doesn't have...

Poor Mike.

Um... I have no reason for saying all this. I just find it odd that I come here fairly regularly because I have decided to actually follow the comic... I glimpse at the forum and usually there's nothing new... or there are very long posts.

Long posts make me sad. :-( Sad enough to write a crappy poem about it.

I went to the forum one day.
I saw a long post on the way
I started to read the grueling post
but then I died, I was a ghost.

I cried in my bodiless ethereal state
why did this happen, and now too late?
I was reading a post and now I am here
Was I honestly reading for over a year?

I wanted to finish but the post was too long
and now everything has turned horribly wrong
I forgot to eat, sleep, or love
And now all I can do is go on above

So let this be a warning the young and naive
Learn to read faster or you better leave
Cause you never know which breath will be your last
And eventually time will go too fast
And you'll die

Or at least occasionally, cause you know those long posts can get pretty long especially if you try to read through one of the RPs... whoa talk about time consuming. If it was an audiobook...  I guess that's why I found it hard to participate...

Anyway.

Have fun ya'll.

[Mike Caron]

Well, I know exactly why the forum is dead.

You may recall, it wasn't always this way. But, I screwed up royally, and up and left for months at a time.

For some reason, people don't hang around a site that doesn't update. Go figure.

I could create new boards, those are cheap. But,

But in any case, I bet it would be much more lively if there was a section for buying and selling junk. Even if Mike were to sell some sort of glorious bitmaps with all sorts of comedic genius on them... It would give us things to talk about. The troops would be all rallied and junk...

Anything that I could produce that would be worth selling... would likely be in violation of various copyright laws. Yay sprite comics.

Anyway, it's obviously not important enough. Doing things like that require a consitantish schedule and time to work on it, which Mike doesn't have...

Poor Mike.

I honestly don't know why I find a 3 day a week schedule for updating the comic to be so bad. I mean, making the comic takes an hour tops, not including any farting around on TVTropes I do while brainstorming.

If I had to abdicate responsibility from my poor time-management skills, and find a scape goat, I'd say that it's my job's fault. I have a soul-sucking job under a horrible boss that I seem to be incapable of escaping, and often get home close to 7:00pm, and then usually go to bed immediately after shovelling a snack in my body.

But, usually, it's just my poor time-management skills. I have a few side-projects that I'm working on which are really interesting, but have nothing to do with TotC, and I'll work on them and then- oh, hey! It's 2 am! Where did the time go?

</ramble>

Okay, so, fixing the dead forums. Well, the only way to do that is... to use them. Make posts about things. There are a few people still around, and if we keep it up, more will join.

And, get the word out about the comic. I haven't checked any stats lately, but I know readership is down. Someone write up a TVTropes page about the comic! Wikipedia (though, good luck getting it to last more than 12 minutes!)! Post on forums!

Everyone can get in on the act! Maybe I'll make some kind of referral system, and give virtual* rewards for bringing in new members!

* - where virtual means "digital, so I don't have to actually produce anything"

[demon of razgriz]

i think thats a grand idea! i'd definatly invite some of my friends if there was some form of reward (minor though it might be, who knows?) the only reason i haven't done it up till now is because i know they arent really intrested in forums, plus they tend to spend less time online then i do, but atleast i would be willing to give them a few reasons then!

i also think a reviving of the RP board would be a good boost to popularity to the site, i remember it was my favorite thing bout ToTC and FFQ (way back when) respectivly, thing is, i'v noticed that the only real new RP in the last like, YEAR was the one Mike started (i forget the name) and when i took a look at it, it seemed like a RP that was better suited for people who were more skilled in story telling and character development than most others, yaknow, for pro's so to speak (although, i got that all from reading one post and im relativly pessemistic about my own skills in relation to others).

and to add onto that, its a continuation from a previous RP (i think) which would deter members who were not part of the original one; alternatly, the games board getting a refresher as well could easily benefit the site, i know because i remember back when FFq was still running there was this game called "the person below me game" and i remember joining if only to participate in that game, after a while i became bored of it and branched out and thats what made me the (mostly) active member that i was then and now.

i know trying to revive the games board isnt an easy task at all since there are few games (at least that i can think of) that work well on a forum setup without going haywire and getting spammed to heck, but i honestly think it would increase site popularity, if only alittle.

*looks back at own post*

sorry SF, but now you know where they come from XD

on a side note, i plan to continue the story i started on the writing board again sometime soon, i hadn't, planned on letting it die but alt. school turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated so now im struggling to keep up, plus the fact that i actually found "my japanese coach" for the DS over 4 months ago and have been learning vigirously since, as well as having bought a PS3 this past Xmas, have all detered my plans to start it again, actually, id do it know but i left my flash in my PS3 . just sayin'.

[ScienceFair]

I'm just glad someone responded. >.> Hoorah?

[demon of razgriz]

XD well of course someone would respond, its a dire issuse that no one has really dealt with up to this point so of course people who love this place would talk about it!

[ScienceFair]

XD well of course someone would respond, its a dire issuse that no one has really dealt with up to this point so of course people who love this place would talk about it!

Honestly, I'm not sure if I really love the place... I more so got attached to certain things and occasionally check on it when I have free time because I considering doing this to be more socially acceptable than playing games all the time... I come here for looks. >.>

[Mike Caron]

I'm wondering if I shouldn't just retire the forums altogether, due to lack of use.

Certainly, that would be a huge undertaking, since the comic archive system is fundamentally tied to the forum system, but the benefits would be present:

- First impressions: A new visitor might look at the forums, and decide "Oh, there's no one in the forums, maybe it's not such a good comic"
- Ease of maintenance: Keeping up patches and stuff on the forum is a hassle, though necessary.

Of course, there are plenty of downsides:
- Since I still want people to be able to comment on the comics, I'd need to roll my own commenting system
- I'd need to migrate all the data from the comic threads back into the database (well, just the comments)
- A complete lack of a forum (and, assuming TotC picks up in popularity (ha!), people will start asking for one)

So... I dunno.