Should we quit?

[Nick]

I'm already pissed off at this place, it sucks. Nothing turns out well. Everything that is tried just fails and doesn't progress. I've tried every frickin thing in the world, while nothing works or ever goes through. So I decide we should quit soon, since few people out of the mass population of 6,000,000 [edit: was I on drugs? It's 6,000,000,000], some considered as morons who never post. Yes, this will bring some peace to me, because we can move to other forums and not worry about what in the world happens here. I can just let it die and never need to look here again. it's just so easy. all we have to do is mass delete all the posts using admin capabilities, delete other content off the board and get some help from the proboards staff to eliminate everything else that remains of it. however this is something good and positive to look forward to.. over time I thought this would rather turn out to be a sucess, but nothing but loads of faliure became of it. though i have tried almost everything I can do, getting 1,000,000 posts would probably not increase the activity. there was once a time I thought that getting 1,000 would promote more activity. one day we did reach 1,000 posts and then what happened? we possibly decreased in activity. I've also seen other boards grow as well. vgc, gq, and everybody else are sucessful by now. I remember when VGC had 600 posts which was on the 4th day, which it took us about a whole month and a half. I began to wonder what in  the world was wrong with this place. did it lack something the others didn't have? I started returning to VGC for ideas, but nothing happened. they have more posts than us of course, and even with the nearly 1,000 advertisements I have out there, few of them direct members and even less possible dedicated posters. but then again there is nothing I can see what we are missing, because boards like this should already 'run by themselves.' Members at the mystical realm tend to be 'slow posters' which they consider themselves as. people registered at the formerly known video game chat post a whole lot more than they do at the mystical realm even when we possibly have more threads available now than when they posted more at video game chat. i know this doesn't make a whole lot of sense in sentence structure, but anyways I might consider revising some parts of this post when needed. there is something wrong with the mystical realm that i can't find out. most of our members are somewhat too busy with other forums, including their own. we need members but whenever a useful member passes by all they do in end up leaving after 10 (really, awesome) posts. I don't understand how we've been so lucky though. We have been lucky compared to a ton of other proboards out there, but remember we aren't a proboard we are a forum in general, a forum's provider shouldn't control the activity flow that is on a forum. then again, why do people post more on paid forums on paid servers that on free ones? at some time I thought I should get a server and buy vB to increase this forum's activity, but I wasn't sure enough if we would actually suceed or not. I've tried making a site for The Mystical Realm, current titled The Portal 2002 which is already launched. I'm registering it to searches and other traffic creating ideas that failed for the mystical realm but I doubt they will work later. if the site does become a little bit more popular than it is now, I'm gunna see if traffic actually goes through. actually I was gunna quit the mystical realm and wait until the site becomes sucessful, but I know it won't, and the mystical realm and already still more sucessful than the site. I doubt that the site can catch up, remember that the mystical realm was lucky to even have this much activity. this really makes an administrator pissed off at all times, even when he/she isn't thinking of the forum, it causes them to get crazy and nearly have a screwed up life. and yes, members can see it differently, since they are only a small poster. They care less about what happens to the forum because they possibly have something more important that keeps them occupied online. In this case I am not flaming regular members, they just are managing their own business. my anger is directed against my self in fact, because when choices are needed to be made it's like I want to commit suicide. I think that there is nothing left in life, and yes, it does feel like I want to die. it feels like since you've made your forum/site/whatever you call it in number one position, if you quit it life seems dense and you want to start over.

[Nick]

[Since when posting I was limited by a 5K (i recall) post limit, I needed to make a new post so my limit could be made to 10K. Please don't try to convert this post into one, since I do need to post 2 to get it to post. And yes, I don't know why I said that, since nobody will actually read it.] and here's where I was...

---

so that's what's happening to me lately. this forum has collected/accumulated about 50 members and still no real signs of independence have been made. really what I want isn't 2489-54872-47630-8763- posts, it's just that I want the board to run by itself, without me guarding it like I'm the main poster and only a few follow me. the admin shouldn't be the most frequent poster on a forum, it should be the members who want to offer conversation to the board. yes, and at times I thought that the mystical realm was a too off-topic forum. But when I tried making topics all they did it failed. Nothing worked right for me, but I have thought of a couple solutions. One idea was to get a topic I really liked. Possibly or at least probably I should make a game series or something small like that. Super Smash Bros. Melee or some game that I have would be a good topic focus. Why? I could easily make a well-designed site for all the information I have. Of course I wouldn't be completely limited on information since I own the game myself. The only thing I would be limited in would be creativity. Probably the board could be very sucessful since the topic would bring interested visitors. I know for a fact the board won't have -958738467-348 posts like I wish it had, but it would probabbly at least manage over 60% of the board by itself and probably have 10,000 of posts. Someday I wish to create a site similar to what I'm talking about at the minute. then again I would probably want a good server and probably want to spend some money into it, since HTML is somewhat a difficult choice and the programs I have make sites look unprofessional. one reasons/another anyways that I think these sites suck is because it is not professionally made. I'm making it for the fun of it, and really business sites would probably be more sucessful than this. But then again I'm not into business, I'm in to entertainment like this board. Another meaning of professional would be better design/site first. A good professional design would have a real paid .com site and probably 100 pages at the least to manage. Then a message board could be made, but it might be paid on vB. That's how a sucessful site could come in my opinion, but I'm not sure if that could actually happen. wfigs.proboards5.com - they are like god. over 100,000, possibly 300,000 by now. they were an example I would like to follow. no proboard has gone over the limit of them. this set a good example for us to at least try to follow. but no, the probable reason that site is extremely sucessful is because of the popularity of their .com site and it's intelligent design and such. recently I also discovered ign boards with over 36,000,000. i fainted on the floor when I saw that because 36,000,000 is a number we will never reach in our life. even if I posted every second I could possibly get online, our maximun couldn't be nearly 1/2 of that forum. when I refresh the page a second later there is 20 new posts, and I can't post even 1 in 10 seconds, it takes more like 30 to type a good message. So in 30 seconds they can get 600 vs. 1. however in my opinion I think they are bigger than us by more than 600. and remember I'm not always online which makes it even less probable to catch up to them. but then again, what is the point of a message board? for an administrator of it to post in every post and never let users register. if u sers did post, it would increase activity, but still, IGN probably gets the number of posts we have in total in 3 hours or less, which took us probably 4 or so months. A ratio of 120 days to 3 hours. So it took us around 172, 800 minutes/hours opposed to 3 hours/180 minutes. So they are growing at a rate that's nearly 1000 times or more faster if calculations are correct. (960 times faster). And I'm 100% sure that I screwed up in checking what's really correct so maybe it can even be 2,000 times faster. I've been comparing the mystical realm to other boards since it's creation and we've always been begind in some way. the best times of activity are over since only 3 people post now, when at a time a couple new people were registering daily. I think the board is somewhat used out already and it pretty much sucks now. or maybe the dead forum season has started. also summer has started and still no signs of revivation of non-posters. sigh...

[Perfect Dark]

It's really quite begining to annoy me. No one gives a d-amn to post. That just pisses me off. We allied with a big board but not one frequest poster came from it. There are only a small few that post here at least once a day. Nick and I and maybe Mojo are the only posters in this whole board. That's just sad. No one can just 10 minutes of their time online to give a couple posts on here? Out of 50 members 3 post. Why not more? What have we done wrong? We've tried just about everything. We are on search engines, topsites and they're links at many boards. Many people probably come to TMR. Is it because we are a Proboard? If so that would be the stupidest reason I've ever heard. Just because a VB, a system with more options and mostly better stuff can grow big why can't a Proboard? There really isn't a difference. They're both just places to talk and share messages. wfigs.proboards5.com is one lucky board.But look at us. We now only relay on stuid games that take 5 seconds to post to keep us alive. That's really sad. We have to spam to keep the boards alive. I thought in summer we would thrive but, alas.

[PokemonElite2000]

Let me first say, that its unfortunate that TMR hasn't been better than what you have expected Nick.

The following is something I said at my board when somebody asked for ideas/tips for making a message board. It related to this also:

Getting your club, or message board, getting people to notice it out of a crowd of many is always the difficult part. Honestly, there's really little you can do. Search engines can only do so much, theres thousands clubs, and even more Pokemon websites. Telling people you know about it helps.

So how did I do it? Well obviously, having a website that has hundreds of different people go to every day helps. So I guess it would be helpful how I made the website "popular". The main thing: If your website is good, they will come back. I handed down this advice countless times. If people like what they see, they will come back. So, be patient, start small, and then be big. Pokemon Elite 2000 didn't just become big in a week or month.

If you are serious about running your own site, message board, etc. You must have the dedication, both time and effort is needed. Some people asked me how to make a website, and I told them where to go. I made a mistake. I can give you a bunch of links to some websites that people started working on, but all of them became dead after only couple months. Some in less than a month. The mistake was they didn't have the dedication, I should of talked to them about that. Only one good thing came out of this, these people learned the hard way how hard it really is.

[PokemonElite2000]

Have you thought about this? You can't expect yourself to be sucessful. Not everyone can make a great forum. I think the biggest misconception of making a forum or website, is that its going to be easy. Its not. Some people saw how my website grew to such a sucess, so they decide to make their website, thinking they also can be in the top ranks. I can give you a bunch of links to some sites, that became dead within few months, some in weeks. My point? Everybody can't be that sucessful. If you made a website/forums expecting to be great, then that's the mistake. Its not easy. It takes dedication, patience, skill, and a bit of luck.

When people go through the hardships on really how hard it is to make a website/forums to be sucessful, I think they will have more appreciation for what other people do. Cuz I thought at first making a website was going to be easy, it wasn't, and I definitely appreciate what some people do more than I did before. I learned that, and moved on from there.

Basically what I'm trying to say: Its not easy. Its not easy to become a great forum or website. So don't be so hard on yourself, its a difficult task.

[MoJo]

If you quit, i will be most dischuffed. Because eventhough there aren't many members who post, i think it is very well presented and what will I do if I have no place to post... Go back to VGC? NO WAY.

[Anything But Ordinary]

You wonder why no one comes?!?!?  

Your telling every guest, every newbie, every member that your board sucks. Sure you don't have a lot of posters. But why would they be motavated when you blast your own board to shreds.

It is really wrong for your allies not to post at your board. They do that to me to. My board isn't really good, but I don't wanna say it just sucks and has no hope! B/C then no one will ever come..!!

[kmfdm_kid2000]

Believe it or not, I for one am a total NEWBIE when it comes to messageboards. I posted on a Gigi D'Agostino fan site for about 2 months, and got banned for flamming the stuck up fans there.

I joined VGC, looking for help with a Final Fantasy game, after I spoke with the FAQ author, and he couldn't help me...I looked up "Final Fantasy Chat" and lo and behold, I found VGC...

By chance, I saw Storm's sig there, which had a link to the then known as RPG Palace, which was a COMPLETELY DEAD FORUM FOR MONTHS...

I browsed around VGC, looking around for about 2 weeks or so, & I didn't like the abuse of members I saw there. After 6 weeks, I actually made contact with Storm, & he gave me a Mod position there. Back then, there were 3 of us, Storm, me, and AtmaWeapon65...

I sought to make RPG Palace everything VGC WASN'T. Mainly, a friendly place to chat. Maybe we flourished, b/c I didn't come with experiance from any previous messageboards, at least not gamming ones.

My ideas were fresh, and new, totally unheard of before on gamming sites. I believe that's why Game Quest has flourished. We borrowed some elements from most popular boards, but we kept this to a minimum, only to make ppl feel like they were at "home" when they visited...

It's a known fact that ppl prefer vB to other types of board software, that can't be helped. PPL prefer Ad-less messageboards as well, it goes for faster posting...

I strongly urge you to consider a vB if you consider giving up this site, but PLEASE don't go crazy, & just delete it, that'd be unfair to those of us who did post here...

Just keep trying, don't give up, with enough determination, & persistance, you'll be there. Don't expect the world to be your oyster right away, it takes time & lots of work/ dedication...

I'm still baffled by the way things have gone on GQ, maybe a mixture of luck was thrown in, and I'm disappointed in my members not joining this site. It's supposed to be a Mod requirement to join allies...I'll try to push this site on my staff more, but I can't FORCE them to join...

Sites are respected by content, just keep the content flowing, and you'll never have a problem...At the very least, you have a place for you and your friends to hang out that's your's & your's alone...Be happy with what you have, not what you wish you had...

Sorry if I was harsh in anyway, but that's just my opinion on the issue...

[Perfect Dark]

Well, I did the math and calculated all the posts I thought were spam. 5737. Out of 7000 posts.

[MoJo]

But what you think is spam, other people might think they are inteligent posts, and vica-versa. So your calculations are in your opinion correct, but in say Nicks opinion way off.

[Nick]

I possibly know what we are doing incorrect now. We are offering no topical intelligent conversation. Games are quite average for non-topical discussion but a forum really needs topic. This thread was an example of some real discussion, but since it didn't have a topic it is just a start in our new agenda. From here on up we need to start making actual conversation that will attract more users. This won't happen in just days, so we should still stick with games for a while. Once conversation has started we can slowly adapt from the old ways and start conversation. The reason games don't promote new members is because they mean nothing but a small 1 number. People often forget the whole purpose of a message board; not to make ... posts but to actual have chat. "hi how are you doing" isn't what we should try to accomplish here at The Mystical Realm, it should be discussion. Once again we cannot make this change in just days, probably months so just act like nothing has really happened. Start posting in some of our new discussions and possibly time will tell.

[King of Realms]

don't quit unless it's there. that's what i did wrong. i quit too soon because i thought nothing would turn out now. but still i learn from experiences, as you should too.

[Ryyaan]

I hate it when Nick talks about "This board is dead" crap, because it isn't! More than 7,000 posts! That's good, ain't it? About 60 members? That's good too, so I don't see the point of complaining about the board being dead.

[Nick]

vgc has 80,000! gq has 45,000! hf has 1,500,0000! IGN has 38,000,000! 7,000 isn't anything compared to that. Also that took us like 6 months to get. activity is also very important and we only have like 100 posts per day.

[Anything But Ordinary]

I'm gonnna have to agree with Ryyaan. Maybe if for a fraction of a second you were postive Nick something good would happen to the board.