D&D's height of popularity is long gone now. Just look at this forums stats, just 18 months ago there were 200,000 users on it concurrent. Now even with the wizards site closed, it barely hits 20,000.
The forum software is old, a lot of foreign state bots post regularly on here and the mods can't even recognize the posts because it is using lightweight AI to add a comment. They link to a youtube which links to a tiktok which boosts an account, which attacks communities.
Many of the other users left are special interest groups promoting their products.
I would suggest migrating to other sites or collapsing the 90 subforums into one and make it so one person can't boost the topic, which is particularly obnoxious.
D&D is still pretty popular last I checked. Also 20,000 people is still quite a bit. The fourms should stick around, but I would say shrinking some of it would not be a bad idea.
It kind of needs to stay. There are plenty of folks using it for PBP and networking to find games, and it's the most permanent record of known issues of site features or purchaseable items. Not that it's got them all collated well, but Discord doesn't retain posts forever, and algorithms mean trying to rely on Youtubr or Insta isn't the best bet either. Plus it's much easier to search through text to find what you're looking for than to try and find a video that talks about whatever you need to know.
None of this rings true; active forum count is usually in the tens of thousands and that peak count of 200k+ was just that, a peak number. Bots posts are annoying, but they're infrequent and the mods do indeed spot them and remove them (helps if users report them too). As for "special interest groups" promoting products, that'd be the advertisements subforum, one small corner that requires mod permission to post in. And as for 90 subforums, there's 33, 13 of which are dedicated to specific class discussions. Oh, and not sure what on earth you mean by "making it so one person can't boost the topic"? If you mean bumping threads, that's against forum rules so if you see it, report it and a mod can deal.
The forums are in my opinion a good community space and are fit-for-purpose even if they're lacking in some minor, more modern features.
While it's true the popularity of D&D and site use is on the downtrend, there are still thousands of good faith actors and posters. It would be silly to shut it down.
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D&D's height of popularity is long gone now.
Just look at this forums stats, just 18 months ago there were 200,000 users on it concurrent.
Now even with the wizards site closed, it barely hits 20,000.
The forum software is old, a lot of foreign state bots post regularly on here and the mods can't even recognize the posts because it is using lightweight AI to add a comment.
They link to a youtube which links to a tiktok which boosts an account, which attacks communities.
Many of the other users left are special interest groups promoting their products.
I would suggest migrating to other sites or collapsing the 90 subforums into one and make it so one person can't boost the topic, which is particularly obnoxious.
D&D is still pretty popular last I checked. Also 20,000 people is still quite a bit. The fourms should stick around, but I would say shrinking some of it would not be a bad idea.
It kind of needs to stay. There are plenty of folks using it for PBP and networking to find games, and it's the most permanent record of known issues of site features or purchaseable items. Not that it's got them all collated well, but Discord doesn't retain posts forever, and algorithms mean trying to rely on Youtubr or Insta isn't the best bet either. Plus it's much easier to search through text to find what you're looking for than to try and find a video that talks about whatever you need to know.
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None of this rings true; active forum count is usually in the tens of thousands and that peak count of 200k+ was just that, a peak number. Bots posts are annoying, but they're infrequent and the mods do indeed spot them and remove them (helps if users report them too). As for "special interest groups" promoting products, that'd be the advertisements subforum, one small corner that requires mod permission to post in. And as for 90 subforums, there's 33, 13 of which are dedicated to specific class discussions. Oh, and not sure what on earth you mean by "making it so one person can't boost the topic"? If you mean bumping threads, that's against forum rules so if you see it, report it and a mod can deal.
The forums are in my opinion a good community space and are fit-for-purpose even if they're lacking in some minor, more modern features.
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Agreed, I don't know what the OP is going on about.
While it's true the popularity of D&D and site use is on the downtrend, there are still thousands of good faith actors and posters. It would be silly to shut it down.