Do you think that there is a reason why very few old members are still here, and the ones that are still here hate the place?

How can we find the reason behind this so we can solve the problem?

the mods?

oh wait..

also....


the mods?

I wish the problem could just solve itself, you know.

doubtful.

OH. maybe we don't have enough ' im in ur... ' kitties?

HAHA. Where did Podomaht come from? I remember you being nice before you came back, if you ever left because I may just not have noticed.

HMMM. *ponders*


......


*ponders some more*

The community. Older members lose interest? It happens all the time. If you miss 'em, join 'em.

Well that sounds awfully depressing.

Rather, I'd bring something to the game that might even attract older members back. (cB4?)

What I dislike is having older members gripe about how present cB sucks in comparison to old cB. Those complaints will not bring back the old sense of community that you all remember, nor will it bring back the great mods and members of those days.

Does there have to be a reason or a problem? People grow up and apart and maybe those older members just grew apart from cB.

cB's 'new generation' of present time doesn't seem to be complaining that much.

What I dislike is having new members deny that cB had a great history and that despite the declining activity on the boards, they think there's nothing wrong going on. These complaints amount to nothing but sticking you head in the sand and denying there is a problem, nor will it make createblog any better.

Does there have to be a reason or a problem? Sure there is, but people like to pretend there isn't one because it's a lot easier that way.

cB's 'new generation' is depending on the mod team to protect them from any criticisms, and the mod team is attempting to purge anyone who disagrees.

I'm not the one who used the term new generation.

All I know is I took a break for a while and everything was great, then came back and the team was different and the community had changed for the worse.

I'm really not denying cB's great history. I was around for some of that history that you spoke of, and I was definitely around when you were active as a mod, then became less active, and when you stepped down, how everyone was all sad that you were gone because you've been around forever.

cB's been getting more active lately. It's not comparable to how it was before, there's no question about that, but I don't see anything wrong with it. For the past year and a half ish it's been like this. It's not like 2004 anymore. Maybe you're getting older and you see the community as less mature or whatever... I don't know, I'm throwing wild punches here.

Why are you pinning the blame on the mod team? The people who post in the community are responsible for activity on this site, not only the 20-ish people who enforce rules.

-------

Suzz, by 'new generation' i meant the kids on cB who post actively RIGHT NOW. Not last year, not two years ago, not three years ago.

Translation: I have no idea why createblog is getting worse, but hey it could be worse than it is now so I think you should be happy with the way it is.



The mod team is supposedly made up of exceptional users from the community. If these people are supposed to be createblog's elite (different from elitists), then I dunno what to say.

There are people who genuinely wanted to improve createblog. But their vision was different from the mafia's so they were harassed to the point of leaving.



I think some of the older members are past any hope of recovering this hijacked ship and had their suggestions for improvements fall on deaf ears until they were asked to leave since they were questioning the staff.

But that's just idle speculation. I don't really have any inside knowledge on the matter.

QUOTE

Translation: I have no idea why createblog is getting worse, but hey it could be worse than it is now so I think you should be happy with the way it is.

So pessimistic!
Or maybe I'm just a blind optimist?

So what is your suggestion for improvements?

Funny you ask...

Because all people do is whine, rather than actually making an effort or trying to see whether or not the newer members who they look down on simply for the 'crime' of not having been here for three years are actually worth getting to know?

Hey Kryo, I joined three years ago too and I'm not flipping out either. People are right, everyone's older; I was just younger than you all when I joined so I'm not quite so fed up. Almost all of the oldies are in college now so that would explain a lot of the issues they now have with CB.

Just consider that.

THE IDIOCY IN THIS THREAD!

I don't see your stand on this issue either. Instead of saying we're idiotic, do tell what you want to see done on this forum.

point proven.

If you got something to say come right out and say it instead of making snide remarks.

It doesn't take a neurosurgeon to understand that communication is key. Please, don't waste our (at least, mine) time.

don't post here then.

I'd like to say the same for you.

please do so.

Amen.

Oh ho, I so wish I could quote backstage right now.

^ Wait a second, what is that suppose to mean?

Kiera, I wouldn't worry about it.

lol.

Check back here tonight.

Yippee.

^ Spam.

^ More spam.

But whatever. We'll all come back to night, and we'll all be fed-up again. Whoop-de-doo.

If my post was spam, then every mod post that closes a topic is spam. I was expressing interest in picking up the discussion again.

You were expressing disinterest. But if I misinterpreted your post as sarcasm, then I apologize, and I'll be looking forward to constructive input from you in the future.

I don't think there's a unique answer for that question since it does depend majorly on the specific traits of each single case (aka each single user). This doesn't rule out the possibility of there being a common cause for the discontent amongst CB's earliest members, of course. But I think we should first take into consideration that said common cause is likely to have a different impact on each person. Because of this, even if the final conclusion is that Createblog has indeed changed for the worse, such result should still be taken with a healthy grain of salt.

Generally speaking, the longer you belong to an online community the more chances you have to think it has changed for the worse at one point or another. If there were a book for the Internet Murphy's laws, this one would certainly be in the first chapter.

Despite each user has its own personal views as to what this site should be like, it is also true that each generation of users shares some common ideal vision of the community. Said concept of the "ideal" site usually keeps changing from one generation to another.

Now, for each generation there are members that stay on the site for the long run. Within these people, some are chosen to become staff members and then their impact on how things are run is even bigger. One could safely say that the more waves of users, the more different the site becomes from what it originally was.

To me it's simple social evolution, only that in the Internet it happens in a matter of months/years (depending on how concurred the site is) as opposed to real life where such changes can take decades. The process itself isn't negative, since renewal should be preferred over stagnation. The changes that happen under this evolutive course are a different story, though.

Speaking of CB again; whether the different mutations this site has suffered have been for the best or else for the worst? Shit, I don't know. I haven't been around long enough to notice them, so that's probably a matter to be debated by more experienced users. In any case, you guys should take a look at the bigger picture before doing any cherry-picking.

That is all.

^

Well expressed!

We'll see about that whenever people start getting back to this topic ^^;.

Honestly, I know little about CB's history. I can't find a way to directly relate what I have seen in other places to what is being discussed in this thread, so I have had to be more vague than I originally intended.

With all due respect, you weren't here that long at all and you wouldn't know how much fun it was before. But hey, you acknowledge this so it's cool.

But even if you want to say it was a matter of opinion, there is no denying activity has severely dropped. Closed topics are more common sight now than before, even though there is less activity now.

You probably all think that I don't like change. That couldn't be further from the truth. We're all getting older. But why can't cb change with that? There are old people like Duchess of Dork on the website. Plenty of people with children. I just couldn't stand it when one by one, people that I got to know, people that built createblog from the ground up- one by one they quit, many of them disgusted with how users were treating them. createblog has gotten very political and it is the cancer that is killing cb. The "well if you don't like it, then gtfo" attitude is not conducive to building a community.

Me, I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay here (hooray for you guys). Perhaps I've been taking the internet too seriously myself. But if you think what's been going on is bad, wait till the day I leave.

There's definitely a lot of stuff I want to say that would definitely explain why I feel the way I feel. But won't say here because I don't want to embarrass people publicly. Hopefully you can understand this and it's not because I'm just some grumpy person.

I could go on, but I'll save some for later.

Hope you decide to stick around, Kurd Jam.

When are you going to clear your inbox, James?

I like to hold on to things. Not sure, maybe I'll get around to it eventually.

Unfortunately, reading archived threads doesn't give you a solid clue about the activity rate a board was registering during a certain past period of time. I may know how many posts were made during a certain period of time, although that will never tell me how fun it was back then unless, as you well said, I was there to experience things myself.

I hope I haven't given the impression I was implying older members can't adapt to change. That was never my intention, but rather I wanted to point out that the more time you spend in an online community the easiest it is to feel burned out at some point.

I consider both things, feeling tired and not adapting to changes, separate phenomenons that can or cannot go together. That's why I didn't specify it in my previous post, it seemed a clear distinction while I was typing. Although I probably should have dedicated some words to it, come to think. >_>;

The differences between older and newer users are always going to be there, pretty much like it happens everywhere else where "experienced" people share a limited space with newer folks. Think of High School, work, etc... and examples aren't really that hard to find.

As I understand them, the "Love it or leave it" remarks are one of the results of this mixture of people that have been in Createblog since the early days with people who have joined during most recent times.

How can they be avoided? I wish I could offer a specific reply other than a cliche answer as "we should be more understanding with each other". I am afraid my contribution to this thread hits a limit whenever it is time to find a solution for Createblog's case. Oh well, I'll keep trying to open new perspectives on this subject for as long as I am able to.

As far as sticking around goes. I don't have a real answer for this either. Sometimes I find myself posting relatively often, some other times I feel cold dead about everything that goes on in Createblog for days at a time. As long as I keep seeing a possibility for fun, I'll keep returning. I am also a pretty patient person.

This is something that I'm really trying to take to heart. I've been thinking about things, especially some of the issues that have been brought up by kryogenix lately.

There have been a number accusations thrown lately, many of them fair (from a subjective point of few). One of those have been this idea of "assuming." Now, when I read back on recent responses, I can totally see how that was interpreted. I look back on the way I respond to people and at first glance, I think well gosh... I didn't mean it at all that way. I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding here. Part of that is because so much context is lost when responding to each other on the internet. Part of it is that (and this is from a moderating point of view) you try to do what you honestly believe is in the best interest of a site (based on rules, experience both in-site and in the outside world and a little instinct). Sometimes, as a result, there's this knee-jerk reaction to things that can be really frustrating to people. You want to be able to, I don't know, I guess for lack of a better word, protect but at the same time, you don't want to have a town meeting about every little decision (ie, closing a thread vs not closing a thread, warnings, etc). Trust me, I'm not trying to make excuses for anyone, I am making an honest effort to really look at what's happening both in the community and in staff.

I may not have been here as long as others, but that doesn't at all mean I care any less for createBlog.

I think there is one thing that most of will agree on though and that is:

I am so willing to listen. I am ready to not take things personally and not have a knee-jerk reaction.

I just would like for those of us that are newer to have a chance at being accepted and finding our place here. I really do. There shouldn't this division of old versus new members. I know it's something that just happens. I also know that not everyone is going to have this profound friendship with one another. Not everyone clicks on the same level, if they click at all. That doesn't mean that we can't find a way to work together and give createBlog that chance it deserves to succeed and flourish, both in the Community and as a Resource Site.

So one reason that I think I'm hearing/seeing here: Moderators should try to understand more instead of having an immediate reaction. Perhaps PMing a member before closing/editing or even warning them.

This is something both users and moderator of any rank should keep in mind



This is something both users and moderators of any rank should keep in mind, too.

I say, bring back the arcade!

My ability to post was revoked for three days because Arjuna_Capulong figured I was member bashing, instead of debating.

If you think that was member bashing, you have one diluted sense of argument and bashing.

Maybe that's why CB is so shitty. Mods suck.

Pussy. ( No, it's not bashing yet. )