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#1 Fire Blazer

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Posted 21 March 2015 - 06:42 AM

Hey guys.

tl;dr - Keep FES alive somehow, need suggestions and/or help, give me contact info in case we go our separate ways as FES and more importantly its members are dear to me (FES can be wherever and can be replaced, the members can't)

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I don't even know who visits anymore. I didn't for a while. I know there are some great loyal people here who check the forums still, but the truth is, the forums hardly get any activity. We used to have dozens, even hundreds of posts, but now we're down to like, less than 1 a day. It's sad. It's heart-breaking. I'm guilty. But it's also kind of the natural course things have taken: we kept the site alive for so long despite the decreasing prevalence of forums as a way of communication and interaction within a community. Forums can still be useful for things like tech support and such where there are a few active members and everyone else are random people coming in for help, but this community can't thrive that way. Not only do we not have active members to keep things going, but we don't have the interest in discussing things this way, Fire Emblem and all.

I want to do something about it, but I feel like I'm low on options. Please, if you have any suggestions, bring them up. I won't delete FESF or anything because I don't want to lose the memories, but at the same time, I do want to do something about this and perhaps bring a transition or closure to things.

Here are the options for keeping FES alive in various ways that I thought of:

- Skype chat - we currently have one, but not everyone wants to participate. right now it's very casual and we discuss much more than FE, so perhaps a real FE-dedicated chat might be better? but then again, maybe not.
- Facebook - we could share contact info via facebook and have a facebook page, or merge into an existing Fire Emblem facebook page.
- Twitter - well, for what it's worth, FES has a twitter and uses that to convey news and other FE info and such. It's a way to interact and comment about recent news, if you're willing to participate.

- Upgrading to IPB and trying to carry over all the old stuff. However, as awesome as this would be, it would cost a LOT. we're talking hundreds. I don't mind paying if I have the money, but I would need some people to commit with me to legit revive the site. We can't be paying SF expenses only to have hardly anyone actually be in the community. I'd need at least one dedicated admin and 1-2 dedicated moderators (i.e. not someone who quits after 2 weeks and/or doesn't do anything). Not like a 1 hour a day dedication, just like a couple hours a week, at least until things get going and the community "runs itself" to some extent.

I don't really think the last idea will work but it's not like I won't try.

Lastly, I'd like to get the contact info of people in case things disappear and I want to contact you! If your e-mail is the same as your current FES e-mail (the one you registered with), then I can technically look it up, but regardless, you are free to send me your e-mail, AIM, Skype, or whatever to smashfire17@gmail.com -- as people know I hate the feeling of never being able to talk to someone again even if I want to, I like to feel like we still have some connection no matter how far it is in time or space (cheesy I know), so yeah.

Well, for now I'll leave it at that, but if you're here, please comment/respond. This is important. I don't want to be like other forums and just have the forum and die and no one ever talks to each other again. Not when I'm still here, and we're still alive--even if it's through sillier, mundane, less sincere and community-like things like Twitter and the Skype chat (no offense to those but I know that forums have their own charm for some, one that just isn't appreciated as much anymore... *sigh*).

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#2 ^Leo^

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Posted 21 March 2015 - 11:15 AM

I hate seeing this thread...i keep seeing it on every forum I've enjoyed for the last few years. I know I haven't been here long but you guys are pretty cool. The fire emblem community for the most part seems to be full of like-minded people. Anyway now that I've said that:

I can think of two ways to keep FES forum based. 1: not be a part of the fire emblem community. I don't mean not discussing fire emblem at all, but FE just doesn't have a big fan base so the way to attract new members is to branch out. Unfortunately there are already dedicated gaming forums out there so I don't think this is the best option at all. 2:merge with another small forum. I know the guys over at Fire Emblem Empire pretty well so I could run it by them. I'm sure the added activity would excite them seeing as they're going through the same thing right now.

Edit: if everyone is down with the second suggestion I made I can make a thread over on feef to see what they think. The creator isn't too active right now unfortunately but I can contact him directly.

#3 Whitewolf8

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Posted 21 March 2015 - 02:48 PM

Argggg... I don't really have any suggestions to help here, my brain is basically fried currently. ;_;

as for contact info tho, i do visit devArt and Youtube a lot-- even if I hardly do anything anywhere anymore.

http://white-wolf8.deviantart.com/
https://www.youtube....ser/thedudemonn

I also has a skype i like, never use, so there's no point for that.



If I DO have any actually ideas pertaining to this though, I'll uh... post again.

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#4 acceptance

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Posted 21 March 2015 - 08:09 PM

I haven't really contributed anything useful here in a while, but for the (almost) 4 years I've been here... it's been a blast getting to know the people here.

I know we've had our issues in the past Blazer... but I sure do hope we, and any other willing participant, can still keep in touch from time to time no matter what happens to the forums.

If you ever just wanna say hi, I got an e-mail address I check pretty often... so send me a message at; yobabydaddy142@hotmail.com.
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#5 kirant

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 03:34 AM

Re: Alternatives

I'm actually probably of the mind that forums still work. One forum I'm on is close to celebrating its 15th year in existence and is (honestly) just getting stronger and stronger. I think the biggest issue with regards to FES would be the lack of topic material. "Discussing Fire Emblem" and "Get help modifying a decade plus old game" is a niche topic at best and you're already competing with a large and heavy market loaded with bigger names such as Serenesforest.

Honestly too, none of the above really appeal to me. I like the idea of forums because they're constantly bumped topics while Skype chat is an anarchy (and massive timesink...I lasted about 2 weeks on that Skype thing before deciding it was running my life), Facebook isn't really good in any means for discussion in my opinion, and I'll be on Twitter when I'm either producing media consumable goods or forced by law to have an account. Really, none of the above have the raw and simple organization that accompanies forums. What really matters is the content. Unfortunately, it's that last sentence that's currently FES' undoing. You're competing with a good number of sites over a small number of people...a group that is also shrinking.

I'll give some examples...I'm on a forum literally about Lucky*Star only (long story short - I joined in a brief period that I enjoyed the anime and have stayed since because I quite enjoy the atmosphere). Membership is on a slow decline on that site as is activity. It's a ghost of what it once was with the only major topics being general "post funny images" type topics and a handful discussing the newest cutesy anime.

I think basic laws of survival take place here...adapt to more survivable conditions or die. Have something unique that draws in more people or just be another face in the crowd. The site I mentioned above is well run and organized because it does something few other sites do. The site, for reference is about hockey...not just hockey, but about one specific team. Canadians have a huge love of the sport and a lot of the city so having a site run by a fan is a huge draw. It's got its own Wikipedia page in fact (http://en.wikipedia....iki/Calgarypuck ) and has developed a reputation that major personalities in this field actually sometimes post there...a major rarity. Its fan base is ever endless with some veterans hanging around (I've been there for ~5 years) and a constant influx of new fans due to the constantly continuing seasons of sports.

Other options are less effective I think...there's the option of a merge with another site. That basically just lowers the competition and gives you a surge of new users. One option is to decouple the forum from the website and declare that this forum is not about Fire Emblem...but that leaves many questions open. First is how users find this website...most I think join because of Fire Emblem. I know I did...namely, I needed help with some coding stuff. It also makes you think about how many smaller "general discussion" forums even exist.

I think this is the challenge I'll pose to the rest of you: What should FES be? Should it expand its borders, adapt, evolve and do something that makes it stand out? Or should it be a site which is a face in the crowd? An "Also ran"? Either way, I think the truth is simple as that: find a way to stand out or die.

The rest I'd leave to you to decide. The former is long, arduous, and might not even work but at the end of the day you'll be able to stand tall and say "Well, I did what I could".

Re: Contacting me

I'm first and foremost a person who'll rarely let things die. If I'm in it, I'm in until the death. I'll be on FES until Blazer stops paying the bill or until it's obvious I'm the only one here and I'm bored talking to myself. I quite literally still log in on a daily basis.

I know Blazer has my Skype information. Anybody else can probably get my e-mail or Skype name if they ask nicely over PM (and donate 5 dollars to my world domination plans, of course).

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#6 Fire Blazer

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 06:35 AM

TL;DR OF ME THINKING ABOUT WHAT TO DO: maybe FEE can merge with FES and FES will get upgraded and make a big push to haul in activity from FE14, SMT, facebook, twitter, reddit, etc., along with giveaways, while trying to also get old members to post again? maybe? Zac, can you start by perhaps approaching FEE with a short port and I'll weigh in on my own account and see what FEE might be willing to do?

--------------------

(INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES TO POSTS)

@zac I thought about merging with TEB or SF, but I don't know how it'd fly. A lot of the members that used to be active here went to TEB at some point and possibly stopped going there too, so that's a thing. As for SF, some people don't like it due to the people and atmosphere there (let's just say it's not got quite the same reputation as being nice and welcoming as some places). The biggest issue is that this wouldn't really be "FES" anymore because we'd be merging into something else, and FESF itself would lose its identity. This forum would still exist, it'd just be "hey guys, all the members go to this new forum!" which is kinda bleh

By the way, I got some responses on Skype and the one that comes to my head right now is reddit: I know quite a few people use reddit and it is accessible online and Shu would be willing to help, so that's something. We could possibly have a subreddit for FES or something.

@Whitewolf, gotcha, no problem, my brain's fried too, thanks for posting/sharing though

@Randy yeah for sure, and sweet, e-mail, doesn't get any classier I guess tongue.gif

@kirant

QUOTE
heavy market loaded with bigger names such as Serenesforest.


honestly not that I don't agree with you in general but SF is kind of the only big FE forum right now, the rest are really small where you could practically list the active members (like FES) and it'd be < 20 people or so, there are other places where FE people hang out but they aren't really traditional forums

QUOTE
Honestly too, none of the above really appeal to me. I like the idea of forums because they're constantly bumped topics while Skype chat is an anarchy (and massive timesink...I lasted about 2 weeks on that Skype thing before deciding it was running my life), Facebook isn't really good in any means for discussion in my opinion, and I'll be on Twitter when I'm either producing media consumable goods or forced by law to have an account. Really, none of the above have the raw and simple organization that accompanies forums. What really matters is the content. Unfortunately, it's that last sentence that's currently FES' undoing. You're competing with a good number of sites over a small number of people...a group that is also shrinking.


I agree, especially on the "raw and simple organization" part; I thought about it and the closest thing that fits this is forums. The other stuff are ways to communicate, but they're way different than forums, and certainly not substitutes, especially considering how much freedom forums bring (ability to insert images, format the post, link to it online, have a profile/sig, etc.)

Facebook I don't even use so it'd be a push for me, Twitter I use but mostly for A) getting news and cool.gif sending out news, which is more because of my standing as the admin of FES and an owner of a company (in other words, consider it an extension of the site/marketing, I rarely use my personal twitter)

You said forums work, and they do, but I think they don't work nearly as easily as they used to, because they take more dedication in a time where people prefer faster, easier ways to communicate; they don't want to be invested as much. when you find a bunch of like-minded invested people, that's fine, but it's more or less like you said, FE is a niche topic and there's already SF and a couple other smaller forums, you can't have multiple communities thrive like back in the day, especially if the main reason to discuss there is one thing and not a bunch (that is to say, a forum can hardly sustain itself talking about JUST a game series, there's the general discussion threads/"spam" threads too and those are certainly a part of keeping the forum active and alive because we don't WANT to discuss FE 24/7... I don't think)

QUOTE
Other options are less effective I think...there's the option of a merge with another site. That basically just lowers the competition and gives you a surge of new users. One option is to decouple the forum from the website and declare that this forum is not about Fire Emblem...but that leaves many questions open. First is how users find this website...most I think join because of Fire Emblem. I know I did...namely, I needed help with some coding stuff. It also makes you think about how many smaller "general discussion" forums even exist.


yeah I've thought through such things and I don't really dig them as options. I've seen the "expanding the range of topics" thing not really work before. you still need people to come here for a reason, and now if people want info on games, there are so many other sources they could and probably would go to first before they went to a small forum like this--how would they even find it etc... people came to FES either because they really wanted to discuss FE, or for hacking, and now neither of those really work as draw-ins, especially since SF slowly took over as a bigger home to the FE modding scene (and there's some dumb revival of FEUniverse or something but no one except for hackers seems to even know that exists; I only just now remembered it and I don't even think I have an account there)

QUOTE
I think this is the challenge I'll pose to the rest of you: What should FES be? Should it expand its borders, adapt, evolve and do something that makes it stand out? Or should it be a site which is a face in the crowd? An "Also ran"? Either way, I think the truth is simple as that: find a way to stand out or die.


well, here's the thing. I don't have time to invest into this anymore. if I did, I'd have kept posting by my lonesome self even if I hardly got responses. I'd welcome new members right away and rant on here about random stuff and ask people to join. but I just can't afford that anymore (even if I try, I can't seem to keep it up for more than a short period of time) and with mods and staff also getting busy I didn't have the help I needed to sustain activity.

Point being, I don't think trying to revive the forum or trying to do something new to really stand out will work. I think at this point I just want to have this forum exist and have a place for people to return to. If I did pay for say a professional version of the forum, I could make time for it temporarily and see to it that it grows back a bit, but I'd still need someone to spend more time than me in managing the site. in other words, I cannot do this alone. That's why unless someone is going to actually help and not just hope it turns out, I need something that I can manage on my own.

QUOTE
Or should it be a site which is a face in the crowd? An "Also ran"?


By the way, I'm not sure what you meant by this. Mind elaborating a bit?

-------------------------------

Doing some thinking. the Fire Emblem Empire forums took a while to load. You know, it sounds selfish and self-centered probably because it is, but I'd be ok with a merge if it meant FEE's members came over to FES. Admittedly, loading times aside, their forums look nicer (seems like it uses IPB) but I'd be willing to give someone there mod access and with the combined small memberbase, try to get the forum going, maybe with a paid version of IPB for FES now--in which case I'd actually host it at http://www.feshrine.net/forums/, which might help a bit.

Ultimately, FES's mainsite is still active and FES is FES, a Fire Emblem fansite. The forums have been their separate thing, sure, but I don't think I can see it not being at least somewhat FE-focused. So anything that makes FES not FES, is probably a no-no.

Hm...

Option 1) FEE merges with FES, makes more sense anyway since FEE's creator apparently isn't active (I haven't talked to or seen him in ages) and I actually update my main site once in a while (gasp) and I could help more IMO. However, would require FEE to make a sacrifice/be willing. FES could potentially get a forum upgrade too in order to help spur things on; it'd cost me a fortune but I'd be willing. Zac, could you perhaps ask this? Let me know and I'll stop by to post on FEE accordingly. But I don't think us going to FEE would quite work due to my being selfish dry.gif;

Option 2) Get a sub-reddit for FES or something and converse there. Would require people to be willing to go to reddit. We'd make it VERY obvious on the forums that activity was now happening on the subreddit, and we'd link the mainsite, twitter, and skype chat (all extensions of FES) to the sub-reddit in hopes of getting it to be the new hub. Honestly I don't mind trying this, but it comes down to the members: if people aren't going to be active on one of the "communication channels", I will be sad. For instance, Bobryk, Rujio, and Fujisaki, who I all haven't seen in a while; I'd like for them to be able to stop by once in a while. And of course the people in this topic too; point being, there needs to be a place for everyone, kind of, even if it's just lurking. At least if someone lurks, they're still technically there. >_>'

Option Nothing) Keep things as they are and just... do what we can. Keep posting until it's like Kirant said and he's just talking to himself. Would be a sad end though and I'm not fond of those. I like to at least end things with a bang and say I did what I could; that I tried to stop myself from having regrets, even if I regret things anyway. So really, let's not just do this.

So we pretty much just have the two options right now. Again, some people got to me in other ways (mostly Skype but even by text message) so there's that, it's not just the like, 5 of us here, lol. But I think that in itself says something: people can't even be bothered to post on the forums for this. sleep.gif I somehow doubt they'll get motivated to do much more without good reason.

Lastly, I think whatever we do, we need do it ASAP and use the new Fire Emblem 14 for the 3DS (and maybe Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, if we hear about that again) to push things. We can advertise in various places and I can perhaps hold giveaways, polls, or have competitions or something to promote people to join the forum and participate. For instance, maybe a debate about FE14 where the users vote on who they think wins a debate, and the ultimate voted winner gets a prize such as some special Fire Emblem goody or something. (I'm not rich or anything but FES is super important to me so I'll work my butt off to make the money to afford this stuff if I have to.)

We could definitely throw in some SMT/Persona stuff in here too and see if that attracts people/helps things grow.

Hey, I'm slowly feeling a bit more positive about this. I think if we put in a bit of effort and maybe pool in things from places all over and such, we can get something going. Again, I'd need people's help and participation though. I think a forum can't thrive without both new members and old members so while having a home for the veterans and such who only have time to visit once in a while/lurk is nice, ultimately those people won't keep the forum going, and I DO want to meet new awesome people (we get [or used to get, anyway] new members quite a bit and they become the new vets I start to miss lol; I know, I am way too easily emotionally attached to people and things, SORRY) so yeah... we need new people too.

So the steps would be

- Try to merge with FEE
- get someone to *seriously* help with upgrading FES to IPB or something (it wouldn't be very techy stuff, just things to help with the transition I guess) - honestly as-is due to the spam bots we can't even get in new members, so this is starting to seem like an inevitably if we want to keep a forum at all
- get that person or someone else to help revitalize the community via activity/modding/whatever
- put together everything we can to get a community going again, for all types of people, new and old and otherwise XP

OK, done thinking via posting for now. Wooh. Got a lot on my mind, I'll wait on Zac and we'll see where we can go from there!

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#7 kirant

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 07:17 AM

Me in this topic now:

user posted image

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 21 2015, 11:35 PM)
honestly not that I don't agree with you in general but SF is kind of the only big FE forum right now, the rest are really small where you could practically list the active members (like FES) and it'd be < 20 people or so, there are other places where FE people hang out but they aren't really traditional forums


I think SF and GameFAQs are the biggest drains. Fair enough that GameFAQs is, well, GameFAQs and you'd be hard pressed to find many people over 20 constantly posting...but I think that's a consideration here...think of it association football: if all the young talent is getting sucked in by one team, what does that leave the others? There's a thin market for collecting new users.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 21 2015, 11:35 PM)
You said forums work, and they do, but I think they don't work nearly as easily as they used to, because they take more dedication in a time where people prefer faster, easier ways to communicate; they don't want to be invested as much. when you find a bunch of like-minded invested people, that's fine, but it's more or less like you said, FE is a niche topic and there's already SF and a couple other smaller forums, you can't have multiple communities thrive like back in the day, especially if the main reason to discuss there is one thing and not a bunch (that is to say, a forum can hardly sustain itself talking about JUST a game series, there's the general discussion threads/"spam" threads too and those are certainly a part of keeping the forum active and alive because we don't WANT to discuss FE 24/7... I don't think)


Fair enough. Most of it is me...I think in non-forum things, I'd likely have not much to do with it. Remember, you're talking to a person who insists on manually writing most lab reports instead of submitting a printed document because that's what I have done for all my first degree so why start typing now (unless it needs to be super pretty)?

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 21 2015, 11:35 PM)
well, here's the thing. I don't have time to invest into this anymore. if I did, I'd have kept posting by my lonesome self even if I hardly got responses. I'd welcome new members right away and rant on here about random stuff and ask people to join. but I just can't afford that anymore (even if I try, I can't seem to keep it up for more than a short period of time) and with mods and staff also getting busy I didn't have the help I needed to sustain activity.


And this I think is all part of the challenge. We've all got lives. Hell, I have a simulation league of ~30 people I barely tend to these days aside from doing daily simulation updates.

What I really meant though is that FES's fate is somewhat still in our hands though and it's the collective work of everyone to decide what that fate is. If we as a group slowly drift towards the "it's too much effort", we'll get our time but likely lose the forum. If we decide to go all out and try to rescue FES then we might get it back and return it from the brink...but also might waste our time. But either way, it's our choice how we wish to balance this life with our many other ones.

The other aspect I kind of highlight here is that it is, ultimately, a team effort. And that's kind of one of the main thrusts...that at this point, each of us would have a reasonable impact on the result.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 21 2015, 11:35 PM)
By the way, I'm not sure what you meant by this. Mind elaborating a bit?


Well, the way I see it...at this point, if you were to list forums for discussing Fire Emblem, one might say "Well, we've got SF. Can't miss that. There's GameFAQs, but that's GameFAQs. Oh, and you've got [blah], [blah], FES, [blah]". It's just another one of the many small and fairly insignificant forums at this point that you can find a few of out there.

That type of existence is easy to have occur...just continue as we are. If we just keep doing the status quo, this forum's existence is one that basically makes it just another random forum on Fire Emblem out there with a slight leaning to an extremely niche topic. And if we, as a group, direct our actions in that general realm then that's what we get.

The "Also ran" was a comment borrowed from horse racing...namely, that being an "also ran" meant you're there but you're really not important enough to get any attention. Many race results would list major competitors, their positions, and a blast of horses who, well, "also ran". They're not important for most people to care about so they just got listed all together.

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#8 ^Leo^

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 11:16 AM

I think the existence of FES as a small website nobody but it's members know about is fine...assuming it has those members. I'll throw something up over at FEE to see what they think. I don't know if you'll be able to retain the identity of the forum, but the feel will be similar if not identical. I'll see if I can put my argumentative writing skills to work here and have them begging to merge with FES. But I don't think that I should make that post until we find out people are OK with it. So far I have blazer saying he doesn't want to, but he's willing to try, and kirant saying it's not appealing to him at all(if I actually read all that properly. There was a lot to go through). So unless you're pulling rank here blazer all I'm going to do is contact Dave and let him know the idea is being thrown at a wall.

Edit :message sent to Dave, awaiting reply. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that Dave isn't inactive by choice. He's in med school right now so he literally doesn't have the time to put in towards running the forum. Fortunately there are enough active members who want it to keep going, so it runs itself for the most part.

#9 Fire Blazer

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 06:41 PM

LOL@image

ok so I'm going to read everything but to save time, if I don't say anything, it just means I don't have anything substantial to say or I agree with you or something

QUOTE
Fair enough. Most of it is me...I think in non-forum things, I'd likely have not much to do with it. Remember, you're talking to a person who insists on manually writing most lab reports instead of submitting a printed document because that's what I have done for all my first degree so why start typing now (unless it needs to be super pretty)?


Haha I understand, that's kind of why I want to keep the forum aspect alive somehow if I can, because I know that people might not be interested in some alternative that isn't too familiar, comfortable, whatever (I mean just switching from one forum location or type to another can cause people to stop visiting, so switching from a forum to a different... method of communication in general would possibly alienate people even more or something)

QUOTE
What I really meant though is that FES's fate is somewhat still in our hands though and it's the collective work of everyone to decide what that fate is. If we as a group slowly drift towards the "it's too much effort", we'll get our time but likely lose the forum. If we decide to go all out and try to rescue FES then we might get it back and return it from the brink...but also might waste our time. But either way, it's our choice how we wish to balance this life with our many other ones.

The other aspect I kind of highlight here is that it is, ultimately, a team effort. And that's kind of one of the main thrusts...that at this point, each of us would have a reasonable impact on the result.


well put, well put

QUOTE
Well, the way I see it...at this point, if you were to list forums for discussing Fire Emblem, one might say "Well, we've got SF. Can't miss that. There's GameFAQs, but that's GameFAQs. Oh, and you've got [blah], [blah], FES, [blah]". It's just another one of the many small and fairly insignificant forums at this point that you can find a few of out there.

That type of existence is easy to have occur...just continue as we are. If we just keep doing the status quo, this forum's existence is one that basically makes it just another random forum on Fire Emblem out there with a slight leaning to an extremely niche topic. And if we, as a group, direct our actions in that general realm then that's what we get.

The "Also ran" was a comment borrowed from horse racing...namely, that being an "also ran" meant you're there but you're really not important enough to get any attention. Many race results would list major competitors, their positions, and a blast of horses who, well, "also ran". They're not important for most people to care about so they just got listed all together.


I get it, though at this point I think the only active FE-focused forum is SF and everywhere else is either a general forum or practically ignorable--now places like this, TEB, and FEE only only get a "handful" of posts a day (let's say a dozen or less on average), now FES has always been somewhat of a smaller forum, but back in the day we used to get dozens of posts a day if not hundreds of posts a day, I could spend hours upon HOURS on FES, and it was still considered "small", these two "small's" are way different; FES right now is practically ignorable, unnotable, whatever, but FES back in the day was still rather significant and notable (people knew it existed and we got new members and such somewhat often)

I don't even know what my point is, but maybe something along the lines of, we need to at least get back to how we were, to be "that other FE-dedicated forum that isn't SF but is still worth going to/checking out", or something. Pretty much the only people who come here are stragglers randomly making accounts and maybe introducing themselves, regular visitors, and spambots, lol.

QUOTE
I think the existence of FES as a small website nobody but it's members know about is fine...assuming it has those members. I'll throw something up over at FEE to see what they think. I don't know if you'll be able to retain the identity of the forum, but the feel will be similar if not identical. I'll see if I can put my argumentative writing skills to work here and have them begging to merge with FES. But I don't think that I should make that post until we find out people are OK with it. So far I have blazer saying he doesn't want to, but he's willing to try, and kirant saying it's not appealing to him at all(if I actually read all that properly. There was a lot to go through). So unless you're pulling rank here blazer all I'm going to do is contact Dave and let him know the idea is being thrown at a wall.


There main things in keeping the "identity" are that members of the Fire Emblem Shrine community still go to the FES forums which are actually titled, you know, "The Fire Emblem Shrine Forums"/located at some subdomain or subdirectory of FES (e.g. http://forums.feshrine.net or http://www.feshrine.net/forums/). I could give the people who come over from FEE their own moderator (or I guess admin, if there's actually a willing and able admin) representative and welcome them here, but then they'd be sacrificing their identity, in a sense. It's not that I wouldn't be willing to do it so much as it is I'd feel a bit bad for FEE unless they were willing to do it because in a sense they'd be the ones giving up their identity.

The difference here is that FEE's admin is super busy whereas I at least have time to try things, and I've at least got contact info and such to enough people that I could rally people a bit, and also the mainsite is actively maintained to some small extent. FEE's forums hardly load for me and the site hasn't kept up with the latest Fire Embem news and such since like FE13 in 2012 or something. Also, FES's forums have more members and a longer history, I'm pretty sure, though those are small considerations.

So what it comes down to is not that I'm willing but if the members are willing. Dave should probably also have a say since it's his forums but the "merge" would mostly just be everyone coming here and FEE having some kind of representative here and maybe FEEF would have a link to here saying "FEE's members are hanging out at FES lately so that Fire Emblem fans can unite!" or something.

EDIT: By the way Zac I'm only acquainted with Dave and it's been a long time since I've talked to him so I don't have his contact info myself (not on hand anyway), my e-mail is smashfire17@gmail.com (blazer@feshrine.net just redirects to there now so that I have one less e-mail to check, lol), he can contact me there, if you wouldn't mind letting him know, I'd appreciate it. smile.gif

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#10 ^Leo^

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 07:17 PM

@blazer the way I worded the message makes it clear that it's only an idea. I told him I would pass along contact info both ways should he be willing to talk about it.

#11 Fire Blazer

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 07:43 PM

ok, gotcha, thanks

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#12 ^Leo^

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Posted 22 March 2015 - 09:19 PM

I read back through what you were saying and I think I found a happy neutral zone where FEE and FES can both retain their seperate identities while boosting forum activity. Both websites remain as they are, but have only one forum. It may confuse newcomers at first as to what they're looking at, but I think that's the best way to go about this without stepping on any toes. And a shared forum isn't going to necessarily interfere with how the main websites are run.

#13 Elwood

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 12:51 AM

I'm here everyday. (Seriously FES is my homepage) I agree with the sentiment that I don't want the shrine to end but there is so rarely a topic I feel I can contribute anything to. This merging idea sounds pretty good and I would be absolutely ok with it. Really anything to keep the Shrine alive and not a zombie of its former self is great. I know this is will be cheesy but I like cheesy stuff so... LONG LIVE THE SHRINE!!!

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#14 Fire Blazer

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 03:58 AM

A shared forum will ultimately have to have one URL though and it's going to need a name and someone's going to have to spearhead it. A shared forum in the sense you're talking sounds like it'd have to be a new forum with a new name or something, which isn't something I'd be cool with. Idk.

As a note, I contacted Invision Power Services or w/e about a possible upgrade; once I hear back from them we'll see what options that leaves with me. No matter what it's going to be expensive but if I can do it, I think I will.

@Elwood mhm I getcha, that's why having a lot of members with some diverse but also some shared interests is good, IMO... and cheesy stuff is fine haha I mean pizza is amazing and that's full of cheese (though too much cheese can make you sick... and so can too much pizza)

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#15 kirant

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 03:59 AM

QUOTE (zac122 @ Mar 22 2015, 04:16 AM)
IEdit :message sent to Dave, awaiting reply. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that Dave isn't inactive by choice. He's in med school right now so he literally doesn't have the time to put in towards running the forum. Fortunately there are enough active members who want it to keep going, so it runs itself for the most part.

I wish him luck on that...med school was an option I considered but rejected because of the time load (namely that I'd have his lack of a life for many years) and greater interest in my current studies (medical physics). It's a tough road and getting a really good specialization will take probably up to 8 years (or more depending on what specialization)...so, yeah. I really hope he does well.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 22 2015, 11:41 AM)
I don't even know what my point is, but maybe something along the lines of, we need to at least get back to how we were, to be "that other FE-dedicated forum that isn't SF but is still worth going to/checking out", or something. Pretty much the only people who come here are stragglers randomly making accounts and maybe introducing themselves, regular visitors, and spambots, lol.

I think this problem actually stems back to what I mentioned earlier - being tied to Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem as a series isn't as big a draw right now and tying to it will handicap the forum's position somewhat. Basically the only noteworthy game in the last 7 years is Awakening. Take a gander at Wars World News Forum sometime...it kind of fell of into oblivion after Advance Wars: Days of Ruin lost its novelty. Forums tend to die without fresh material to bring people in. That would turn FES from a small amount of a really large fan base to a small amount of a mediocre sized fan base.

In other words, this site is still "that other FE-dedicated forum that isn't SF". But the number of people fitting into "looking for an FE-dedicated forum" is much smaller and makes FES' user base on a size just keeping it on life support.

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#16 Fire Blazer

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 04:36 AM

well like I said Kirant, I'm not going to expand the scope of what the forum is past "Fire Emblem". It's a Fire Emblem fansite. It's tied to the mainsite as well. I think the Fire Emblem fanbase has actually grown bigger, but the natural tendency of people to use forums as ways to talk with people has decreased; instead people use facebook, twitter, reddit, and go-to gaming sites like gamefaqs (which does have a board but it's gamefaqs, few forums can somehow manage to thrive like they do, not to mention its userbase is... questionable)

I honestly think that if we huddle up with other FE fans and bring in some reasons for people to come here, they can come for the Fire Emblem (using Fire Emblem 14, ANOTHER new Fire Emblem game, and Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem [assuming we here about that again], ANOTHER Fire Emblem, as reasons for people to care/go find an FE forum to hang out on) and stay for the community and such.

I'd also be willing to code something like an online mock-support-conversation-maker for FE13 (and eventually FE14 I guess) if I could get the sprites/audio/tools and such, which might drag in those passionate FE fanboys LOL (not sure how people would feel about that though). It wouldn't be terribly hard as I already have a rough sketch in my head of how I could go about that, it would just take some time and support from other people and such (in small ways like giving feedback, spreading the word, actually using it, etc.)

I do think that we can have a decent community of at least 25 people visiting a day with 50-100 posts a day (without me making 50% of those posts), and even grow more than that if things go well. I don't think that being tied to Fire Emblem is going to kill us, I think the biggest problem was that I stopped putting in effort to drag people in, welcome them, and give them a reason to stay, and the older members stopped posting/being active and helping with that as well, and it slowly went downhill from there. We only need about 10% of the activity SF does and remember that not everyone wants a huge community like that in the first place. It has been done before and I definitely think it can be done again. At the very least, I think we owe it to ourselves to try before "blaming" FE for not having a big enough fan-base for multiple FE "fansites" to survive. XP

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#17 kirant

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 05:11 AM

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 22 2015, 09:36 PM)
well like I said Kirant, I'm not going to expand the scope of what the forum is past "Fire Emblem". It's a Fire Emblem fansite. It's tied to the mainsite as well. I think the Fire Emblem fanbase has actually grown bigger, but the natural tendency of people to use forums as ways to talk with people has decreased; instead people use facebook, twitter, reddit, and go-to gaming sites like gamefaqs (which does have a board but it's gamefaqs, few forums can somehow manage to thrive like they do, not to mention its userbase is... questionable)

I'm certainly not saying we should be any means either. I'm just saying that this is the ramification of such a decision.

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#18 ^Leo^

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 11:16 AM

Welp, Dave replied...he's got the same thing going on that you do blazer. He doesn't want to lose what FEE is. Most of the active members have been there for a long time(we're talking 5+ years). So it's more a matter of loyalty to the idea of FEE. Honestly after reading how dedicated you both are I don't think a merger is possible at all. Even under a shared forum as that would be sacrificing the identity of the forum itself. I guess we'll just have to look for another option.

BTW what was your disagreement with Dave about? He mentioned it as well, so it must have been something big enough to leave an impression on both of you.

#19 Fire Blazer

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Posted 23 March 2015 - 08:21 PM

^I see. I figured that might be the case which is why I said it wouldn't work unless FEE was willing to sacrifice that, which was unlikely.

QUOTE
BTW what was your disagreement with Dave about? He mentioned it as well, so it must have been something big enough to leave an impression on both of you.


I... have pretty much no idea what you mean by this though. What disagreement did I have with Dave? I've only talked to him a few times. I don't remember anything. Could you perhaps elaborate or copy the PM or something? O_o

anyhow, I figure TEB is the same, so if no one's willing to merge, I'll just have to bust *** and figure out something else. However I am super busy this week and the weekend and have exams next week and the week after... meaning I don't know how this is going to happen/how fast it will happen if it does, especially with no help, so yeah :\

The first step is hoping IPB gets back to me and upgrading the forum, I guess; from there we can work on drawing in members again, and according to my predictions, we should see a Nintendo Direct soon (April 12th-14th, give or take a week) and FE14 may be there, in which case we might be able to use that as the triggerpoint or something

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#20 ^Leo^

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Posted 24 March 2015 - 02:01 AM

He didn't say right out you had a disagreement, what he said was that he got the impression you didn't like him very much (I'm paraphrasing here because it was slightly more extreme than that. In context though it's basically the same thing), and while I don't know either you or Dave personally I don't think either of you would say something like that for no reason. Of course it has been a long time since you have talked(nearly 5 years if his memory serves), and memories tend to be exaggerated and without context. So maybe I'm just making the wrong assumption here by thinking there was a disagreement at all. Could be you two just don't get along.




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