3 years of DtR, what next?

[admin]

Soooo... things have been slow as of late around here and I figured we might discuss our site, what is it for and how it can remain meaningful or relevant.

There's no hiding it, things have been really slow around here I guess, around the Zem got suspended, deckbuilding ideas have dwindled and there doesn't seem to be much more incentive for productive discussions.
I think other reasons for this decrease of activity are more general. It seems the "Age of Forums" is slowly coming to an end. Wizards shut theirs down recently, discussions are more often than not occurring on other platforms like reddit and facebook, and even the premier magic site MTGSalvation this day only has about 300 active users at a time, what is a real joke compared with what the site used to be (serves them right, seems like moral corruption doesn't pay after all).

So, where should we go from here?

Before Kait comes with the customary "Shut. Down. Everything" post, let me say that I just renewed the domain for a few more years, and I don't have the slightest intention of shutting down the site. It is ironical that the site is more or less dead when it is finally taking me absolutely ZERO effort to maintain, not a single spambot has managed to register since the site upgrade. Basically, if it costs me zero time and zero money to maintain this, why should I shut it down? I actually like the site and its quarter million quality posts, so there's that, I know other people might still find it useful to log in once in a while and check whatever meager resources we have here. Plus we can definitely do a Mafia game once in a while.

Let me remind you guys that we made a pretty good job with the infrastructure.

- The forum software is top notch
- We have a very deen frontpage where articles can be ported from the forums with minimum fuss
- GR made an automated spoiler thread that can still be used during spoiler season. it just need people to maintain it.

I believe I was infinitely more successful with the hardware and maintaining the site with absolutely minimal resources than I was with motivating people for building a thriving community with the tools that have been given, but I guess we can't all be leaders, that's life I guess.

Anyway, if you guys see something relevant we could do like making a facebook group or whatever faggotry kids dig these days I say I'm all for it, I guess I'm taking suggestions although I doubt people will even bother discussing in this thread. Soooo... ideas welcomed I guess

[Manders]

A Facebook page is not a bad idea. It would definitely get our name out there.

I've been consideing getting back into Mafia on Sally. I miss a lot of the guys there (though not all, that's for sure.) If I do end up doing that, I will update the link in my sig for Mafia (this hopefully bringing people to the site itself.) Who knows, some of them might decide they like the environment here.

One thing I think we need to do is get over it. If people come here from Sally, then see us bashing them, they may find it too dramatic and decide to stick with the evil they know. It's been 3 years. We have a good community who enjoy each other's company. We can't keep letting them get to us. And, yes, I know it's gotten better. We just need to keep progressing.

Here's to 33 more years!!!

[stuffydollfan]

Story time.

I came here during the RtR block from the MTGS forums. At that time my goal was to get back into standard win a bunch of FNMs and to collect all of the shock lands. I had been playing magic for about 10 years at that point but was never really serious with the game. I was on break from standard and just been playing edh for about 3 years by that point. I knew I had to get better if I was ever going to reach my goal of winning all the shocks. So I went online and ended up on MTGS out of all the possible places i could have gone to. Luckily it wasn't very long before I noticed a DtR link on Zems sig and found my way here.

Once I made an account and started getting into conversations with the people on here then everything started to change. Some of the most helpful stuff on the website was the improve yourself as a player threads. And while some of those articles are mainly designed for the red player in mind, they are good reads for all other players as well. But the most important resource to this forum has always been the like minded community of players. All the knowledge, experience, and research you all have is what brought me here and what i think brought everyone else as well. It wasn't very long after that I started to get better. Instead of going 3-2 or 2-3 on most FNMs, I was actually winning a bunch of them. Sure FNM is no big deal, but that was where I had my sights set on. I went from the guy that all the top players never took seriously, to probably the top guy at the store. Eventually by the time Theros came out, I was able to achieve my goal of collecting play sets of all the shock lands *which i have all sold or traded away but thats besides the point*. I continued having success playing red at the FNM level, and even doing good at higher levels of competition all the way until around DoT came out. That's when my work schedule changed and my magic playing time was cut almost entirely.

I'm not sure about the decline of this place, but i do think it does go beyond just the whole forum format dying down and Zems cheating. Is there another place that is stealing people away from here? Places like SCG and CFB have existed long before this place ever did and yet this place managed to attract many people despite those websites. Is this place not as good as I am making it out to be? It could be but I highly doubt that. Or could it be that many of the people on here have other stuff going on in their lives? My reason for not being as active as I used to be is because of a change of schedule at work. I really hope once my schedule changes back to normal that this place is still around and thriving because I really do believe it's a valuable place.

Anyways I've rambled on long enough.
I say lets do whatever it takes to keep this thing afloat.

[Kaitscralt]

some of the most active members quit the site, zem cheated, the site name was stolen and made popular by another mtg media outlet, the OG members are old men who don't play magic, and most of the FOS members went back to their true homeland, ugly sally

i personally enjoyed the site for the lafs, and nobody ever says anything funny anymore, so i rarely post

[imopen2]

Life has gotten in the way (as evidenced by the fact that I haven't read most of what's above this post), and I was never a top notch content provider anyways, but I have loved the looser feel of this forum and the people who I have known since 2005...I don't want this site to die

[Mogadishu Jones]

You could always upload the gutter.

[Mogadishu Jones]

Bring back harkius.

[Mogadishu Jones]

Find soron the beast.

[Mogadishu Jones]

Offer to merge with mtgs

[Mogadishu Jones]

I agree the lafs are no longer here.

[Mogadishu Jones]

I still slander Rianalnn

[Manders]

Life has gotten in the way (as evidenced by the fact that I haven't read most of what's above this post), and I was never a top notch content provider anyways, but I have loved the looser feel of this forum and the people who I have known since 2005...I don't want this site to die

As long as people keep coming here, the site won't die.

It might be little more than a handful of people sitting around bullshitting with each other, but it'll be here.

Right, admin?

[Dechs Kaison]

I came here because of FoS and stayed when MTGS fucked up its forums. I brought my one EDH primer with me. I keep it updated as I change the deck, but there's damn little activity there.

I'm basically just here to play mafia.

[Stardust]

Giddy up.

[Dechs Kaison]

Well, and occasionally run mafia games, apparently.

[hamfactorial]

Mafia too stronk

[( G_R )]

We are a niche site for a very small niche of people. However, we could reach a lot more members of said niche if some non-zero effort is made.

The age of forums is indeed passing, I'm afraid.

[imopen2]

It's a real bummer. I was never really the funny one tho

[Mogadishu Jones]

I knew it was over when we lost manasjap.

[Jamie]

All the masses don't use forums it's true. People still use IRC, myspace, anonymous BBS, and anonymous imageboard software with active communities, though. Tons of people still use yahoo answer.

[NotARobot]

I feel like boros burn rotating out killed the parts of the site I was always interested in. This site, and magic in general for me hasn't been the same since that deck went away

[stuffydollfan]

I did notice a decline of players once that boros deck rotated out. I was playing the rakdos version of the deck and I loved the match up against the boros deck. Fun times.

I think youre on to something with youtube. People love youtube and this site can take an opportunity with creating their own content and using it to attract more people on to here.

[Blackhound]

Make Shazbot a mod again.

[GoblinWarchief]

Well, i don't post a lot but i visit the site frequently and i find it an invaluable source of informations for magic and especially red mages.
Maybe one day i will make primers about the decks i play, but i'm probably too lazy to do that, and this would be the best i could do to create activity here.
Anyway, until the site exists, i will probably be here. Better times will come i hope.

[zemanjaski]

I don;t think blaming me for a reduction in traffic is accurate; I doubt many people, if any, came just to see my posting away from CFB or Reddit. There just isn't a reason for people to participate in a forum these days, their needs are best served by Reddit/Facebook and YouTube. To echo the suggestions of others, I could see a downsize to Facebookbeen appropriate if you just want to mtaintain this community group.

[Kaitscralt]

things definitely did begin snowballing around that time, even if it wasn't directly a result of you specifically

[zemanjaski]

Maybe some others can innovate some deck ideas and write about them then; there's enough people winning lately.

[admin]

@stuffydollfan: Well, thanks a lot for your post, it really warmed my heart to know the site has helped people improving their game, that is what we always aimed for: Providing an online tool that people would be able to use freely without moderators breathing down your neck from the back, I'm really happy some level of success was met during these 3 years

@Manders: Quite frankly, no one besides myself and one or maybe two people give a fuck about MTGS, and since no one gives a fuck about what I think about MTGS, I don't think bad blood has been an issue for a long while. Both sites are mostly irrelevant in the grand picture of online MTG communities.
And as I said, I renewed the site until Fall 2017 at least so its definitely going nowhere even if the site is dead. You are free to use it as an archiving tool for whatever you want

@Zem: No one is blaming you for nothing well, for the simple fact that noone owes DtR a goddamn thing. The site is a medium with a specific structure, it is provided free of charge in the hopes it can be useful. Nothing more than that. Its just that (as Kait mentioned) the decline seemed to occur at the same time you were suspended, it was a speculative exercise just a cause and effect.

@FoS in general: if you guys want to move discussions elsewhere, feel free to post a sticky somewhere in case you want to alert people. myself or Ham (who has admin powers) can help with that.

Good thread anyway, its nie to discuss things instead of letting the situation rot Let's keep talking.

[Kaitscralt]

duno about a group but if anyone wants my Facebook it's https://www.facebook.com/leviathistle. I'll add anyone but if you post dumb DTR shit in my wall I'll block you obv

[Tordeck]

TBH, I'm here for Mafia and to BS with friends I havent talked to him a few years and are not on Ugly Sally currently.

[amcfvieira]

---

My story in Salvation (boring don't read .)I come to this forum when Lazerburn told me about that in Salvation. I learn a lot here. And enjoy to talk about aggressive strategies, became MTGO player and improve my game. I think I learn everyday. Then with the economic crisis I became unemployed, and had to give up magic for a while. I usually played 2 tournaments for weekend and became playing one tournament for month or even less. I basically only play Modern in this days. Some months ago I got a new job and went every week to our major city in Portugal play in nice tournaments of Modern, but in about one month my Schedule don't give me time to play. Now I can only afford to play FNM
In that time I only came here to lurker a while and see what were the deck of your choice and your strategies.

I never played Mafia, hihi

I think that the decrease of the forum are a signal of the times. People have access to the information in other places. Kids of today (the generality and not all for sure) don't want to learn or discuss anything. They want all stuff made to be copy, and that is the major problem in my opinion. They don't want to contribute or share they only want to use, and that it's easy in another places.
Another problem I see are the changes in the game, like the change of the PTQ to PTQQ, made the competitive be much less attractive in some countries like mine.

Create a page or a group in Facebook can be a good way to call new and old people to the forum. I look to that possibility no to replace the forum, but to disclose and publicize the same. It's only my opinion. Excuse my bad English.

[( G_R )]

Seu inglês é melhor do que o português da maioria aqui.

[Stardust]

I can almost read that. So close.

Que bunda gostosa.

[( G_R )]

[Whole]

I think the forum would feel less dead if there weren't so many sub forums. I think if there were just like 5 sub forums I could visit to see what's being talked about, I'd read and post more. I didn't even know this thread was a thing until just now really. Currently, I just have the Modern Burn thread bookmarked bc I don't know what threads are active in standard & what threads are active between under the "Magic Fundamentals" section (seems like these could all be collapsed into one sub forum). I think a Facebook group would also be a fine alternative too though.

[Pedrobear]

search.php?search_id=active_topics

This what I bookmark.

[Jamie]

Bots have been liking my posts a lot recently.

[hamfactorial]

You're a very likable person, Jamie

[admin]

who said this site was lacking new members? DtR is all the rage these days

[( G_R )]

Hurrah for no recaptcha!