How do we propose to do this? You can't really force anybody to do anything, I always felt like forums are just something you come by naturally... like a dead body in a swamp. You just poke at it for a while and then move on. How are we going to get people to poke us regularly?

Is it cause we smell? Do we have cooties? Is it cause I'm a huge asshole now?


Either way, I fully and whole heartily blame Link... he knows what he did...

Well first the staff needs to step up it's promotion of this website and encourage more people to join the forums. TGH reaches a huge crowd by being a part of TGWTG/Blistered Thumbs, let those people know TGH has a website all its own. It would be as easy as saying "Like this? For more cool stuff check out thegameheroes.com" at the end of a video featured there and then putting a link under the video.

Second we as a community need to step up our game and make this place more active. Start some new threads, get some discussions going, start some forum games, write some reviews, get book club going, something. Once activity slows it becomes a downward spiral and people are afraid to post anything new because they are afraid no one will answer.

If you only reply to others, then start some new threads yourself. If you usually just lurk, then sign in and post more. You are only going to get something out of it if you contribute.

The staff needs to get fuck back in to the forums

I will always be here!
I know you meant Tom, Mickey, Jared and such, but I'm totally staff too!

Problem is that this feels like a fanforum, instead of an official forum.

We need something that most forums don't offer. Let me grab my box of thinking grenades and I'll get back to you guys once I think of some better ideas.

I always thought it would be cool to have a like/dislike system for individual comments or threads. Although that does come with it's own set of mini problems.

Other than that, basically what Fox said. We need more community (and staff) involvement and if you have friends in real life that go on forums, suggest this to them.

I think as far as the actual layout and accessibility of this forum goes, it's fantastic. Don't change a thing.

Let me get this straight ... there's about 30 unique people coming to the forums a day and at least 15-20 posts over night ... and you guys are complaining about inactivity? Really?

I would think that altering the actual forums in any way just isn't going to fly. There's too much "red tape". The only other option would be to alter how people treat one another, because, in general, it's not entirely hospitable, to be honest. There's a bit of a subtle versus everything mentality here ... and it doesn't help anything.

Yeah, that's the problem with Screwattack too. However, they have been directing tragic at the forums and have been posting sometimes.

It seems like most of the time when I post something that's not even controversial, someone has to challenge me in a subtle way. I don't take it personally and I will defend my stance on whatever it is. Most of the time it's done on good terms with me and the other poster being polite or whatever, but still I think there is a certain kind of attitude that can sometimes lead to flaming or competition. What do you guys think, is this something that should change or is it just a little harmless competition? I just think it's getting a bit annoying. I am also aware that I too have this problem sometimes but I feel like other forum members go out of their way to single me out just because of some bad arguments or whatever I've had in the past.... I'm not an asshole am I? Have I wronged anyone on here? If so just please get over it. I have.

Oooooooooohhhhh. So that's how it works. Thanks Link, I understand now!

In both Dec and Jan we had a town hall meeting between Craig and HQ staff and the g1s in order to address a lot of concerns with how certain elements of the community/blogs/forums were being handled. Not everything brought up has been resolved but at least everyone is on the same page and we are heading in the right direction.

Since then we have had a lot more traffic and the staff have been posting on the forums more. They also have a daily live let's play style show where they pretty much do just play games and shoot the $hit with the community members in the chat.

The main reason I stopped posting as much summed up brilliantly.

When I would take a moment to start a new thread it either gets entirely ignored, or like it's been said, someone will step up and challenge it. Not much can be done about that though, that's just the personalities of the members of the community. The threads that do take off for a bit usually devolve into the same 10 or so people talking amongst themselves.. Which is great! I mean that's essentially what a forum is. But that number needs to be higher to stay interesting. But I'm being redundant, we all know we need to attract more members, and I know my statement doesn't really address how to do it.

I think at this point it's really gotta be a team effort. The Game Heroes need add a tagline in their videos, or something, telling people to come to the site and join their forums. Then it's up to us to show those new people how kick ass our forums are. Maybe link them funny videos of Cats.. preferably failing at a jump. EG:

..... You're joking, right?