Problem The First : Mismanagement (not involving Mahz)

One of the bigger, if not THE biggest, problems with this site/Discord/community at large is that the Discord has, over years of mismanagement, become much more active than the forum yet often not due to the purpose of the Discord/Forum. There are many reasons for this. Primarily the one Havoccultist pointed out.



Problem The Second : Divided Userbase (by method of interaction)

Another cause of this problem is just inherent in the form. The community is divided into three essential forms, in my thinking.

Forum
Sidebar
Discord

Each serves a different purpose and has different writing requirements and expectations.

If all were calibrated primarily toward RPing there would likely be a more vibrant RPing experience. They are, in descending order, instead, increasingly calibrated to socializing. So you get forums with relatively few posts but mostly RP related and not a lot of socializing. A small portion of the community actually posts RPs with any regularity. On the other end, in the Discord, you have a massive user base with many many posts very few of which are actually RPing or even calibrated even vaguely toward RPing. Many of the most prolific users of the Discord have not actually RPed in a year or more. Some haven't even posted on the forum at all for over a year.

Somewhere in the middle are the folks who primarily just mess about in the status bar. There's probably more actual folks in this group that occasionally write than there are in the Discord, despite there being dramatically more Discord users than Side Bar users.

Few use all three methods. Many who use one or two of these methods are unaware of many of the users who use the other ones. It doesn't help that the community has further divided itself through separating out into increasingly small cliques.

Problem The Third : Mahz

For years now, as long as I've been here and long before that as well, Mahz has been flaky. I use that term euphemistically. Not here far more often than he is. Not engaged even when he is here. Fobbing off most of what most would view as the duties of the owner of a forum onto one admin or another. Taking a completely hands off approach. Steadfastly refusing to deal with the issues plaguing the community even when he does on occasion acknowledge them.

Yet not ever willing to leave it in someone else's hands.

Problem The Fourth : Who To Hand The Reins To

Having been here for some time, though admittedly not near so long as some others, and having been active in the forum, status bar, and at one time the Discord, there is no apparent best choice to replace Mahz were he to decide to hand over the reins, not that he ever will.

I do not believe if he were to just decide tonight to hand it over to one of the current staff, or as Hedgehawk just said one of the former staff, that it would fix anything at all. It would, in my opinion, lead to little more than a temporary shakeup followed by a return to the status quo. Much like the rule change the forum had a year ago or so. Rather than a group of folks with varied approaches who have learned from the mistakes of the last few years we seem to me to just have a collection of mini-Mahzes. Which is a fun thing to say or write but not so terribly useful for managing a community.

Were that to happen, were he to hand over the reins, and it won't and he won't, it would still likewise result in little to no lasting or fundamental change. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Problem The Fifth : An Increasingly Niche Hobby

Much as I, like anyone, would like to think that the state of this place is due entirely to INSERT CURRENT LEADERSHIP AND OR PETTY PERSONAL GRIPES and that if only I had control every fault would immediately evaporate and things would flourish under my iron rule...it is a hobby which has always been relatively niche and which is losing ground to other more immediately gratifying hobbies.

It's a problem bigger than Mahz/Hank/Ruby/Legend/Poo

Not bigger than me, but then I'm special.

RPing is a creative endeavor which requires some creativity, some writing prowess, some effort, and some participation from others with similar or greater creativity, writing prowess, willingness to put in effort, and perhaps most difficult to achieve interest in whatever goofy ass idea you or I have decided we want to write about.

It is a fucking miracle anything ever gets written at all.