What happened to these forums?

[Melos]

Yeah, i just came back to these forums recently and noticed how dead it is compared to before. Quite sad :(.

[Miss_Kozlov]

Yeah, i just came back to these forums recently and noticed how dead it is compared to before. Quite sad :(.

Forget the tv show, these forums are the real Walking Dead. :p

[Gang Sabre]

Lost Gang Sabre 1000+ post count, really wish I could have my beta account back.......

[bloodpk]

I am back after so long!! i loved the white layout tho. looked much better imo! 

[Arceus]

I am back after so long!! i loved the white layout tho. looked much better imo! 

You can still use that skin if you'd like - navigate to the bottom of the page and you can change between them by clicking 'Change Theme.' I think the one you are referencing is IP.Board.

 

[Impaler99]

I'll always still come here.  :P 

[The Observer]

Like others have stated, no fansite can compete. It's just simply survival of the fittest.

[Kaida23]

Having recently returned myself, I'm quite surprised at how quiet it is. Perhaps the traditional forum is simply coming to the end of its natural lifespan. Social media, wikis, even Reddit all seem to be supplanting them. I'm not sure if that's better though. All these sources are quick, easy, accurate...and utterly without heart. How much connection do people get with their fellow players reading someone's Twitter feed? What unexpected stories or laughs are to be had editing a wiki? What (some third clever thing I can't think of right now) Reddit? It's a reflection of society. Efficienados were merely an extension of our rapidly changing world. Everything's stronger, faster, lighter, fewer calories, "tastes great, with just a hint of bacon"...what happened to more, better and fun?

 

Oh god, I sound like an old person longing for his youth. I better stop here before I break into a rambling story about walking to school, uphill, both...AHHHHH!  :lol:

[Miss_Kozlov]

What are you talking about? I still get an email on my AOL account every time the Tip.it MySpace has an update.

[Wkw]

I too am disheartened that there aren't posts on the forum.

 

But then again, I'm also incredibly guilty of not posting on the forum very much..

[Kaida23]

What are you talking about? I still get an email on my AOL account every time the Tip.it MySpace has an update.

Your Tip.ItSpace account still works? Dag. I lost the password to mine years ago.

 

I too am disheartened that there aren't posts on the forum.

 

But then again, I'm also incredibly guilty of not posting on the forum very much..

It's something everyone's guilty of at some point or other.

 

Also, some of the busiest posters were also some of those who got in the most trouble (I'm looking at you @Arceus, you bad apple :lol:). Not all mind you, but some. They pushed discussions forward and sometimes they would descend into arguments which would sometimes drunkenly stumble into rule-breaking territory. Goodness knows I dealt with enough of them before I left. Mrs Chips said earlier that the staff and mods here were corrupt and working against the community, and except for obfuscator taking bribes ( :P) I know that we weren't and most of you know that we weren't (Kim dealt with that wonderfully already so I really don't want to get into it again, but bear with me here). Unfortunately there were some who we would give warnings/suspensions/bans to who certainly felt like that and, yes, some of them left for what they felt were greener pastures with looser rules. Some just moved to different sections of the forum with looser rules (some are still there!). I still remember a point a several months after I became a mod where thing seemed to quiet down nicely (for us anyway) and the worst things we had to deal with were spambots and the odd infraction. Maybe we were too late though. Maybe the damage had already been done and once we got things quieted down again, too many people who didn't like seeing that kind of stuff on the main discussion board had already left never to return.

 

It's hard for me to speculate having been gone so long, but from what I understand Jagex has stopped fansite support and that certainly wouldn't have helped us any either.

[Wouter828]

So maybe all we need is a plan?

 

When comparing to Reddit, as many have stated, Tip.it is much more a forum to have a personal discussion. In this, it caters to its own audience, one that exists (as we are all proof of) and is looking for a place to meet like-minded people. Now I've only just started playing again, but I have been using this site for as long as I care to remember. Nevertheless, I have no idea what the guys and gals running this place are doing to attract new members and, more importantly, where we can chip in.

 

Having a clear niche that we cater to and advertising a corresponding vision that attracts that group of players can be a good place to start.

 

(Please note that I have no idea of what is already being done, so please fill me in if it turns out I am simply ignorant on this subject)

 

<3

[Miss_Kozlov]

 

 

What are you talking about? I still get an email on my AOL account every time the Tip.it MySpace has an update.

Your Tip.ItSpace account still works? Dag. I lost the password to mine years ago.

Me too. That's why i can't turn them off. :P

I think the real killer was less foot traffic to the site proper and everyone going to RS wiki. Edited April 15, 2016 by Miss Lioness
Fixed the quotes ;).

[Melos]

 

 

What are you talking about? I still get an email on my AOL account every time the Tip.it MySpace has an update.

Your Tip.ItSpace account still works? Dag. I lost the password to mine years ago.

 

Me too. That's why i can't turn them off. :P

 

I think the real killer was less foot traffic to the site proper and everyone going to RS wiki.

 

 

I will not lie; I'm a very frequent RS wiki goer and I haven't really checked tip.it for RuneScape in a long, long time... The only reason I log on to the forums here now is for ArenaScape, and even that does not give me much of a reason due to how inactive the tiny AS community has become. I've been trying to contact the creator of ArenaScape and fellow clan members for literally the past couple of years with no luck :(.

[Estonian dude]

OT is ALIVE!

[Kaida23]

Yes, everyone join us in off-topic...then remind everyone there that general discussion is still here. ;)

[Defender2516]

I found myself bored today and I quit Runescape about 2 years ago after 10 years. I started when I was 16, now I am just over 31 years old. To be honest, I miss my childhood and the old-school days. I still remember being in 12th grade, logging into the computer in the library, and thought it was so cool back in 2004 when Runescape 2 came out, and how I could shoot 3d arrows across a pond at some ducks. I remember my last day on Runescape classic, fishing in Karamaja lobster pier.. telling everyone around me RS2 just came out! And they told me I was a liar because if it was true, I'd be logged out and playing that instead.

 

Looking back now after finally quitting, I am glad I quit, I feel like i've finally moved on with my life. However at the same time, its also quite sad sight to see, a game I once loved, coming to a end. Its like your childhood house that you grew up in all your life, your parents died and your left with the deed, but since you already have another house, you just leave your parents house alone..  occasionally you visit it.. now, run down with more cracks and no repair.. the memories of a house once filled with bad, good, and loving memories, now nothing but a ghost and shell of its former self. I feel the same with this forum and other RS forums. It was once a place of livelyhood, but now.. not so much.

 

Although I don't pin the blame on Reddit or RS wiki. The truth is.. the problem is Runescape itself. Jagex has pretty much destroyed its player-base with horrible updates, particularly EOC. That was the 1 update for me and many others to finally throw in the towel. I remember that day vividly too. Just before "that" update, I remember having finally hit 99 magic and going to the barrow brothers. I was absolutely destroying them with my magic abilities and hitting 30+ damage easily. After EOC..  my character was a freaking joke. I remember how mad I was because it felt like all that work put into it and achieving it, suddenly got nerfed out of thin air.

 

But anyways.. the truth is, for many years, people have yelled, kicked, screamed... Runescape is dieing! And we pretty much all just looked past such nonsense. Runescape is not dead but when I see that 55% of the player base is playing the oldschool version and 45% is playing RS3.. well..  the truth is.. its not this community, its the game, and its the poor choices that Jagex has made, that made players like myself and others quit, that made this community empty.

 

[Defender2516]

Also just a couple of my own suggestions since people have talked about reddit and rswiki being not able to compete, ect.

 

You may not be able to compete directly with them as what they do, they do best at.. however you have to simply find a niche that works as a resource that people want to use. Most people come here for guides from my understanding, and updating a old database, probably would be just a waste of time.

 

You have to adapt with the times. One thing that personally came to mind was people who stream Runescape be on the main page of the site with tip-it being the sponsor. This would attract twitchers particularly  to the site. I'm not saying it HAS to be this, but just a example. You have to have something that brings people here, as obviously a old outdated database and a forum is not a business model that people adhere to anymore. At least not with Runescape. 

 

I would honestly say you would have to do a complete website over-haul to give the site a "new" feeling, as if its up-to-date, slick and ready to give you catered services for all your runescape needs, but as the place is now.. you have this "dead" feeling, which will only continue to get worse over time. If people are really seriously about spicing this place back up again, you have to rethink and redo this site from the ground up.

[Veiva]

Search terms as a popularity metric isn't very fitting.

 

Twitch activity for RuneScape (OSRS and RS3) is very lively, and so is YouTube. The RuneScape subreddits are also rather active (~800 users there now [10:00 PM EST]--compare that to, say, /r/programming [a much larger, but still generally niche subreddit] with ~800 users as well). The game's population is usually above 40k, peaking at 80k during the day (and botting is much less of an issue in RS3--botting contributed tens-of-thousands years ago at a minimum).

 

RuneScape is just smaller. That's all.

 

(Unless you also agree 2016 is the year of the Linux desktop--then ok, RuneScape is really dying this time!)

[Alg]

Twitch activity for RuneScape (OSRS and RS3) is very lively, and so is YouTube. The RuneScape subreddits are also rather active (~800 users there now [10:00 PM EST]--compare that to, say, /r/programming [a much larger, but still generally niche subreddit] with ~800 users as well). The game's population is usually above 40k, peaking at 80k during the day (and botting is much less of an issue in RS3--botting contributed tens-of-thousands years ago at a minimum).

As of this post we've got 69k players across... What, 3 or 4 versions of the game? Lost track. That would've been unheard of even a year or two ago. The Reddit thing is interesting. I've been hanging around r/Warframe and we're sitting at ~700 users for a game that is very much not in decline and has a non-negligible console presence

 

I feel like bringing up some Steam stats not to contribute in a meaningful or informed way (Since I don't know how to statistics as well as the computer science folks that make up 90% of the forum's population), but just because I can, and because as a Warframe player that detests Runescape the fact that it's got literally twice the current active player count is personally insulting:

 

 

don't give up, SkeletonScape! Even in your declining state you're still ahead of Warframe, ARK, and TF2 on one platform

 

That's not to say the game is in a good place (I'm not going there), but it'll probably be around for a while yet even if our niche forum isn't getting much attention. It probably speaks more toward the game's peak and the fact that we're forum enthusiasts lamenting the death of the forum when literally everyone else seems fine with Reddit and the like.

[Wkw]

Those are some interesting stats. It isn't surprising that NONE of the MMOs on steam are on the top10 list, but runescapes by numbers are rank 3/4..

[Sy_Accursed]

The Steam stats, and many other similar stat lists, always prove very interesting reading because they clearly show in terms of players online at any given time Runescape is still doing pretty darn well despite persistent cries of it dying.

 

I mean sure yeah its not hitting the numbers it once used to hit, but when it is easily outstripping play figures for some games that are considered to be doing well and have consistent popularity it's hardly dead in the water as some would make you believe.

 

I feel old-style forumers often skew towards Runescape dying (more so than new-style reddit/social mediaer types) based on the fact their community is rather dead and they make the incorrect logical assumption well my community is dead therefore the game is in the same shape. But I mean Reddit is thriving and Runescape consistently does well with Twitch streamers, Youtube views on many channels aren't half bad either. Plus I've noticed recently a lot of notable gaming news blogs have started picking up Runescape in their news articles and predominantly in a positive way for once,

[Kaida23]

I dunno, I think I prefer the "game is dying" theory to the "we're old and out of touch" one. :P

 

Both sides have merit though. RuneScape has been around for 15 years, so it's only natural that players who have been around for years would eventually leave. Old players leave and take with them the thought that you have to go to fansite forums to get info. After all, that was really the only place to get proper info on the game. Now in comes a new wave of players, some of whom probably weren't even born when the game started, who know only that wiki's are the best place to get information (and when it's often the first search result, how would they know otherwise) so what reason would they have to come to a fansite forum?

 

The game itself seems to still have legs (despite "dying" for last decade) otherwise Jagex would not be spending effort and resources on regular updates or major graphical overhauls like NXT. Perhaps what we need is some way of letting people know we're still here. I mean, we're still an officially approved fansite ([qfc]254-255-304-65216439[/qfc]) maybe there's something we can do to remind people of that.

[Miss_Kozlov]

There are so many other factors besides sheer player numbers. There is income, company efficiency, staff, development teams, resources, overhead, etc.

[Dupin]

 

I come here every once in a while to check active user numbers. I always find it funny to see more users on an old forum I used to post on 10 years ago than the crappy forums I currently post on. This thread seems relevant to my interests, so I figured I'd weigh in.

 

You've got two factors that impact volume of users on a website like this. The first is quality of the website itself and the second is quality of the game it's built around. Both should be assumed to have the modifier "-compared to other popular options," though this is much more relevant for the site than it is for the game. 

 

The website side of things has already been pretty well explained. Social media and the way people use social media have changed. Tip.it can't compete with reddit/twitch/wiki and what you're left with here are mostly people who feel they have some sort of sentimental attachment. 

 

The game side of things is a little more complicated. This post caught my eye: 

 

 

Twitch activity for RuneScape (OSRS and RS3) is very lively, and so is YouTube. The RuneScape subreddits are also rather active (~800 users there now [10:00 PM EST]--compare that to, say, /r/programming [a much larger, but still generally niche subreddit] with ~800 users as well). The game's population is usually above 40k, peaking at 80k during the day (and botting is much less of an issue in RS3--botting contributed tens-of-thousands years ago at a minimum).

As of this post we've got 69k players across... What, 3 or 4 versions of the game? Lost track. That would've been unheard of even a year or two ago. The Reddit thing is interesting. I've been hanging around r/Warframe and we're sitting at ~700 users for a game that is very much not in decline and has a non-negligible console presence

 

I feel like bringing up some Steam stats not to contribute in a meaningful or informed way (Since I don't know how to statistics as well as the computer science folks that make up 90% of the forum's population), but just because I can, and because as a Warframe player that detests Runescape the fact that it's got literally twice the current active player count is personally insulting:

 

 

don't give up, SkeletonScape! Even in your declining state you're still ahead of Warframe, ARK, and TF2 on one platform

 

That's not to say the game is in a good place (I'm not going there), but it'll probably be around for a while yet even if our niche forum isn't getting much attention. It probably speaks more toward the game's peak and the fact that we're forum enthusiasts lamenting the death of the forum when literally everyone else seems fine with Reddit and the like.

 

 

It's super strange to me that a game I still play from time to time, TF2, has similar player numbers to a game I think of as a ghost town. The fact that RS still has these sort of numbers even after the atrocities of recent years really is a testament to the vastness and the strength of its original world-building and its persistence in the minds of its players. 

 

I wanted to figure out why, even with these player numbers, the game could still feel comparatively empty. This data could be informative: http://www.misplaceditems.com/rs_tools/graph/

 

90-100k peaks for active users, but you'll notice those players are split evenly between two different versions of the game. The result is two games with somewhere around 40-50k peak daily users. These numbers correspond more accurately with the actual experience you'll get in-game. This division of the userbase is further compounded by the way the game is set up - many, many discrete servers which continue to separate the pool of players. The end result is that you can jump on a random server and run around a bit and it will really feel quite empty despite the fact that the game continues to draw decent player numbers.

 

And then of course there's the obvious explanation that this game has 2000 player servers that used to be full during peak hours while a game like TF2 has 20-32 players per server maximum and even at its peak popularity your experience of playing on a 20-player server would not have been any different than playing on a 20-player server today. In TF2, as long as you can find 20 players in a server somewhere you'll never notice that the game isn't at its peak any more. The absence of players is more obvious in Runescape. 

 

I don't really know what my point is in all of this except to say 1) It's strange to see the way these games have aged, and 2) tip.it's screwed when it comes to user numbers, but at least you're not [other forum that's near-dead and doesn't have the excuse of its game being 15 years old and completely gone to shit].

 

Talk to you again in a year or two.