An Opportunity for OWF's Rebirth
 

This place is dead. Yes, I know, not unlike the Ottoman Empire, our members have been saying that the forums have been on the decline since shortly after they were established. The horse is so dead that we've been kicking dust and bones for the past decade. However, we can't deny the truth: There has been very little activity here in these past few months.

There are many reasons for this:

• For most people, forums have taken a backseat to other forms of social media. Additionally, many members have moved on due to a lack of time and/or interest.
• After New 'n' Tasty's release, Oddworld Inhabitants went through a transitional period, which resulted in a few years of downtime. A lack of activity at OI's end is always a catalyst for periods of extended silence in the forums.
• No new story content in twelve years has also exhausted the reservoir of possible conversations.
• The archaic foundations of the forums could rival the state of RuptureFarms. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't a collapse during the DDoS attack. Without an optimised mobile version, we also significantly limit our number of new members.

Obviously, all of these reasons are out of our control, and unless Alcar hands over the keys to Nate and Xavier, there can't be any aesthetic or structural improvements. Some time ago, we attempted a revolution to erect a new forum with blackjack and hookers, but we're all admittedly too stubborn to let go of everything that's happened here: This is our home, as crappy as it is.

With Soulstorm brewing away, it's only a matter of time before a wave of new activity crashes into our forgotten shores. When New 'n' Tasty released, we experienced a steady trickle of additional members, most of whom didn't stay very long. Once Soulstorm hits, we're bound to see a similar spike in members, and if conditions do not change, we'll probably lose the majority of them. Ergo, I think it's time to attempt some kind of renaissance, and as the hazing of new members has finally appeared to have stopped, there's no better time.

As I've already stated, there's little we can do with the issues stated above, but we can make certain changes and additions to help breath new life into the forums. We need to offer a reason for members, both new and old, to stick around and keep coming back. I have a few ideas, but please contribute any of your own.

I'd like to please request only serious responses in this thread, so please keep all quips to a minimum.


Clubs
I'm not sure if this concept has been attempted in the past, but I'm going to suggest it anyway. Although we have the "I Have Just Seen" and "What Are You Playing" threads, I like the idea of folk experiencing the same content and responding to it at the same time. It would create some fantastic and interesting discourse.

Examples of different Clubs are as follows:

Movie Club
TV Club
Game Club
Book/Comic Book Club

I think the most malleable Clubs for most members would be Movie Club and TV Club, as the content is relatively affordable and ubiquitous. Anyone, anywhere in the world, wouldn't have much trouble getting their hands on the item of the week, even if they don't want to pay. They're also easy to consume—only an hour or so a week.


Member Appreciation
Once again, I'm not entirely certain if this concept has been attempted before. Plenty of forums used to employ this feature in the days of yore. It's a great way to spotlight the importance of each member, their contribution to the forums, and their own life achievements. Not only will this promote a greater sense of community, it will also offer each member a chance to reintroduce themselves and talk about aspects of their life that might not necessarily come up in normal conversation.


Game Nights
I know we all live in different parts of the world, but why should we let that stop us from having fun? Pen and paper role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu translate surprisingly well to platforms like Google Hangout. Beyond the obviously exciting possibilities—such as a RuptureFarms horror/survival experience, and yes, I am getting ahead of myself—this would be a great way for members to communicate and bond in a more intimate setting.

I realise that these games are limited in terms of how many members could play at a single time, but I see no reason why—if it's a successful experience—we can't have multiple games with multiple members.


Let me know what you all think. Oddworld Forums is quickly approaching its twentieth anniversary, and I'm sure we would all like the next couple of years to be the golden age of this ancient community. Oddworld is back; Soulstorm is proof of that, and we should embrace what that means.

It's time for this forum to be reborn.

Hey, I think you should elaborate about the Clubs and Member Appreciation concepts, because from what you said I have no idea how they work. Espcially Clubs. Member Appreciation sounds like forum awards, but since Nepsotic ruined them with his magic horses, they've never been the same since :(

Google Hangouts? Sounds a bit like our OWF Discord.

Absolutely!

This is the mere result of a brief brainstorming session, but I'd imagine something to the effect of Club members voting or agreeing on the Movie/TV Show of the week. Each member then goes out and watches the selected item, and comes back to the forum to discuss it with fellow members over the next week. There's nothing too complicated with this concept, but it adds a little bit of continuity to the flow of conversations that can be held in the Off-Topic board. The Movie of the week could even be selected by some kind of RNG system for extra fun and surprise.

As for Member Appreciation, I'd opt to elect some kind of questionnaire that the selected member could fill out, such as real name, age, occupation, future aspirations, favourite Oddworld moment, etc. I'm not sure how Member Awards used to work—and I know even less about a magic horse incident—but in a perfect world, the nominated member would be randomly selected from the list of active forum members.

I don't know how active the Discord is, but I think it would be in the forums best interest to maintain a sense of unity. As such, Google Hangouts would only be used for the purpose of hosting any Pen & Paper games we might play, with the intention that everyone returns to the forums rather than veer away. Of course, if Discord offers the same features, we could use that as an alternative platform, especially if there's already an OWF presence there, or Skype, or whatever everyone agrees upon.

Here's a random Forum Awards thread. :p Basically they're a once-a-year event where you can vote for your favorite and most hated users.

Discord is definitely more active than the forums (that doesn't mean it's very active, still), due to the shoutbox nature of it, plus someone apparently posted a link to it on oddworld subreddit, so newcomers come here. The general rule is that all OWF Discord users have to have an OWF account first, so far each new member made one with no complaint.

As for how it works, well, there are channels for text and channels for voice, you can upload pics and stuff, so I think it has at least everything that Hangouts app has.

The Forum Awards are a fantastic concept! That's definitely a tradition that needs to be continued. Are they happening this year? There needs to be more of a verbal announcement for the Awards though, whether via email or something else. I don't know, Alcar can conjure snow every year, so I'd imagine there could be a bulletin or such slapped on the front page of the forums for possibly the biggest community bonding event that we have, haha.

I wish. But who would host them? I'm up for it as long the host can count the votes properly.

Also, we would need to rethink the categories, remove a couple that basically mean the same thing, and add something cool.

I'd happily nominate you, Varrok. What do you mean by "as long as the host can count the votes properly" though?

If you want to discuss the categories or anything else, I'd happily brainstorm with you. I think it's just what the forums need.

I think Nepsotic is the most eager of the active members to host it. I can also see FennecFyre or even gishy Xorlidyr doing it. I guess I can do it, too, if nobody wants it ;)

I think the host should switch every year. STM's been doing it for years, and I'm not particularily happy with his vote counting perfomance :p

Making a thread about rethinking categories is a good idea, I agree.

I absolutely agree regarding a different host every year. It's yet another opportunity for more community spirit.

I'll prep a thread about discussing the Awards in Off-Topic and we'll move any further discussions about it over there. :)

EDIT: Nevermind, Nep's doing it.

Don't spend the effort. I'll do it.

Dammit, I already had half a thread typed up, haha.

Great! That sounds swell. I'm confident you know what you're doing, so I'll leave all of the finer details up to you, Nep. :)

Concerning the categories, I'd follow STM's list from the last Awards for the most part, but would make the following amendments:

• Remove Best Non-Oddworld Artist: When was the last time anyone posted Art that wasn't Oddworld-related? I don't even think we have enough frequent Oddworld Art for the main category.
• Remove Most Unintentionally Funny Poster: Combine this with funniest poster, because it's really the same thing.
• Remove Best Advice Giver: This kind of goes in tandem with Greatest Oddworld Knowledge. I guess not always, so use your own discretion.
• Best Staff Member: As much as I love Nate and Xavier, they are literally the only choices, and it just doesn't seem prudent to me. They both deserve it for sticking with us at this point.

Just make it fun, and I'm sure it will go swimmingly.

I'd also ask for our Admins to endorse the Awards and help promote it any way they could offer. :fuzblink:

I'll write one from scratch.

I'd remove Best Couple, as nearly everyone posts a different combo, so the winner has usually like, two votes, and is tied with X other combos. We can also remove the Most Welcome Return, because nobody comes back :(

On the other hand, I'm against removing the Most Unintentionally Funny Poster award. It really makes a difference.

You can note those suggestions down for when it's your turn to host the awards.

I regret my decision of supporting Nep's candidature. That was fast ^^'

TOO LATE

That's so melancholic, Varrok!

I figured it was a moot category, as context is often lost in a written forum.

EDIT: We're at Nepsotic's mercy now.

Not as melancholic as keeping it only to find out nobody fits the category

I'm sorry to say this, but if you live in a house that's been up for lots of days but can crumble or that you can't improve it (cauze sadly Alcar has the keys of this place) you wouldn't call this place home, but an old memory that needs to end. Now don't get me wrong, what I'm saying is that to erect a new forum is a good idea since you can improve it in all the ways possible, while here you can't do anything since no one has the same power to Alcar. We can like make a new site with a new forum associated with the old one, I'm saying that we could do it. But I'm nobody to make this decision, only you can really say that this forum is (figuratively) the home of everyone while I'm here from half-2016. I only said that you all can decide to change place, but it's still your decision.
Maybe I only said crap until now.

This sounds as a good idea and I'm actually in for it. I just hope that when a chosen movie or any other type of title is available in all the countries of the members who are interested in these clubs, this could happen so let the RNG System choose a thing that everybody can watch or read or play.

This could be fun, but watch out for flames. These awards, with like the most annoying member award for example, could infuriate some members of the forum.

In role playing time doesn't always count, especially in a thread.

Thanks for responding, Phoetux! I want to gather as many opinions as possible concerning what's best for these forums.

I actually agree with you and originally petitioned for this forum to be abandoned in favour of a new website. Alas, the only way for such a transition to be effective would be for the majority of the active user base to migrate together. I'd even offer to pay the new site fees, it would not bother me at all, providing someone else would want to operate it.

As was iterated during "the revolution", however, there are too many memories here. These forums have stood the test of time, and there's still an active user base. A new forum would also take quite some time to earn any validity, and it's likely Google would still point new members to this website, at least for a few years.

As for the other things you said, I would absolutely endeavour to make sure that whatever nominated Movie/TV Show/Book/Game was available in all countries. After all, I want the community to be combined, so it would be counter-intuitive to limit who can take part.

Concerning Game Nights, I was rather thinking of live role-playing games, where users interact via webcams and a host guides them through an adventure/scenario.

No needs to thank my dude.

I doubt that someone would show up via webcam, I wouldn't because I don't want to show my face at the moment and probably other members don't want to do that too. But I think using microphones is acceptable for most of the people here.

Live Game streams could be a good idea too; we can make our own Twitch channel and make some live streams playing Oddworld and non games. How does that sound?

I’m not very familiar with the Let’s Play culture, but that actually sounds like a great idea. From what I hear it’s a very popular medium of entertainment for younger gamers. An Official OWF Twitch account could definitely be the way to go, providing our Administrator’s are okay with tethering it to OWF. I’d need to ask someone else to manage it, however, as I haven’t the slightest concept of how Twitch operates.

From what I understand, there’s a monetary system involved with Twitch, which could cause issues. I’d propose that any funds earned under an OWF Twitch should be donated to charity. Not only does this negate the issue of exchanging funds between different members, but it’s a good cause that I’m sure the community at large could support.

Nobody is going to be donating to OWF, and if they do it should be placed in a pool and decided between members.

Good, if the admins are good with it we should make a poll to see if the majority of the members agree with this idea.

I don't really know how it works too, if I did I would do that.

Donating is not really necessary in Twitch, it's just a common thing most streamers do. But if we do it I agree to donate the funds we earn to charity. I actually don't care about gaining some money from this thing.

I get the sentiment behind this, but it will go nowhere. Nobody is going to watch some admittedly inexperienced streamers play games and cringeworthily (I made that word up) attempt to entertain an audience. Look at how small and inactive this forum is for a start. It's a doomed idea. By all means though, prove me wrong.

You really don't need permission for any of these. If you think it's a good idea, just do it.

What members? There's like five people here. I don't even think we should bother with the forum awards (Sorry Nep), given that there are more awards than active members eligible to vote or be nominated.

we should have awards so that i can win them all, also if we don't nep will get really upset ((as usual)) and that's the really annoying bit

In the forum awards thread I linked approx. 27 people voted. While we might not reach 27, I am confident we would reach at least more than 17:

-Nepsotic
-Sybil Ant
-Varrok
-Xavier
-Nate
-Oddman360
-Slogbait
-Xorlidyr
-J_dude320
-FennecFyre
-Guineapiglet
-Kapteeni13
-Oddey
-Phoetux
-Vlam
-Vexen
-Manco

Those are the people who would most probably vote if awards happened, and I haven't even begun counting the more lurky users who might also vote.

you forgot to put varrok on your list

I did it on purpose, screw this guy

EDIT: I forgot about Manco, as well. Added