THIA: Forum only?

[Anders]

Hold me up against the wall and nail me like a board!

That can be arranged. I have all the required tools.. and then some. Darkmoon can probably also set something up for us for going off topic.

I will remind you every other hour.

[Enetirnel]

I'd be looking for "everything done" saves, but legit ones. We'd have some hacked ones too if warranted, like in RE1 having the Dum Dum rounds, but they'd be clearly labeled as modified.

Anders, that idea sounds good ;) Though I am selling off most of my stuff at a record pace..so you'd likely have to help out in the ripping department haha. John, that pic almost makes me want to change my avatar.

Sure, I separate my save games anyway.

Would you also want completed PC ones too?

[Dot50Cal]

As many systems as possible

[Shadow Stalker]

I wouldn't THIA being forum only. The forum istelf is the only reason I visit this site for anyway.

On a side-note: I like the new look of this forum Dot50Cal, you did a splendid job.

[Reston]

I'll try to give an unbiased opinion from an outsider perspective.

I used to be a big forum user back on REH years ago when I had more time in my life. Some of the people on this forum know who I am and that I used to be very active in the community. Over the past several years, my personal time has taken more of a direct route with my professional life and I do not have the time to sit and go through the forums all the time. I do not post here that much but I believe my opinion may hold some merit and weight as it's going to be brutually honest.

When I look for RE news I go to biohaze. When I need detailed and accurate information on anything REverse I go to PU. When I am looking for casual discussions on RE I come here. When I need bad information, a laugh, and biased opinion that is claimed to be news I go to RelyonH-- kidding.

Truth is that it's not anyones fault. Resident Evil was a lot more popular back in the day because it was fresh, had multiple releases in a small amount of time, and a large dedicated fan base. The fan base for RE has diminished and again, it's not the moderators, the admins, or whoever owns this site, fault. There's nothing you can do to attract new people. Posting up some RE section stuff is cool in the features like that Biohazard Executioner video and those pictures and it deserves more praise but... like someone else said, the people that usually discuss stuff here on this forum are the more hardcore fans as well as those who visit the site.

And if you look back at 2004 and prior to that, a lot of RE fans were younger. RE grew around a certain age bracket and it's been nearly ten years since REmake was released which was around the point when RE was at its highest in popularity. My point is that a lot of people have moved on. A lot of those forum users moved on with their personal lives and are married or deep in their career. A lot of admins closed down their websites because they didn't have the motivation because they are older and have moved on.

It's life. There's nothing you can do. The people who remain in these forums are still going to stick around. Sure, you can go and hire new people to make news postings to catch some views, and it'll be commended but I never came to this site for the news section. However that is just me. I do not think however the main page to this site should be abandonded. You do not want to do what REH tried to do at one time in which they wanted to be an only forum site. It sort of killed them and a lot of people did not come back amongst other reasons. Your main page is sort of like a "YES, WE'RE OPEN FOR BUSINESS". If you don't keep it active or even attempt to update it, people who are not forum users will come and be like, "meh, they have not updated in sometime". And if you want more people to visit the forum, make a graphic font or some banner that points to it with some witty comment about why people should check the forum out like, "we're just DYING to hear from you", .... yeah lame and cheesy but you get the point.

It's eventually up to all of you who run the site. If you feel you can no longer do it, lack the motivation, or just don't care, it's your choice. As a forum user and someone who tends to lurk and read casual discussions (yup, I'm guilty) I can say there is nothing much to do unless you change up the site to take a more casual approach and focus on other horror related genres. If you strictly want to stick with Biohazard/Resident Evil, then all the more props to you.

In the end, I say don't give up. It's easier said then done. It's your money you're pouring into this site to keep it up and running and at the end of the day it's your choice.

EDIT: Point in case; I'd never would have seen this thread unless it was on the news page. Suggestion for more forum activity, have more news postings on the main page about what is being discussed in a certain thread that is popular at the moment to catch peoples attention? It could not hurt.

[cvxfreak]

I love the THIA community and Dot's enthusiasm for the series 5 years ago really left a mark on me. He encouraged me to embark on building a Biohazard collection. I hope THIA sticks around one way or another.

I do agree that perhaps THIA doesn't need to be about news -- to be honest, with Twitter around and also Biohaze, THIA can focus on what it does best, which is to have a great community with coverage of beta and unreleased titles.

Not sure what I can offer as a new staff member, but I wouldn't mind being a mod.

[ElusionM]

@Dot:

Why not make it so the home page itself is (left pane 20%=News) and the right (80% of the page basically) the forums themselves (basically either losing that outdated Upcoming events/releases column on the right, or shifting it elsewhere).

The left column currently consisting of News/Forums/ etc can be a mini feed for NEWS only, with it showing the top 5 recent in link-form (clicking on it would redirect to the actual full news page), and at the bottom a "View All News" link.

If you don't mind, using the View Source, I can create a prototype of the layout off-site and post back here to give an idea on what I'm saying.

This way we can keep the forums and the news, but give more emphasis and visual importance to the Forums, and at the same time give the site the refreshing look its long overdue.

[Dot50Cal]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Ice is back and working on the site, mainly integrating the forums more into the website itself. Hes pretty excited about the new things you can do in Vbulletin. Look for some changes in the near future. In the mean time, I'm uploading a lot of videos to Youtube and we'll be using them to hook into the new site. Thats my focus at the moment, but it'll hook into the work Ice is doing.