Redirect to Essell's Forum?

Would anybody be opposed to me just setting up this intfiction.org/forum URL as a redirect to Essell’s forum? I appreciate the time and effort Rioshin put into installing and configuring this one, but we really don’t need two of them, do we?

Besides, the continued criticism by the IF community is just really wearing thin with me. They’re likely to wake up one day to find that their staunch resistance to change – moreover, their unwillingness to embrace new ideas that aren’t suggested or endorsed by those few already recognized as trend-setters – has sapped all relevance from a form of entertainment that could have been carried to a wider audience. If you aren’t a trend-setter, you’re either a follower or a boat-rocker.

I can accept that that’s just the way things are, but for my peace of mind, I think it will do me good to just drop out for a while. I’m not one of the trend-setters, I don’t care to be a boat-rocker, and I need a break before I’m ready to toe the line again. I think I’ll get more accomplished writing IF in a vaccuum for a while, than in discussing why things should or shouldn’t change.

So, would anybody care one way or the other if I auto-redirect this URL over to Essell’s forum instead?

I don’t mind.

I’ve actually grown to like the look of this forum, though. At first Essel’s seemed quite a bit stylish, but now, well, I find myself liking this one more.

Probably because of the more polished look and functionality of the whole forum. Of course, Rioshin didn’t alter much of the phpBB forum design as Essell did with the forum software he obtained.

I guess I wouldn’t mind as well. :slight_smile:

Actually, I didn’t alter anything in the phpBB style - except to add the folding stuff into it.

Mike:

Sorry you’re feeling that way. I don’t think it’s any secret that the IF community is made up of a bunch of people who are similar in manner and set in their ways. Most of them have written nothing of value (if they’ve even written ANYTHING) and contribute nothing but comments on a newsgroup. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it really does do a lot to discourage new players and authors, more than they probably realize.

I won’t mind a redirect. I just hope that new people will come in and be able to break into a community that really, desperately needs changing.

Might it be an idea to keep this as the main forum? Like I said before, Essell’s forum is stylish, but this is more the kind of forum that people are going to be familiar with. Newcomers are more likely to use a forum like this than one like Essell’s.

EDIT: of course, getting the italics fixed would be nice. 8O

It would be a shame if this forum was the one to go as it has more functionality. The other forum is trying hard to pretend it isn’t a forum, which rather negates the whole reason for being there.

I do believe that one forum is the way to go and should be given a decent chance to build up some momentum. The IF community is very stuck in its ways with respect to RAIF and RGIF, they would be hard to shift en masse, but a slow drip could occur if the forum provided something extra.

I don’t mind at all to keep hosting. I’m just afraid if I back away from participating publicly – as one of the people who really argued in favor of getting a forum set up – I’d only be helping it fail. If Rioshin is willing to keep it going, you guys are willing to post, and maybe a few moderators and/or more admin are added, then it probably won’t matter if I’m very involved or not. So, I guess we can wait and see what happens. If the other forum is more active, I can always redirect when the need arises. We could archive any posts from here, so as not to lose anything if that ever happens.

I just sat here this morning, getting more frustrated by the short-sightedness of the IF community and what seems to be a complete unwillingness to support this idea, and realized I’d rather be writing interactive fiction anyway. :slight_smile:

That’s where you and most of the RAIF crowd differ. They’re quite happy to debate the idea of game writing for months or even years at a time, but actually write a game? Perish the thought!

I say let’s keep this going for now. Sooner or later the functionality of web forums will be seen as a good reason to move on to. Wanaselja’s correct - most people on RAIF and RGIF are set in their ways, and getting them to move on to something like this will most likely be a very slow process.

But not impossible.

The better way to go about this, IMO, is to refrain from more flaming and bashing. The less we speak against newsgroups users (whether they make actual games or not), the better it’ll be for the whole community.

I’ll keep posting. If anyone needs help for any IF language that I’m familiar with, I’ll post a reply. But I don’t mind switching between Google Groups and here. It’s just an additional tab on my browser, anyway :wink:

Okay, no more bashing the RAIF chaps for sticking with their hideously outdated antiquated poorly designed and ultimately flawed fifth rate newsgroup.

:stuck_out_tongue:

Now, on with some game discussions.

What we need to do, ideally, is to fill this place up with content and then we might attract some of the RAIF crowd over here. At the moment, we only have a handful of active threads, a handful of members, and not much in the way of content. RAIF has a huge amount of content. To make this the place to be, there needs to be something here that doesn’t exist on RAIF.

A section reviewing new game releases might be a start. They can sit in their own special part of the forum and be there pretty much forever; on RAIF (or RGIf) they’d disappear in a week and be unlikely to be seen again. Can anyone name the last five games that were reviewed on RGIF? No, didn’t think so.

Lol. I’d guess that’d be the IntroComp entries - but as you so aptly put it, who remembers their names? Not I, at least.

I’m feeling the whole “unity in IF” vibe. Very nice. I don’t mind, but again, I do prefer the look of this one.

Of the two forums, I think this has more going for it, and is a little more active. Though only a little unfortunately.

After having had a look at both I think I prefer this one as well. Ideally I’d like to see them both succeed, but I agree that having two around might do more harm then good. There are two Adrift forums as well, and what usually happens is one sits completely empty unless the main site goes down for a little while and then everyone rushes over to the backup to be miserable together. :slight_smile:

I say give it a month, and one or the other will naturally come out on top.

Or you and Essell could always have a no holds barred fight to the death, that would be fun too.

Custard pies at dawn!

Essell’s forum seems to be dying out unfortunately. I liked the look of it initially, but it’s too lacking in the kinds of things people expect from a forum so I don’t see many people using it in preference to this one.

Except that they’re archived on Brass Lantern at brasslantern.org/reviews/text/

Which is nice, but a section of the forum which is there every time people visit the forum is more accessible than a completely different site.

I wasn’t actually aware of the collected reviews on Brass Lantern until I saw your post on RAIF, yet anyone taking a quick glance at this forum would be immediately aware of the reviews sections.

I may have asked this before, but if so, it was long enough ago that I’ve forgotten the answer. :blush:

Are these just the reviews that were posted to the newsgroups?

Mostly, though I occasionally get permission to “reprint” reviews that are elsewhere. For example, Dan Shiovitz often gives me permission to add his reviews to the page (like with his most recent IntroComp reviews). The big thing I’m interested in archiving at BL are the various competition reviews, as it’s useful to authors and players to be able to see all of the reviews in one location.