Is CFC forums' overall activity dying?

[sendos]

Hello everyone.

I have not been on here for about 6 years and even then, it was only for a brief time.

I returned to CFC after hoping to try out some roleplay game thread on this forum, which ultimately went nowhere after 1 day.

I have checked through all the forums and, with the exception of civ 6 and maybe the civ 3 and civ 4 forums, these forums overall seem to be losing activity.

I have put up a poll just to see what others think. My view is technically that of an outsider, even my profile suggests I am some veteran who occasionally shows up here.

 

[amadeus]

I don’t think so? But I’m always trying to come up with some good enough content away from the usual discussion (arguing) about politics!

I’ll submit my work in progress here in a minute.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Yes but not by as much as it seems by first look.

There are probably fewer people posting, but those that are are fairly active.

Also, fewer threads are getting posted, but they keep going on longer and longer than what they used to.

But overall activity is going down I think. The term "dying" though is a little much

 

[sendos]

Yes but not by as much as it seems by first look.

There are probably fewer people posting, but those that are are fairly active.

Also, fewer threads are getting posted, but they keep going on longer and longer than what they used to.

But overall activity is going down I think. The term "dying" though is a little much

I agree "dying" is a strong word. My initial question was a lot stronger, so I chose that word and that expressed it a little softer as "losing activity".

I am checking through all forum threads now. Civ 6 subforums without a doubt is not dead. It is the most lively of all subforum categories. About 10 years ago, you could get similar activity for old game forums like SMAC. CivBE used to have a lot of activity. Now that's pretty much almost all gone.

 

[Gorbles]

I'm gonna speak on a bit of a rambly tangent (as is my thing). Forums in general aren't what they used to be, culturally. Much like how IRC gave way to Slack and Discord, so too have forums. IRC still exists of course, but it's more of a dedicated medium.

This is nothing more than anecdotal, regardless of how many forums I've been on. We all have, right? Dedicated forumgoers tend to be on more than one forum; we tend to like the format. I still like the format, the threads, all of that. I don't want to rely exclusively on Discord or Slack (even though I'm fine with using both, day-to-day).

Game community forums are normally fan forums too, yeah? Official forums exist, but fan forums were generally there first. It's about the community above or perhaps parallel to the game. Official forums are just vectors for community management, official PR and the like. In my experience they're never taken to in the same way (regardless of effort invested). Fan forums are just tighter. Maybe it's a bunch of friends that started up a small forum together, and it grew. Maybe it was a bunch of shared ideas from invested fans of an existing game franchise. But it's inherently less fire-and-forget than the box-ticking exercise official forums can be (but aren't always, just to be clear. I'm not trying to dismiss official forums).

So I've seen this before. But for CFC I will say, it is one of the most active and wide-ranging (in terms of arguably-different fanbases) community forums I've ever seen. It does seem to be decreasing to me, too. But I see this as natural. The problem is, invariably, what site management does about it. And that's out of our control!

It surprised me how many folk popped in recently to honour rah's memory, which is probably indicative that this has been going on for a while. I'm not really new anymore. But that's also a good thing - that people keep tabs. People aren't always gone forever. That's a good sign. It's when people don't return at all that you start having issues in keeping a community cohesive.

 

[amadeus]

I don’t think so? But I’m always trying to come up with some good enough content away from the usual discussion (arguing) about politics!

I’ll submit my work in progress here in a minute.

Done! Guess what it is if you haven't seen it already.

Hint: it's about television.

Spoiler link :

Don't hover over it to cheat!

 

[Kyriakos]

As was said, forums aren't what they used to be, when you can post in so many different types of media. I think most of the regular posters have been here for ages.
There just isn't enough time to post much in many places either. I am pretty sure the other forum where I have relatively many posts is TWC, and there I have less than 9000 (only here it's over 9000!!!)

 

[Catharsis]

I returned to CFC after hoping to try out some roleplay game thread on this forum, which ultimately went nowhere after 1 day.

Looks like you were trying to join an IOT? That part of the forum's still pretty active I think, maybe you just joined the wrong game. There's probably something else you can get involved in if you're interested. Seems like @Crezth is taking signups for something so maybe ask her.

As for your question - CFC is declining, yes, but people have been predicting its death since before I joined so as of yet I'm not too worried.

 

[Kyriakos]

I judge the decline of a website by what it's appraised worth is. About a year ago, this site was valued at around $120,000. I just looked it up before posting, and it is now valued at around $69,000. This site has lost almost half its value in roughly a year's time.

So yeah, I'd say the site is in decline, at least from a business perspective.

Interesting. Which site can one get this info from?

 

[JPetroski]

The Scenario League in Civ2 is still going strong... for a 20 year old game, anyway. Lots of new activity and apparently plenty of lurkers per view stats (if those can be trusted?)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

This site has lost almost half its value in roughly a year's time.

 

[tetley]

Yes, the forum is dying, but it's just a trend, and for the most part this forum has no control over that. The Civ series just needs to remain fresh, good, and keep up with the latest technology. Sid has already made his mark, and he can sit on his laurels now if he wants to. We need a killer successor--a successor game, with a successor game architect. People live on their mobile devices now--not their PC's. Unless you benefit from a triple-monitor configuration. Faster hardware, GPU acceleration, and crazy fast advances in machine learning leaves room for some software brainiac to innovate a new game AI. If the Civ series is able to get there, this forum will reverse course on its own and remain alive as ever.

 

[The_J]

Both Civ6+5 are ranked in the top 100 played today on Steam.
Not sure how much killer you need it .

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah I don't think the Civ games themselves are a reason for the forum's decline - it's still a top-selling, blockbuster franchise.

The pool of posters in OT is shrinking at a slow but constant rate. I will say that while this decline sucks, the people that have stuck around are generally nicer to talk with than the wider pool that used to be here. This place could be pretty vicious in the past and while there are obviously still spats, overall it is much chiller than it used to be and has a more cooperative rather than competitive vibe. There is also much, much less mindless spam and posture posting now than in the past and more genuine debate and exchange of ideas.

 

[Ajidica]

What @hobbsyoyo said.
Also, PC+1 will keep this forum alive for a while!
EDIT: It would be interesting to see when the first 'Is CFC Dying?' thread was started.

 

[AdamCrock]

Come new people ! You don't want me to rule the ruins now would You ?

 

[Hygro]

Here’s one from 2003 with like 6 responses https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/is-off-topic-dying.50723/

Here’s a bigger one from 2011 https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/is-civfanatics-dying.415881/

 

[abradley]

Naturally the site is declining, it's boring, where's the discussion?

 

[Gori the Grey]

The pool of posters in OT is shrinking at a slow but constant rate. I will say that while this decline sucks, the people that have stuck around are generally nicer to talk with than the wider pool that used to be here. This place could be pretty vicious in the past and while there are obviously still spats, overall it is much chiller than it used to be and has a more cooperative rather than competitive vibe.

I'm waiting til it shrinks to just one; I suspect I'll find the site extremely chill at that point.

 

[Lexicus]

Here’s one from 2003 with like 6 responses https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/is-off-topic-dying.50723/

Here’s a bigger one from 2011 https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/is-civfanatics-dying.415881/

Major "US public debt will start causing hyperinflation any second now" vibes lol