Discuss the state of the forums and find solutions

[Ryuu96]

firebush03 said:

Ryuu96 said:

I'm not sure about when "soon" would be, I couldn't put a date on it and I don't think VGChartz is going to die this year, all I'm saying is more that the site on its current course is destined for death so we can spend hours writing about all the issues as we did last year, and the year before, and the year before, but nothing is going to change, Lol. The first thing that needs to happen before anything else is an ownership change and actual investment into the website. If that doesn't happen then there's really no point in even discussing anything else, Imho.

The site being no different from 2023 than today is a bad thing, I'd say the site is no different today than it was even longer than that though, the entire site is stagnant, it's outdated in every single way, it has potentially huge security issues, it is now struggling for a USP, it has a bad reputation and no outreach. Every user we lose at this point is a blow, and them users don't tend to be replaced, sure we do have some new users but it's nowhere near enough and often they don't last long or they're just alts, Lol.

…

I've done the whole everything will be fine approach and happily sit in a stagnant website, trying to give it a temporary boost in activity but it delays the inevitable, now I'm taking a more antagonistic approach, Lol. But I've thought these things for a long time, I just held my tongue and only stated them in StaffChat. If VGChartz is to even have a chance of surviving it needs new ownership.

I’ll be thinking on this. I do believe VGChartz has several USPs (e.g. sales-centric discussion, very good community (by the standards of most forums), charming and well-written articles), and upon recognizing and further showcasing these USPs via a website overhaul, I could see this site really start to grow again. One idea might be to place greater emphasis on the communal aspect (i.e. forums). As is, if somebody wanders onto the site, they’ll assume it’s an outlet for gaming journalism, seeing the emphasis on and prevalence of articles front-loaded. As far as reputation and site ownership is concerned, I truly believe that a new website under the owner of three highly reputable members of the community (e.g. Bandorr, CGI, Machina) will need to be created soon, and under a new name. (VGChartz sounds, to me, like a website infamous for reporting inaccurate sales figures under the guise of them being reliable. VGChartz is a good place for organizing known sales data, and should not be presented as asserting unreliable estimates.

One idea could be to have a page on this site (i) explaining how data is determined, providing detailed explanations on how and why the sources sited are reliable and accurate (and an explicit clarification on how much more refined data has become over the years, to quash immediate rejection), and (ii) giving evidence via showcasing how truly small the discrepency between VGChartz estimates are and official data, (iii) include graphs and charts of all game system sales WHICH ARE OFFICIALLY KNOWN (e.g. create an user-friendly chart which plots out official NSW, PS5, etc., quarterly shipment data; do the same for software softwares from, e.g., Nintendo, Capcom, Sony, etc.; as somebody who is frequently needing to visit dozens of sources to find official shipment data on these matters, I see having everything centralized to a site with easy-to-use UI as potentially being a major USP).

More ideas: Create YouTube content for every article written, similar to how sites such as GameXplain, IGN, GameSpot, and…well…any popular gaming sites is run. I would volunteer to do the software editing (and maybe even commentating the vidoes) since I have lots of experience with this matter (I ran a YT channel, Alpha Ambush, throughout 2013-2017 with daily uploads), but I’m also working towards a PhD in mathematics atm lol. Engage in further outreach campaigns via X, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok (short-form videos could be a good addition, similar to longer-winded YT video articles). Do a name change (might also be necessary once the site is changed to a new one). Also, these videos could bring in revenue to afford paying for coders to execute any massive site overhauls.

I understand your pessimism, but I believe it is objectively wrong to say that solutions have been exhausted. There is still so many ways you can get the site to grow. Keep your chin up, and stay focused on getting everything sorted out. This situation isn’t beyond our control. Don’t be so defeatist.

I think VGChartz has interesting things but it's not the best at any, take the GameDB for example, there are other sites out there with far better GameDBs, as for Sales-Discussion, InstallBase is probably beating us in that now too. We do have a nice community but I think we need a better balance in quantity, it can be said that it's intimidating to join big sites but I think it can be as equally as intimidating to join small close-knit communities because you can feel like you're intruding on the "clique" or activity isn't high enough to care about the site, so we need a better balance there of encouraging more new users into the website which is proving difficult.

I've no issue with how any of the writers are doing things, it would be cool to see more unique personal opinion pieces and such, but that's about all I'd say. All I will say is I think Articles and Forums are accidentally competing with each other now, Lol. We have ideas on what to do about that but ideas are useless without coders, designers, etc.

"website overhaul" - For example, impossible to do right now.

As far as reputation and site ownership is concerned, I truly believe that a new website under the owner of three highly reputable members of the community (e.g. Bandorr, CGI, Machina) will need to be created soon, and under a new name.

I've been banging on about this for years, it's the absolute first thing that needs to be done before we can even do anything else. I have my own thoughts on who I would most love to see as the owners of VGChartz but yeah, before anything else, we need a new ownership that actually shows their face, shows they care and actually invests in the site.

VGChartz sounds, to me, like a website infamous for reporting inaccurate sales figures under the guise of them being reliable. VGChartz is a good place for organizing known sales data, and should not be presented as asserting unreliable estimates.

LOL. Someone said this before and I agree, at the very least, remove that damn Z and replace it with an S, the Z is so "early 2000s" Lmao.

One idea could be to have a page on this site (i) explaining how data is determined, providing detailed explanations on how and why the sources sited are reliable and accurate (and an explicit clarification on how much more refined data has become over the years, to quash immediate rejection), and (ii) giving evidence via showcasing how truly small the discrepency between VGChartz estimates are and official data, (iii) include graphs and charts of all game system sales WHICH ARE OFFICIALLY KNOWN (e.g. create an user-friendly chart which plots out official NSW, PS5, etc., quarterly shipment data; do the same for software softwares from, e.g., Nintendo, Capcom, Sony, etc.; as somebody who is frequently needing to visit dozens of sources to find official shipment data on these matters, I see having everything centralized to a site with easy-to-use UI as potentially being a major USP).

I like these ideas but we need investment, coders, designers, UI experts, security experts, etc, Lol.

More ideas: Create YouTube content for every article written, similar to how sites such as GameXplain, IGN, GameSpot, and…well…any popular gaming sites is run. I would volunteer to do the software editing (and maybe even commentating the vidoes) since I have lots of experience with this matter (I ran a YT channel, Alpha Ambush, throughout 2013-2017 with daily uploads), but I’m also working towards a PhD in mathematics atm lol. Engage in further outreach campaigns via X, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok (short-form videos could be a good addition, similar to longer-winded YT video articles). Do a name change (might also be necessary once the site is changed to a new one). Also, these videos could bring in revenue to afford paying for coders to execute any massive site overhauls.

Yeah, I've suggested this before, VGChartz doesn't do enough social media outreach. Every other site will have Podcasts, Twitch Channels, Active YouTube's with unique content and news, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, etc. InstallBase was open for a couple years and got an interview with Chris Dring and Matt Pistacella, Lol. Sites like XboxEra somehow get interviews with high ranking executives of videogame companies.

But we can't. We don't have the manpower. We don't have the investment. Trunks writes all the gaming news, runs the Twitter, runs the BlueSky account, the dude is one man and a powerhouse but he's just one man. He can't possibly throw up a VGChartz Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Dude has a life and VGChartz's pay is too dogshit for him to live on to also tell him to do all of this too.

I understand your pessimism, but I believe it is objectively wrong to say that solutions have been exhausted. There is still so many ways you can get the site to grow. Keep your chin up, and stay focused on getting everything sorted out. This situation isn’t beyond our control. Don’t be so defeatist.

I wouldn't say all solutions have been exhausted but I believe all solutions possible by an unpaid volunteer team have been exhausted, I'm just taking a more aggressive approach now because we've tried everything else within our capabilities and it's not working. My point is that the only way this site has a chance is if it comes under new ownership willing to invest into the site, and even then it may be too little too late, but that's the only chance we have, Imho.

I used to hold my tongue and only say this stuff in StaffChat, Lol. But after years of no change, even further monetary cuts, and the utterly fucking embarrassing hack where the owner couldn't even be bothered to show his face to the site and apologise, leaving it to the Staff to clean the mess up, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of lost comments because we didn't have a backup, and the fact that this site may yet still have major security flaws, I guess I'm just saying fuck it, Lol.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 03 September 2025