WotC shutting down its community forum

Bren · September 19, 2015, 03:05:21 AM

Quote from: Omega;856379Once you have been cleared through Pundit Island you will be issued a new name.Like, um, Stan or Sally.
Welcome to RPGsiteania.
Please recite the national anthem.

The anthem is to be sung in unison. Preceded and followed by group calisthenics.

Now drop and give me 20!

Omega · September 19, 2015, 04:41:19 AM

So what on the WOTC fora might be worth saving?

thedungeondelver · September 19, 2015, 01:09:04 PM

Good riddance to bad rubbish. The so-called "community mods" were so biased it made rpg.net look fair and balanced. There was no pretense of evenhandedness in the moderation at the WotC forums; when they bothered to moderate at all it was to squash dissenting opinions, even in forums that'd been set up for things other than <$NEW_D&D>.

3e or 4e fan comes trolling in the AD&D forum? Overlooked. Complain? Ignored. FR or Dragonlance fan trolling the GH forum? Overlooked. Complain? Ignored. Respond: get smacked-down by the moderation staff.

Fuck those forums, I'm glad they're gone, and I hope the people who regularly used them all congregate at enworld and rpg.net which is where that kind of thing continues.

kosmos1214 · September 20, 2015, 02:05:24 PM

well i have proof theres stuff worth saveing on there i just found a term dictionary thats quite helpful
http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-general/threads/864481

Mistwell · September 20, 2015, 11:56:34 PM

Quote from: kosmos1214;856815well i have proof theres stuff worth saveing on there i just found a term dictionary thats quite helpful
http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-general/threads/864481

Good find. I copied it to EN World's lifeboat threads.

Mistwell · September 20, 2015, 11:57:40 PM

Quote from: Omega;856651So what on the WOTC fora might be worth saving?

I am grabbing the 5e character builds and optimizations and putting them at EN World. I think others are getting the 3e and 4e ones (?)

There was a good community-built setting thread that's worth keeping too.

Tetsubo · September 21, 2015, 06:13:43 PM

Come on over to Usenet, we still have a dnd group.

Sacrificial Lamb · September 21, 2015, 06:37:09 PM

Quote from: Omega;856296Try again junior.
This is WOTC. They are obsessed with the "5 year plan" business model for D&D. If they keep to that obsession then 5e is already obsolete and plans are being made for 6th. If they follow the usual pattern then design work will start about 2 years before that deadline.

I hope they prove me wrong. But one of the product plan statements from Mearls for 5e goes to 2018. Please prove me wrong WOTC!

But yeah. If they are axing the MTG forums too then its for other reasons the forum is going out.

You're not wrong. I originally said this in 2009, and I've been right every time. WoTC (via Hasbro) uses the "Planned Obsolescence Model" (POM) to full effect. They release an edition, and then crank out another edition a few years later.

WoTC has been a subsidiary of Hasbro for a very long time, and that's relevant to everything they do.

* WoTC acquires D&D as a brand (announces purchase of TSR in 1997)
* 3e published in 2000 (2e phased out)
* 3.5 published in 2003 (3e phased out)
* 4e published in 2008 (3.5 phased out)
* 4e Essentials published in 2010 (4e core and Essentials are not exactly the same, and the core of 4e has radically changed after a few years from being endlessly errata'd anyway)
* 5e published in 2014 (4e and Essentials phased out)

This isn't even acknowledging the edition treadmill that existed before this point.

Does anyone really believe that 5e is immune to the "Planned Obsolescence Model"? I don't. It's just another dead edition walking.

Honestly, I'm just wondering what 6e will be like.

GameDaddy · September 21, 2015, 09:14:26 PM

Quote from: Tetsubo;857053Come on over to Usenet, we still have a dnd group.

Like a single post a day now... I remember when rec.games.frp.dnd would get like five hundred new posts a day. I'd have to spend a couple hours just scrolling the threads to find interesting ones.

Now all that is still there, mostly at Reddit now...

Tetsubo · September 22, 2015, 07:36:17 AM

Quote from: GameDaddy;857093Like a single post a day now... I remember when rec.games.frp.dnd would get like five hundred new posts a day. I'd have to spend a couple hours just scrolling the threads to find interesting ones.

Now all that is still there, mostly at Reddit now...

I'll visit the Usenet group until I'm the last one there. I want nothing to do with Reddit.

RPGPundit · September 28, 2015, 12:29:25 AM

Quote from: Satyrn;856375*reconsiders his custom title*

Hey, welcome to theRPGsite!

Apparition · September 28, 2015, 06:53:38 PM

Quote from: GameDaddy;857093Like a single post a day now... I remember when rec.games.frp.dnd would get like five hundred new posts a day. I'd have to spend a couple hours just scrolling the threads to find interesting ones.

Now all that is still there, mostly at Reddit now...

Well, that's depressing.

thedungeondelver · September 28, 2015, 07:20:42 PM

Quote from: Celestial;858100Well, that's depressing.

Don't be down; 400 of those posts were from troll posts from werebat.

Tetsubo · September 29, 2015, 07:40:51 AM

Quote from: Celestial;858100Well, that's depressing.

A situation that is completely under our control. Want more traffic on the dnd Usenet list? Post material.

Tetsubo · September 29, 2015, 07:42:32 AM

Quote from: thedungeondelver;858101Don't be down; 400 of those posts were from troll posts from werebat.

Wow. A name I haven't seen in years. I blocked him so long ago I'd forgotten he existed. We still have Shawn Wilson to plague us however. The best 'economist' to ever visit the list.