VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on June 22, 2022, 12:53:40 am
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I'm definitely not one of the oldest members on this site, but when I joined (2013) this site was a pretty happening place. There were lots of discussions about games, both new and old, tons of new posts and active users, and just overall I could count on new threads nearly everyday to check out. I feel like since maybe 2015 or so the site has been on a rapid decent downwards, not in terms of quality, but just in terms of active users and interest in the site itself. Maybe there is still a lot of database movement with people adding new games to their collections and tracking, but for me the community on here has become more important than what I'd originally joined for which was to track my collection.
As for the reason why this is happening, I can speculate, but it seems like this site should be more popular than ever. I say that because I feel like more people than ever took the video game collecting pill during the COVID lockdowns and prices have not really come down since then. I belong to a few Facebook collecting groups and there as vibrant and active as ever too, which supports this. So why is it that so many people no longer post or show that much interest in game discussion here anymore? It genuinely makes me a little sad seeing how I can go a week without logging in and there's a decent chance no new threads have been posted and there are only a handful of new posts on existing threads in General and some of the other more popular discussion forums.
And for the record I'm not criticizing the site or anyone else with this post. I'm just genuinely curious what's going on to where this site has seemingly been abandoned by the vast majority of its user base.
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I still really enjoy this site and actively use it to track my collection. My problem is that if I'm looking for quick engagement- I can find that in my local fb collecting groups. The forum here is just a very old school communication format. If I want to share a picture in a fb group it takes 20 second- here it takes much longer. I can also easily buy/sell in fb groups- here it is more complicated.
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Well, sincerely, I stopped using this place for some months because I got sick and well, depressed... so I needed to take some time off, but I was planning to come back soon to make more topics about stuff that I am interested to.
If anything I don't think this place is dead and I believe it still has a bunch of things to say but at the same time it would be healthy just assume that everything needs to end at some point and just remember the good times, I am not planning to leave until this place is actually dead.
Funny enough, I prefer forums over social media.
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A lot of people have more platforms for discussion on than just forums these days, they have social media at their finger tips or other apps like Discord which are more of a go-to for most people with Smartphones than accessing a traditional Forum Website. I personally don't use my phone for much of that and access the site when I am on my PC - Usually in the mornings before work/going out.
I think the website could use a little bit of updating, especially in being able to post images without having to do so first on another website like Imgur. I've also noticed the Twitter account is non-existant, so maybe it just isn't being advertised out there as much as it could? I think something as simple as even just posting additions the to monthly threads where people post their new items with a picture would help.
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Facebook is a more active place to go for conversation. Less people are engaging here, so less to talk about. And we had an influx of trolls for a while there that I'm sure helped drive people off.
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I do typically visit the forums at least once a day, and will join any discussions that catch my eye. But I'll admit I'm not the type of person who will start discussions, just add to them, so with nothing new, my presence reduces quite a bit.
I will also say I'm not collecting as much game-wise right now as as speculated, I'm not really finding as many deals out there, so my collecting focus has shifted away from games (currently, my main focus is manga), and the games I am buying are digital, so I'm not really reporting my "findings".
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For me it's a mix of life and apathy. Plus Discord is a better environment for me personally, so I'm active over on Discord with folks and I can constantly be in communication with folks, but on here it's not as simple. It's not like SMF has a nice mobile interface or anything.
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It's like most people say, so many other sources for quick engagements
forums are a relic of the past, it ain't anything about this site specificly things change.
The communication format of a forum is to slow for most people these days. withouth the other options people focussed their energy in forums, nowadays that energy is spent elsewhere and it's unlikely for new members to choose a forum over discord etc.
not to say there aren't any succesfull forums left, but the thing with those is that those are huge. the kind where you are a number when you participate. This forum was never huge, the fun thing was that it wasn't to big and it wasn't to small either.
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Are you asking what happened to the site or what happened to the forums?
The site generally seems just as active as always, whereas the forums are dying because, unfortunately, that is what forums do nowadays.
I do not agree with the idea that it's because forums are slow, or variations thereof, however. It's not slower that posting on reddit or a Facebook or Twitter thread. The issue is that they are decentralized and specialized. Before Facebook, Reddit, etc. if you wanted to go discuss any niche thing you had to go looking for it. Nowadays you don't have to leave any of those centralized hubs.
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The Europeans came?
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I for myself collect video games for about 5 years now. I started listing my collection on another site of this type until that site went down.
Maybe all the collectors that started during covid hang around on other sites than this oO ...
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We still have a lot of users who are using the main site and the forum has probably always been under 1% of that activity. That is just a guess since I don't know the actual numbers, but do get to see the daily registrations of active site users aka people who add things to their collection.
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In the beginning I used to just use the collection tracker and never use the forums. It doesn't help that I don't get any email notifications when people reply to me in forums, so I never know and that doesn't really help for forum engagement.
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I still actively use this site to track my gaming collection. I don't use the forum often, but the collection list is what I use it for mostly.
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In the beginning I used to just use the collection tracker and never use the forums. It doesn't help that I don't get any email notifications when people reply to me in forums, so I never know and that doesn't really help for forum engagement.
There's a setting for notifications in your profile. It is not on by default.
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I'd have been more active but I've been playing the new Ninja Turtles game. ;D
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I mostly have used this site to track my collection which is what it was intended for, and I do check the forums once in a while. Thing is that I rarely for as along i have been a part of this site never start a topic but mostly reply which is fine. I dont post because more often than not I dont think I have any to contribute to nor do I have a response for something.
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I lurk.
Work and life have become pretty intense over the last few years.
I moved across the country. I have slowed down and cooled off on console gaming.
Now I am mostly, Switch, Pinball, and Arcade gaming.
I've been very active on social media like Facebook, twitch, YouTube, and Twitter.
I'm still engaging with many folks from here on those platforms. It's more interactive and realtime there.
I still track my collection here and check the forums for new threads from time to time.
I'm very active on pinside as I do a lot of Pinball modding and maintenance now but not so active on other forums like here and Atari age anymore.
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I wouldn't ever say that this place was really all that happening. Nintendo Age, Assembler, etc, they always had a lot more talk to go around.
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I wouldn't ever say that this place was really all that happening. Nintendo Age, Assembler, etc, they always had a lot more talk to go around.
It definitely was 5+ years ago. I remember coming on here around 2014/2015 and there being new threads almost daily, often multiple new threads. Yeah, it definitely wasn't Nintendoage or GameFAQ ever, but it was certainly way more happening here back then than its been for the last 3 or 4 years.
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I appreciate everyone's response. I personally don't use social media often and honestly kind of despise it for many different reasons. I guess VGcollect despite how outdated the forum format is for online discussion and interaction, I kind of prefer it due to its simplicity and it being free from all the toxicity, data harvesting, and politics often found on sites like Facebook and Twitter. I know forums can be notorious for problems too, but at least this place has always been one of the coolest communities of online collectors/gamers I've ever belonged to. It just makes me sad to see the discussion and interaction dry up to being almost non-existent these days.
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Agree. I haven't been on social media in a year and a half. It's been incredible but unfortunately the toxicity of the internet has now become normalized in real life. Many people can't hold simple conversations face to face anymore.
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A day late and a zenny short to this conversation, but I still post. A bit. Not nearly as much as I used to but I still enjoy the forum on the whole. I'm more of a lurker than poster nowadays, though.
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I typed a bigger thing about concerns but don't want to be that guy. I'd say everyone is just having life obligations financially and emotionally post covid. But It'll get better :)
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Mainly use the site for tracking my collection as RF Gen just became way too slow to submit stuff. Sometimes weeks if not months. I post on a lot of places so I just don't post much here.
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Mainly use the site for tracking my collection as RF Gen just became way too slow to submit stuff. Sometimes weeks if not months. I post on a lot of places so I just don't post much here.
Whoah, I totally forgot I have an rf gen account! Thanks for reminding me.
I got a lot of famicom games from folks on there.
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I lurk.
I don’t collect like I did.
I still love you silly bastards.
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I joined around 2016/2017 and do feel like it was more happening then. I only ever sort of dip in and out; I recognize all the folks here, but doubt you all would recognize me ;D
I think I feel a lot of what others have said, but primarily the negativity. There were some trolls and negativity I just don't vibe with. I come back here when I get depressed with Reddit. I also just find it hard to check in, though I enjoy reading the threads from the primary group here. Y'all have some great collections and neat things to show off.
I'm glad your all still here!
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There's a setting for notifications in your profile. It is not on by default.
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Thanks bro I didn't know that. I turned it on.
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Life gets in the way a lot of times. Plus, like others have said, other social media options out there now that easily take away attention, in lieu of forums time.
Now a days, with work and other things going on with life, I can easily lose days without even realizing it. Hell, I was all set to be more active here after the anniversary celebrations. But then, things happened, and well here we are.
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I lost interest in collecting video games after COVID, and gaming altogether, I've been sick too I want to play what I have plus does not help I can't add all my games to my collection, I could have about 4000, or more games plus variations or playstyles of games I want to explore but don't feel up to the challenge. Plus I was driven away by trolls in this forum, I posted a few things that yall thought I was off my rocker and made fun of me so I quit, I still come back but multiple meme after meme sorta after everything I said turned me away,
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I lost interest in collecting video games after COVID, and gaming altogether, I've been sick too I want to play what I have plus does not help I can't add all my games to my collection, I could have about 4000, or more games plus variations or playstyles of games I want to explore but don't feel up to the challenge. Plus I was driven away by trolls in this forum, I posted a few things that yall thought I was off my rocker and made fun of me so I quit, I still come back but multiple meme after meme sorta after everything I said turned me away,
Damn, I'm sorry to heart that man
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Think it's been summed up by the other comments. The site is kinda niche, it's one of many collection tracking sites. A lot of these are just apps now. Most of us discovered this place around the same time, and at about the same phase in our collecting. A lot of us participated in the discussion as a group that was still learning, exploring, and trading notes on the state of collecting then and continued to do so until we were near just repeating ourselves. Now, it's a much different beast and much more difficult to be into this hobby, many in our group becoming jaded and apathetic towards collecting over time. We achieved a lot of the basic goals we sat out to achieve, all those years ago. If the state of collecting itself becomes stale to the group, then the forum will fall off. The site did not attract the attention of younger clusters of game collectors. Instead, many moved on to more visible and accessible platforms for such discussion like Reddit, Facebook, etc.
For the record, I'm still about as active as ever in game collecting; and instead of looking for an out, I'm looking towards reasons to keep my interest and finding more all the time. I usually don't post about my escapades or my pickups a lot here anymore, mostly because as you mention there's very little engagement and I feel like there's an apathy towards topics which interest me, or posts I make. For me it's more satisfying when I can connect with groups or individuals that are more on the same wave-length as myself, and I don't sense that here much anymore like I did in the early 2010s.
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I still use the main site functions to keep track of my collection and wishlist items, what games I want to play in the near future etc. I drop in about once a month to check the forums here to see what's going on from time to time. As others have mentioned, there are bigger communities out there now for game discussions and collecting as a hobby.
But in the end I still come back to use VGCollect's main site functions, which is the database for collection tracking.
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I joined the site during Covid (I think) since then I have moved cross country and started a new job and haven't really had time to be very active on the forums or really do anything video game related. I don't think I've bought a physical video game in over 6 months, which is not something I thought I'd ever say. I'd love to get more active again and would love to see the sight get more active too.