WolfQuest

I'd be thrilled if we could bring some life back to the forums. It seems like in the Old Times, the forum was a mix of chatty interactions and longer, more thoughtful posts. Discord is better (mostly) at the former, but not very good at the latter, and so maybe that's what to focus on and promote -- that the forum is an equal to Discord as a....well, a forum for social interaction about WQ, but geared toward longer, more in-depth discussions. I'd be happy to do what I can to make the forums attractive (which, I know I know, means having more of a presence myself....).

I agree that loosening the rules would help. I can't quite picture what a simpler organization would look like, but I agree that for a lot people (including @Pepper), the current organization is bewildering. So maybe we do need to do a radical simplication -- not as simple as the Steam discussion board, but something that reflects the smaller but more mature audience than we had originally....

Agreed.

-Wolfdog- wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:06 am

I can't create a ''repeat'' topic about wolfdogs, even though the current thread is disorganized imo, and I don't think my point or opinion will be seen if it's just a comment as opposed to a much more visible and singular post.

In the past, we have occasionally changed a topic's post author if someone wanted to take over a topic. That way, the new author can revive a thread and renew the information presented in the first post at their own leisure. I'm not suggesting that we do that for this thread unless you wish to go that route.

I'd recommend creating a new thread to replace the old one. If you can create a topic that is more informative and up-to-date than its predecessor, you are welcome to do that. You need only have asked. We could then replace the old sticky with yours, then lock, unsticky, and archive Blightwolf's thread. Since the Wolves category isn't my area of expertise, you might want to reach out to Koa.

Remembered and reactivated my account after a seven year inactivity, huh. Interesting to see what I've missed out on in the meanwhile.

The elephant in the room: if any of this was allowed to proceed, then who is up to the task of following through on it? Imo, it would be good for some fresh faces who are eager to help out to be given the chance to do so, alongside/with the guidance of the current mod team, who are probably already busy with the Discord and forums and could use the extra help. I am not referring to myself either ; I am too busy to take this on, but of course happy to continue participating in the community if it returns here.

LoboLoco wrote:I agree that loosening the rules would help. I can't quite picture what a simpler organization would look like, but I agree that for a lot people (including @Pepper), the current organization is bewildering. So maybe we do need to do a radical simplification -- not as simple as the Steam discussion board, but something that reflects the smaller but more mature audience than we had originally....

I agree with all of this! Perhaps it is time for a Forum Content Reset of sorts. Massive archival of old topics, keeping only the info/stickie posts, as needed. More relaxed posting and content rules to reduce moderator time commitments. I think we could follow the structure of hobby forums as a model.

Back in the day it always felt like forums and faster paced platforms like Discord were one of those odd natural transitions - like from VHS to DVD. I miss forums a lot since they're often more organized and are easier, much unlike Discord where if you missed something 10 hours ago, you're not gonna have a good time finding it again.

The Discord has also sort of become more like the central hub than the forum. There are a LOT of channels, many of them useful, but replace a lot of useful utility that the Forum can help with better (for example, the support channel on the Discord gets a lot of repeat questions, while a similar section on the Forum with less restrictions would have a lot of topics to cross reference that won't get as 'buried'.)

I feel like some sort of rehaul of both the the Forum and the Discord would be needed to give the Forum more use. There's definitely some channels on the Discord that I think would work better as a subboard or section of the Forum instead (advertising, wolf characters, etc), but the challenge would be to get people to use them.

I'm a bit late to this discussion but hi... While I fully agree that the Discord server played a role, I don't blame it at all for what's happened to the forums. I honestly think WQ would not have seen as much success as it has with the new releases without the Discord server. If an indie game /doesn't/ have a Discord server, that's the weird thing these days, and people love that closing of distance between themselves and the devs/team that a groupchat brings. I also don't blame the kids who have grown up surrounded by instant-messaging platforms for not wanting to use an old-fashioned forum that they have no experience with. But if there's a way to get people involved in the forum again, I'm all for it. I agree that there are benefits to the forum platform that go past just our nostalgia lol, and would happily try to become an active member again. I also miss the strictness/rigidity of these forums haha. I always struggled to get into forums that weren't as strict as this one, just seemed so chaotic lol.

As of today the forums have been slightly re-organized and we on the forum side worked to make the active forums more compact. These were the changes:
- Archived WolfQuest FAQ
- Renamed News and Announcements/Developer's Blog (shortened the names)
- Created "Your Pack" as an alternative to the #wolf-characters subforum. Pack Central and Screenshots have now become its subforums.
- Archived the User Guides subforums for now (to potentially relaunch them with some joint effort using the Discord server).
- Merged Wolf Conservation with General Wolf Discussion. Made Wolf Multimedia its subforum.
- Brought out User Artwork with a name change (Wolf Artwork) and made Wolf Writings (formerly User Writings) its subforum. No drastic rule changes at the moment, with the logic that users can share whatever that doesn't fit on the Discord.
- Changed Other Canids to Other Wild Canids and archived its art and writing subforums, with the logic that users can share non-wolf art and writing on the Discord.
- Changed Nature & Wildlife to The Wild and You (took its category name) and merged it with Zoos/Wildlife Preserves. Nature Photography (renamed) and Take Action are its subforums.
- Merged Domestic Animals with Dogs.
- Archived Get to Know Each Other and moved critical threads to General Discussion (including "General Discussion v2"), with the logic that if users want to be super chatty, they can use the Discord.
- Brought out Avatars & Graphics as its own forum. Now Avatars and Art Requests.
- Changed Other Topic Discussion to General Discussion, listing Forum Games and Other Games (previously Other Video Games, no longer its own forum) as its subforum.

Image permissions are also open to everyone except COPPA users.

I think there were a few other small changes but those are the main ones. I hope this is easier to navigate for those who still wish to use the forums and for those who are new to them.

The idea behind the re-organization is to leverage certain forums like Your Pack as alternatives to some of the Discord channels where the pace of the channel may be too fast for the content shared there. We'd also like for users to continue to have their own place to share their wolf art and writings or accept art requests. The (former) chattiness of GTKEO is best kept to the Discord and that is something that we wouldn't really want to re-create here anyway. etc. The re-organization also acknowledges we do have a more mature audience on the forums and consequently there will be less SPAM/issues with post-count raising compared to the past.

There will be some effort to redirect users to the forum by forum and server moderators but otherwise I think we are all in agreement that forum activity levels will likely not rise to their previous levels and that using the forum as an extension of the Discord is still the best way forward to keeping the forum viable.

Neamara wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:24 pm

Agreed.

-Wolfdog- wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:06 am

I can't create a ''repeat'' topic about wolfdogs, even though the current thread is disorganized imo, and I don't think my point or opinion will be seen if it's just a comment as opposed to a much more visible and singular post.

In the past, we have occasionally changed a topic's post author if someone wanted to take over a topic. That way, the new author can revive a thread and renew the information presented in the first post at their own leisure. I'm not suggesting that we do that for this thread unless you wish to go that route.

I'd recommend creating a new thread to replace the old one. If you can create a topic that is more informative and up-to-date than its predecessor, you are welcome to do that. You need only have asked. We could then replace the old sticky with yours, then lock, unsticky, and archive Blightwolf's thread. Since the Wolves category isn't my area of expertise, you might want to reach out to Koa.

Sorry I am just responding to this; Neam is correct. I don't think we've quite decided on/discussed specific revisions to the rules formally yet, but my line of thinking with repeat topics in the wolf boards is that the new topic needs to succeed the previous topic in information level (if the previous topic is indeed informative). Blightwolf's thread, while dated (in appearance at least - I don't think forum bbcode ages well ), is packed with information. It doubling as a discussion thread keeps the FAQ and discussion in one place, which makes sense for a topic ("wolfdogs") that already straddles two forums (General Wolf Discussion and Other Canids, although I guess with the name change, technically three). If I remember correctly, your thread was more of a summary, did not provide any sources and was discussion-oriented.

I think this forum reorganization is a good start to making the forums more active again - even if they'll probably never be as active as they once were. I definitely think that there's still a future for the forums.

I think that there's definitely pros and cons to both discord and forum-based solutions. I think certain topics (such as discussion of wolf news, or sharing certain types of media) definitely suit the forum better than the discord server. On the discord, you could mention something or post an image and have your message be lost in an infinite sea of other messages. On the forums, that's much less likely to happen, especially since the forums are more structured and organized. So I think that there's definitely still a purpose for the forums, and I think that with these new changes, we may see the forums getting more use.

I would like to thank the forum moderators for being willing to make changes to the forums. I hope that their efforts may allow the forums (and this community as a whole) to become a better place.

I first joined as AuoraWolf here back in 2012-13. Then 2.7 came, lots of new players joined, forum kinda changed too, and I had to make a new account in about 2019. There would be times where I'd forget about the forum, mainly hanging in the game or the discord server therefore I wasn't able to hang out with other audiences here in the forum. The rules here seem as justifiable as in the discord, but maybe the inactivity maybe due to that the forum website has a rather old-ish design, compared to the official Wolfquest website that has been drastically changed and became more interesting. Maybe tweaking with the forum website design could also help gather more players, also 'old' players who have been senior players in game, but not in the forum (like me and some others)

I always liked WQ forums & would read topics even when not posting.

Currently I think the steam forums are more active than the one here.

Rustic wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 04, 2022 10:20 am

I always liked WQ forums & would read topics even when not posting.

Currently I think the steam forums are more active than the one here.

I agree, the Steam forums seem to be a bit more active than these forums on an average day. The thing is, the Steam forums are obviously only used by Steam users. These forums are for the game in general, not just one platform. That's definitely something to consider when comparing the Steam forums and these forums.

DinoDogDude209 wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 05, 2022 4:59 pm

Rustic wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 04, 2022 10:20 am

I always liked WQ forums & would read topics even when not posting.

Currently I think the steam forums are more active than the one here.

I agree, the Steam forums seem to be a bit more active than these forums on an average day. The thing is, the Steam forums are obviously only used by Steam users. These forums are for the game in general, not just one platform. That's definitely something to consider when comparing the Steam forums and these forums.

Oh don't get me wrong...wasn't knocking these forums. WolfQuest originated HERE and I've been here since the free game. I have the steam game only as the itch.io comes with a steam key...so really everyone does have the steam copy. Also I've posted on steam for steam games I own on other platforms...is same game lol.

Anyhow the point I was trying to make is thst forums themselves aren't dead...so maybe sprucing this one up can help? I dunno...I just know...as a test...I posted a question BOTH here and on Steam...didn't take long before had several responses to thread on Steam while the one here remained empty .

Long story short...would live to see some way to get more people on this forum.

I always found it strange how certain topics explode with replies, but usually the accounts who reply on these topics are never to be heard from ever again. It's a weird and confusing phenomenon.

Hey. So I've been a member of these forums for awhile - since 2008.

I've noticed most forums have been declining in popularity over the years, so it's not just WolfQuest. Considering WolfQuest's niche audience it is not surprising to see the forums struggling: and younger people are more drawn towards social media, discord, steam forums, etc anyways. There is much more engagement on WQ's Steam, simply because it is much more convenient for them. Why should they register on a forum, that isn't very active anyway, when they have other options?

I hate to be a debbie downer, but I think WolfQuest's forums will never be as popular as they once were. It's sad, and kinda depressing when you're 30+, but times change. We need to change with it. Is it even worth the time & resources to manage/operate? What about all the moderators? Can their time be better spent elsewhere?