Hey guys! We've got an issue with the community: it's silent.
"No it isn't, people are still posting!" you might be saying. Yes, but barely. The last post in either discussion board was ten days ago-- halfway to the point when you get the little red warning. That's the place where the community is free to talk about anything relating to the game, and it's gone dead. The only places I see people actively posting are the forum games, help threads, and Introductions. Not to mention that no one has entered the preset contest except me! Where'd everyone go?
Don't get me wrong, I love this community, but I think it's fair to say that something's got to change. With major people such as Preach having left, I think we as a community need to up our game. With so little participation on the forums, and the only Introductions being members returning, I believe that if we don't get our $#!% together, this game may die within the next few years. It may sound harsh, but that's how I see this game going.
So, what can we do to one-up ourselves and keep this game going? Well, it's simple: post more. I know, shocking, right? Now, I don't mean spam us with the forum games. I'm saying get involved with discussion threads like this one. Get a conversation going. If I may, I shall propose this: If you fully read a thread, reply with some sort of comment. Say the thread was someone sharing a preset, give them feedback. (Us preset creators LOVE feedback!) Don't just say, "Nice topic," as that adds nothing to the conversation. It's like just walking up to someone who presented, and saying "Cool." They put time into it, and just "Cool" or "Nice" aren't going to help us at all. If everyone can reply to one thing a day, or make a thread, do something for this community and post it here, I think we can get this game off it's crutches and walking again. It may never be up and running like in 2011 and 2012, but we can certainly try. But if we let this game fall down, end up in a wheelchair and do nothing to help, it's sad and we don't like to think about it, but it will die.
So, if you have made it all the way through my rant, please reply to the thread with your thoughts on this! Do you think that this game is dying? And don't give me that cliche "As long as people are playing, this game isn't dead." The forum is a huge part of the game, and if we lose the forum community, we lose the game community. Do you guys have any suggestions on how we can get this forum lively and bustling again?