RateMyServer Ragnarok Community

This isn't a question directed solely at owners. What do players think?

Certainly, forums encourage a sense of community and solidarity in those who regular them. They're another point of contact for the staff, to keep tabs on the wants and general mood of the players.

But they're also a burden to maintain when you're doing it right. I'm talking about a properly moderated and ordered forum. Not some cookie-cutter, freshly unzipped, thoughtlessly implemented forum.

You need additional staff to moderate them. The staff need to be kept on an even keel to prevent them from becoming the subjects of groundless 'corruption' accusations (it happens anyways). And then there are the flamewars, the trolls and the trouble.

I suspect that a vast majority of players hardly visit the forums. The bulk of the postings are done by a very talkative few.

As a previous RO player/GM (not counting my Admin time), I think the forum is somewhat helpful. You get to know a bit about the community (or at least one part of it). However, what frustrates me would probably be the Suggestions section. Sometimes, the staff doesn't even bother to reply or at least post reasons as to why the suggestion isn't as good. Kinds of leaves players hanging in the dark.

I do agree though most players don't have forum accounts. That is kind of sad to me because they should be active on both the server and forum, but I guess they prefer to type in-game. In fact, they type too much in-game for those who don't have forum accounts (complaints and such).

I still believe forums are necessary to each server. Maintenance calls, updates, guides, recruitment for guilds, and others are pretty good sections for players to see. Forums are not completely useless in my mind.

Forums arethe best and only way other than the servers website on finding out a private servers mechanics overall
:P

Forums are great for info.

"what r custms ere?"
"Check the forums."

"When is the next Fairy Auction?"
"Check the forums."


It's amazing the correlation between players who say they refuse to visit forums, and those who have no clue what is going on, or when things are happening.

Sometimes, the community/forums turns me off so bad I quit even before I establish myself into the server. VastRO is an example.

offtopic: I pity people who reply "learn to search" whenever someone needs help.

Quote from: orix1357 on Mar 23, 2010, 12:55 AM
offtopic: I pity people who reply "learn to search" whenever someone needs help.

There's a difference between not being able to find something, and wanting everyone to answer everything.

I once told someone I couldn't remember the answer to what they wanted, but I knew the info was on the forums. They told me I was selfish for not going to go find it for them, because they don't like forums and didn't want to alt+tab.
They were entirely serious too, and proceeded to emo about it on main for quite a while.


Edit: As for the current heRO forums?
Pretty good. The search function doesn't like working if you don't choose a subforum bit, though.

Quote from: Habuka on Mar 23, 2010, 12:20 AM
Other then that, I dont see a point but trolling and flaming.

So do you see it or not

Some serverforums are actually useful,
if I play a server more than 2 weeks I probably join their forums, the reports are interesting (To see who actually was a real **** you talked to and see if he/she is banned) and some WoE topics, bug reports etc. can be interesting.
If the server doesn't have a ticket system, the forum is the best way to tell suggestions and bugs,
because ingame the GMs to not listen or forget what you've just said after a few minutes

@Green
There's always an option of "Don't reply".

@Habuka
Sad but true.

@DarkDevine
Main's actually enough to see who's a douche, but sometimes I need another opinion. :P

Quote from: orix1357 on Mar 23, 2010, 12:55 AM
offtopic: I pity people who reply "learn to search" whenever someone needs help.

How does it help to give the same answer countless times?

Forums are useful. I've GMed tons of servers and when the forums went down it seemed as if the world was falling apart around the server. They are useful for trade, advice, and announcements. The off topic section is where the community actually becomes a community.

I've seen servers try to replace forums with wikis. For the love of god don't. More often than not, forums seem to stay better organized than a f*** wiki.

Quote from: LemonCrosswalk on Mar 26, 2010, 04:43 PM
Forums are useful. I've GMed tons of servers and when the forums went down it seemed as if the world was falling apart around the server. They are useful for trade, advice, and announcements. The off topic section is where the community actually becomes a community.

I've seen servers try to replace forums with wikis. For the love of god don't. More often than not, forums seem to stay better organized than a f*** wiki.

+1 to my raping disgust of wikis(no offensive innuendo intended) o0f RO servers

imo forums are useful, i do have both wiki and forums though..

good forums are great, like the simple ones that look good and are easy to navigate through. Some forums can be trashy and discourage from even logging into the server. IP Vision Board is great

 Extremely useful, defiantly.

Forums + Overall high activity = Good advertising move to pull in the smart players.

I always use server forums as a way to tell how active the GM's and players are. GM's hosting an English server who do not act professional in a way with their English are very unattractive. GM's are GM's. They're not players. They may be player's when they're not on duty but when they're supposed to be GM's, they're supposed to be GM's.

Also, what server wouldn't have forums? Trying to contact GM's only when they're in-game is a very slow server in my opinion. You might as well go play iRO and wait for a GM to log on to ask them a question. Oh wait, GM's on iRO only log on in a blue moon.

I love server forums. I usually lurk and check it out before I even download the server itself. There's tons of useful info there.

i always make sure I have a forum account. Usually I notice GMs are often busy in-game...swarmed with PMs and such, so I feel the forum is usually the better place to post my questions and get a response.

They are useful but it's always a good idea to have a website or wiki and not just a forum.

Only thing I dislike about forums these days is the number of trolls going around.. Every popular ragnarok with a forum has there
fair share of trolls :/

They're good for feedback, creative suggestions and bug reports. Past that, it's nothing but trolls and mindless spam.