Dec 13, 2019

The honest truth is...forums are dying. Plain and simple.

 

Jan 5, 2020

Yeah - I just think conceptually this current homepage approach does two things:
1. Highlights the lack of activity
2. Diminishes the “sub” culture of previous incarnations- like, before you/we had communities or diff pockets of the forum.. aggregating all the recent threads across the board . I just prefer that more, personally. Let’s more subculture discussion breed

I think the overall takeaway for me rly is giving me the chance to engage - whether that’s rep or a Vet reintegration or what

 

Dec 14, 2019

first off, @Slyk doesn't get the appreciation he deserves for singlehandedly keeping this site alive. Major f---ing props. In addition to the fact that its just second nature for me to visit S80 now, the perfect design/layout and ease of use is what keeps me coming back.

Second, I don't think negging/dislikes are conducive to building the site. I guess a points/levels system could work but don't know how helpful that would be right now.

The Eminem problem is a serious one. People don't want to discuss hip hop in a Stan haven, it absolutely scares off potential new members. I mean something like 6 artists dropped major, exciting projects yesterday but the homepage is still 95% Eminem threads. There isn't even a thread for the new Kaytranada album. But thats not really a fault of our userbase, thats more a problem of not having enough users I think. I 100% agree that condensing them into a single 'Eminem discussion thread' would be much much better but I'd be concerned about stifling any new activity with how slow the activity is right now.

Agreed about attracting new fanbases but we are much better off without separating into sections again. With the rate music is released these days we'd be better off targeting a more broad hip hop fanbase rather than specific artists. Plus as we already know, specific artist fanbases can get toxic and discourage new members. Do we really want 100 new die-hard Post Malone stans taking over the site?

Unless you have some kind of hook to draw people to the site (e.g. Leakthis has leaks, KTT used Kanye) then people prefer using Discord, Twitter, IG, Reddit, YT, etc. We had Eminem as a hook (and while they lasted - Koolo's legendary leaks) but long periods of inactivity and an increasingly insular fanbase has made Eminem much less effective. Kendrick's a great idea in principle but I don't think he's big or active enough to carry the forum.

I could be entirely wrong but from my perspective the key is somehow capturing the real-time news, leaks, singles, etc that Discord, Twitter, Reddit etc. does and focusing the discussion around that. In terms of marketing or getting the word out there I think the idea of an active FB Page (don't we already have one? or several?) and a Twitter/IG account could definitely work. Would need someone with the time and will to run them though.

 

Dec 13, 2019

Trxggershot

 

Jan 6, 2020

oh yeah one thing I do miss with alerts is that I remember not having to refresh my browser to see if I had any. It would show automatically on the notification bar and in the browser tab. I feel like the alerts do show automatically without refreshing sometimes, maybe? But definitely not all the time. Not really a big deal though

 

Jan 6, 2020

yeah re: #2.... it would, sure..... but at least there it isnt all aggregated - like i log in here, its like oh theres literally been three posts all day okkkkkkkk im leaving. whereas the previous model, u could see maybe creative was dead but Music (or whatever) had a post within the last hour. you don't know if that's just one thread or 20. you know? so more air of mystery when its sub forums.... just to me anyway, my personal posting habits. forums are a niche way of discussion so i think leaning into that, allowing people to discover things and engage on their own terms is perhaps part of the solution.

 

Dec 22, 2019

@Slyk Although I do not post at all, I’d like to say thank you for your efforts for keeping this forum alive. It is quite obvious you care deeply about this site and everything you have done to try to work towards progressing this site is very appreciated.

With that being said, the first suggestion I am going to make is one you’re not gunna want to hear, but please hear me out. As many others in this thread have said, revert back to 2.0. Since the initiation of 3.0, there have been countless threads pushing for this. You’ve come to the community before asking for help and there was an overwhelming amount of people suggesting this (including myself), and you dismissed them all. If the community voiced their opinion to you that much that you felt the need to address and dismiss it in your original post, then obviously you are convincing yourself (maybe subconsciously) that there is not an issue with the design when in fact there is. Since 3.0 is like your baby, I completely understand why any criticism is hard to accept. As someone else in this thread mentioned, yes it is clear that doing this would s--- on all of the hours you all spent working on improving the site, but if it’s what is best for the forum moving forward, then it should seriously be considered. Cut your losses and move forward. We are wellllllll past the point now of the initial shock of the change. People are naturally resistant to change, this is a known fact. But given time people should adjust to it. Several sites (forums, blogs, social media) have changed (sometimes drastically) throughout the years. There is always resistance to it at first, lots of complaints of wanting to go back because they are not used to it, and then people adjust and move on and forget about it as the change becomes engraved into their daily use. It’s been such a long change since this site switched to 3.0 and I can say I still have not gotten used to it, and it’s apparently a lot of people have not. We have not adapted or adjusted the way we should have with an effective update. Instead I check the site out a whole lot less. I have joined a different forum that ironically has a setup much like 2.0 did. They layout and design is simply intuitive and just makes sense. Even given your “warning” of hunting people down for mentioning this, it appears that a majority of the community is suggesting a change to the layout, design, homepage, and navigation of the site. These are people giving genuine feedback, not hating, trolling, or bitching. If the core functions are so close to 2.0 then obviously the 3.0 design is not the most effective way to design these functions. I don’t recall anybody complaining, at least this long-term, about the usability or design of 2.0 after switching from 1.0.
People are recommending that we remove the “bells in whistles” which I had suggested the first time you asked for help, but you claimed that there really isn’t any and it’s all optional. Obviously I’m not he only one who had that impression. There is too much to do on this site outside of discussions and that draws away from what the site is supposed to be made for. As another said, we have integrated too many social media aspects into the site. Why have a section for status updates on a forum? For one that is giving people an outlet to express themselves and their ideas in a way that pulls them away from posting in an actual thread (which would be more content that could lead to more engagement). If the site is made for discussion, design it in a way that it simply promotes discussions. Right now there’s just a bunch of stuff that people can choose to ignore. Make it a forum and only a forum.

Secondly, I’d like to suggest reinstating leaks/downloads such as what others have mentioned. This community (being formed from D12 World/Rap Basement, to Studio Leaks, and ultimately Section Eighty) was originally created on the basis of two things: Eminem fandom and Leaks. It then grew from its sleek design, engaging content, and becoming a place for people fleeing other dying or poorly-run forums. Eventually we had to take away the downloads section and Eminem’s popularity/relevance is on the decline in this day and age. At the same time, the design has become more complex and unintuitive. What I assume is a combination of these three things has lead to the loss of lots of members, and therefore content, and now we have become the dying forum that people have fled from. I have already touched on the design aspect. As far as Eminem relevance goes, many older fans have gradually drifted away from his newer music and a lot of younger people are not particularly interested in him. As he is a bit of a recluse and out of the spotlight a majority of time, he is not the most engaging artist as far as things go to discuss him. As we have no control over him as an artist/person, the best thing we can do is to welcome and promote communities that support other/newer artists. Leaving the downloads issue to be addressed.
An idea for leaks/downloads is to create an automatic, non-replyable PM option when someone is creating a new thread, with which they could include a download link in. This option would create a button (or something of that nature) on the original post. That way you have to be a member to get the download link (increasing member signups) in order to receive the PM; it keeps it from being flagged by google or DMCA or whatever (possibly? I’m not sure how this works, but if people are currently able to send links in PMs this should be a loophole possibility I would think); and since the member who receives the PM can’t reply to it, they will feel the need to respond with their thoughts in the original thread. This will make both the community and site content grow. New songs leak or are released literally every day. It is a constant source of reliable content that music fans are interested in. Capitalize on that. We did in the past, we can once again. Newer communities have formed to take the place of what we were once able to provide.

Another suggestion is possibly rebranding. Main content should be music related, but not related to a specific artist. Artists go through different phases of popularity. Eventually they retire and/or die. Eventually their unreleased music dries up. And when there is no more music to be put out and the artist isn’t in headline for doing anything since they are no longer around, there is no more discussion to be had. You need a generic (but still somewhat niche) approach to the branding. We have a Kendrick Lamar-based title of our site and his fans don’t even make up the largest portion of this community. We label ourselves as a Music/Life/Sports forum but the name of our site doesn’t necessarily depict that. Capitalizing on the creative section should definitely be considered in the branding process as others have mentioned. There are millions of starving artists out there. People wanting to share their music, people wanting to learn how to improve and get feedback and learn how to do new things. All of this is completely in line with the site’s core value of music.

Finally, give people an incentive to post. Certain perks, no matter what they are, drive people to post. Some people have suggested reinstating the plus section, or the rep system, etc. Not saying any one thing is better than the other, but when people have something to work for, or to work to maintain, gives them the drive to want to continue posting. Very few post simply to create content.

None of the ideas I just presented are necessarily "new", but I feel like it cultivates a majority of the suggestions that were already made in this thread. I believe you should really put some consideration into implementing these changes.

 

Dec 18, 2019

I just wanted to see if I could still make you rage, I'm glad I've still got it.

 

Dec 16, 2019

Υ'all acting like we have people to post and they dont cause of couple em threads in the home page.

 

Dec 14, 2019

neg repped