Man, I've been checking out some of the forums (or would it be 'fora'?) I used to post on some 10 years ago and I'm sad to see that most are pretty much dead nowadays. Minecraft is still a huge game and there are luckily still a lot of posts made on this forum but it's not the same as it has been years ago.
Modders don't seem to bother with maintaining a forum post on here nowadays. It's either just posted on Curse (which is a heck of a lot better than the countless of dead Megaupload or adfly links on here lol) or Patreon, which seems to be a trend with modders on all games (easier to put it behind a paywall than relying on that easily overlooked Paypal-donation button, right?)
Most new threads I see on here now are from day-old accounts not realising that you can just ask your question about a mod in the mod's thread itself and have a better chance of getting an answer (or even Googling) than making a new thread in the wrong forum section and having it locked within the hour lol.
But the forum is not dead yet compared to most forums I used to be even more active on. I'm most of all just curious where all of those people have gone. Maybe Facebook groups? Or maybe Discord? Although I think most users have just moved on.
Man, I've been checking out some of the forums (or would it be 'fora'?) I used to post on some 10 years ago and I'm sad to see that most are pretty much dead nowadays. Minecraft is still a huge game and there are luckily still a lot of posts made on this forum but it's not the same as it has been years ago.
Modders don't seem to bother with maintaining a forum post on here nowadays. It's either just posted on Curse (which is a heck of a lot better than the countless of dead Megaupload or adfly links on here lol) or Patreon, which seems to be a trend with modders on all games (easier to put it behind a paywall than relying on that easily overlooked Paypal-donation button, right?)
Most new threads I see on here now are from day-old accounts not realising that you can just ask your question about a mod in the mod's thread itself and have a better chance of getting an answer (or even Googling) than making a new thread in the wrong forum section and having it locked within the hour lol.
But the forum is not dead yet compared to most forums I used to be even more active on. I'm most of all just curious where all of those people have gone. Maybe Facebook groups? Or maybe Discord? Although I think most users have just moved on.
What an interesting time in internet history.
It is a shame that this place is as lively as an asteroid. The great GDPR purge (I am still seething about how poorly that was handled) nuked probably half the threads and all the posts with them on this site, including resource and mod threads. So that killed a lot of activity. Then came the shutdown scare which really finished off the forum. Scared everyone away to who knows where.
It's mostly bots now, really, though thread creation spam seems to have been toned down. Now it's just posts on existing threads and profiles. FB I doubt is anything near resembling a stronghold. They probably left for Discord. I see loads of activity there for mods period, and without a centralized area like the forums in use I imagine that is where the rest have fled to. Yes, many people have moved on. Sadly.
One would think think the forums for the most popular game of all time would be alive in well. Boy, that couldn't be more wrong. But the activity in years past was unreal. ...I can't say for sure when the downturn in activity really started, but I think it was around 1.9/1.10's release. It'd make sense given that 1.10 marked a bit of a dark age for Minecraft.
One would think think the forums for the most popular game of all time would be alive in well. Boy, that couldn't be more wrong. But the activity in years past was unreal. ...I can't say for sure when the downturn in activity really started, but I think it was around 1.9/1.10's release. It'd make sense given that 1.10 marked a bit of a dark age for Minecraft.
The downturn actually started much earlier; the forums even state that the most online users was in 2014, shortly after the release of 1.8, and even that was a temporary revival from a decline that started in 2012-2013, and still only half the 2012 peak, at least when measured by posting activity in the Survival Mode section (other sections show similar trends so this isn't just because there is less interest in survival; even the (formerly) extremely active PC Servers section has day+ old posts on the first page):
I have the impression that the vast majority of online users never actually post these days, which is the real definition of being active; I made a thread prior to the planned shutdown which pointed out the discrepancy between the rate of posting activity and new members registering (this was before the recent influx of spammers, which have always existed), and the number who never had any posting activity and/or were only online for a few days:
Of course, the overly strict moderators are another problem; I've seen quite a few people rage quit the forums due to this; for example (see the end of their last post):
Also, I find it strange that so many people talk about a "downturn" for the game around 2016-2018 since actual statistics do not show any such thing, only continuous growth; likewise, the perception of a "revival" in 2019-2020 is just as unfounded when looking at actual player counts and sales, not e.g. popularity on YouTube (there does seem to be a spike in 2020 but the previous data point was from 2018, which itself has two entries, making it seem like less growth occurred at a glance; IDK why Mojang doesn't release data on a regular basis to make it easy to compare year-year growth):
Also, as far as Discord goes, why do people enjoy a site that forces you to register and accept invitations to even view a sub-forum/community or whatever they are called (I've seen people leave links and when I clicked on them I was prompted to register)? I'm not inclined to even bother with sites like that; likewise, I browsed the forums for a while before I finally registered. Maybe they like the privacy, but on the other hand that can be a disadvantage, like, if I posted my thread for TMCW over there (IDK if even even allow long-term threads) only other members would ever see it, and otherwise you'd have to maintain multiple threads on multiple sites (not that TMCW gets much activity anyway due to being for an ancient version and incompatible with every mod in existence, but I don't care much since I make mods for my own enjoyment; I've declined quite a few requests to make/update a mod for a newer version because I don't enjoy doing that).
Also, as far as Discord goes, why do people enjoy a site that forces you to register and accept invitations to even view a sub-forum/community or whatever they are called (I've seen people leave links and when I clicked on them I was prompted to register)? I'm not inclined to even bother with sites like that
I can't stand the fact that I'd have to join a Discord server just to download a mod, resourcepack, shaderpack or fangame or whatever. But sadly this is often the reality nowadays. A forum is just such a nice centralised place for downloading stuff while finding information about said stuff (Curse is good enough in Minecraft's case, but user-to-dev interaction seems to be at a minimum). I really don't feel like having to join some server just to download a mod and then having to rejoin every time that mod updates.
Don't even get me started on asking questions on most Discord servers. The people in there often treat you like crap when you ask a question because you 'don't know the rules' or their 'in-jokes'
The downturn actually started much earlier; the forums even state that the most online users was in 2014, shortly after the release of 1.8, and even that was a temporary revival from a decline that started in 2012-2013, and still only half the 2012 peak, at least when measured by posting activity in the Survival Mode section (other sections show similar trends so this isn't just because there is less interest in survival; even the (formerly) extremely active PC Servers section has day+ old posts on the first page):
I have the impression that the vast majority of online users never actually post these days, which is the real definition of being active; I made a thread prior to the planned shutdown which pointed out the discrepancy between the rate of posting activity and new members registering (this was before the recent influx of spammers, which have always existed), and the number who never had any posting activity and/or were only online for a few days:
Of course, the overly strict moderators are another problem; I've seen quite a few people rage quit the forums due to this; for example (see the end of their last post):
Interesting! Where did you get those numbers? I'm genuinely curious, not doubting you.
Most users are indeed lurkers. This goes for many forums and similar online communities. Sometimes people will make an account thinking they will need to ask something, which gets resolved later. Some do it just in case. Others make an account then forget. And others yet will do it to get features that account-free lurkers don't get. ...And then there's the whole issue of bots which these forums have been littered with.
I had a friend who made a forum account solely to comment on my now ancient forum thread of an old city project of mine and that's it. There's many reasons out there.
I usually keep to myself, but on thinking about it the moderation thing does not surprise me. Draconian or otherwise petty moderation is a massive drive off and something I've dealt with myself. It's zero surprise that it would leave to some leaving as it has been absurd in the past.
And then there's the whole GDPR content deletion and the scares from the not-shutdown.
Also, as far as Discord goes, why do people enjoy a site that forces you to register and accept invitations to even view a sub-forum/community or whatever they are called (I've seen people leave links and when I clicked on them I was prompted to register)? I'm not inclined to even bother with sites like that; likewise, I browsed the forums for a while before I finally registered. Maybe they like the privacy, but on the other hand that can be a disadvantage, like, if I posted my thread for TMCW over there (IDK if even even allow long-term threads) only other members would ever see it, and otherwise you'd have to maintain multiple threads on multiple sites (not that TMCW gets much activity anyway due to being for an ancient version and incompatible with every mod in existence, but I don't care much since I make mods for my own enjoyment; I've declined quite a few requests to make/update a mod for a newer version because I don't enjoy doing that).
If I had to guess it's because it's relatively easy to set up, you can get a much quicker response than on a forum, you don't have to create a different account for each little forum or server. There is also the aforementioned not having to deal with atrocious moderation or forces largely out of your control. It's also a place that can be managed on demand unlike the forums. Overall quite conveneint, as long as you're in a few. The main issue imo is dealing with everyone, their mother, grandfather, uncle, dead ancient relative, dog, fish, and cat having a Discord, and NEEDING to join a discord in order to know or do something. Now that rustles my jimmies.
Also, I found the original thread where I posted the numbers, which were all from around mid-October as that was when I made the post; the data point for 2011 goes back to the creation date of the forums as there isn't anything from before 2011, with the yearly average taking that into account (this suggests that 2011 itself may have had more activity than 2012 since it is unlikely that the game was that popular in 2009):
Also, I found the original thread where I posted the numbers, which were all from around mid-October as that was when I made the post; the data point for 2011 goes back to the creation date of the forums as there isn't anything from before 2011, with the yearly average taking that into account (this suggests that 2011 itself may have had more activity than 2012 since it is unlikely that the game was that popular in 2009):
Minecraft PE and the 360 edition also came out in 2011-2012, which made the mapping and modding section, which was attracting a large part of the forums traffic, useful to a lot less players. And I imagine all the separate sections for each different platform is less conducive to fostering an active community too.
I also think it's true that, despite the continually used rationale that the profanity rule makes the forum inclusive for everyone, the rule did more harm than good to the forums as a whole, and certainly neutered the Off Topic community at the time. The only thing the staff really told the veteran Off Topicers who didn't benefit at all from the rule, is "Hey we're doing this for the rest of the forums, and Off Topic doesn't get special treatment. Hopefully you won't mind". Not to say it was malicious by any means, in fact citricsquid at one point made an off-site forum for the Off Topic community to use with much looser rules, but having an off-site link to channel certain users/discussions away from the main community was not a real solution, it was just the best that could be done without giving Off Topic an exception to the profanity rule which it was made clear very early on would not happen. But then with the forums slowing down anyways who knows how much longer this community could've lasted even if every thing was done right
Anyways I better stop before Phrossbite gets bogged down with more walls of text, this is why I didn't get into that thread on rule changes
we've got a small but somewhat active discord still going with some peeps but would prefer not to blast that out to the universe. no drama, all the controversial people left to do their own thing.
I also think it's true that, despite the continually used rationale that the profanity rule makes the forum inclusive for everyone, the rule did more harm than good to the forums as a whole, and certainly neutered the Off Topic community at the time.
Yeah, I remember the rules became way too strict, and you couldn't just chat with people in a free way on the internet. It was kinda sad. Trying to be inclusive is a good thing, but should never be done at the expense of the current culture.
I discovered Minecraft in early 2011 around Beta 1.3_01, those were the good ol' days. Also used to be on here everyday back then. I remember refreshing the main page every 10 minutes and seeing new posts in almost every topic. Now this forum has like a handful of posters now. It's a little depressing to be honest. I also lost my old account completely so thank you to whoever/whatever did that, very cool.
Also, if any vet who happens by here remembers elmegaards server from back in the day I was nickryba. How's it going.
Posted prior and still here now. I’ve successfully introduced my son to Minecraft and he enjoys dabbling on a server I continue to keep open for at least the two of us to play on together.
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Retired Staffnot really but I did administrate this section
Wow somehow got into my account. Yeah, it's been years. Uh and entire decade and a year.
yeah you banned me a time or two i think. dang, good times.
uh we also got a discord with other vets, pm me for a link if you got that nostalgia bug
Man, I've been checking out some of the forums (or would it be 'fora'?) I used to post on some 10 years ago and I'm sad to see that most are pretty much dead nowadays. Minecraft is still a huge game and there are luckily still a lot of posts made on this forum but it's not the same as it has been years ago.
Modders don't seem to bother with maintaining a forum post on here nowadays. It's either just posted on Curse (which is a heck of a lot better than the countless of dead Megaupload or adfly links on here lol) or Patreon, which seems to be a trend with modders on all games (easier to put it behind a paywall than relying on that easily overlooked Paypal-donation button, right?)
Most new threads I see on here now are from day-old accounts not realising that you can just ask your question about a mod in the mod's thread itself and have a better chance of getting an answer (or even Googling) than making a new thread in the wrong forum section and having it locked within the hour lol.
But the forum is not dead yet compared to most forums I used to be even more active on. I'm most of all just curious where all of those people have gone. Maybe Facebook groups? Or maybe Discord? Although I think most users have just moved on.
What an interesting time in internet history.
mmm
Yes. I got into the game in early Beta. I don't remember exactly when.
416 stone
296 stone slab (150 blocks)
149 stone stairs (228 blocks)
794 total stone
1082 blackstone
174 blackstone slab (87 blocks)
52 blackstone stairs (78 blocks)
1247 total blackstone
(not counting drawbridges and portcullises)
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Curse PremiumIt is a shame that this place is as lively as an asteroid. The great GDPR purge (I am still seething about how poorly that was handled) nuked probably half the threads and all the posts with them on this site, including resource and mod threads. So that killed a lot of activity. Then came the shutdown scare which really finished off the forum. Scared everyone away to who knows where.
It's mostly bots now, really, though thread creation spam seems to have been toned down. Now it's just posts on existing threads and profiles. FB I doubt is anything near resembling a stronghold. They probably left for Discord. I see loads of activity there for mods period, and without a centralized area like the forums in use I imagine that is where the rest have fled to. Yes, many people have moved on. Sadly.
One would think think the forums for the most popular game of all time would be alive in well. Boy, that couldn't be more wrong. But the activity in years past was unreal. ...I can't say for sure when the downturn in activity really started, but I think it was around 1.9/1.10's release. It'd make sense given that 1.10 marked a bit of a dark age for Minecraft.
Figured it was time for a change.
The downturn actually started much earlier; the forums even state that the most online users was in 2014, shortly after the release of 1.8, and even that was a temporary revival from a decline that started in 2012-2013, and still only half the 2012 peak, at least when measured by posting activity in the Survival Mode section (other sections show similar trends so this isn't just because there is less interest in survival; even the (formerly) extremely active PC Servers section has day+ old posts on the first page):
I have the impression that the vast majority of online users never actually post these days, which is the real definition of being active; I made a thread prior to the planned shutdown which pointed out the discrepancy between the rate of posting activity and new members registering (this was before the recent influx of spammers, which have always existed), and the number who never had any posting activity and/or were only online for a few days:
https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/forums/forum-discussion-info/2965026-are-these-real-members
Of course, the overly strict moderators are another problem; I've seen quite a few people rage quit the forums due to this; for example (see the end of their last post):
https://www.minecraftforum.net/members/Princess_Garnet/posts
They've even admitted to being too strict:
https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/forums/forum-discussion-info/3065204-future-changes-to-site-rules
Also, I find it strange that so many people talk about a "downturn" for the game around 2016-2018 since actual statistics do not show any such thing, only continuous growth; likewise, the perception of a "revival" in 2019-2020 is just as unfounded when looking at actual player counts and sales, not e.g. popularity on YouTube (there does seem to be a spike in 2020 but the previous data point was from 2018, which itself has two entries, making it seem like less growth occurred at a glance; IDK why Mojang doesn't release data on a regular basis to make it easy to compare year-year growth):
https://www.statista.com/statistics/680139/minecraft-active-players-worldwide/
Also, as far as Discord goes, why do people enjoy a site that forces you to register and accept invitations to even view a sub-forum/community or whatever they are called (I've seen people leave links and when I clicked on them I was prompted to register)? I'm not inclined to even bother with sites like that; likewise, I browsed the forums for a while before I finally registered. Maybe they like the privacy, but on the other hand that can be a disadvantage, like, if I posted my thread for TMCW over there (IDK if even even allow long-term threads) only other members would ever see it, and otherwise you'd have to maintain multiple threads on multiple sites (not that TMCW gets much activity anyway due to being for an ancient version and incompatible with every mod in existence, but I don't care much since I make mods for my own enjoyment; I've declined quite a few requests to make/update a mod for a newer version because I don't enjoy doing that).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It looks like activity started declining right after the Adventure Update.
416 stone
296 stone slab (150 blocks)
149 stone stairs (228 blocks)
794 total stone
1082 blackstone
174 blackstone slab (87 blocks)
52 blackstone stairs (78 blocks)
1247 total blackstone
(not counting drawbridges and portcullises)
I can't stand the fact that I'd have to join a Discord server just to download a mod, resourcepack, shaderpack or fangame or whatever. But sadly this is often the reality nowadays. A forum is just such a nice centralised place for downloading stuff while finding information about said stuff (Curse is good enough in Minecraft's case, but user-to-dev interaction seems to be at a minimum). I really don't feel like having to join some server just to download a mod and then having to rejoin every time that mod updates.
Don't even get me started on asking questions on most Discord servers. The people in there often treat you like crap when you ask a question because you 'don't know the rules' or their 'in-jokes'
mmm
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Curse PremiumInteresting! Where did you get those numbers? I'm genuinely curious, not doubting you.
Most users are indeed lurkers. This goes for many forums and similar online communities. Sometimes people will make an account thinking they will need to ask something, which gets resolved later. Some do it just in case. Others make an account then forget. And others yet will do it to get features that account-free lurkers don't get. ...And then there's the whole issue of bots which these forums have been littered with.
I had a friend who made a forum account solely to comment on my now ancient forum thread of an old city project of mine and that's it. There's many reasons out there.
I usually keep to myself, but on thinking about it the moderation thing does not surprise me. Draconian or otherwise petty moderation is a massive drive off and something I've dealt with myself. It's zero surprise that it would leave to some leaving as it has been absurd in the past.
And then there's the whole GDPR content deletion and the scares from the not-shutdown.
If I had to guess it's because it's relatively easy to set up, you can get a much quicker response than on a forum, you don't have to create a different account for each little forum or server. There is also the aforementioned not having to deal with atrocious moderation or forces largely out of your control. It's also a place that can be managed on demand unlike the forums. Overall quite conveneint, as long as you're in a few. The main issue imo is dealing with everyone, their mother, grandfather, uncle, dead ancient relative, dog, fish, and cat having a Discord, and NEEDING to join a discord in order to know or do something. Now that rustles my jimmies.
Figured it was time for a change.
I used the Wayback machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.minecraftforum.net/forum (this one goes back further; everything past 2014 is a redirect)
Also, I found the original thread where I posted the numbers, which were all from around mid-October as that was when I made the post; the data point for 2011 goes back to the creation date of the forums as there isn't anything from before 2011, with the yearly average taking that into account (this suggests that 2011 itself may have had more activity than 2012 since it is unlikely that the game was that popular in 2009):
https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/off-topic/general-off-topic/2864181-been-a-while-since-ive-been-here-anyone-still?comment=14
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
please stop text wall, make head no feel good
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Curse PremiumAh! Thank you. ...I often forget the Wayback machine exists.
Request denied. Embrace walls.
Figured it was time for a change.
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Retired StaffMinecraft PE and the 360 edition also came out in 2011-2012, which made the mapping and modding section, which was attracting a large part of the forums traffic, useful to a lot less players. And I imagine all the separate sections for each different platform is less conducive to fostering an active community too.
I also think it's true that, despite the continually used rationale that the profanity rule makes the forum inclusive for everyone, the rule did more harm than good to the forums as a whole, and certainly neutered the Off Topic community at the time. The only thing the staff really told the veteran Off Topicers who didn't benefit at all from the rule, is "Hey we're doing this for the rest of the forums, and Off Topic doesn't get special treatment. Hopefully you won't mind". Not to say it was malicious by any means, in fact citricsquid at one point made an off-site forum for the Off Topic community to use with much looser rules, but having an off-site link to channel certain users/discussions away from the main community was not a real solution, it was just the best that could be done without giving Off Topic an exception to the profanity rule which it was made clear very early on would not happen. But then with the forums slowing down anyways who knows how much longer this community could've lasted even if every thing was done right
Anyways I better stop before Phrossbite gets bogged down with more walls of text, this is why I didn't get into that thread on rule changes
ouch too late
we've got a small but somewhat active discord still going with some peeps but would prefer not to blast that out to the universe. no drama, all the controversial people left to do their own thing.
Haha, I just came back here out of curiosity. Not here to stay though.
Yeah, I remember the rules became way too strict, and you couldn't just chat with people in a free way on the internet. It was kinda sad. Trying to be inclusive is a good thing, but should never be done at the expense of the current culture.
I'd consider myself a veteran, honestly.
Apparently this is what some of my friends think of me here:
"Always drunk." - Nights
"He's cool." - Pi
"[INSULT] [INSULT] [INSULT]." - Sparky
"He's adorable." - Leere
"¯\_(ツ)_/¯" - Digits
I discovered Minecraft in early 2011 around Beta 1.3_01, those were the good ol' days. Also used to be on here everyday back then. I remember refreshing the main page every 10 minutes and seeing new posts in almost every topic. Now this forum has like a handful of posters now. It's a little depressing to be honest. I also lost my old account completely so thank you to whoever/whatever did that, very cool.
Also, if any vet who happens by here remembers elmegaards server from back in the day I was nickryba. How's it going.
Posted prior and still here now. I’ve successfully introduced my son to Minecraft and he enjoys dabbling on a server I continue to keep open for at least the two of us to play on together.
The legacy continues.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/survival-mode/2372609-journal-the-ballad-of-dirtdog