Forums got a new look?

[phyco126]

The forums look so... stocky. What happened to the sprites and such to designate post status?

[Kizyr]

Sorry about that... Had to upgrade to keep current and eliminate bugs and this was a side effect.

Level of customization may not be worth trying to re-implement though; if we have that time it's more likely we'll try to just move to Discord officially (and archive what's here). Not certain yet, though.

[DevNall]

No more forums? :'(

[Alunissage]

I'd prefer forums too but I've almost never used Discord so I don't have much to compare with. But being able to look at all the past conversations on things at once is invaluable to me.

[ShugoHanasaki]

Discord....Forums are vastly underrated in this day and age. I will certainly miss the old sprite look...But Discord is just so full of drama...There's so many youtube videos pointing this out. While I am not assuming you guys will have drama in your future server...Discord is just bleh...imo

[Kizyr]

Do you mean underrated, or overrated?

Generally, I much prefer these old-style web forums. Permanency to each post, each post has more content, and anyone outside can search through most of them back literally 15+ years. Discord is grouped chats, so there aren't "posts" but just lines and more fast-moving chats with less permanency (which honestly does have its merits).

But... the reality is that very few people now prefer these old style forums, meaning that there just isn't a lot of support. I'm not an expert in web development so I don't have much capability of supporting it myself, whereas just about anyone can set up a Discord server.

I'm not saying I'm happy about this kind of development, but when you have that plus the fact that this is a pretty old series without a genuinely new installment since 2005 (not counting SSH or iOS or re-releases)... we're up against quite a bit.

[ShugoHanasaki]

Underrated as in many don't appreciate forums as much as they used to

[Kizyr]

Ah! Sorry I thought you were referring to Discord (as in "Discord Forums are underrated") not these web-based Forums. Now I get you.

And I agree, there's a sort of permanence to each post and the norms are somewhere between long-form and one-line chats, so IMO there's more flexibility. I can be long-winded so having a full forum post is more suited to what I want to say; Discord (which functions somewhere between a chat room and forum, perhaps closer to the chat room side) is really not friendly to lengthy posts. And, I mean, an old series like this is one where a few occasional lengthy posts is a lot more likely than anything that sparks quick discussion.

Though on the flip side, as I get older I kind of wish some of what I wrote ages ago had less permanence. A few old things are nice to read back through, but then I come across things that have not aged well or are way more mean-spirited (or on the flip side, too permissive of people who are being mean/cruel to others) than I am today.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I'm new around here, but if you're taking notes, I also prefer forums.

Reddit/Discord/FB groups/ all suffer from the problems that have been covered.

It's like trying to have a conversation in a loud club. You're shouting, but so is everyone else, and there's no organization. So all the voices turn into white noise and meaningful conversations that develop over time just do not occur.

[Alunissage]

That is a very good analogy, especially for those of us with auditory processing issues.

[MaroonChan]

That would be bit of a shame. I also prefer forums, though I don't mind Discord too much.