On GTM's Reputation with Other Communities

[TheRoboteer]

So yesterday there was some discussion in the GTMCS discord about the (declining) state of GTM, the reasons behind this, and what can be done to prevent the decline of the forums specifically. In order to try and figure out each of these, I created a fairly basic survey which I distributed in 3 other prominent communities which are to at least some extent based around playing RA2, which asked the members of these communities if they've visited GTM, if no why not, and what they liked and disliked/thought could be improved about GTM. The responses to the survey are featured in an excel document here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LK_8x79TNiPgHB3S1v-KubUgtmV5LOfn

I also posted some preliminary findings from these responses. These findings aren't meant to be the be-all and end-all conclusion drawn from the survey, but rather they're just there to encourage discussion. Hopefully this discussion can lead to some kind of action which makes the forum more attractive to people and just overall improves the unity and happiness of the RA2 community overall.

Feel free to discuss this below. The whole point of this is to try and get people talking about what can be done moving forward

[TheOrcCorp]

Right, hello! I really appreciate this insight so thanks for your efforts.

- The community being seen in a negative/positive light is interesting. I know there are those who view GTM as "toxic" and those who are fine with it. I have been in touch with Yugitom as a GTM/GWars representative as well as Mystrsyko to try and bridge stuff in those areas. More work will be going into this alongside other communities and people.
- I would love to hear people's ideas on how to improve GTM's look! Please get in touch.
- Looking at ideas to try and encourage people to post here more. Been talking with Hop on this topic. We need GTM as it is where the downloads and the history is.
- Tournaments: ah yes, I brought this up before in the "Ra2 is sucky" topic. We need more tournaments, especially smaller ones. I do have a big idea to try and encourage people to host but it'll take a lot of planning.
- The fracturing of the userbase is an interesting one. Sure a lot of the active GTM users use OW/PWS but these servers were never ment to replace GTM.

Again, thank you for this: as mentioned, I do have ideas for improvements but don't want to rush them out. I'm also here to listen to anything you guys want to contribute, can't promise it'll be implemented but I'll damn well listen. Drop me a DM or whatever.

Cheers!

[Badger]

Right, hello! I really appreciate this insight so thanks for your efforts.

- The community being seen in a negative/positive light is interesting. I know there are those who view GTM as "toxic" and those who are fine with it. I have been in touch with Yugitom as a GTM/GWars representative as well as Mystrsyko to try and bridge stuff in those areas. More work will be going into this alongside other communities and people.
- I would love to hear people's ideas on how to improve GTM's look! Please get in touch.
- Looking at ideas to try and encourage people to post here more. Been talking with Hop on this topic. We need GTM as it is where the downloads and the history is.
- Tournaments: ah yes, I brought this up before in the "Ra2 is sucky" topic. We need more tournaments, especially smaller ones. I do have a big idea to try and encourage people to host but it'll take a lot of planning.
- The fracturing of the userbase is an interesting one. Sure a lot of the active GTM users use OW/PWS but these servers were never ment to replace GTM.

Again, thank you for this: as mentioned, I do have ideas for improvements but don't want to rush them out. I'm also here to listen to anything you guys want to contribute, can't promise it'll be implemented but I'll damn well listen. Drop me a DM or whatever.

Cheers!

On the point of getting people to post on GTM more, I think we should look at the unique stuff GTM can do, such as BOTM or challenges belts. Both these monthly events have been in a pretty bad/nonexistent state for a decent while, however with some rethinking I think they could be a good draw for people to use the site and the forums. In specific, BOTM is a bit of a mess right now as it's basically a free for all. Going back to either the old system of enforcing a theme, or FOTEPX's system of having your bots entered through posting in a showcase (which would also help the lack of bots being showcased) would benefit it I think. We don't need multiple categories, there's not enough content and DSL IRL is the only thing people play anymore

RE: The challenge belt, honestly I think it's fine to just restart as a monthly DSL-IRL mini tournament with changing arenas and weightclasses. We just need a dedicated host, and maybe admin support to give a forum award to the current holder couldn't hurt either.

[TheOrcCorp]

On the point of getting people to post on GTM more, I think we should look at the unique stuff GTM can do, such as BOTM or challenges belts. Both these monthly events have been in a pretty bad/nonexistent state for a decent while, however with some rethinking I think they could be a good draw for people to use the site and the forums. In specific, BOTM is a bit of a mess right now as it's basically a free for all. Going back to either the old system of enforcing a theme, or FOTEPX's system of having your bots entered through posting in a showcase (which would also help the lack of bots being showcased) would benefit it I think. We don't need multiple categories, there's not enough content and DSL IRL is the only thing people play anymore

RE: The challenge belt, honestly I think it's fine to just restart as a monthly DSL-IRL mini tournament with changing arenas and weightclasses. We just need a dedicated host, and maybe admin support to give a forum award to the current holder couldn't hurt either.

I can agree with this, I think the idea for BOTM was there but fell a tad flat. I'll definitely keep this all in mind Badger so thanks!