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OMG! It's been 3 years...

GuerrillaGuerrilla789 HelsinkiPosts: 2,865Administrator
edited February 2022 in Site News #1
hzipp5qiorj6.gif

Time does fly, doesn't it... :grimace:

TLDR: Anyway, it's been three years since the big move. Please let us how we're doing. :)

Since we pulled the switch on February 13 2019:
  • 1827 members have logged in. (2021: 1472, 2020: 984)
  • 845 new members have signed up. (2021: 589, 2020: 306)
  • 170 spammers have been banned. (2021: 138, 2020: 103)
  • 840 threads have seen activity. (2021:609 , 2020: 335)
  • 694 new threads have been started. (2021: 499, 2020: 269)
  • 27 models have been released. (2021: 23, 2020: 13)

Anyway, how do you think we've been doing?
Is there anything you particularly like or dislike about the site?
Are there some new features you would like to see here? Are we missing something really essential?
Is the site easy and fun to use?
Is there some content you would like to see from us (you know, official Scifi-Meshes stuff)? Or are you just here to look at other members' work?
Are you streaming your work, selling models or taking commissions? Is there something we can do to help you promote those things?
Are you actually interested in people streaming their work or taking commissions, or just here for the forums?
Any interest in challenges? If yes, big ones with prizes or small quick and fun stuff like weekly or monthly challenges? If not, why is that?
Have you checked out our Discord?
We kind of shuttered our Instagram, and didn't use our Facebook and Twitter at all last year. Did anyone notice?
Post edited by Guerrilla on
Comco: i entered it manually in the back end
Join our fancy Discord Server!
RekkertLizzy777Warp Propulsion Laboratorywibble

Posts

  • rojrenrojren2298 Louisville, Kentucky USAPosts: 1,970Member
    The numbers look encouraging.

    I'm interested in challenges. At least some of them smaller, so those of us with limited abilities can participate. It would be nice to see the some of the heavy-weight artists do toe-to-toe competitions too.

    I noticed the lack of Facebook participation, but from what I've been hearing, Facebook is becoming an enclave for old people, like me.

    The one thing I dislike about the site is that I have to refresh to see any new content, but I assume that's just how it is.
  • rojrenrojren2298 Louisville, Kentucky USAPosts: 1,970Member
    Guerrilla, I have another thing I don't like. I don't like that after you've gone to all the trouble to build and maintain this place, so few can be bothered to even respond. I know that not everyone visits daily, but, come on people.
  • Warp Propulsion LaboratoryWarp Propulsion Laboratory913 BrooklynPosts: 322Member
    Well I for one really appreciate what you do, Guerrilla. I love this place. Keep it up!
    Please visit my YouTube channel!
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRhLEHgwgTKxsalM5YznYQ


    Formerly furswift
  • Lizzy777Lizzy7771249 PNWPosts: 754Member
    I have no idea what kind of feedback to add since I've never run a forum before. The features that I use work and I can't really think of anything to add or change. So... Good job?
    "Cry 'Havoc!,' and let slip the corgies of war!"
  • mishasiegfriedmishasiegfried149 Posts: 65Member
    I love the forums so far. I would think challenges could be exciting to do. I generally avoid Discord, but I have poked in once or twice to see discussions from folks here. But the site has all the essentials covered and functions well. It's easy to navigate not particularly performance heavy as some websites can be. 1 thing I think might be a nice feature would be a web gallery of some sort showing off work that stands out.
  • japetusjapetus2937 SeattlePosts: 1,397Member
    I love the site and the discord! Challenges would be cool, or group challenges maybe to combine skills. Last I checked the Facebook was really dead. There is a similar active group on fb that im in... but would be nice to keep it under one umbrella
  • srspicersrspicer390 Posts: 335Member
    I am here to view other's amazing work and add where I can. I also post my Physical model builds for feed back.
    I do have one suggestion. Necro-posts. I had commented on a post, not realizing it was years old. My bad. However, I had one of the more active members here jump down my throat about it publicly. I understand an old post like that is almost irrelevant, but I didn't appreciate being treated like an idiot.
    I think to elevate the problem, it should be considered to disable comments on posts that are years old or even delete them. If it is such a huge deal to 'necro-post' then why still have the ability to do it. Especially if it is not done on purpose. A ten year old post should be eliminated anyway. What is the point of having it be there to create a problem?
    Thanks for all of the hard work that is put into this website to make it a great place. Respectfully submitted,
    Scott
  • GuerrillaGuerrilla789 HelsinkiPosts: 2,865Administrator
    There's actually quite a few things we've done to address the necroposting issue. Why allow it at all? Because we actually like it when people return to their old projects and it's not a big deal at all in forums like Finished Work or General Discussion. We're not going to delete old topics. Archiving the work here is one of the main appeals of the site at least for me.

    Here are the things we do to address it:
    • SFM has no recommendation algorithms of any kind. You will always see everything that has been posted in chronological order instead of trying to mess with what you see and when like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube do. Some ancient post will never show up on the forum index just because we thought you would find it engaging. We have deep archives, but you should always be able to tell how long ago something was posted.
    • We switched to simple timestamps (X minutes/hours/days/months/years ago) instead full dates to make it easy to tell how long ago something happened.
    • There should be a warning that pops up when you start typing on a really old topic that let's you know that you're typing in a really old topic.: yuj6h8igw3nm.png
    • There's a necropost tag with skulls and everything that appears on the forum index to let people know that the topic is old, and probably doesn't contain interesting updates. I clear the tags when people return to old projects, but it's a manual process, so might take a couple of hours.
    • Which brings us to the last point. The forum index is generally a self cleaning entity. If someone necroposts, the topic gets tagged, people hopefully see that, won't post more, and it'll sink on its own when people post in threads that are actually active. If it happens more than once, I usually step in and let people know necroposting is not something we like to see around here. Why do it in public? Hopefully the next person who comes along the same thread reads it before they comment on it too.

    I'm sorry someone got shitty with you for a simple mistake. That's actually just as against the rules here as necroposting. (See Don't be an asshole and
    We are, however, the SFM police..
    ).

    On one hand a necropost here and there isn't a big deal. It'll get tagged, the forum index will sort itself out in a week or so. Sometimes it's good to remind people, possibly publicly, so others can learn too, but there's never a reason to be shitty about it.
    srspicer
    Comco: i entered it manually in the back end
    Join our fancy Discord Server!
  • johnl2112johnl211248 Posts: 54Member
    I like the site, but man my favorite part now is that it doesn't redirect to shady malware sites. Thats the best part.
  • srspicersrspicer390 Posts: 335Member
    Thanks for the info G!
    I have never seen the warning and I probably missed the skulls. :s
  • AresiusAresius359 Posts: 4,171Member
    3 years..... wow, how time flies....
    Well, folks, here's to plenty more! Cheers y'all!
  • wibblewibble1122 Weimar, GermanyPosts: 493Member
    I haven't been around for a while and it was nice to come back. One feature that I think is new and I do really ... really appreciate is the spellchecker.
    1 thing I think might be a nice feature would be a web gallery of some sort showing off work that stands out.

    I think at some time in the past there was a header on the homepage that highlighted interesting and outstanding projects. It was taken down after a while, probably for good reason, but I liked that feature too. Would be nice to have it back, if it is in any way possible.
  • GuerrillaGuerrilla789 HelsinkiPosts: 2,865Administrator
    wibble wrote: »
    really appreciate is the spellchecker.

    I think that may just be your browser. At least I don't think I added one... but thanks anyway. :p
    I think at some time in the past there was a header on the homepage that highlighted interesting and outstanding projects. It was taken down after a while, probably for good reason, but I liked that feature too. Would be nice to have it back, if it is in any way possible.

    The reason we don't have it anymore is that it was custom made for a very specific version of vbulletin we were using at the time and it simply didn't work with anything else. It got broken in a forum update, and we've changed software since, and the old server is gone anyway, so not going to be using that one again.

    I am working on a similar feature, but I've only been messing with some prototypes so far. I did just finish the first version of our Discord bot, so maybe I'll look at featured posts next.

    wibble
    Comco: i entered it manually in the back end
    Join our fancy Discord Server!
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