Forums less active?

Do the forums seem less active after the update to the website?

When I first joined, my questions and discussions would have responses within the hour, now my posts get no replies after several days. I've also noticed that other posts in all the categories are getting less responses than before. Anybody else notice this?

Maybe idiot spammers have made experienced forum members take more of a 'look at the tutorial' route.

Plus, there's still the need to login each visit issue. So maybe more than one possible reason.

I'm not helping as much as I expect others aren't either because so many new folks joining and all of them not bothering to do the example games or even read the manual. They all want a capx of what they want to do, and aren't interested in

1)Reading the manual

2)Searching a tutoral

3)Just going through the awesome examples that ships out with c2

Seriously, hit new in construct2 and see the HUGE amount of templates, games, demos. Its all there.

Point being, feeling a little tired

Also, I'm sure the veterans are hard at work with awesome games...

I'm sure there are certain users who've moved on, but I think a number of factors contribute. For starters, many of us who've helped a lot in the past end up answering the same questions repeatedly when they're answers marked clearly in the manual. There's also the phenomenon of people somehow feeling entitled and pushy about asking for help. "Make it for me" and "you're not doing it for me fast enough" are attitudes that have turned me off from checking the how do I threads quite so often.

I, personally, don't respond to as much stuff because of the ever-present flood of mobile-focused developers. I don't care about mobile development, mobile ad networks, or really anything about it, so that things out a percentage of threads I'll bother reading. I'm sure some others feel the same way.

And, really, any time spent checking forums is time not spent working on my game. Those times and moments are useful and, often, required (you HAVE to take breaks!). But I'm trying to reach certain development milestones for myself and the only way any of the 'bigger' C2 games look and play so nice is the hard work put into them.

I'm not helping as much as I expect others aren't either because so many new folks joining and all of them not bothering to do the example games or even read the manual. They all want a capx of what they want to do, and aren't interested in

1)Reading the manual

2)Searching a tutoral

3)Just going through the awesome examples that ships out with c2

Seriously, hit new in construct2 and see the HUGE amount of templates, games, demos. Its all there.

Point being, feeling a little tired

Also, I'm sure the veterans are hard at work with awesome games...

+1

Anyway I'll try to help if I can, because I am very new in C2 and my english is very poor. I will try to help when I take a break in my current game

[quote:qm4rf1rm]I, personally, don't respond to as much stuff because of the ever-present flood of mobile-focused developers. I don't care about mobile development, mobile ad networks, or really anything about it, so that things out a percentage of threads I'll bother reading. I'm sure some others feel the same way.

I agree entirely. It seems some users want a button that says make my game for me oh and can you put ads in it and sell it for millions.

I certainly help if i can when its obvious the user has made some attempt at helping themselves first.

I think that old forum was more readable...

For starters, many of us who've helped a lot in the past end up answering the same questions repeatedly when they're answers marked clearly in the manual. There's also the phenomenon of people somehow feeling entitled and pushy about asking for help. "Make it for me" and "you're not doing it for me fast enough" are attitudes that have turned me off from checking the how do I threads quite so often.

This.

Plus, in general the spirit just changed. There used to be a time where everyone was helping each other just because of their passion. Now, since Construct went commercial, the clients also come with a more leeching attitude. I'm really happy for Ashley and Tom that it turns out to be a commercial success, but there's not much left that would make the community attractive enough to spend so much time in helping.

Personally C-7 get's it right. I get tired answering the same questions over and over again. However there are also other factors.

When I was a new user i asked more questions than I do now. When I grokked how C2 works I really spent a lot of time contributing. I found contributing helped me define my understanding more while opening up how other people create solutions.

however as I get older on the forums I see over and over again terrible forms of programming. I see less good ways and more bad ways.

Finally there are just down spikes for forum activity. Give a day or two then the regular flow will be back

I think the whole forum is geared towards tool use rather than community feedback, or group building.

And well, life is not easy for newcomers. Not to say that there are not lazy people out there, but try to put yourself in the shoes of a newcomer and look for something you need in the 'How do I' section, you'll get what I mean.

I'm still a beginner with the tool and I found the manual to be a pain to read, the tutorials/template are badly labeled and difficult to scroll through when experimenting with the software. They are usually not compatible with each other, can't be pasted together or combined without making horrible problems... the exports are still obscure so testing is difficult. And if i have a specific issue, the search is giving me few hundreds results i need to browse through. There might be plugins I could use but there are so many of them that I would need to keep a notebook just to keep track of what I did install, and what do these thing do.

So yeah, people write posts because that's the most straightforward thing to do. Maybe a FAQ directly on the beginner section of the forum could help?

And regarding less people posting, the separation of complete games and in progress is a great add, now it would be up to everyone here to do goodwill and comment on few devlogs they like every week to propel the community forward!

I also think at least 50% of help threads are unnecessary. The answer can be found in the manual, examples or already exisiting threads. But this inevitably comes with the growth of the community.

And I do agree with Tulamide. The environment changed and is much more about making money than simply about making good games. So the "we"-feeling got replaced by a profit attitude, which isn't likely to inspire many of the people who have been around since the beginnings of Construct Classic to lend a helping hand.

PixelRebirth

if change attitude from "I can wait for PlayStation 5, in mean time I will make my serious RPG game" into "I want to make good app, release it without problems and make money on it NOW" will have impact on Construct 2,

then I think that's good news

PixelRebirth

if change attitude from "I can wait for PlayStation 5, in mean time I will make my serious RPG game" into "I want to make good app, release it without problems and make money on it NOW" will have impact on Construct 2,

then I think that's good news

I don't know where you get the PS5 stuff from, sure sounds a bit condescending to me.

Anyway, I wasn't really judging in terms of good or bad either, I was rather pointing out that this shift in the community probably keeps regular users, who have been around a long time and therefore have the biggest experience, from replying to help threads as often as they used to.

I myself have been around since ~2008 and there used to be a different vibe. Don't get me wrong, I'm also trying to monetize my games lately. That doesn't mean the focus of game development should be solely profit-oriented, with total disregard for the game itself. At least that's how I... roll?

I visit the forums daily! I usually mainly check out "Construct 2 General" and "Open Topic" daily, but I browse the other sections randomly. I've had lots of different threads I've wanted to post, but it's usually a small question that really doesn't feel like it needs its own thread. I occasionally post but only when I truly feel that my post will be of high value, so it's not often.

PixelRebirth

I mean that if there will be more professionals using C2 then at the end it will be better

also I think that it would be nice if Scirra would create some website showing best games made with C2 (with links to their free or paid versions)