Welcome to The Hairy Bear: The Witcher Off-Topic [Archived]

[Kinley]

Alan989 Really sorry to see your Discord posts being deleted, mate. Made most of my friends from the forum through the unofficial IRC chat we used to set up back in the day, so I strongly believe in using other channels to strengthen the community.

Funny how all of a sudden that is deemed as "advertising", absolutely disgusting. Way to antagonize whatever is left of the old community.

Either way, please PM me the discord link.

 

[Sagitarii]

To the mod, who deleted Alan989 's posts about community discord (I have a strong suspicion, who might that be).

[Sard Edit] Normally there would be a Pony here. IMAGINE A PONY.

Also, tossing insults around is not a good idea, whether you think they are justified or not. That makes the situation worse, not better.

We prefer better.

NOW IMAGINE THAT PONY GAMBOLING!

 

[Kinley]

In that case we might as well not link witcher wikis just in case it's seen as an outside community and thus it's advertising.

Speaking as an ex-moderator: Just... What.

 

[dragonbird]

In that case we might as well not link witcher wikis just in case it's seen as an outside community and thus it's advertising.

Speaking as an ex-moderator: Just... What.

Wasn't the last chat channel set up by a moderator?

Also, I hear there's a Witcher Facebook page too somewhere. And Twitter discussions. And that terrible, terrible clickbait place called Reddit.

(Hi, everyone. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai. No, not coming back, but I miss you all )

 

[Kinley]

Wasn't the last chat channel set up by a moderator?

Funny, innit?

Hey mama DB! Missed you.

 

[Sardukhar]

So okay. Everyone chill the hell out. Miscommunication is a thing. Our efforts here are focussed on one thing - building a stronger community. Not offending you or hurting feelings.

YES I'M AWARE that you don't think this is the right call and yes, it's under discussion.

That being said, and -please- avoid the chance to have a bitchfest, what are some ideas for building a stronger community? Especially in this time of gaps between major news events.

Hrm. We should probably put this in a separate thread, but I'd rather not start a huge spray fire right now. I can move it later.

So, yeah. What would you do better?

 

[Sagitarii]

I would start treating Forum Rules as guidelines, not as a strict law punishable by MUH AUTORITAH's snippity snap scissors or head-bashing hammer, or you may wake up doing janitor work in an empty building. Oh and letting Alan989 post his invite again or bringing the old one from the dead.

 

[Damariel]

I just show up for a second to say that I liked times when people could argue with mods, say a small joke or shitpost a bit here and there or simply post a link.

Thank you for listening, I'm moving back to shadows now.

 

[eskiMoe]

What's going on here?

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Hrm? What's wrong with discussing the broken state of instant messaging scene today? Building a stronger community is a good goal, but sounds way too abstract, when community here is simply dispersing with alarming rate. I.e. something clearly isn't working with that building. Hint: if CDPR really want a stronger community, they know what they need to do. But they aren't doing it.

 

[227]

Oooh, are we imploding? It's funny to contrast this forum's occasional crises with those on GOG. Here it's like, "Heavy handed moderation is crushing us with tyranny and everyone is leaving!" There it's like, "Our lack of moderation is allowing all the trolls to ruin things and everyone is leaving!"

But as far as suggestions for a stronger community, definitely pull-ups. And it wouldn't hurt to quit fragmenting this place into 4 different forums since none of them get a particularly noteworthy amount of traffic. It also might stop the bleeding a bit if it didn't feel like this place has been entirely abandoned by the developers with the sole exception of one helpless web designer. Then again, it's the fate of all communities to wither and die so that new communities can pop up in their place and become filled with bitterness when it's their turn to wither. It's like the circle of life if you could survive being eaten by a lion, and then the lion doesn't even remember your name after awhile.

So, yeah. What would you do better?

Everything, always, forevermore.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

It also might stop the bleeding a bit if it didn't feel like this place has been entirely abandoned by the developers with the sole exception of one helpless web designer.

That was my point exactly. It's laughable to talk about making a stronger community, when CDPR completely deserted this place, and pretend the community doesn't exist to begin with.

 

[Sardukhar]

Nope, I disagree. Dev comments are nice, but a community should not need or be reliant on developers talking to us. We are here to discuss CDPR-related things (and occasionally things not CDPR related) that interest us. It's absolutely not a developer-questionnaire resource, nor was it suggested to be. At least not in the thingy I "signed" when I joined.

If -that's- what you're here for, I recommend Twitter and Facebook and whatnot.

Here is for talking to each other. About stuff. Not prodding developers.

I think forum fragmentation could be a thing, though, perhaps we should look at tidying some of that up. I find the Off-topic a bit awkward to navigate to, maybe look at that. And, yes, collate CDPR news and statements somewhere.

On the bright side, if this is a friendly, reasonable, welcoming place to visit, the chances of devs dropping in is much higher.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Nope, I disagree. Dev comments are nice, but a community should not need or be reliant on developers talking to us.

So, we'll agree to disagree. In my view CDPR will never have a strong community, because they aren't interested in it. Developers which actively communicate and engage with the community can have one. I already explained it in the "no communication" thread. Those who want strong communities, should avoid legacy media approaches, and use approaches of crowdfunded studios. We already know, what CDPR think about that.

And it's only natural to expect to find developers on their own forum. I'm not using Twitter or FB, and social network which I use isn't likely to have any CDPR presence (regrettably, but they aren't into decentralized ones).

 

[227]

We are here to discuss CDPR-related things (and occasionally things not CDPR related) that interest us. It's absolutely not a developer-questionnaire resource, nor was it suggested to be. [...] If -that's- what you're here for, I recommend Twitter and Facebook and whatnot.

I don't think we're talking about what we need, though. Want, maybe, but not need. After all, we're already here. It's not a coincidence that we see sharp spikes in people visiting and engaging when information comes out, though, and that's generally what determines how "strong" a forum is. Do you remember how crazy the 2077 boards were after the teaser trailer? Basically, we have a forum for talking about CDPR-related things where everyone's run out of CDPR things to talk about, and only the most stubborn and/or bored of us have remained. We could change everything else for the better and it might help, but it'd still be little more than a stopgap.

On the bright side, if this is a friendly, reasonable, welcoming place to visit, the chances of devs dropping in is much higher.

Santa only visits the good boys and girls, so everyone behave!

While we're being manipulative, I should mention that I've achieved a similar result by setting things on fire.

 

[Sardukhar]

We could change everything else for the better and it might help, but it'd still be little more than a stopgap.

No, I think otherwise. Witcher forums were busy for years, despite only two games coming out across the 9 years since I joined. Devs weren't flocking to the boards then either.

I have no problem with attracting an active hardcore community and keeping them. I don't need lots of traffic, I'm hoping more for engaged, quality posting.

This is also what I meant by avoiding a bitchfest. This is mostly complaints, not a lot of suggestions so far.

Santa only visits the good boys and girls, so everyone behave!

While we're being manipulative, I should mention that I've achieved a similar result by setting things on fire.

a) if in terms of positive results, no you haven't and b) yes, Santa only visits the behaving boys and girls. That's fair.

 

[gregski]

So, a short moderator update on the latest discord about Discord:

1. If anyone got upset about their posts getting deleted unfairly(in their opinion) - I apologize on behalf of myself and the whole moderation team. The deletions were needed so we could discuss the Discord issue internally without the discussion sprawling and eventually getting out of hand.

2. Most of the posts are getting restored as we speak, and almost most of them in the same shape as they were in before the deletions.

3. Alan989 - feel free to put the Discord link in your signature. However, keep in mind that this forum is mostly for people coming in and talking here, not getting "recruited" for other platforms. That's why one of your posts will stay deleted.

4. Constructive feedback about moderation is welcome. However, as I'm sure all of our distinguished, long time users and - especially - ex moderators know, should be shared via PM, not in public.

I think that's all for now regarding the Discord issue.


And now let me ask - out of curiosity - why is the Discord server better for getting "this community back together in some form" than the forum? Is it the live chat? Any other functionalities? Feedback on this would be nice - if anyone wishes to share it here, of course.

 

[Alan989]

Thanks gregski

The main reason why I created the Discord is I, and many others, felt the community needed to have several ways to communicate besides the forum and the fact that many of us didn't agree with the re-design which we felt deleted several key features such as the old friends lists which made it harder to communicate with each other as the search function barely works and it takes too much time to scroll down the list to find those people you wish to contact. I created the Discord to make it easier for everyone to stay in touch, but I do not want it to replace the forum, rather I want both to work beside each other to strengthen the community as a whole. Having different options for community interaction can only be a good thing right?

Discord is just a very easy to use program, much better than things such as Skype even though it doesn't have video calls, it has both live text chat and voice chat.

 

[Kinley]

Generally I see a platform like Discord to be more engaging, that sense of instant gratification - instant messaging, the voice chat, etc.. I've seen some other gaming companies adopting Discord and it seems to be getting some traction. Forums have their place, long winded, structured discussions are king, but it's losing its foothold in an age where most people use other more prominent platforms. People will go to the more popular, easy to use place, every time.

I wouldn't say I prefer Discord over forums, I love the forums format (maybe not this one particularly), I like the structure that a live chat might lack at times. And who knows, if this place were more engaging I could see more people joining. But in this particular case I do find myself being more comfortable catching up with old friends on Discord mainly due to the easy going atmosphere, that fear of an iron fist surprising my behind because one of my posts might be taken the wrong way, then having to go through an arduous process of explaining myself where 9 times out of 10 the authoritarian party always comes out the victor just really isn't worth my time.

[Sard Edit] PONIES ARE FOR HAPPY TIMES.

 

[dragonbird]

I'm glad to see that sanity prevailed on this issue, but now I'm about to disappear into the darkness again.

And to answer this from my perspective:

And now let me ask - out of curiosity - why is the Discord server better for getting "this community back together in some form" than the forum? Is it the live chat? Any other functionalities? Feedback on this would be nice - if anyone wishes to share it here, of course.

The forums don't offer any advantages over other platforms (they're not the go-to place for news, they're not the go-to place for engagement with the CDPR community management), and the forums are significantly worse than platforms such as Discord in terms of functionality and ease of use. I'd echo what Alan said about the problems in finding old friends since the "upgrade", plus the navigation issues and just the general messiness of the forums. And the Community section is really, really hidden away from anyone who visits the main game subforums, so it would surprise me if many people actually find it.