RMU development to stop

[Marked 197]

Hi guys,

 

I have been thinking about this a lot since we switched away from RMXP Unlimited. Since then I have been constantly moving between crest and trough-like phases of motivation and a desire to just stop fighting against the current.

 

RPG Maker XP and the communities during 2005 - 2011 (ish) were great. It created a whole new niche and it was a really enjoyable experience for those of us who were involved. But since then things have changed and RPG Maker is going in a direction that this site cannot cooperate with.

 

Therefore, with a tinge of resentfulness and a whole lot of doubt over this decision, I have decided to bring an end to the development of this website. The flow of new users coming into the site appear to have ceased and without considerable investment of time and effort, it seems unlikely that the site will continue to grow. The loyalty of our long-serving members has dropped considerably in the last half a year. It's a reality I have to accept, and one I think a lot of you already have. Unfortunately I have grown (in terms of age) faster than the site developed, and with all my responsibilities of study and work, it is highly irrational to continue. 

 

It is however certain that the site remain open at the very least until January 2014, as both hosting and the domain name are sorted until then. Because of this I have reserved any sentimental thoughts for a later date :P This is not a signing off message.

 

Web development is still a hobby of mine and I am thinking about putting my efforts into web-related projects (At least until I graduate), hopefully projects that generate some form of revenue.

 

However, I am not completely closed to the idea of a web project for indie game development that doesn't focus on any single engine whatsoever. I think my GDU ideas were good and that we could have done something in way of promoting of indie game development. I'm quite certain that my participation in the RPG Maker world is over, which just reached the 7 year mark.

[Bob423 52]

I am completely against this site going down, ever, in any way. 

Why? Because it was the first online community i was both active on, and liked. If it weren't for this site, I never would've met any of my friends on here.

I have learned so much from just the members here. (although partially indirect) My game will not be good because I'm good at making games. It will be good because of what I've learned here, and how much I've grown. If this site ever goes away it will be difficult to find a place that will accept me like this site has and I have no idea what I would do with my game.

 

I really do love this place and I think that it doesn't need to continue to grow. Some things just stop growing and, although they are small, are perfect the way they are. Keep improving on this site, Marked. This site is like the stock market during a permanent recession. Always relatively low, but still going up and down.

 

Whatever you do, I can only ask that you keep the site around in some form or another for as long as you can.

 

However, a true GDU is a great idea, as long as the RPG Maker systems for tutorials, scripts, and things are still kept, even if they are not the main focus of the site.

 

And remember, pol and I will always be here :P

[dolarmak 23]

This is such a shame. You put so much effort into this, It's sad to see you give up on it.

I hope in the next few months if things really start to kick off (cause your great new design and people being more active) you might change your mind.

 

I've really enjoyed my time here on this forum. There are few other communities that have welcomed me so openly and people here have been so generous with their time and skills.

 

I'll be here til the end I can tell you that, so something tells me you'll have me, pol and bob huddling in a corner conspiring to find a way to keep this place open.

[ShinGamix 1]

What? If you don't want to continue the site I think you should pass it on to someone who does.

aka Krep it OPEN!

 

This ruined my day

week

and year!

[FranklinX 37]

What can we do to bring more active members here? I am back with a force! 

[Broken Messiah 20]

Yeah I'd hate to see this website gone. It's so much more personal than the larger ones. It is hard to get new members what with Enterbrains own forum, where most of the bigshots in the community seem to hanging around. I think if anything, maybe put a indefinite hold on new features. The site is better than the others by a longshot both cosmetically and functionally speaking. We really don't need all the extra stuff like project pages and such, the regular posting method is good enough. I have a few friends who I could maybe talk into joining. One is good at making BGMs with FL Studio, the other is my Storywriter/Partner for Fenrir Studios, and the other likes to write alot and is ultamentally trying to make his own show.

[totalsticks 1]

Well.. it's a shame, and no words can describe how I feel about it other than:

 

Good luck in your future endeavors, and RMXPU will always be near and dear to my heart.

 

Allons-y!

[Polraudio 122]

:cry: This is sad new indeed. I understand your feelings and why you have to do what you have to.

It would really suck to see this place just end. This is my home on the internet. If this place goes down im completely homeless like a hobo living on a dwarf planet in the middle of the star ocean alone without any contact with the outside universe.

If i may ask how much does it cost to keep this site up and running? If its not to much trouble i wouldn't mind taking over completely when the time comes. I may have some troubles paying for it but i will find a way in the end.

I may not be good with the admin stuff but i will learn just like you did.

[Marked 197]

It is hard to get new members what with Enterbrains own forum, where most of the bigshots in the community seem to hanging around.

That'd be right, wouldn't it. We knew it would come to this though. The RPG Maker community is no longer one of a free market where websites will try to improve themselves to beat the competition; it is now one of purchasing additional graphics and paying for subscriptions.

 

I am completely against this site going down, ever, in any way. 

Why? Because it was the first online community i was both active on, and liked. If it weren't for this site, I never would've met any of my friends on here.

I've really enjoyed my time here on this forum. There are few other communities that have welcomed me so openly and people here have been so generous with their time and skills.

Well.Good luck in your future endeavors, and RMXPU will always be near and dear to my heart.

I'm glad to hear you guys got something out of it. I'm proud to say the RMXPU culture was different than the others and that we were more friendly and welcoming. It's been quite a sentimental journey for myself and I feel priviledged to be involved and meet the people I did. Besides, we'll always exist here: http://web.archive.org/web/20120130134957/http://www.rmxpunlimited.net/

 

What can we do to bring more active members here? I am back with a force!

I have a few friends who I could maybe talk into joining. One is good at making BGMs with FL Studio, the other is my Storywriter/Partner for Fenrir Studios, and the other likes to write alot and is ultamentally trying to make his own show.

 I think having members help, but it depends on the type of member. For example, we have a ton of lurkers :P In 2012 we lost Kiriashi, Kellessdee, ForeverZer0, we had a narcissist turn on us, I guess Lizzie slowly faded away too. So that didn't help our cause. We still have a pretty good staff team here in my opinion, but there's not a whole lot to staff. Referrals generally end up in a 1 post intro and off they go again. But thanks for the thought, by all means do so if you want to, I don't mind either way at this stage. The plain fact is that our visitors don't stick. The 2 weeks of downtime really hurt us, not in terms of pageviews or visitors, but active members in the long run (or its a complete coincidence, but I have analytics based on post-count).

 

If i may ask how much does it cost to keep this site up and running? If its not to much trouble i wouldn't mind taking over completely when the time comes. I may have some troubles paying for it but i will find a way in the end.

I may not be good with the admin stuff but i will learn just like you did.

Right now we're hosted on a sever operated by the web company I work for, so that's essentially free for me. Right now it's costing me $12.50 USD a year to keep the site alive. Sorta pays for itself with the ads. The site isn't in any immediate danger of going offline, we still have 7 months before a measly $12USD needs to be paid, and that will see the site through to jan 2015 (if I could bear it).

 

I wrote a pretty cool framework for the site. It's really easily expandable, but I'm the only one who really knows how to upgrade the forum, that is a very specific and complex task. But that shouldn't be a problem as it doesn't need upgraded for a long time to come.

[FranklinX 37]

I strongly advise you to remove this topic if you want to give us a chance to build membership. Nobody is going to join a forum that might be gone in six months. As soon as they see this topic they are going to pack their bags to another site. Maybe you should change this topic or remake a topic about you taking a break from the site's development. In that case it won't be a turn off from joining the site. 

[madanchi 18]

I completely understand your point Marked, I think a fair few of us can too. I myself stopped being active simply because I lost interest in RPG Makers and their Limitations, then again even if I tried other engines I'm no coder or even a 3D Moddler/ game builder, I'm an artist (and one that struggles to finish any game project).

 

I'd feel really upset if the site closed down fully, keep it open for us active members/ friends to chill out, I think we all wouldn't mind chipping in for the server costs either :)

[zahraa 26]

NOOOOOOOOOOO!It's not fair...No...It can't be... :ehh:

I..I really like this site.This is only place that i can feel free and comfortable.As Pol said,It's like my home on the internet

My English is too bad and I can't make progress in every site but here,members are so kind and they help me however,i can't guess what will happen to me and my problems if this site goes down.

It's not just me,As you said before we have many lurkers here and they need help,too. :upset:

I know some of our active members are disappeared,but maybe they come back after a while also we still have active members.

Well,I write a post here because this is all i can do to ask you to change your mind.I hope you wont let me down...

Sorry for bad English BTW

[dolarmak 23]

Well just because you arn't developing the forums any more doesn't mean the site has to die. If it isn't costing you anything than I don't see a problem with letting things stay as they are. there are little things that us Mods can deal with so if you want to just see where the future takes us why not?

 

Who knows, if we get a bunch of new people visiting cause the site looks amazing, maybe we'll grow into a big forum again?

[Marked 197]

I strongly advise you to remove this topic if you want to give us a chance to build membership. Nobody is going to join a forum that might be gone in six months. As soon as they see this topic they are going to pack their bags to another site.

The main reason for this topic is that they don't want to be here in the first place.

 

I'd feel really upset if the site closed down fully, keep it open for us active members/ friends to chill out, I think we all wouldn't mind chipping in for the server costs either :)

I really don't want to shut it down, I just don't want to dedicate the hours I have over the past 6 months for nothing. Server costs are 0 right now. The thing I don't want to happen is for it to become something like CA, where the admin disappears and the dedicated members hang around and spam the place.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOO!It's not fair...No...It can't be... :ehh:

I..I really like this site.This is only place that i can feel free and comfortable.As Pol said,It's like my home on the internet

My English is too bad and I can't make progress in every site but here,members are so kind and they help me however,i can't guess what will happen to me and my problems if this site goes down.

I didn't you know you liked the site so much. Good to know. It's safe for a while, but I don't see a future in RPG Maker for us, and that's essentially what the site is about. So it's a dilemma. It's awfully difficult to make a site about something you know very little about. I only make websites, not games.

 

If it isn't costing you anything than I don't see a problem with letting things stay as they are. there are little things that us Mods can deal with so if you want to just see where the future takes us why not?

 

Who knows, if we get a bunch of new people visiting cause the site looks amazing, maybe we'll grow into a big forum again?

Yeah that's right, this isn't a closing down message (although its close). We're going down with RMXP. But as long as there are members who want to be here, I think it will stay.

 

I may do some minor things. The registration and login systems are bugging me. I want to make to make signing up really easy and ajaxy, but just for lols.

[FranklinX 37]

The main reason for this topic is that they don't want to be here in the first place.

 

 

Do they know that this place is here? Maybe some advertising will help. Make an ad about the site's newest and most advance version.

 

Are the progress charts still available? I know alot of people like those. 

[Marked 197]

Yeah... you're not getting what I'm saying. People don't want to stay here.

 

To prove it, here are weekly visitors since 2010, which have remained very stable.

[Broken Messiah 20]

Well, from the pattern I see, we are close to a point where there will be a drop in visits, however within relative quickness we always bounce back. Yeah they aren't growing much in a postive manner, but atleast we are breaking even in the end.

[Marked 197]

That's not the pattern I see. The pattern in visitors is that they've remained steadily strong from our boom periods of activity right through to the low activity. The number of visitors are strong, that was my point. As I keep saying, they are not sticking. I'm not convinced there is a point to continuing an RPG Maker forum. We'll die with RMXP.

[FranklinX 37]

Yeah... you're not getting what I'm saying. People don't want to stay here.

 

To prove it, here are weekly visitors since 2010, which have remained very stable.

 

I compared the RMU's stats to RM Web's(official forums) stats. People don't know about this site. I know I have suggested to restart the forum due to the many dead topics and lurkers. The new look and cleanliest could appear to be more attractive than a half dead forum.  

 

RMU-http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rpgmakerweb.com#

 

RM Web-http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rpgmakerweb.com#

[ShinGamix 1]

what about all the people who did and have stayed? Are you only interested in new users? 

I don't want to get banned but this topic sounds like a lot of crying about not a lot of new members.

 

Helpful hints

Quit changing things so much. I don't like coming home to furniture rearranged every day and the house painted different colors.

The sites main focus core is still XP users mostly and that is one of the reasons no flood of new people arent here because not to many people are just now starting to use it.

Don't ban me for the crying comment!

The official forums has a lot of stuff for people to come there like products and resources out the wazu and has events and stuff going on 99% of the time.

Need stuff like that here and your staff needs to get things flowing with stuff to do here aka contests events or other things like find the kiwi.

Do you even make games Marked?

---

If this gets me banned miss you guys and ironicly this was my 500th post.

Edited June 18, 2013 by ShinGamix

[Marked 197]

I compared the RMU's stats to RM Web's(official forums) stats. People don't know about this site. I know I have suggested to restart the forum due to the many dead topics and lurkers. The new look and cleanliest could appear to be more attractive than a half dead forum.  

 

RMU-http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rpgmakerweb.com#

 

RM Web-http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rpgmakerweb.com#

Lol Alexa webstats are completely useless, especially for a site around the 1 mil mark, the stats are extremely inaccurate. People still know about this site, like I've been saying over and over, we get tons of visitors here. With regards to restarting... hmm...

 

what about all the people who did and have stayed? Are you only interested in new users? 

I don't want to get banned but this topic sounds like a lot of crying about not a lot of new members.

 

Helpful hints

Quit changing things so much. I don't like coming home to furniture rearranged every day and the house painted different colors.

The sites main focus core is still XP users mostly and that is one of the reasons no flood of new people arent here because not to many people are just now starting to use it.

Don't ban me for the crying comment!

The official forums has a lot of stuff for people to come there like products and resources out the wazu and has events and stuff going on 99% of the time.

Need stuff like that here and your staff needs to get things flowing with stuff to do here aka contests events or other things like find the kiwi.

Do you even make games Marked?

---

If this gets me banned miss you guys and ironicly this was my 500th post.

No, I don't make games, I mentioned that as an issue above too. In saying that I disagree with all your comments here (I have a final exam in 2 hrs so I'll keep it brief). The site's main focus is NOT RMXP, it was, it is just that most members here use RMXP. We've had solid progress on VXA stuff, and its right on par in pageviews with XP stuff. We also have a lot of stuff. We have 3.5k resource images (all free btw), we have scripts and we have tutorials. Obviously not as much as the official website... But I have created unique sections for all this sort of content to make it easier to find and look better than a mere topic. They were created for members to upload and share their works. So the problem is not a lack of active member of the MOTM. It's extremely easy to have frequent contests when you have so many particpants. otherwise members get discourgaed to start, and you can't expect me to build so much and constantly keep running contests. Contests are a collateral benefit that should be done with there are partipants, not a goal to attract members. You first of all need members, generally. Things may be constantly changing but at least they're getting better, and this design is going to remain for a long time (even if I were still working on the site). That argument may have been something beforehand, but the site just needed to settle on a final design that was good enough.

 

I wouldn't ban you for that post. You really have to distinguish when your posts are useful and have substance and when you're just spamming/trolling.

[FranklinX 37]

Lol Alexa webstats are completely useless, especially for a site around the 1 mil mark, the stats are extremely inaccurate. People still know about this site, like I've been saying over and over, we get tons of visitors here. With regards to restarting... hmm...

 

 

I suggested that in the past. Let's keep the new site's looks and features. However, we can make a fresh start. This would remove many inactive accounts. You can send a mass email telling everyone of the grand opening to the new RMU 2.0. I think that is our best shot of boosting activity. Most people won't join a forum with so few active members. 

[theoryoferin 2]

As a new member, I have to say I would be sad to see this place go so quickly after finding it. Sure, I'm not the most active person in the world, but I stop by every few days and poke around a bit. This is the only forum I found that I liked enough to join and participate on when I was searching for a community recently. 

 

From your point of view as the admin, I understand your frustration. I run a writing forum with almost 2,500 members. 7-10 people post regularly, with another 20 or so that pop by once or twice a month to check in. With that many members, we should have many more posts daily than we do, but the fact is... We don't. People like to lurk and see what others are saying and doing. But, for those 7-10 people that post regularly, I keep the site up and running. Because it means something to them and they would be sad to see it go. 

 

Restarting some of the more conversational topics as mentioned above might be a good way to spark some more frequent visits / posts. Sort of a spring cleaning for the boards. Or, as also suggested, perhaps handing over main admin duties to someone else. It's hard to share something you've put so much work into on your own, but rather than disappearing completely, that might be a nicer alternative?

[albertibay 0]

:cry: Can't believe this is going down......

Its the only site I found where people are constantly active......

It was the only site where I found comfort in game development :ehh:

Most Other sites don't have the same room of athmosphere unlike this one does

:exhausted:
Might as well pack my stuff from the manager

 

Can't you at least try to post all working scripts and images in one big zip :huh2:

If the sites going down might as well preserve all the things user put efforts in sharing for us :upset:

 

plus its sad to see that the site with the best emoticons is going down :(

 

It was a fun stay though :ehh:

-Albert Ibay Signing off........... : :upset:

[Marked 197]

I suggested that in the past. Let's keep the new site's looks and features. However, we can make a fresh start. This would remove many inactive accounts. You can send a mass email telling everyone of the grand opening to the new RMU 2.0. I think that is our best shot of boosting activity. Most people won't join a forum with so few active members. 

I did that already, weeks ago. It resulted in this one-off topic: http://www.gdunlimited.net/forums/topic/9721-holy-hell-guys/ If a bulk email to our 20,000 barely sparks any interest, it's pretty good evidence the site isn't relevant anymore.

 

 

As a new member, I have to say I would be sad to see this place go so quickly after finding it. Sure, I'm not the most active person in the world, but I stop by every few days and poke around a bit. This is the only forum I found that I liked enough to join and participate on when I was searching for a community recently. 

 

From your point of view as the admin, I understand your frustration. I run a writing forum with almost 2,500 members. 7-10 people post regularly, with another 20 or so that pop by once or twice a month to check in. With that many members, we should have many more posts daily than we do, but the fact is... We don't. People like to lurk and see what others are saying and doing. But, for those 7-10 people that post regularly, I keep the site up and running. Because it means something to them and they would be sad to see it go. 

 

Restarting some of the more conversational topics as mentioned above might be a good way to spark some more frequent visits / posts. Sort of a spring cleaning for the boards. Or, as also suggested, perhaps handing over main admin duties to someone else. It's hard to share something you've put so much work into on your own, but rather than disappearing completely, that might be a nicer alternative?

In terms of handing over admin duties, sure. But I never said I was leaving the site. The amount of time I spent on the site has been much that I'm working part time as a web developer. What I'm saying here is that I'm not going to be programming anymore. I wrote everything that doesn't include "forums" in the url and spent a ridiculous amount of time, which is spillt milk now, but there's no point in going on, and no one here can do that and we won't get a member who could possibly take over those duties.

 

These are nice ideas and all, someone else can be admin and take them on and see how that pans out, but RPG Maker is over. It is the reason it's not going to work anymore. That's it.

 

:cry: Can't believe this is going down......

Its the only site I found where people are constantly active......

It was the only site where I found comfort in game development :ehh:

Most Other sites don't have the same room of athmosphere unlike this one does

:exhausted:

Might as well pack my stuff from the manager

 

Can't you at least try to post all working scripts and images in one big zip :huh2:

If the sites going down might as well preserve all the things user put efforts in sharing for us :upset:

 

plus its sad to see that the site with the best emoticons is going down :(

 

It was a fun stay though :ehh:

-Albert Ibay Signing off........... : :upset:

I never said it was going down, geez. And you're not even active anymore. Everything is going to stay up for certain until Janurary next year, after that it's less certain and will depend on you guys. There's definitely no immediate threat.

[ShinGamix 1]

Can we pay for it to stay open past that time?

-topics like this are running people off or away also. This is at least the second similar topic since I have been here.

Edited June 19, 2013 by ShinGamix

[FranklinX 37]

I did that already, weeks ago. It resulted in this one-off topic: http://www.gdunlimited.net/forums/topic/9721-holy-hell-guys/ If a bulk email to our 20,000 barely sparks any interest, it's pretty good evidence the site isn't relevant anymore.

 

 

Are you sure most of those email accounts are not spam? I have  a feeling that the majority of those accounts are spam bots. 

 

Secondly, I didn't get that email. 

[Marked 197]

Can we pay for it to stay open past that time?

-topics like this are running people off or away also. This is at least the second similar topic since I have been here.

There have tons of topics "where has everyone gone!?", this one is slightly different but to a similar effect. All I really said is no more goodies. Actually, no one more goodies for a site focused on RPG Maker. It only cost $12.50 USD, I already earned about $90NZD today and it's just on lunchtime :P Money isn't an issue. Paying that small fee for me isn't going to change my mind on anything. Give the past replies, a few of you will interpret that like I'm shutting the site down, which I'm not. If there are people who actually use it then I will keep it open.

 

Are you sure most of those email accounts are not spam? I have  a feeling that the majority of those accounts are spam bots. 

 

Secondly, I didn't get that email. 

Yeah you could be right there. A lot of them are. But I did track the links so i know how many people clicked them, which is around 900. Oh well, it's irrelevant now. On the day we set our visitors record, 1,021, which just beats the previous record 1,002 which was a normal day.

[ShinGamix 1]

So you're just saying you're not gonna keep upgrading the code and website more?

okay

[FranklinX 37]

Marked may you please make a topic about building activity and gaining membership? I would like the forum's top members to strongly and seriously disgust ways to make this place more active.