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Supa Shang
Registered User
Join date: 10 Jul 2005
Posts: 26
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08-10-2006 18:58
I think you can look at it in two ways. I really hate to draw analogies and comparisons as that will just broaden any given point! But, if Second Life is all about diversity and communal growth in particular about user created content, shouldn’t user based forums be part of that? Any new person coming into SL and looking at SL forums for what’s going on would probably be put off by half the threads and they are mixed in with childish shenanigans between residents (mine included). I can think of a few people who simply use these forums as a “soap box” simply to make themselves look more popular than they are in world. Like the ones who chalk every meaningless post down on a score board and see how much longer to go for their 200,000th post!
Those that do not post that often but use the forums for resource only or just to see what’s new and hot in SL, I am sure are tired of clicking into what looks to be an interesting discussion only to find it filters out to talking about nonsense. Choice is always a good thing and when complimented with variety to suite individuals needs like resident run forums could be, this could build opportunity and at best add to the growth of Second Life. Nothing lasts forever but at least choosing where you can go to next is exciting.
That or you can look at this as the end of the world as we know it! But I very much doubt that.
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Gaius Goodliffe
Dreamsmith
Join date: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 116
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08-10-2006 19:30
From: Hok Wakawaka Having been a hard-core gamer for many years, I have witnessed over and over again major improvements in on-line games come only as a result of the issues raised by the outcry of the gaming community on the general forum of the developer's website. The step that LL has annouced today, is prior to today, unheard of in the gaming world. Excuse me? Unhead of? Been living under a rock? Arena.Net, one of the most responsive developers to fan feedback I've seen, has been using the model for years. (For those who don't know, Arena.Net is the developer of Guild Wars.) There are a number of excellent fora to go to for that game, and they're generally of such high quality precisely because they're not run by the developers themselves. Compare the quality of their fora to the official Blizzard WOW & Battle.Net fora for an excellent lesson why it's a bad idea for developers to run their own fora. They simply can't moderate them objectively, so in an attempt to avoid offending customers, they allow the fora to degenerate into uselessness. SL's fora have never been as bad as that because SL isn't as popular, but as it gains popularity, it moves further and further in that direction. So I'm glad SL has decided to follow the wonderful lead of Arena.Net on this one. Maybe now we can have some decent SL fora, without LL standing in the way as they do now. So, this is neither unheard of nor unprecedented, it's a quite well established model that works a heck of a lot better, in my experience. Companies cannot effectively and objectively moderate their own fora -- they shouldn't even try. Let a third party do that, and you'll see MUCH better fora. |
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Yiffy Yaffle
Purple SpiritWolf Mystic
Join date: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 2,802
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08-10-2006 19:37
In my 2 years in SL i noticed something it lacks. Inworld Chat channels. Hell even Everquest had them. All we have is local chat. Why not IRC channels and global chat channels you can /join /leave? This would be a great asset. If we had that it might partually satisfy me. Although nothing will be recorded for later reading... :/
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