Neverside

No one tried to "fix" something, simply improve upon. However, saying that TF wasn't broke is just plain wrong. As far as I remember the forum had loads of bugs caused by plenty of shitty updates. The forum also had a lot of downtime caused by ... whatever made the server so unstable. Now you might have meant the concept of TF, but I have never really seen how going from a forum to a community site (incomplete, yes) with a forum is anything but an upgrade. There were a couple of rough months, but after all the largest bugs were fixed and the forums were ready to be used I've always personally failed to see the big complaint. Yes, we lost those "awesome" forum skins that no one would ever look at nowadays, if it wasn't for the nostalgic value. None of those designs were good with todays design standards. This design isn't up to date either, but it's still not a downgrade by any measure.

Neverside failed because the entire idea of communities like these are ageing. There are very large and central places nowadays that dominate the community area, and within those there are groups which could be compared to the community that once was TF. It sucks, but that's life. People didn't start to fall away from TF/NS for no reason at all, and the decline of this community began before it became Neverside. People found larger and more modern communities. Neverside could work if the original idea would be brought back up, updated, and completed in a way that could compete with the sites it intended to compete with. This wont however, nor would a simple forum such as TutorialForums.

Now stop crying and for the love of god stop blaming Locke for what happened to this community, he didn't tell people to go away and he never intended to do anything but to improve this place. The fact that it failed is to be blamed on everyone if anyone.

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Neversidian, your staff is broken.

It also failed because the migration to a new identity and site was done with it being in a near-crippled state, because the 'coming soon' messages kept continuing for month after month after month (nobody likes to be strung along), and because it was essentially one of the worst cases of reinventing a site I've ever seen.

I for one didn't even see Neverside coming and just got confused when I came across an entirely new site that changes all my habits. I never did get back into it after that, and still think that the removal of helpful icons throughout the forum design was an absolutely insane decision.

While I don't believe anyone is to 'blame' as good intentions were of course there, there's no doubt that the way this place was transformed couldn't have gone much worse and it did drive people away. A community doesn't go from thriving to active in a heartbeat without some seriously bad hindrances. People don't want a community they've visited and loved for years to die.

This 'the internet no longer likes forums' argument is nonsense, though. None of the forums I frequent (and have done for years) have fallen down a mineshaft in the way TutorialForums has. It is a lot harder to get new ones going though, that's for sure; people prefer to just communicate directly on blogs it seems.

But with all that said, I'm glad the place hasn't just vanished as I spent plenty of good time (reading more than) posting here, and TF certainly contributed a lot to me eventually becoming a full-time designer in an office and everything. Pretty much what I dreamed of as a young teenager coming here every day.

Nothing would be better than seeing this place actually sorted out so young designers can be inspired and go on to do great things like they were in TF's heydey. Dump the outdated design, dump the entirely useless front page/non-forum stuff, and dump the cryptic site name that says nothing about what this place actually is -- go back to TutorialForums.

It might seem like throwing a lot away, but can it really get much worse than this? Pressing the 'undo' key on the whole Neverside thing might just be the defibrillator that saves this place.

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thrik.net // gamesurge.net // grimfandango.net // scummbar.com

So... anyone got a backup of TF?

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irc.efnet.net #neverside
Neverside merchandise!

I fucking wish. I'd learn all the program languages and everything about TF that kept it running, just to see it working, and people flocking to it just for 1 day..... I hope on the client side, the new web site will be as good as TF. And I know suggestions don't usually go a long way, but if your only small base of active users wants something, and thinks it is the best decision for everyone, then that should take more precedence than the normal suggestions received...

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Wanting TF is like having a kid and then 15 years later that kid is on his way to school and a gay pirate murders him.

You mourn your kid and wish he'd come back alive and curse the gay *** pirate for what he has done but it won't change anything.

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Why are we friends? Srsly...

We need a specific forum for TF-nostalgia moping. The rest of the forums might run dry but at least we would be organized

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Jon Culver Chia Pets

what good would starting a new forum do? a forum is only as strong as its member base, no?

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:: pop ::

Originally posted by nykoelle:

what good would starting a new forum do? a forum is only as strong as its member base, no?

I love you.

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Why are we friends? Srsly...

Those were the good days. Let's bring those days back. Anyone?

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Warning: Dangerous if taken seriously.

Last edited by defective, October 30th, 2007 02:40 AM (Edited 1 times)

Originally posted by Thrik:

It might seem like throwing a lot away, but can it really get much worse than this? Pressing the 'undo' key on the whole Neverside thing might just be the defibrillator that saves this place.

I fail to see how simply replacing one forum backend with another would do anything for this community.

What this community needs is a focus. Neverside is all but dead unless a complete-at-launch, feature-rich and focused relaunch happens, and Im not confident that will ever happen.

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Hello. I am Joe Shoop's Portfolio