Poly admin change

[SlowwHand]

SP sucks.

[Alinestra Covelia]

to the modding support. I came to this site in the beginning because I wanted to mod Civ2. Since then most of my on-topic posts have been about Civ2, SMAC, and RONTAP modding.

Actually, I seem to remember mostly staying out of OT until 2007 or so, because I kept visiting the on-topic and finding slim pickings there. Off-topic's been a lot of fun these past two years but I really want to get back to game modding and multiplaying, which were the two things I originally came to the site for. I agree the on-topic threads are kinda languishing, which is a shame because they're generally really welcoming places.

So anything to renew oldtimer interest and get fresh blood coming in would be great.

[Ming]

SP does suck if you are used to playing MP. In MP, it's a level playing ground and not as predictable. In SP, to make it interesting, the AI has to get advantages.

But Asher is right... CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT. And it has to be stuff people can't get anywhere else. Original content is key to making the on topic forums a destination.

[Riesstiu IV]

Civ 2 is pretty much the best platform for creating scenarios.

[TCO]

The problem with that though is that the OT is blablabla


-=Vel=-

Kill Candy forum. Combine the OT subforums. Simple really.

[TCO]

The traffic across the site sucks. The OTF has declined as well, but at least it's active. And, the Spanish Site does nicely as well.

While Asher likes to be rude, and cram his ideas down people's throats, he is indeed correct.
I've seen too many posters and even staff members blame ALL of APOLYTON's woes on the trolls in the OTF.
I say BS.

The site traffic fell way behind CFC long before we lossened up the OTF modding. The real problem of this site is design, lack of support to the community, terrible uploading and downloading, and server problems. I guess it's easier for people to point at a single factor and rally around the flag so that they can ignore the real issues here.
Sure, you can blame the trolls for chasing "a few" people away... but the site has done a pretty good job of that all on it's own... and far longer than the trolls. If you will remember, when Apolyton was number one way in the past... the trolls were running the OTF... and it didn't seem to hurt traffic then. Hell, I was brought in to calm them down... and we were an easy number one at that time. So, place the blame where it belongs.

I pray to god that the new owners take serious action to boost content, bring more involvement, solve the server problems, and improve the site.

I blame myself for taking GPs.

[Riesstiu IV]

How is the traffic on the other civ sites? Maybe its just me but there also seems to be a general decline in the whole PC gaming industry.

The 4X genre has taken a big hit. There used to be a fair variety of good strategy games but there just doesn't seem to be as much. Everything seems to be geared towards FPS these days.

[TCO]

Gee almost everyone in the OT still plays civ with the exception of Asher and a few other trolls.

But I don't play civ...

[TCO]

The off-topic is the place to migrate to in the ´winter´, between releases (=summer), where the community sticks it out, till the next game comes around. If neither Civ 5 is released nor this site´s policy changed by, say, june - i am gone - for good. I dont feel the need to stick out in a shelter with a bunch of guys who cant hold their farts and even giggle each time they violently push it out.

You are a little girl. Get lost. Hope your family dies.

[Lorizael]

But Asher is right...

Man, this new era is confusing.

[KrazyHorse]

You are a little girl. Get lost. Hope your family dies.

Wow, dude.

[self biased]

Here are my thoughts to you as new site owner:

1) Don't take yourself or the site too seriously
2) Don't appoint Asher as any sort of moderator.
3) Do appoint Asher as techno-god.
4) The off-topic is the off-topic. It has its own ecology.
5) You own the site, but much of the content of the site comes from the top hundred or so posters. Respect them.
6) Do start a civ ladder or other community type competitions
7) Be open in your administrative decisions. Make them broadly known, and allow discussion and criticism of them.

7b) do not capitulate because someone gets their feelings hurt based on one of your decisions. allow them to voice their gripes, but realize that emotions will always run high on the internet.


if there were an easy-to use ladder, i'd play in it, even if i ranked at the very bottom. for whatever deranged reason, i've got some loyalty to 'poly and would like to do what i can for her.

Random suggestion for next year's april fools that just came to me:

Pretend that selfbiased bought the site, then make every post on the forum in lower-case italics. Except self-biased's.

I´d support the idea of having two seperate OT-forums - one that is integrated in the site (poly) itself, is moderated like any other serious game-site is (OT or not) and can actually be called ´civilized OT´ and one that is only linked to on poly, which goes unmoderated, for all i care, but is visibly seperated from the rest of the site, with the usual disclaimer of rejecting any responsibility of what is being posted there (call it ´barbaric fun´ or whatnot). The later than could be slowly but surely be laid off or be taken over by someone outside poly. Like a spinoff or something. This might be a good way to ´cleanse´ this site, without it denegenating into a ban-fest and flame-war - and noone could claim, they were denied their right of free speech.

dude, it's called counterglow.
there's another forum i go to that the owner disabled the italics tags because of me.

Second task: Ban all posters who pretend Ali is interesting and funny because they've never touched a girl.

i think she's interesting, but she does tend to play the part of the attention whore because she can be seen as attractive and having common interests with those here. i mean no disrespect by this, but ali does have the tendency to play up her own sexuality for whatever reasons.

While Asher likes to be rude, and cram his ideas down people's throats, he is indeed correct.

this is getting sigged.

OT really is a community. We really are friends, most of us. It's a local pub, minus beer and actual human face.

Asher says that OT is the only part of Poly that is still active. That's true, but it's not as active as it used to be. It's not as interesting as it used to be. Part of that is because OT was split into three parts. Part of it is because some of our posters are going up, growing to college, and getting RL friends. Part of it is the level of rudeness here. Two of these things can be fixed.

i don't know about you, but i usually find the need to drink heavily when getting knee deep in the OT.

but as to our posters growing up and going to college and getting real life friends? you mean our second generation. there are enough of us that are here because we've always come here, or something stuck, and we like the place for whatever reason. i've been lurking and posting a bit at CFC lately. apparently i've been a member since two thousand two, but never activated my account. i only activated because of maniac's planetfall mod and he told me that the forums over there got more activity for planetfall.

my conclusion is that it's a dreary place. not wholly dull, mind you, but i'm likened to compare it to the ageatan (sp?) empire from terry pratchett's discworld. 'they've got something worse than whips,' said cohen the barbarian. just that it's the hearty gruel to apolyton's spicy kebab. it's the strong personalities that keep me coming back. granted, it's little more than a rubbernecking behavior, but i've long since learned that one can only hold who someone is against them for so long. asher is an insufferable troll on the forums. why do people act like they're surprised when he goes and does what he does? this is a genuine question; i'd like to know.

apolyton has had a profound effect on my life for good and for bad. i started posting here when the old alpha.owo boards closed, and contributed to the SMAC 'spartan chronicles' fiction thread under my old username. i later won a short story contest for civ... three? i can't say i remember at the moment. i'd be more involved with the planetfall mod here but it's hard to bounce ideas off of people who don't post here. i've generated some OTF content as well, if anyone remembers the hot or not threads.

i'd like to help 'poly in any way i can. i'm certainly not a top contributor, but i'd rather hang my hat at this civilization site than my other options.

[OzzyKP]

[OzzyKP]

(one more reason poly is great, you can make a post containing only a thumbs up without having to meet some stupid 10 character threshold.)

(reason two is there is a thumbs up smiley in the first place)

[notyoueither]

A frog giving a thumbs up would be perfect.