Atari Sells Civilization Franchise!

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Trip
And if you google a proper name, such as "Civilization IV" or "Civ 4" or "Civ IV" - CFC comes up very near the top and Apolyton is no where to be seen.

Uhm, no. Only for "Civilization 4" is Apolyton nowhere to be seen, because we don't use that term on this site. For "Civ4", "Civ 4", "Civ IV" and "Civilization IV" we always rank on the first page (once at the top of the 2nd page), where CFC is usually on page 3 or lower...

Edit: hmm, Google does some very arbitrary things depending how if/where you use quote signs. Type 'Civilization IV' and CFC is at the top and Apolyton nowhere to be found, type '"Civilization IV"' and it's just the other way around. Similar things for other variants. Very odd...

[Dis]

It seems to me that perhaps Poly has an older generation of civvers, and CFC has a younger generation. And as part of the older generation, many have moved on to having real lives. Or they have become jaded or disinterested in the civ franchise.

we're still the one's that started it all. Surely that counts for something, right?

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Locutus
I think you'd be surprised by that. On Apolyton, the responsibility for the news lies almost exclusively with DanQ, who is really far too busy with RL to be able to do the job adequately. We keep hiring news editors but they keep resigning again (or just fade away after a while). And when they do do their job, they report maybe one or two items per fortnight, at most. I try to help out where I can but I have a busy RL as well.

Of course, Apolyton is also a much larger site than CFC, we have like 16 different sections, as opposed to only 3 or 4 for CFC.

In the end we report the same stuff as CFC (plus a whole lot more), but if people don't help us out by actively reporting news to us, it will just take us a little longer.

All credit to Dan in the world for doing the job of 3, but that doesn't make Apolyton any more Civ 3/4 friendly.

Reporting or not, the Civ 4 forum has much more participation at CFC than Apolyton. Can't blame that on news editors.

Google sorts by how often pages are linked to, which I find a far more reliable measurement than raw hits. Many hits but few links only means that the stuff that is there is not really worth linking to and therefore mostly noise. Plus, because Google is so popular a high ranking on Google generates lots of visitors, which is going to make a difference once the release for Civ4 gets closer.

Depends on how many hits per page you have Google set up for, but on default, CFC is on the first page in everything but "Civ4" while Apolyton is not even on the 3rd page except in one case ("Civ 4").

Well, with that 10 hour advantage or so that CFC had the Apolyton thread is obviously not gonna be able to catch up anymore. It also doesn't help that you posted about it in this thread as well. Lots of people probably won't find it necessary to check out two or three threads on the same topic (here, in the Civ4 forum or on CFC).

I posted them at the same time, so I don't see how you can call it a 10-hour advantage...

I only posted about it in this thread because very few people even visit the Civ 4 forum... another blow at Apolyton...

Plus, most reactions on CFC are along the lines of 'whao, that looks weird', while on Apolyton there's actual meaningful discussion going on about the new info on features and stuff. I prefer my threads rich in texture and low on fluff, so for me Apolyton still rules all

Yeah, mostly because that thread has attracted basically everyone from CFC. If you'll look at the rest of the CFC Civ 4 forum it's far more active and yes, has far more "meaningful discussion" than here (no offense to those people who do contribute here ).

[Jon Shafer]

Search for:

"Civ 4":
CFC is hit 2, Apolyton is 23

"Civilization 4":
CFC is hit 2, Apolyton is above 100 (unknown)

"Civ IV":
CFC is hits 3 and 4, Apolyton is 31 and 32

"Civilization IV":
CFC is hits 4 and 12, Apolyton is 71

"Civ4":
Apolyton is 1 and 2, CFC is 15 and 16

I think that's pretty conclusive.

[Dinner]

Mark and Dan could hire one of those companies that rewrite your key words and adjust internal links to make the sites placement on search engines go up. I doubt they'd spend the money but if poly is a business to them then they ought to look into as it would likely raise their ad revenue.

[Locutus]

That's very selective choice of keywords, Trip. Some of them even incorrect.

Default Google settings:

Civ 4
Apolyton is 5. CFC not among the first 50.

Civ4
Apolyton is 1, 2. CFC is 37.

"Civ 4"
Apolyton is 6. CFC not among the first 50.

"Civ4"
Apolyton is 1, 2. CFC is 37.

Civ IV
Apolyton is not among the first 50. CFC is 4 and 16.

CivIV
Apolyton 32. CFC not among the first 50.

"Civ IV"
Apolyton is 9, 10. CFC not among the first 50 (unless you count some some vague PtW word document on 17)

"CivIV"
Apolyton 32. CFC not among the first 50.

Civilization IV
Apolyton reference at 32 (but no direct link). CFC is at 42 (unless you count the random Civ2 news item at 11).

CivilizationIV
Neither among the first 50.

"Civilization IV"
Apolyton is 7, CFC not among the first 50.

"CivilizationIV"
Neither among the first 50.

Civilization 4
Neither among the first 50.

"Civilization 4"
Apolyton not among the first 50. CFC at 32.

Civilization4
Apolyton is 7 and 19. CFC not among the first 50.

"Civilization4"
Apolyton is 7 and 19. CFC not among the first 50.

Paints a very different picture.

[Jon Shafer]

Well, I have no idea what you're doing, because when I do a search for Civ 4 (no quotes) CFC is listed as number 4. Apolyton is definitely not #5, and isn't even listed in the top few pages.

I don't even know how you would define an "incorrect keyword."

[Locutus]

Apparently there are different versions of Google or something, I know I use all default settings for Google myself. I could post screenshots of every keyword I typed in but I'm sure you'll believe me, just as I'll believe that you're not lying about your results (though I'm unclear about if/how you used quotes).

We seem to use the same browser, OS and toolbar, so maybe it location related? US-based searches return US urls first and non-US based searches return non-US urls first? That's the one downside of Google: they refuse to release any info on their search/ranking methods...

With incorrect I meant I got different results than you, but I think that's obvious now.

[Jon Shafer]

I used quotes in all of my earlier searches, but not in that screenshot (as you can see in the search bar).

In any case, looks like there's no definitive way to conclude this.

Guess I'll just have to mention that the CFC thread is over 6000 views now.

[Arrian]

Umm, so, yeah, any news on who bought the rights?

I'm guessing no, given the current "debate."

-Arrian

[Jon Shafer]

No.

[VetLegion]

Strange. Everyone gets different results!!

[Jon Shafer]

That looks like the results Locutus got (with Apolyton 5th).

Also, I notice you went to that defunct Civ 4 forum as well.

[VetLegion]

It's crap.

[Gangerolf]

civ4!!