So, I must have missed something.
I don't often go to the ENWorld forums, however, when I tried to do so today, I discovered that you apparently can't even view the threads anymore without an account? Is the whole site now behind a paywall?
The value of the $3/month subscriber fee has never seemed like a value to me, irregardless of how much 3rd party d20/D&D crap they use to try and sweeten the deal.
I don't pay, just have a free login, and can see the threads/post on the forums.
Now that said, as soon as you want to do anything beyond that, like say... use the Search function, you gotta pay, man. You gotta pay.
Quote from: Benoist;415676I don't pay, just have a free login, and can see the threads/post on the forums.
Do you think they will allow me to use my traditional forum name?
Quote from: Angry_Douchebag;415677Do you think they will allow me to use my traditional forum name?
HA! Good question. I have no idea. It's supposed to be a "grandma safe" environment, though.
Quote from: Benoist;415678It's supposed to be a "grandma safe" environment, though.
Poor granny. I bet she'll suffocate in this far too crammed, dark, unlit safe.
Yeah, ENWorld picked some really bizarre features to charge for. I would pay the $3 a month if they would fucking change the goddamn colour scheme to something readable, however.
White on black? What are you guys, 14? Are we in danger of having a shitty emo poem forum in the near future?
I just can't imagine paying 3 dollars for access to a forum.
Quote from: Benoist;415678HA! Good question. I have no idea. It's supposed to be a "grandma safe" environment, though.
I'm all for a "grandma safe" environment as long as its based on my semi-psychotic grandma. I still remember the conversation from last year discussing how her neighbor had helped out a very elderly woman grandma didn't like (keeping in mind grandma herself is 80): "If it were me, I would have shoved the old bitch's head in a toilet and kept it down there 'till she drowned."
Ahh, memories...
Running with adblock plugin for firefox makes that a much more readable site.
Also insite:enworld.org through google doth help with searches.
Quote from: thedungeondelver;415768Running with adblock plugin for firefox makes that a much more readable site.
Exactly what I do. I wouldn't be on EnWorld at all, ever, otherwise.
Quote from: jgants;415762I'm all for a "grandma safe" environment as long as its based on my semi-psychotic grandma. I still remember the conversation from last year discussing how her neighbor had helped out a very elderly woman grandma didn't like (keeping in mind grandma herself is 80): "If it were me, I would have shoved the old bitch's head in a toilet and kept it down there 'till she drowned."
Ahh, memories...
LOL Our elders often find poetic ways to express their feelings about the world around them. Or in other words: they don't give a fuck anymore, so they can forget about shooting blanks! :D
You don't have to pay just to read the forums. I do think you need an account to read them though.
Either way, the reason to be a subscriber to ENW isn't to avoid ads, or search, or get free stuff, it's just because ENW is awesome.
I've also donated to a few blogs I like, and a podcast or two.
Quote from: Benoist;415778Exactly what I do. I wouldn't be on EnWorld at all, ever, otherwise.
I do wonder what they spend their money on; even with images turned off that site c r a w l s.
And no, it's not my internet connection (it has since the 5mbps days, now at 20), nor my computer (it has since the Pentium 4 2ghz half gig of RAM days, now a dual core, 4gb RAM).
Despite me blocking all their ads, is the page still stubbornly trying to load those side and top banners?
Quote from: thedungeondelver;415785I do wonder what they spend their money on
Boose and hookers. Hookers and boose. Whichever works best.
Quote from: thedungeondelver;415785even with images turned off that site c r a w l s.
It does crawl for me too.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;415720I just can't imagine paying 3 dollars for access to a forum.
Fuck. Well, there goes my Plan A, then.
Plan B is that members pay theRPGsite or one of the mods burns your house down.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;415808Fuck. Well, there goes my Plan A, then.
Plan B is that members pay theRPGsite or one of the mods burns your house down.
RPGPundit
Shit, I better fire up the paypal account. Lowtax asks for $10 for the SA forums but all he does is threaten to email everyone you know and tell them that you hang out on the SA forums.
I'm having a hard time sorting out which is which, though.
Nah, actually, when we need money we'll probably just do a donation drive like in the past. Actually, the site owes money to Brett for some server costs and such, for months now, but he hasn't gotten around to organizing how he'd like to do the donation drive yet.
I'm not very concerned when he does; we haven't done this in a couple of years, and the site was much smaller the last time, and we still met our goals in something like 3 days.
RPGPundit
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;415720I just can't imagine paying 3 dollars for access to a forum.
I paid $10 for a Something Awful account and an extra $10 for upgraded functionality, and it's been quite worth it, since it is a huge general interest forum with a lot to see. I wouldn't pay that money for today's ENWorld; might have done it in 2005, but that was long ago.
BTW, it is endlessly entertaining that SA allows users to buy avatars and custom titles not just for themselves, but
other users. Custom titles in huge red letters, even. That's some business acumen. :D
It's a week-long data gathering experiment. Morrus wants to see how it affects various stats to give him a better idea of user behaviour.
I love it how Americans are able to repeat PR talking points of corporations while keeping an honest face.
"week-long data gathering experiment", holy shit.
Off topic
I am interested to know about Monkey Boy's avatar. What picture is it from? Who is the artist?
Don't quote me on this but I think its from Seventh Sea... either teh RPG or the card game. The name of the character is on the tip of my tongue... swear.
Quote from: Settembrini;415832I love it how Americans are able to repeat PR talking points of corporations while keeping an honest face.
"week-long data gathering experiment", holy shit.
I love how you're calling an Australian an American.
All for the worse, all for the worse. I thought Australians would be immune to bullshit. Can't even count on the Australians, these days, not even the Australians.
Quote from: Spike;415856Don't quote me on this but I think its from Seventh Sea... either teh RPG or the card game. The name of the character is on the tip of my tongue... swear.
Hey thanks. I found it :)
Quote from: Settembrini;415832I love it how Americans are able to repeat PR talking points of corporations while keeping an honest face.
"week-long data gathering experiment", holy shit.
I've seen you complain about generalities being made about your national background. Rather hypocritical, it seems.
Quote from: ColonelHardisson;415977I've seen you complain about generalities being made about your national background. Rather hypocritical, it seems.
wha...Wha...WHAAAAAT? The hell you say! Not from Settembrini! I refuse to even consider it!
Quote from: ColonelHardisson;415977I've seen you complain about generalities being made about your national background. Rather hypocritical, it seems.
Well, Sett is a German
wargamer you know... so... what?! I didn't say anything! :D
Quote from: Benoist;416008Well, Sett is a German wargamer you know... so... what?! I didn't say anything! :D
Let's just refer to him henceforth as "Slappy".
Quote from: Settembrini;415832I love it how Americans are able to repeat PR talking points of corporations while keeping an honest face.
"week-long data gathering experiment", holy shit.
OK. You've lost me. Someone asked the question about logging in to ENworld. I visited the site to check it out. Read the general forums and found nothing beyond the usual DDI whine fest. Checked meta and found Morrus' response which I posted. Maybe I should have attributed the quote to Morrus but given it was a sentence I couldn't be bothered.
If it's an experiment to see how much traffic the site .. I don't know... doesn't get because you need to log in then then I guess Morrus will get results. I couldn't be bothered checking the forums today as I figured it wasn't worth logging in.
Quote from: Monkey Boy;416043OK. You've lost me. Someone asked the question about logging in to ENworld. I visited the site to check it out. Read the general forums and found nothing beyond the usual DDI whine fest. Checked meta and found Morrus' response which I posted. Maybe I should have attributed the quote to Morrus but given it was a sentence I couldn't be bothered.
Calling everyone stupid is Settembrini's way of contributing to the board.
Hm.
I have contributed to enworld in the past once or twice... that was back when I was reading it more often - these days I find it a convoluted mess. :(
Currently I am paying to be a member of reddit, although that's because I find the site an interesting experiment and want to see where it goes. Plus, I got a free monocle.
Maybe I should send a thank you note to the admin that put me on a temporary ban a few years ago. I walked away and never went back.
Quote from: Insufficient Metal;416067Calling everyone stupid is Settembrini's way of contributing to the board.
It's what Germans do.
Quote from: Aos;416429It's what Germans do.
That, or they invade your country. Well, before they learned that winning a financial battle was just as rewarding with none of the international trouble, of course. :D
Will the place become like a "dead mall" ?
http://www.deadmalls.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mall
Quote from: ggroy;416614Will the place become like a "dead mall" ?
http://www.deadmalls.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mall
One of our malls was dead. But since we had that huge flood in '08, it is now the home of most of the county government offices and the library. It's a zombie mall, but not in a cool way. ;)
As for EnWorld, I doubt it will become unpopular any time soon, paywall or not.
I think ENworld has had a serious identity crisis since the effective end of D20's dominance as a movement in the gaming world.
It was one of the biggest forums at that time because it tapped into the biggest thing going on at that time. Ever since then, its basically been running on pure momentum, and trying to decide what its for precisely.
RPGPundit
Regarding the paywall, I could care less about Search not working for forum posts. I do think that having to pay to search for Reviews is BS, though. I'd be kind of annoyed if potential customers couldn't search for reviews of my product unless they paid a fee to EN World.
Quote from: RPGPundit;416925I think ENworld has had a serious identity crisis since the effective end of D20's dominance as a movement in the gaming world.
It was one of the biggest forums at that time because it tapped into the biggest thing going on at that time. Ever since then, its basically been running on pure momentum, and trying to decide what its for precisely.
RPGPundit
This.
Quote from: ggroy;416614Will the place become like a "dead mall" ?
That's an interesting way to think of message boards with declining activity. Thanks. Which brings up issues of their archival - what if I want to reread some thread in 2025? Will there be an archive somewhere on the net? Or will it be mostly "bulldozed over"?
Quote from: RPGPundit;416925I think ENworld has had a serious identity crisis since the effective end of D20's dominance as a movement in the gaming world.
It was one of the biggest forums at that time because it tapped into the biggest thing going on at that time. Ever since then, its basically been running on pure momentum, and trying to decide what its for precisely.
Yeah; I agree with that. The community was badly split between the 3e/4e audience, and beyond the direction of D&D, the change from the open gaming model to closed and proprietary also had an impact. One of the reasons ENWorld was big (bigger than WotC's D&D section) was that 3rd party publishers allowed a lot of different way to approach D&D and d20, and serve as a sort of meeting ground for people who had an interest in something outside the "core experience" imagined by the parent company. Today, it doesn't have as much of that spirit, even if it isn't as one-sided as the RPGNet d20 section.
Quote from: Melan;417186That's an interesting way to think of message boards with declining activity. Thanks. Which brings up issues of their archival - what if I want to reread some thread in 2025? Will there be an archive somewhere on the net? Or will it be mostly "bulldozed over"?
If past experiences are any indication in that regard, the latter is most likely.