How Big is Too Big?

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 04:47 AM

I thought of this idea when I was browsing the "Forums are Dying" thread that I made a while back.

I had mentioned the Gaia Online forum. I've heard it's the largest online community in the world, and I believe it. I used to be really active there - but not like many of the other members who have at least 8 000 posts.

In an active time, you can make a thread and when you refresh your page - it could be at the bottom of the first page, or you could never find it again, that's unless you go into your profile and go from there. But once you find the topic, it could be 5 pages back. When a forum gets that big, that's just insane.

I wish I knew how they got that big. It'd be great to help out a lot of forums that are good forums but are either quiet to having the same members post over and over. Kyuubi and I are part of a forum that it seems as if the staff are the only ones that post regularly.

I'd just like to know what you guys think is too big for an online community. I think half of Gaia is too big.

Kyuubi · 02-07-2007, 05:00 AM

Haha, and he says I don't post here at all. I lol'd.

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 05:02 AM

Well you don't man - when I found this place it was when I was feeling as if I should leave those other sites. I really like it here. It's getting to the point in those places that all I'm going to be doing is the cheats section. That's about it.

Kyuubi · 02-07-2007, 05:08 AM

Eh, only places I'm in are WF, BIG, and here. I like all the forums I go to. WF is my second home no doubt.

I guess I'll try to settle in here for a while and see how things go.

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 05:15 AM

Yeah I guess you can say BIG's forum is down. The hosts, well, are unstable. I'm just going to wait until I can get a regular host like hostmysite or netfirms. I'm just sick of the site going online, then offline, then online, then offline and so on.

Then (as you know (Kyuubi)) Alex said the site'll be back up in like 4 - 5 days. I can take my computer in and get it back faster than that. All he needed to do was to get access to his server again. With his "intelligence", I think he's capable of figuring it out, rather than waiting almost a week for it to get back up. Yet he says that he "set up my site more secure than normal", and yet it was possibly hacked. Right.

I just feel sorry for Proto Man having to go through all that work he did for the site, and then we back out. But think about it, the site's been down about 4 or so times in the past, month - or even less? Give me a break. I'll welcome Proto to the site once we get vBulletin, but not Alex. No way.

So I'm just going to put the website part of BIG to a halt. It's only you (Kyuubi), Roger Smith, and I really working on it (actively)anyways

. Oh and Paul too, but he seems to want to be in the background part, but still, it's only the 4 of us. Damn.

Arkacia · 02-07-2007, 07:08 AM

Big forums have their pros and cons, just like small forums. I am a member of one huge forum, which is part of an enormous online game, which is hosted on the Jolt.uk site. Its current stats are...

189,718 threads just for our game's section. 406,339 alltogether for Jolt.
6,123,497 posts just for our game's section. 10,255,597 alltogether for Jolt.
1,309,555 members. Probably two thirds of whom belong to our game.

As you can see, while we don't dominate the threads, we do dominate posts. Threads can grow very large, very quickly.

The vast majority of our game members don't post outside our section, and the general area can get quite hectic during peak posting periods. Threads do disappear quickly, but it is also great to post one, and have responses almost instantly. A new thread can go from one post to 100 within an hour or less. The rest of the forum isn't quite that busy and things are easier to keep up with.

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 07:32 AM

I have a couple of questions for you, what is this jolt thing (I checked out their site, but I couldn't find any of those statistics, or even this site listed).

And by game, do you just mean "Final Fantasy" or is there an actual game part of this forum?

Kyuubi · 02-07-2007, 07:33 AM

Well I know a few people who run web sites and they say if a server is hacked, which btw is very possible if the hacker has the right codes, no matter how smart the creator of the server is, it can still take a while to get back online. Alex is smart and he's young. All he is tring to do is have fun and do his best. He doesn't mean to do alot of stuff without permission he's just a kid. Thing is about ShadowServers is the submit. I'll be in my CP and try to submit a sig or avy and I'll have to submit it like 9 times to get it up. It sometimes happened with submiting a reply. Thats the only problem I had with that forum. Really IMO I don't care if we got a forum or not. Our group can handle stuff on our own no problem. If someone wants to know how things are going we'll just IM one another and give them a heads up. Screw a forum until we get packed with people.

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 07:44 AM

Be packed with people - could take a while IMO at least man. I know I've been rushing myself and going way too fast for what we do have. I know we're using RPG Maker XP right now too. I'm going to see if I can get that thing that Roger has - speaking of which, is he using it a lot / how is it?

I've always wanted to have my own gamesite or something very popular. We could always have a regular site and then have a forum too, well like you said, not until we have a pack of people. A forum does help though. You and Roger are in Mississippi, Paul (Songjun) is in Sweden, and I'm in Winnipeg, Canada. Like I said back at the invisionfree forum, it seems as if everyone talks only to me (well except for you and Roger, since you've been working on that project for some time), but yeah, everyone talks to me about stuff. It's like, you won't walk into Square Enix and see everyone only talking to Yoshinori Kitase. They'll be talking to each other. But we don't really have to worry about that right now anyways.

If we do get a site up (I just found out that I owe an extra $30 on my Visa since I went over the limit...), so I don't know how long it's going to be. If I do get a copy of vBulletin, I'll be using it for a side project (non-development based).

Kyuubi · 02-07-2007, 07:54 AM

Hmm, I see. Well Roger has been using FPS a good bit. Says it's hard but pretty damn cool. He's been download stuff for it like crazy as well so I know for a fact he IS using it. Dunno man, we may see a kick ass first person shooter from our Rogey. I, the rookie at everything, game design, computers, and graphics would like to think I'm progressing faster than I should. I'm an Expert Field maker in RPG M XP and can do few events. If Tink would get my damn cut scenes done I could start my story writing again and get back to work. If he doesn't start them up, Roger's going to have to learn Cuts, because with my mind I surely can't. <_< -sighs- This game will take long, however, I promise this will be a great game. Sure the graphics are like the gameboy, It's a very basic program, but I have much confidence in my story and my Fields, and have no doubt's it will be enjoyable.

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 07:56 AM

Plus it's our first title as well, so hopefully it'll work out. So like, would BIG end up being like RPG / FPS based? That'd be an odd variety.

Kyuubi · 02-07-2007, 08:03 AM

We do wtf we want. We have no genre, we are variety. RPG, FPS, Tactics, PC-Real Time Based Games, I don't giva shit. We will make the games that we believe are cool and we will make games the we believe the people will love. Nuff Said.

Catalyst · 02-07-2007, 08:18 AM

It makes sense, but it doesn't.

When we were talking in AIM, you mentioned that BIG'll make games that people'll remember and stuff, but that'd mean we'd possibly be making games that people don't like...should stick to a/couple/few genre(s) shouldn't we?

But anyways, we've gotten off topic lol. Hardcore off topic.

Kyuubi · 02-07-2007, 08:24 AM

If they don't like the games then we will ask them what they would like to see in a game and we will make it. Other game companies don't even payattention to what the people want. NONE at all. However, we won't make that mistake we will go to them in person if we must and ask them. Game Design is my dream, my passion, and I want the games I make to be great, and I want the people who play them to be satisfied. I will do that however I can.

Arkacia · 02-07-2007, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catalyst

I have a couple of questions for you, what is this jolt thing (I checked out their site, but I couldn't find any of those statistics, or even this site listed).

And by game, do you just mean "Final Fantasy" or is there an actual game part of this forum?

The game name is NationStates (no, I'm NOT trying to advertise, but answer a question to anyone wondering). It is a huge online multiplayer nation sim game that was originally created to help sell a book. It and its forum are hosted free by jolt.uk. If you look at their forum's main page, the stats I posted are there.

Jolt is a games site. It hosts a number of online games and/or their forums, servers for games, clan forums and discussion forums.

and yeah, I agree about getting back on topic. Especially as most of us have no idea what the two of you are talking about

.

02-07-2007, 04:47 AM	#1
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	How Big is Too Big? I thought of this idea when I was browsing the "Forums are Dying" thread that I made a while back. I had mentioned the Gaia Online forum. I've heard it's the largest online community in the world, and I believe it. I used to be really active there - but not like many of the other members who have at least 8 000 posts. In an active time, you can make a thread and when you refresh your page - it could be at the bottom of the first page, or you could never find it again, that's unless you go into your profile and go from there. But once you find the topic, it could be 5 pages back. When a forum gets that big, that's just insane. I wish I knew how they got that big. It'd be great to help out a lot of forums that are good forums but are either quiet to having the same members post over and over. Kyuubi and I are part of a forum that it seems as if the staff are the only ones that post regularly. I'd just like to know what you guys think is too big for an online community. I think half of Gaia is too big. __________________

02-07-2007, 05:00 AM	#2
Kyuubi T-Rexuar Snack Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Mississippi-In the middle of nowhere. >___> Age: 35 Posts: 8	Re: How Big is Too Big? Haha, and he says I don't post here at all. I lol'd. __________________

02-07-2007, 05:02 AM	#3
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	Re: How Big is Too Big? Well you don't man - when I found this place it was when I was feeling as if I should leave those other sites. I really like it here. It's getting to the point in those places that all I'm going to be doing is the cheats section. That's about it. __________________

02-07-2007, 05:08 AM	#4
Kyuubi T-Rexuar Snack Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Mississippi-In the middle of nowhere. >___> Age: 35 Posts: 8	Re: How Big is Too Big? Eh, only places I'm in are WF, BIG, and here. I like all the forums I go to. WF is my second home no doubt. I guess I'll try to settle in here for a while and see how things go. __________________

02-07-2007, 05:15 AM	#5
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	Re: How Big is Too Big? Yeah I guess you can say BIG's forum is down. The hosts, well, are unstable. I'm just going to wait until I can get a regular host like hostmysite or netfirms. I'm just sick of the site going online, then offline, then online, then offline and so on. Then (as you know (Kyuubi)) Alex said the site'll be back up in like 4 - 5 days. I can take my computer in and get it back faster than that. All he needed to do was to get access to his server again. With his "intelligence", I think he's capable of figuring it out, rather than waiting almost a week for it to get back up. Yet he says that he "set up my site more secure than normal", and yet it was possibly hacked. Right. I just feel sorry for Proto Man having to go through all that work he did for the site, and then we back out. But think about it, the site's been down about 4 or so times in the past, month - or even less? Give me a break. I'll welcome Proto to the site once we get vBulletin, but not Alex. No way. So I'm just going to put the website part of BIG to a halt. It's only you (Kyuubi), Roger Smith, and I really working on it (actively)anyways . Oh and Paul too, but he seems to want to be in the background part, but still, it's only the 4 of us. Damn. __________________ Last edited by Catalyst; 02-07-2007 at 05:17 AM.

02-07-2007, 07:08 AM	#6
Arkacia Gunblade Expert Join Date: May 2005 Location: Australia Age: 60 Posts: 805	Re: How Big is Too Big? Big forums have their pros and cons, just like small forums. I am a member of one huge forum, which is part of an enormous online game, which is hosted on the Jolt.uk site. Its current stats are... 189,718 threads just for our game's section. 406,339 alltogether for Jolt. 6,123,497 posts just for our game's section. 10,255,597 alltogether for Jolt. 1,309,555 members. Probably two thirds of whom belong to our game. As you can see, while we don't dominate the threads, we do dominate posts. Threads can grow very large, very quickly. The vast majority of our game members don't post outside our section, and the general area can get quite hectic during peak posting periods. Threads do disappear quickly, but it is also great to post one, and have responses almost instantly. A new thread can go from one post to 100 within an hour or less. The rest of the forum isn't quite that busy and things are easier to keep up with. __________________ RandomGames.com - online arcade: Over 150 arcade games are online and waiting to challenge your skills.

02-07-2007, 07:32 AM	#7
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	Re: How Big is Too Big? I have a couple of questions for you, what is this jolt thing (I checked out their site, but I couldn't find any of those statistics, or even this site listed). And by game, do you just mean "Final Fantasy" or is there an actual game part of this forum? __________________

02-07-2007, 07:33 AM	#8
Kyuubi T-Rexuar Snack Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Mississippi-In the middle of nowhere. >___> Age: 35 Posts: 8	Re: How Big is Too Big? Well I know a few people who run web sites and they say if a server is hacked, which btw is very possible if the hacker has the right codes, no matter how smart the creator of the server is, it can still take a while to get back online. Alex is smart and he's young. All he is tring to do is have fun and do his best. He doesn't mean to do alot of stuff without permission he's just a kid. Thing is about ShadowServers is the submit. I'll be in my CP and try to submit a sig or avy and I'll have to submit it like 9 times to get it up. It sometimes happened with submiting a reply. Thats the only problem I had with that forum. Really IMO I don't care if we got a forum or not. Our group can handle stuff on our own no problem. If someone wants to know how things are going we'll just IM one another and give them a heads up. Screw a forum until we get packed with people. __________________ Last edited by Kyuubi; 02-07-2007 at 07:37 AM.

02-07-2007, 07:44 AM	#9
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	Re: How Big is Too Big? Be packed with people - could take a while IMO at least man. I know I've been rushing myself and going way too fast for what we do have. I know we're using RPG Maker XP right now too. I'm going to see if I can get that thing that Roger has - speaking of which, is he using it a lot / how is it? I've always wanted to have my own gamesite or something very popular. We could always have a regular site and then have a forum too, well like you said, not until we have a pack of people. A forum does help though. You and Roger are in Mississippi, Paul (Songjun) is in Sweden, and I'm in Winnipeg, Canada. Like I said back at the invisionfree forum, it seems as if everyone talks only to me (well except for you and Roger, since you've been working on that project for some time), but yeah, everyone talks to me about stuff. It's like, you won't walk into Square Enix and see everyone only talking to Yoshinori Kitase. They'll be talking to each other. But we don't really have to worry about that right now anyways. If we do get a site up (I just found out that I owe an extra $30 on my Visa since I went over the limit...), so I don't know how long it's going to be. If I do get a copy of vBulletin, I'll be using it for a side project (non-development based). __________________

02-07-2007, 07:54 AM	#10
Kyuubi T-Rexuar Snack Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Mississippi-In the middle of nowhere. >___> Age: 35 Posts: 8	Re: How Big is Too Big? Hmm, I see. Well Roger has been using FPS a good bit. Says it's hard but pretty damn cool. He's been download stuff for it like crazy as well so I know for a fact he IS using it. Dunno man, we may see a kick ass first person shooter from our Rogey. I, the rookie at everything, game design, computers, and graphics would like to think I'm progressing faster than I should. I'm an Expert Field maker in RPG M XP and can do few events. If Tink would get my damn cut scenes done I could start my story writing again and get back to work. If he doesn't start them up, Roger's going to have to learn Cuts, because with my mind I surely can't. <_< -sighs- This game will take long, however, I promise this will be a great game. Sure the graphics are like the gameboy, It's a very basic program, but I have much confidence in my story and my Fields, and have no doubt's it will be enjoyable. __________________

02-07-2007, 07:56 AM	#11
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	Re: How Big is Too Big? Plus it's our first title as well, so hopefully it'll work out. So like, would BIG end up being like RPG / FPS based? That'd be an odd variety. __________________

02-07-2007, 08:03 AM	#12
Kyuubi T-Rexuar Snack Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Mississippi-In the middle of nowhere. >___> Age: 35 Posts: 8	Re: How Big is Too Big? We do wtf we want. We have no genre, we are variety. RPG, FPS, Tactics, PC-Real Time Based Games, I don't giva shit. We will make the games that we believe are cool and we will make games the we believe the people will love. Nuff Said. __________________ Last edited by Kyuubi; 02-07-2007 at 08:08 AM.

02-07-2007, 08:18 AM	#13
Catalyst Chocobo Jockey Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 35 Posts: 281	Re: How Big is Too Big? It makes sense, but it doesn't. When we were talking in AIM, you mentioned that BIG'll make games that people'll remember and stuff, but that'd mean we'd possibly be making games that people don't like...should stick to a/couple/few genre(s) shouldn't we? But anyways, we've gotten off topic lol. Hardcore off topic. __________________

02-07-2007, 08:24 AM	#14
Kyuubi T-Rexuar Snack Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Mississippi-In the middle of nowhere. >___> Age: 35 Posts: 8	Re: How Big is Too Big? If they don't like the games then we will ask them what they would like to see in a game and we will make it. Other game companies don't even payattention to what the people want. NONE at all. However, we won't make that mistake we will go to them in person if we must and ask them. Game Design is my dream, my passion, and I want the games I make to be great, and I want the people who play them to be satisfied. I will do that however I can. __________________

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