I'll have to agree, OPU as a community seems to have stagnated lately.
Like LoP, I don't really have an immediate solution, but I have a few matters I would like to voice in this debate - some which might be useful:
(Oh and let me say this before anyone else feels the need to point it out - I have no interest in the politics of this place, I have little to no knowledge about who is pulling what strings, who hates who and who is generally running the show here, I am merely the objective player who wants to play my favorite game - and these would be my observations)
1) Maintenance: (Site, Hamachi, IRC, etc..)
op2hacker/BlackBox seemed for a while to be running the show here. And he would be our main go-to guy when it came to getting a wide array of things done. Lately though he seems to have gone missing. I would assume he was sitting on many of the "tools" this community uses/used. My question is: Do we, without BB, currently have access to all of these tools ?
(If not, then we should make a priority of getting these tools back to the community)
2) Forum:
A ) Generally, this place is not "newb" friendly. If a new forum user comes here and wishes to discuss something, he is either I) told off for "Necroing" an old thread or he, II) will be critized strongly for posting his idea since "it's old" and told to use the search function. (which in any case would lead to I)
This has been mentioned several times before, but it doesn't seem to sink in. If we want new members (And old Players) to stay then we need to adopt a more positive approach. Keep criticism as constructive criticism and comments on a positive line.
Negative posts serve no other purpose than venting off personal steam and sending negative vibes into the discussion/community.
(And yes, I know some people find it irritating when old discussion are brought back up or old ideas are reposted, but remember you don't have to read it and you certainly don't have to post if you don't like what is being discussed)
And whoever (if any) is moderating this forum should certainly adopt a stricter line on this issue!
B ) IB Store
We get all this ore for posting, but the store has been sold out for how long ?
People actually do care about these things, so I suggest use it.
Reset the Store and ore count every year, add some items to the store and let those who want to, use it.
- Yes it may ultimately lead to some spam posting, but it also encourages activity, which is what we want.
3) Bans:
Over the years several people have been banned for whatever reason. Some of which have been quite active in the community and dedicated to playing OP2. I don't think I've ever seen anyone return. - That might of course be of personal reasons or dislike of the OPU community.
But nonetheless, while I have heard of bans being put into play, I have yet to hear about bans being lifted. Are they still in place or have they been lifted when the ban time expires ?
And ban time themselves, are they realistic ? (No point in giving someone a full year ban, since that will probably be the equivalent of kicking htem permanently from the community)
4) IRC:
A ) Where's OPU bot ?
If we can maintain an IRC server we should be able to keep a bot online which can supply joiners on channel with some basic information.
B ) Idlers/New joiners
I wonder how many thousand people, who over the years have joined the OPU channels, started out with a "Hi/Hello" and followed up 5-30 seconds later with a "Anybody here?" before quitting after 1 minute or so without getting any response from any of the idlers in the channel. When on IRC I rarely sit and watch a silent channel for the whole day, but if someone highlights my name, I would be able to notice that the channel have erupted into life.
So, as I have proposed before, wouldn't it be easier to just include a short notice about how to alert IRC participants about your presence in the little little list of IRC commands ? Alternatively, if we can get a Bot up, have it auto send some info the the joiner.
5) Hamachi
The basic network are full and have been it for how long ?
Where is the bot who used to auto clean those networks ?
And if the bot got lost somehow, why is no one maintaining those network manually ?
6) RTSU
Quite a while ago Leviathan suggested/asked/proposed a merger of some sorts of OPU and RTSU IRC channels. In some form. I can't remember exactly and neither can I refresh my memory since the topic is gone/deleted. (Or I could of course just be looking in the wrong place) From what I remember some people had objections due to certain people frequenting RTSU channels.
Anyways, has any new thoughts been put into this ? Is this still out of the question or can steps be made for a joint effort of sorts ?
No disrespect meant to anyone, but currently the RTSU Op2 channel holds between 10-15 nicks on average (some certainly are bots) and has admins/mods and bots. This is for a community where OP2 only has a minor role.
On our end, for a community which is dedicated to the OP series and OP2 multiplayer, our IRC channel currently holds between 3-4 nicks, no bots and no admins/mods. (ArklonIdle usually being the exception when he is online
)
So, don't know about the rest of you, but to me it seems we are doing something wrong and Leviathan is doing something right. Though there might not be many games of OP2 being played on RTSU, at least that channel gives the impression of being in use and you can actually talk to people there..
So, I hope someone can possible answer these questions or make a comment on the different issues. B)
