Artificial

Does this guy even have any plans left for the site?

So was the big plan to leave everything to GAMEchief (yes that GAMEchief) and just leave the site as it is?

This site has made almost no progression at all. I'd argue that other than the activity increase it's probably a little worse (tons of mods everywhere, hideous themes, unnecessary additions, etc).

Seriously. The only thing GAME has contributed to the site are the following:

-Banned account named "Charles" that he posts with
-The dull abominations we call "Chao." Pretty much frivolous
-Random spurts of inactivity

The emotes were a good addition. Other than that, I don't really see anything noteworthy. The members are truly the only thing that has kept the site afloat. The site is repeating the same cycle again, except this time we don't even have any true flagship. At this rate we'll only go strong for another handful of months.

Okay, okay, if Arti doesn't have any distant plans for the site, what do you have planned Charles? Or are you really as hopeless as I thought?

People come here to get easy pixels, well, Charles answers with his own and unless someone revives the Gaia section with something super amazing, Chao is probably the best option right now.

The other thing that immediately pops out is the tight community formed by mods and "original" and older users. That's sometimes hard to get into.
It's like you exist, but you're still not "in the group". Spice that up with hateful comments and picking fights for no reason, especially when it's done by the sites own moderators, it gives you a prefect reason to skip registration.

Hundreds of people lurk here every day, someone just has to figure out what's keeping them from joining.

I have some ideas but I'll keep them to myself for now.
don't want to be flamed lol

ALSO CAN EVERYONE JUST STOP BEING A DICK AND BE NICE FOR A CHANGE
I KNOW THIS IS THE INTERNET BUT FUCKING HELL THIS IS STUPID

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Originally Posted by Soph

I have some ideas but I'll keep them to myself for now.
don't want to be flamed lol

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I agree with you to some extent.

What are those ideas? I'm sure you won't be flamed for it. I think.

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Originally Posted by The Unintelligible

I agree with you to some extent.

What are those ideas? I'm sure you won't be flamed for it. I think.

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I'm thinking LG should have a total makeover and get known for something other that Gaia.
It's logical gamers after all, not logical gaia.

Rework subforums, concentrate a bit more on other games.
And to get users? The community needs to be more welcoming and appealing.
After that, hold contests with real prizes and gather people here from online games and other communities.

I pretty much did that with a forum for a private server I was a GM in and we had way more users flying in that we could imagine.
I think it could maybe work here too.

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Originally Posted by The Unintelligible

Does this guy even have any plans left for the site?

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He talks about it with me over IM every now and then.

You left out a ton of changes that have been made, but I have no obligation to list them.

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Okay, okay, if Arti doesn't have any distant plans for the site, what do you have planned Charles? Or are you really as hopeless as I thought?

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>Suggestions forum
I plan on doing what the members what done and is within reasonable range of achieving. It's as simple as that.

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Originally Posted by Soph

Rework subforums, concentrate a bit more on other games.

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LG gets a ton of hits to the Neopets section outside the forums. Arti was doing a little bit to direct traffic here, but I don't have jurisdiction over the site outside the forums, so I don't know what he will end up doing in total.
But as far as cost-benefit analysis, buffing the Neopets section next would get the most traffic for the least amount of time and work.

But of course other games work too. I tried to promote Dota 2 and TF2, but to no avail. There don't really seem to be many games that users here all play besides Gaia.

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I pretty much did that with a forum for a private server I was a GM in and we had way more users flying in that we could imagine.
I think it could maybe work here too.

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If you want to contribute. We don't really have prizes for contests is the main problemo.

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Originally Posted by GAMEchief

If you want to contribute. We don't really have prizes for contests is the main problemo.

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The forum, as it is now, will not attract people.
If or when the actual site gets into better shape, I'd be more than happy with providing contest material and prizes. Out of my own pocket of course.

Yeah, that's why I haven't been promoting it. The Chao system won't attract anyone until it is finished. It is just a beta product now to make sure there aren't bugs.

I don't play Gaia, so I can't contribute much to that area. Gaia contests seem to do well, but that was all Arti when those were a thing.

Look at you. Trying to grab the dick by its balls.

I'm willing to pay with my fafsa money someone who can actually hack and extract all the gaia accounts so we can just fuck with a shit ton of people and make max profits and bring more members to the site.
My max contribution will be $1,000.
You guys are welcome to pitch in if you'd like.
Or we can just change it to gaia to something else but the huge problem with that is that we don't and literally do not have anyone who can do much with other games.
Hence we need people with skills to come in.
Sorry I can't help for shit there. I'm just a full time college student Psychology major and full time boyfriend.
I wish I could learn programming but I'm already 20 and far too old to focus on other things then my priorities.

No such thing as max profits. The gaia market has been completely supplied by a handful of people.

There's no max profits to be made.

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Originally Posted by PrincessFluttershy

No such thing as max profits. The gaia market has been completely supplied by a handful of people.

There's no max profits to be made.

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I bet there's a couple MAX PROFITS here and there.

I think we need a reason why people should come post here instead of other cheating forums.
I don't know what I can contribute but no one has really contributed anything lately except the very few amount of contributors to the public programs section

It's a difficult tangle of issues.

You have to either motivate the user base to pick and get active in game or you have to pick one and build a new community. The former requires most of the active users to find something they all like and do something with it and the latter involves the staff picking something and then promote it and hope it sticks. We've tried both under two admins and gotten nowhere.
The former also is how the site currently works, it's based entirely off user generated content. If the users don't create stuff and share it then nothing happens.

Running Gaia contests don't seem like it'd be effective. You'd draw new users around contests and then see them leave after them.
We've suggested and had private servers before. It is a good way to draw and retain users but we'd need someone to host that and draw money to fund it. If we were to go that route we could hold a simple vote to pick a game or two to host. I've suggested WoW several times because of the mass appeal.

Arti had started working on a avatar based site that was to be the spiritual successor of LG. Where or what came of it I have no idea.

If we ditch gaia than I'm leaving, idk about anyone else but I only stick around because there's a possibility it could come back around

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Originally Posted by Alexx

I'm willing to pay with my fafsa money someone who can actually hack and extract all the gaia accounts so we can just fuck with a shit ton of people and make max profits and bring more members to the site.
My max contribution will be $1,000.
You guys are welcome to pitch in if you'd like.
Or we can just change it to gaia to something else but the huge problem with that is that we don't and literally do not have anyone who can do much with other games.
Hence we need people with skills to come in.
Sorry I can't help for shit there. I'm just a full time college student Psychology major and full time boyfriend.
I wish I could learn programming but I'm already 20 and far too old to focus on other things then my priorities.

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PM me i could do this in my sleep. I don't get out of bed for less than $3,500 though if you truly are serious.

lol this place just needs to die. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Some members just need to leave or get banned, not with a bang but with a whimper.

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Originally Posted by Ethan

Some members just need to leave or get banned, not with a bang but with a whimper.

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That's exactly the negative attitude that's driven most away.

Fact of the matter is, gaia was the main focus of this site for many years. Once everything got patched in the terms of captchas and FLPs and people being less all around stupid, the few that did release content stopped entirely either because they were too lazy to do anything with what they had and not try and write codes that would go with the updates that gaia put out, or they just stopped caring. And that killed a lot of the activity and the things that was going on with the site.

In 2009 Artificial kinda gave up on the site in many aspects. In more then a few conversations I had with him, he told me that he has things to do much more important then the site. When 2.0 came up, and I was made an SMod by Torian, and nothing was being done for the site in anyway outside of the minor things, I offered to pay for the site's hosting costs, and many other things, as it was discussed by most of the staff at the time (Torian having gone AFK and most of the others not active), and Alex refused to do it. I wanted nothing in return and only wanted the best for the site. But Alex refused saying he would sell the site when he gets nothing out of it anymore. Whatever, I let it go. I got made an Admin shortly afterwards by Thomas, but I have no experience in coding, hacking, phishing, scamming, etc. And it was known that all I was good for was being an old face on the site, and that's pretty much it.

Charles is doing more with LG in the amount of time that he has been in charge then Alex has over the last 6 years. Alex does come around and he posts every once in a blue moon. And honestly there is very little keeping everyone here. Even a forum game that I suggested, that was RPG based and would create something for the code monkeys to do work on to make it special for LG and the graphics people would have something to work on designing weapons and backgrounds. But it was passed over because Alex didn't see the point.

I've been on LG for a little over 6 years, and I've seen the site go from almost 1000 posts a day, and a few hundred new members a day, to the major collapse that happened a few years ago. It sucks seeing something fall apart when I've been here for so long, and I'll stick around till it goes the way of GamingGutter.


Also, keep in mind as you read my little piece here, that I am exhausted and running off of no sleep, a 6-pack of Redbull. And about 3 scoops of NO Explode.

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Originally Posted by Alexx

That's exactly the negative attitude that's driven most away.

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It was directed at Minora.

I've put nearly a decade into this website, that's more than all of you.
It's had it's ups and downs. Unless you start putting money into advertising and building a community, it won't flourish like it once did.

Arti did his best throughout the years, you can't blame him for getting busy with his actual life.
Charles is a great guy, I honestly didn't expect him to do this good of a job with the website. He's done more work in a few months than you naysayers have done in your entire stay at this website.

This is coming from a member since '05.

EDIT:: And I understand why I've never been given any power on this website.
If I had the power to ban users, most of the trolls that are here today, would have been gone a long time ago but then activity would be even lower.

Pretty depressing reading all of this to be honest.

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Originally Posted by Use

If we ditch gaia than I'm leaving, idk about anyone else but I only stick around because there's a possibility it could come back around

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Gaia would never be removed. That is just the worst PR move ever.

>delete fourm
>make a chan
>???
>profit!!

I've considered programming a chan-style forum system for years, but the typical layout is just sooo hideously different than how I'd make it, I don't see it being a fruitful endeavor.

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Originally Posted by GAMEchief

I've considered programming a chan-style forum system for years, but the typical layout is just sooo hideously different than how I'd make it, I don't see it being a fruitful endeavor.

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Chans actually generate a gigantic amount of activity, but I'd have to agree with you - they differ style-wise immensely. It would be cool to see it as a side-feature of the site though, allowing anonymous posting and everything, I could see it becoming the new JY or something for just shitposting general. Could be fun!

I don't exactly have the fascination with anonymity, but maybe. I feel if a new medium of communication were to be added -- especially in the way that chans are quick moving and auto-purging -- it might as well just be a shoutbox with the ability to post anonymously.

But fuck shoutboxes because they decrease activity. Maybe just a mod that lets you post anonymously in one forum. But I, again, don't have the fascination with anonymity. I don't know how much anyone would care for such a feature.

I... I just don't want LG to die :(

To my knowledge, no one here has any intentions of not being here any time soon.

I just like anonymity because it leads to more open discussion instead of being labelled to a username, even when your opinions have changed over time.

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Originally Posted by Flareboy323

I just like anonymity because it leads to more open discussion instead of being labelled to a username, even when your opinions have changed over time.

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But people don't stay anonymous. They create a persona and identity to help establish them as a "regular".
I'm a fan of the way this forum works though.
Dollars BBS | Main
password: baccano

You can more or less create a username that only you can access but you don't have to use it when you don't feel like it.
I spam my referral link there sometimes now but I've been with them since they were small. There is almost zero staff and activity has ups and downs but it's never as dead as we are. They also have no real focus. Literally, there is just a sub-forum for everything and a chat feature. Each sub-forum and the chat rooms have a a population and culture all their own. It's really interesting honestly. If I ever decide to go back to school to get a degree in something entirely else I'll have to go with sociology or behavioral studies so I can study and write about forums and the behavior of their users.

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Originally Posted by C0FFINCASE

But people don't stay anonymous. They create a persona and identity to help establish them as a "regular".
I'm a fan of the way this forum works though.
Dollars BBS | Main
password: baccano

You can more or less create a username that only you can access but you don't have to use it when you don't feel like it.
I spam my referral link there sometimes now but I've been with them since they were small. There is almost zero staff and activity has ups and downs but it's never as dead as we are. They also have no real focus. Literally, there is just a sub-forum for everything and a chat feature. Each sub-forum and the chat rooms have a a population and culture all their own. It's really interesting honestly. If I ever decide to go back to school to get a degree in something entirely else I'll have to go with sociology or behavioral studies so I can study and write about forums and the behavior of their users.

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Oh shit, I forgot about Dollars. Wasn't it originally based around some anime or something? Also, I lost the password x-x what is it? Edit: wasn't it bucchiano or something?

EDIT2: Got in, after looking around a bit, they're running a TextBoard software (These were the early imageboards, made by the same dude) called Kareha. It's made in Pearl, and an example of it without the all-black theme can be seen on sites like 4-ch and SecretAreaOfVIPQuality. It's a great textboard software, and as you can see the theme is extremely versatile. Their theme is more like 4-ch's though, with the site in iFrames and the board list to the left hand side in a floating little thing. I think a text board could be a sweet idea for LG though, could be really fun.

For anyone wondering, these are what early chans used instead of imageboards back in the 90's. Good examples are 4-ch (english, also known as four channel) and 2-ch (Japanese, also known as two channel)

EDIT3: Proof they're running Kareha, found the main .js file: http://dollars-bbs.org/main/kareha.js

The Dollars is a fictional group with in a fiction that becomes real because a few characters, including the main one, create a forum and talk the group up. This forum is a recreation of that and the premise atone point was the same.
2-ch is still active and a big deal in Japan. Honestly the whole Dollars concept is borrowed from the what image boards are used in Japan and was sort of a re-imagining of how otaku might group and use their collective to change their image.
Oatku are viwed negatively in Japan, granted japanese otaku take things to a whole other level but it's not unlike how the media label wackos "metal heads" or "gamers" in the US.

Maybe if most of the staff and frequent user-base wasn't a bunch of immature teens and young adults who still live with their parents and have nothing to do but whine and cheat to gain pixels without having to work for them on a stupid online mmo/forum where most of the user base are children and staff old big-wigs trying to figure out the best way to get a bunch of money, maybe then this site might succeed.

But I think secretly Artificial has grown up and has figured that out ages ago and is just letting the site die out and keeping the money from advertisements.

There are literally no advertisements nor anything being sold, so no income.

Should I make a forum for LG conspiracy theories or something?

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Originally Posted by GAMEchief

There are literally no advertisements nor anything being sold, so no income.

Should I make a forum for LG conspiracy theories or something?

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that would be a waste of admin powers that would be useless and as such it will probably be done

bold prediction (except not very bold): LG dies out in approx. 4-5 months with Game at helm. Wagers?

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Originally Posted by The Unintelligible

bold prediction (except not very bold): LG dies out in approx. 4-5 months with Game at helm. Wagers?

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I'll give it 6-8 months. All my LGG

Fuckk better do something fast..