I don't, but... hmm, let's not go there. But I did think he had been around for longer. I never said there are no relevant users from this period, only that there are few, and if anything, it kinda shows here - with you and Bofferbrauer turning up, from late 2016/early 2017, and now OTBWY who is from mid 2017... and so far, no 2018 or 2019 users mentioned at all. It's easy to see that there's been a decline in new users.

Yeah, I'm a little bit torn on the whole mod situation showing up here in this thread. We can dismiss them and pretend it's a non-issue all we want, but there has been a number of people coming here to express their distaste for the situation and ignoring that is ignoring a real thing that's going on. I can't speak for them, because I haven't been moderated in years (though a mod did approach me via PM recently), but I do sometimes feel almost... privileged. Like for some reason it doesn't really matter what I say, as long as I'm not being blatantly offensive I can get away with things other users don't seem to. Maybe that's just me, though.

I know the mods are likely to dismiss these concerns as just moaning from toxic members, and they may or may not be right, but I think there's a certain stubborness, maybe even arrogance, about the team at the moment. They're not really wrong to do what they do, after all the place does have rules. I've always been thankful to the work the mods put in on VGC, because it's what kept the place full of sensible and constructive people, but maybe now, with the reduced activity around and fewer new users, it could be the time to start reviewing those concepts and try to take a more lenient approach to moderations. It's clear that many members have been scared away by the nature of bans here, and funny enough, looking back at some of our oldest users still around, many of them haven't always had the most enviable behavior.

Maybe we could introduce new ways of moderation? Something that drives people to be more constructive and less toxic, without driving them away? For example, say instead of there being warnings and bans, there's something in between, like a half-ban or something, where the person isn't allowed to do certain actions for a while but can still come around and discuss the matters of their moderation or whatever.

I didn't, I actually thought he'd been around longer. Like, much longer. Still early 2017, though. And no, quickrick doesn't count.

Were you reading some of his blogs and started feeling nostalgic?

It's too bad he flipped out so often, when he returned with an alt, he was much better. I don't think he threatened to visit violence upon any mods for example.

Anyways, his blogs will be missed. 

Haha! I remember getting a kick out of his incoherent nonsense on 1Up. Poor guy, all he ever wanted to be was the Bruno Mars of the online gaming forums!

A major issue is that we no longer get linked to by games journalists, because we no longer have much of the unique sales data that journalists used to refer to.

I came here the first time through a link from a Forbes.com writer that referred to this site often. But, it's been years since he mentioned this site at all. The same is true all over the place. With the current state of sales data here, which was what made this place unique, there aren't many opportunities for our content to be picked up by other outlets. So, we get few newcomers to replace the people that leave, and the site slowly declines.

Our site hasn't been mentioned as much for sales because we've had a harder time tracking them (and are the only site to attempt to do it in such a fashion — this is often overlooked).

Most of the main functional complaints I hear don't even scratch the surface of understanding to the work staff has put into the site (particularly Machina, Talon, Trucks, Trunks, hell, all of the Site Admins, the GDB Staff, and our Writers). They are constantly trying to figure out new ways to implement updated functions and/or re-write code.

I get the issues people have, but I also see what goes into the work here more than many. Site traffic reduction cannot be pinned down to any one thing. This is on top of the fact that we still have a pretty active scene. Other places, such as Gamersyde and Gamefaqs, have seen a far steeper decline in activity over the years. 

Once the new consoles are set to launch, traffic will increase in a substantial way.

I think two more points should be noted: Competition and fatigue.Ill name people just for the sake of giving examples, I dont mean to fight or to provoke anyone.

Competition is pretty obvious.Discord have sucked alot of traffic from (probably) alot of forums, since it is more convenient for alot of people.

But I think that, at least for VGC, fatigue is the biggest problem of all.Not necessarily from the forum itself, but rather from its users.Its hard to explain, but I think that everyone who has been here at least two years or so understand the feeling its ideas being dismissed or disliked, of ideas that you are so passioned about and people brushing it off or being agressive.

And I mean, thats no one fault.I think we all here are passionate about a game or another, and about one or two topics.And the same will be true about the opossite, about people being completely oppossed about a stance or another.That on itself isnt a problem.Most of the users can take the hit and move on, or understands that its all a discussion and thats how things work.But then it happens one time.Then two.Then five.Then 10 times.By the time you noticed, you are either so used to the forum or so tired of your opinions being either treated as "garbage" or stupid, that you either lash out, or get tired of participating.

Just to give an example of this:I am certainly part of this trend, having recently discussed with Chazore on a similar level, when he made the topic about Epic buying Psyonix.I am one that dosent care that much about PC gaming(though I do play on PC) and favor more consoles, and Chazore is one that loves PC and(and thats my impression) cares little if nothing about consoles.So obviosly we didnt see eye to eye.But since I already had an history with him, here and on discord, I already started the discussion with my left foot.And while it was wrong, I will admit I enjoyed it.And I think thats one of the biggest problems of this forum.People, myself included, eventually takes things personally.I have been blocked off from Versus profile, I have been called a Nintendo fanboy worse than goodnightschroom(I think thats his name) by Pokoko(why, only god knows).

And that accumulates.And people stop discussing with you, with your threads.And you do the same.And thus the cycle continues.Thats why new users are so important, but they are not joining by the reasons people have already stated here.

I dont know, I dont think VGC is that bad in terms of engagement, but yeah we arent as active as Resetera.But I think thats also the reason why you feel as you do about this forum Zuzek, being so small that you know most users.

I feel the EXACT same way!! It's just too fast to have any meaningful discussions, unless you remain glued to the ongoing chat. The moment you step away and come back to "50+ New Messages", it's just not worth scrolling back and trying to digest everything that's been said while you were gone...

You know what?. I too took a few things personally, but I know you on discord, and I know I was just heated up from all the news trying to make Epic sound like a good guy and Valve a bad one.

I'm sorry for our previous exchange though. I should have worded it better.