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What do you think of the contents?

Yes. Some of the good stuff is still good.

YMTD, WIP Blogs, Tournament Discussions, News and Rumors, all still great.

Tactics and army building has some of the worst advice you could ever have the misfortune of reading.

Dakka is a lot nicer of a place now, for which there is something to be said, but it is also so much less useful in those regards than it used to be.

That though, is only this one man's opinion of course.

A bit worse than it used to be perhaps. That comes with getting more members, it seems.

Hmm. I like it. I believe it is actually better than ever..... I'm serious its better than my first year here. O.o

Kilkrazy wrote:What do you think of the contents?

Well, I haven't posted an army list here in over a year because there's simply no decent feedback, I rarely give feedback because I'll invariably be told that they don't' want to use the units I suggest, the tactics forum is full of mediocre players passing off their "wisdom" like it's holy writ. P&M is cool, although you have to paint virtually golden demon quality to get any appreciable feedback.

So, yeah, I think things have gone a bit down.

Going down hill compared to when? Dakka is somewhere around 10 years old - that's a lot of material to compare against.

It all feels the same to me.

Was it ever up hill?

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...

Search function is terrible; getting that fixed would be a huge asset. Mods that crack down on pointless stuff are frustrating at the least.

P&M is great if you subscribe but if you don't good luck finding it again with search.

Rumor and news has gone downhill.

There is nothing to really "engage" readers. Even worse with the mods on every thread locking or saying this or that is not how we want it done (written in rude tones) it does even more to disengage followers.

I say loosen up; get some dedicated writers who can engage the community like bols readers. Find more people to write articles in the P&M tutorial section and have some competitions (reviews, painting, conversions & the like).

Also, why not some sort of tracking system for winning/losing games. Give people a reason to come enter tonight’s battles and see how they stack up against other dakka users. Maybe even some sort of fun ranking system like the one that appears under your name.

Hope this helps.

(Edited for grammer)

Those are some good suggestions, dude. I think loosening up on the moderation will help a lot. We need a little drama to engage people! If it's all smiles and politeness it's boring as hell.

I've been nagging LB about the search function for some time now. Feel free to contribute:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300484.page

As for OP's question, I have had to ask myself that recently. I've only been a member for a year but I told myself a year ago that if I was still posting now (i.e., that the site was keeping my attention) I would become a DCM.

As for a board-by-board breakdown:

News and Rumors: This has been recycled Warseer threads since I've been here. No change.

P&M: Agree with Polonius regarding eliciting feedback.

Lists & Tactics: I don't think it was any better a year ago. The best approach is to alert those users whose opinion you respect that you have a thread up (the "My Friends' Threads" button is great for this, too).

YMDC: I have avoided participating in this as much as possible since joining. I would say it has calmed somewhat in my year.

Background: Very, very little originality. So no change. I gave up seriously trying to contribute a while back.

Fantasy & WM stuff: I've never much availed myself of it, so no opinion.

Large Scale, etc: I've paid a lot of attention to this thread and tried to foster and encourage quality. Unfortunately, it's mostly a haven for semi-monthly 3.5 v. 4th ed debates.

Survivor Games, etc: Another area I've put a lot of effort into. I'd say this section has seen a lot of improvement in the last year.

OT: Totally lost my attention. I would join with those advocating closing it but I think that would just lead to OT in the the other boards.

Skarboy wrote:Was it ever up hill?

Dohohohohoho

You bathe up hill and gak downhill.

Honestly dakka is growing and with growth comes trouble. At least their are SOME rules here.

These are all what comes with success.

I don't have much prior experience with dakka, but having a few articles on a bi-weekly schedule would be cool. Seeing the same news up on the front page for a month is a bit of a downer after awhile.

@Manchu

I agree with your assessments. The only thing I would point out is that while YMDC is still fantastic here for rules issues, always has been, the tactics and lists sections have gone straight to hell.

We used to have ongoing discussions about minute details of list building and tactics and the amount of valuable data that came out of there was staggering. Hard facts, not opinions. That was the rule.

I miss that. Now we get people that postulate terrible ideas and when the inaccuracy of these ideas is questioned, they get defensive and start throwing opinions and "well that's how I play it" defenses which are childish and don't add anything of value.

Id like a "reputation" system like other forums have. Years ago when I was on LO a lot (before I got sick of euro centric forums) you could see who was fairly well respected for their opinions. Heresy uses a system like that as well

if you posted a good post or tactic, etc.. People could give you positive feedback and stuff like that. We all know post count doesnt mean much since people can get 1000 posts in a WEEKEND arguing about fluff

Goes back to engaging people to read stuff. I think dakka is alright, but I agree that I never read the 40k tactics anymore and the fantasy section has so few posters its not very relevant.

Yeah, Tactics generally make me wince. Most army lists posted don't actually want feed back or can't answer how their units function together to defend their choices. I've very, very rarely popped into those forums of late. I have to say the Tournament Forum is one of the few that I really enjoy posting in. I also like the P&M, News and Rumors, and sometimes Discussions. Basically I'm only thinking that Tactics and 40k Army lists have gone way way down.

Now that is a good idea. Back in the day when Dakka was smaller, you just knew who was an intelligent poster as it was a smaller community.

Now you get Johnny Smartman who thinks his tactics that are the best because they work in his basement against his two buddies posting all over the boards.

That is a part of maturing in a community too, I mean hell, when I first came to Dakka I thought I was the best player ever. Then I called out some Dakkites, got my ass kicked and learned a bunch. But with a ranking system, we could at least point out who was a respected voice in the community and who was just a voice. I think that is a good idea and based on merit, not just post count.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Hulk
I agree, the Tournament Discussion section is my favorite, too.

Couldn't Dakka users just use an "outside" ranking site and sticky a thread in the tournaments board?

Nah Manchu, Cause those sites don't mean anything according to some people I've gotten to the point where I'll talk to certain people via PM if they ask advice but I just completely avoid posting in the army section unless I get a wild hair and then it's a poll for which army I should bring It's bad because I don't even expect halfway decent advice from there anymore.

This is the only Warhammer 40k website I know.

Ergo, I try to treat it with respect and take all advice in stride.

I don't frequent many forums simply because of lack of interest/common sense.

As for the tactics section, have stickied threads ready to address what people concede are good tactics and funnel people towards those places. Some of the articles for advice regarding tactics and considering the meta today need to be updated.

This is interesting because I usually post in Tactics on the principle that someone has to encourage Tactics discussion, and if I don't, then it's just going to be Army Lists 2.

I have to agree with the sentiment about how in order for Dakka to go downhill it first had to be uphill. Don't get me wrong, it's worse than it ever was, but I think that's just because most of my favourite posters have moved on.

I've been nagging LB about the search function for some time now. Feel free to contribute:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300484.page

Agree on the Search function. I mean, why do I have to scroll to the bottom to get the most recent results? Also, it would be nice to have some way to cut down your "My Viewed Threads" page.

Id like a "reputation" system like other forums have. Years ago when I was on LO a lot (before I got sick of euro centric forums) you could see who was fairly well respected for their opinions. Heresy uses a system like that as well

So are we talking about a rating system kind of like a "Thanks" button that I have seen on some sites?

Nurglitch wrote:This is interesting because I usually post in Tactics on the principle that someone has to encourage Tactics discussion, and if I don't, then it's just going to be Army Lists 2.

I really enjoy reading your tactics and rules threads.

I personally don't care either way. There is enough experience already put into the forums that I can an answer to most anything.

If I need a question answered I ask it in the appropriate forums and get about 20 links to previous writes on the topic. So as for the search functions I could care less really.

I would like to see something else posted in the swap shop besides 40k/WHFB stuff all the time but I guess that just goes hand in hand with the nature of the forums.

that's my two pence anyways.

Kirasu wrote:Id like a "reputation" system like other forums have.

Reputation or popularity?

There should be a difference, but usually isn't one.

How about moderators and DakkaDakka members unite to make some changes implemented that would make this site better?

Give it about three months and select a wide range of Dakka-ites who can discuss in tandem with the mod staff changes that should be enacted.

Of course, DCM should get some more preference as well as some polls to get everyone involved as well.