Where are we, now?

I feel like an old granny. While I'm still present in the chatroom to meet with people, I haven't been the most present in the actual forum threads. And then it struck me: I've been here for quite a long time, and I can't even imagine how those who have been here longer than me are feeling. It's 2015, guys! We're close to 2016! Do you even realise how goddamn long is the road we shared together? I kinda felt I needed to do this thread. For various reasons that I'll try to explain here.

First, I want to know the state of the felaryan community. Who's gone, who's still here? Are you new? Are you active? Are you an old member or a recent member? What I'm basically asking is a portrait of the actual community. Who are the new kids on the block, if I do say so =P The best way to do it would be for you, dear handsome reader, to just reply to this thread and state that yes, indeed, you do exist and you're still on the Felarya Boat with cap'n Karbo. I know I'm on it And while you're at it, why won't you state what are your ideas for Felarya? what you want to bring to the setting? Are you satisfied with the way it is?

This brings me to the second part. Apparently, I'm a sweet summer child. I've joined Felarya right after a period of huge intern wars with tearings and tears and broken hearts. I remember that back in the day, not a single day was boring on the forum, good or bad. It was alive. We were alive. It was boiling hot, I even burned myself quite a few times. The community was very active on creating a better world that would make sense and, from there, add the beauty it needed. A world as vast as Felarya can't be the doing of a single person (even if he's been pretty good at it so far ). And that has always been the beauty of Felarya: a collective project (with Karbo sitting in the big chair).

Well, nowadays (thats why I feel like an old granny), it seems all this creative spirit is slowly vanishing. And this is where I want you guys to bring in what you think. Is Felarya getting old? Is it slowly dying? Who are the active members that want to push it further? This brings me to another sad constatation: guys, the most active part of this website is the roleplaying forum. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad and while I don't really participate in those activities, I can understand understand their pertinence. But seriously. What is happening, here? Is it still worth it? I wanted to know who are the still-present members. Well, I also want to know the state of Felarya itself. Karbo recently updated his map and, while it is beautiful, I don't really see the big creative impulse it should have created (thats my point of view). I want to know what you guys think about the state of Felarya. How do you perceive it? How would you qualify the relation between the wiki and the forum? What do you think of the wiki? The other members?

So yeah, I guess this is it. Maybe this thread will be like dust in the wind. Maybe it will serve as a wake-up call. It has been what, approximately 10 years of Felarya universe? In my short 5 years of Krisexy26ness, i've literally seen hundreds of members come and try to glue their ideas to the world, some with success, some without. I've seen people literally disappear, while others survived and are still around (Stabs and Vaderaz, for example). And, who knows, now that it's very calm here, maybe it is time to enter a new phase in the expansion of Felarya? Change the way we approach it and interpret it? Another forum maybe, completely starting anew? I don't know, I'm just proposing a few leads. But I can definitely see that the atmosphere here has radically changed, and maybe not for the better.

Where are we, now, guys? And where are we going? I hope this thread will be useful to all of us

P.S. While I'm at it at pointing the lethargic state of the forum, half of the moderators haven't shown a single sign of life for a very, very long time (timing2,Oldman40k, silent-eric, darkstormzero). I personally think we're quite alright with the other 4 that are still active. It doesn't really help when half of those who are supposed to "take care" of the forum died and are not coming back. This is just on how the site has turned. And if one of the mods I mentionned are still there, sowy.

P.P.S. Is it still so obvious that I'm writing this with google translate in the next tab? xP

Something vaguely related to this topic that I was thinking about: is it alright if I open up a Felarya subreddit, and if I was to do so, how many of you would actually use it? A few weeks back I had idly searched to see if we already had one and apparently we don't. Is there a specific reason for this I'm not aware of, or is it just that no one thought to make one before?

I don't really use reddit, but I don't see why it wouldn't be alright.

How about the other topics I presented?

Well, I have been here just over a year. I LOVE Felarya! (And most of you here know the full reasons for it). I used to mainly post questions/discussions here and RP. Until now, I didn't have any new ideas worth posting. And as far as RP goes... well I love to RP, and have started a few RP's, But either no one replies, or they reply, and then dissapear. Unfortunately, School/College makes most of the people here inactive. I'd say to wait till Christmas break or summer and people will come back, but I think you are right, traffic is slow recently. But I'm always here!

is Felarya getting old ? well ineluctably. It's no longer a young project. It's already big with so many things established and after 10 years or so it no longer has the freshness it enjoyed where everything was yet to be done. Dying though ? I honestly don't think it's the case but I'm aware I could do a lot more on my end either ^^,
At any rate I'm sorry you are feeling like this : /  On my side I'm going to make efforts to be more present and pro-active.

Karbo wrote:

On my side I'm going to make efforts to be more present and pro-active.

That would be VERY helpful. Parts of the community here feel forgotten and neglected, and your absence demotivates possible contributors since Felarya seems to be such a centralized system where without your consent, not a single stone can be moved. So more activity on your end would really help motivate others to do more things such as posts and articles and writing down ideas as well.

As for me, Ive been here for 8 years or so by now, and am still around and most likely will stick around for many more years. Sometimes rather frustrated though at the stagnation and slowness, otherwise present though. I just dont know what to post most of the time. Most things have been talked about in the past, and new ideas rarely seem to go anywhere unless Karbo notices them. I am also worried about felarya being commercialized.

I am the 33rd person to join this forum. Let me just put that out there. In the numbers between me and Karbo, who was, obviously, the first, there are only three other members who have visited the forum within the last six months, and two of them are hidden so even that's an estimate. That number only goes up by two when the scope is expanded to include the fist one hundred users to join the forum. That means that, in all, out of the first 100 people to join the forum, only seven (at most) of us still visit the forum on a regular basis, and I'm one of them.

I don't know if it's just the way I act, but I feel like people don't realize just how long I've been involved with Felarya. Sure, I wasn't contributing much for the first while, and I haven't been involved or even really conscious of the big disagreements that have occurred in the community, but I should still get an honorable mention now and again. XD Stupid Stabs (497th) and Vaderaz (204th).

All that aside, I'm still around, and though I'm not quite as active lately due to various things, I'm still around, and I'm still in the boat with Cap'nn Karbo. ^_^ Over the years, my main focus has been to try to enjoy the world of Felarya for what it offers - fantasy, adventure, interesting people and characters, and some sexiness, too. ;3 I've also attempted to add new ideas into the world, with varying results, rather than try to make existing things better - with the exception of my development of the Navroze Mountains. Overall, as someone who's tried to contribute every now and then, it feels like, from my point of view, my efforts actually aren't really that well rewarded. As I've said before, I understand the idea that Karbo doesn't want people submitting ideas to be added to the wiki, but a part of me has to ask, what other reason is there? I can add all the ideas I want, use them in my own work, inspire other people to use them in their work, etc., but in the end, it doesn't really feel like I'm making as much of a difference as I could make if it was actually included in the wiki. Or at the very least, Karbo could take the time to address when he doesn't want to add an idea to the wiki when he gives feedback on it. ^^; See, he'll go out of his way to ask if he can add it if it's really good or he really likes it or whatever his guidelines are, but if he doesn't want to, he won't explicitly say so unless you ask him about it. Or at least, such has been my experience. I'm not trying to make a debate or anything, I'm just voicing my opinion on why creativity might have slowed down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Karbo or saying he's the sole reason or anything like that. I'm just speaking from experience.

The point is, overall, creating ideas doesn't feel that rewarding, unless it's added to the wiki and made "canon" to Felarya. I think if there was some other way to reward people for their effort or a way to validate their idea, it'd help make idea submitting feel more consistently worthwhile instead of a gamble on whether or not you're wasting your time.

Along the same lines, that's why the roleplaying section is so popular. You get rewarded for putting in the time to create something, ie. one's character(s), with the ability to put them in this amazing world and experience it through their senses, in a way. The "you should do it for you" mentality that Karbo seems to advise for idea crafting applies much better to character creation and roleplaying, whereas for ideas, at least from my perspective, you create them hoping to give other people something to use, or as a way to add to the world that you love. I don't find myself crafting ideas for personal use all that often.

Another thing to consider is just how many ideas have been submitted and suggested already. By now, it's become a chore to try to come up with new, unique ideas that haven't been done before, due in part to how much of a pain it is to find out if your idea has been thought of before. DX Add to that the lack of feedback and lack of a reward to make the effort worth it and ultimately it just feels like a waste of time.

But that's just a theory. A Felarya Theory! Thanks for reading.

Nyaha wrote:

But that's just a theory. A Felarya Theory! Thanks for reading.

Stole my idea! Thats my phrase!

Yeah, it has been slow, and again with the RP, I've seen alot more action off site than on here. I would just really like a free, open RP where you can just jump in! As my favorite Felarya RP Is me vs the world! Perhaps I should make a new post and see where it goes?

I know how you feel Nyaha. I've been with the forum since it's inception, and I've seen alot of stuff go down. It just feels weird seeing things slowly drift to a crawl.  regardless, I'd love to help in any new projects we have planned. I just don't have much of a creative spark like i used to, so my contributions have slowed as a result.

I feel bad in that area because I still have an unfinished story I promised myself that I would finish. Heck, I don't even care about the fetishes anymore. I just want to make fun, action packed stories that aren't a hassle to read, yet I look through my older works and i find that I really had a change of mind for all of my ideas and characters, and in comparison, the stuff I wrote in 2009 feels foreign to me. You know?

I've been a very recent member that was referred to here by a good friend, and from my experience, I can say i'm still on this boat, but only conditionally, as I use the forum and the community more for amusement and and off side hobby then anymore than that. I must say, i'm very impressed of how much detail went into this universes setting from a simple vore fetish to something almost close to a hard sci-fantasy universe that is very much enriched like you said Karbo. The wonderful balance of adding fantasy and sci-fi technology meshed together in a plane where anyone or any background you can imagined can be full-filled with the creative liberties of writers, role players, and world builders is what's cool to me. it's why i'm still here as there's very few out of the blue communities that do this sort of thing and escalate. (That's more thanks to you visualizing it with your talent in art).

However, me being the natural curious archivist and scrutinizer that I am. I must say, I agree with krisexy, amaroq, and nyaha that a lot can be going on but isn't. Now considered about what I studied in the past in this community. In all reality there were a few individuals that pushed creative liberty and would form groups and actually ask people on their interest about how they can contribute. Most of the community today is very much the same but for some reason they have some fear of approaching each other on enriching their ideas. A couple things i can name off is that, the mediator (you karbo) were a lot more active back then then you are now with the idea indulging and concept part of the community. Ever since 2012 you haven't really visited much of this site but have made some effort of this year and last to address some things. However the persistence of how you are going to go about it is all but mysterious. I'm still looking forward to hear what you are going to do about the heavily suggested revisions and retconns that people keep bringing up over time. Having and update every once in awhile about those will be key to helping people push this universe foward and potentially another thought provoking renaissance like in the past. Unlike that past however, I can agree and sense a little fear that people think that once their ideas,characters or what ever that have been here means they have a piece of felarya and become selfish. This attitude i think is a poison and needs to be thought around once the hype starts to get rolling again with the hopeful new retconns or organization to felarya 'canon' and 'fanon' as a whole. As i'm implying it's needed.

Going back a little bit here's the thing that i was quite intrigued what Nyaha said. People don't give enough feedback or support for each other on the ideas they post. I see people frequently make new ideas all the time with their stuff but don't have the attention to delve in others. I try to do this as often as possible when i read over stories or ideas so they don't feel forgotten. When Karbo said this isn't a new project anymore. To an extent he's right but it needs more organization and development to feel like it isn't one. Because right now I see a crap load of ideas that seem very valid with the core principals of it fitting in felarya seem forgotten. it's only really karbo approving them and french snack (and him) putting it into the wiki every once in awhile. Maybe karbo you need to expand your teams a little more so that you can keep getting fed new information (with good notes and feedback) on why some active or perhaps glanced, ideas from the various people you have at your disposal would make it into the wiki. There's a lot of people that have a pretty open mind on creative liberties that can sift through the various ideas on this forum and deviant and suggest what could be added in. This would speed up the process a lot on how more flavored this universe can get. I honestly wouldn't mind participating myself if asked. I like reading other's creativity all the time and wouldn't like to see most of it get shelved to themselves only.

Honestly though I think if people asked each other personally (close or good internet/real friends) what they think of their ideas then had the bravery to post, and even more bravery too take some time too look and comment, I think a lot more people would be active in their work. I can see why karbo needs to approve because the idea ultimately goes to him but i feel like some more helpers are needed to keep the persistency going and expanding on said ideas so that we can have coincides ideas with sensible structure in the wiki fit.

Also a little more sci-fi wouldn't hurt. I noticed not a lot of people try to do this as karbo mostly draws fantasy, So it's depicted as such but the meta universe saids both exist, get a monkey and and have it throw creative inspiration fieces people. There's a lot that can be done in this area but hasn't, I'm sure as hell going to make an effort at it because sci-fi science and hard fantasy in the same realm and setting is dope as soap

I haven't been around to be active as much as I used to be - or as much as I'd like to be. That is due mostly in part to my workload though.

There used to be a lot more people reading and commenting on each other's ideas, and I feel like that's drained. When people comment on your idea, you feel invigorated to make another one. Comments and critiques are part of the magic of world building with others.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

There used to be a lot more people reading and commenting on each other's ideas, and I feel like that's drained. When people comment on your idea, you feel invigorated to make another one. Comments and critiques are part of the magic of world building with others.

You Hit the nail on the head here. Even though my replies are generally shorter, and my questions a little odd or seeming silly at times, i always appreciated the comments I got on each post or RP. Although, there are times I would appreciate a bit more honesty. Like if i say something stupid, I'd like to be told that, as negative feedback is helpful. I like to know what people think of my questions and ideas.

I also agree with the earlier points of Karbo and the other mods getting a little more involved. But keep in ind, they are only human, they have jobs and stuff to do. However, I do appreciate Karbo's contributions recently. There were times we wouldn't see him on the forum for months, and he seems to be visiting regularly.

Additionally, the Wiki needs to be expanded, as most of it hasn't been updated since 2012 or earlier. And it might be nice to link some more relevant stories or images involving each character, to help newer viewers get a better feel of a character for use in stories or art or RP.

Its also why you don't see many ideas anymore.

NOBODY comments them. Thus, no ideas = the world stagnates more than usual. We all need to put effort into reading and commenting other people's ideas. Its also a sort of "do to others what you want done to you" sorta deal I think. If you want comments on your ideas, try to comment on others ideas.

Still around, still doing what I've always been doing… Concerning the forum, I check in on all the new posts, for moderating purposes. I don't have much time or inclination to get into discussions in the "Ideas" subforum, though. The ideas I have myself, I flesh out through stories.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

Its also why you don't see many ideas anymore.

NOBODY comments them. Thus, no ideas = the world stagnates more than usual. We all need to put effort into reading and commenting other people's ideas. Its also a sort of "do to others what you want done to you" sorta deal I think. If you want comments on your ideas, try to comment on others ideas.

I'd gladly do this more, but the problem is that people write way too many descriptive comments, and it becomes a hassle to read through ten pages of it. We need to shorten ideas down to the essentials. I know I was guilty of this, and it made it hard to have ideas listed in the wiki.

Pendragon wrote:

Archmage_Bael wrote:

Its also why you don't see many ideas anymore.

NOBODY comments them. Thus, no ideas = the world stagnates more than usual. We all need to put effort into reading and commenting other people's ideas. Its also a sort of "do to others what you want done to you" sorta deal I think. If you want comments on your ideas, try to comment on others ideas.

I'd gladly do this more, but the problem is that people write way too many descriptive comments, and it becomes a hassle to read through ten pages of it. We need to shorten ideas down to the essentials. I know I was guilty of this, and it made it hard to have ideas listed in the wiki.

We can always be selective about the length of the ideas. I remember a 3-page long idea of mine about some butterfly get consolidate into a paragrapth on the wiki. The problem is not the length or how detailed the ideas is, but the 'tl:nr' people themselves. Even if I write 10 short ideas, they will still skip reading them, since it still looks like a wall of text.

Btw, if I use events as a way to measure Felarya's liveliness, I wonder when was the last time I see Felarya DA Group holding an event?

i haven't been around for that long. (around a year i think).

i have some ideas laying around but so far i've felt they are too incomplete for me to post and i'm also stupidly afraid about people thinking it's bad. as for things not being canon i'm not worrying about since it doesn't really matter that much to me, everything starts out as fanon at one point. (i'm not saying that eveything turns canon since it doesn't some does while others don't and thats just fine. the point is that the creator is happy with his/her creation).

the wiki is something i use sometimes and sometimes not since even if there is information it tends to lack the parts i'm looking for.

i suppose i should write more about others ideas too, i tend to stay too much in the shadows and i should get out of there.

well that's what i had to say =).

Well yeah some people do write a lot. I dont have all the time in the world anymore, if someone posts ten pages of comments, I'll likely just say "its too long. shorten it down to something more manageable" as that would be the first and foremost critique. The wiki articles dont have nearly that much information, and we shouldn't need to come up with five times the wiki's articles.

Also asking for tiny minute little details when you critique something encourages people to make obsessively long posts - then people pick those tiny little details apart and I really think that's unnecessary. Its fine to a point, though. Enough to have detail, but not to the point of writing a dissertation.

Anyway, thats only one part of why I think there's not as much participation. We need to get the forum opening up again, and a lot more ideas churning out.

Churn the ideas out, create myths and stories that mothers tell their children, create mysteries that will help flavor felarya up, things people can wonder about and talk about. Once we start coming up with ideas, and coming up with THOSE ideas, I think it will feel a lot more lively around here.

You think this active forum is slowing down? Ha! Talk to me when you only get three new members in like five years. =/ Our poor Charas Project has gotten that bad. We are dying forum. Felarya maybe lulling a bit but all forums do this. Especially as the older members get older chronologically and thus move on with their lives or forum drama rises too high and they up an dleave becasue of it.....there's also....ghosts like me. People who live for the way it was then then it stops being like that nostalgia it starts to hurt so you move on but...you lurk and hope it'll all reverse and everyone will go back to the fun random times of when you were 'younger'.

I'm hoping for that too Jedi. I'm trying to take a little more active particimicipation in the forum.

I still live and visit form time to time, doing general maintenance that I see needs doing and all that. I wish I could be more active, but as the other staff already know I am having a few.... personal issues that have affected me rather profoundly, and have limited my time for almost anything else.

Bright side, I gut through my first round of surgery earlier this week

Basically, It just comes down to ideas. I know that for a few reasons, I haven't been able to think of any new ones (except for discussion and analysis of the Mangas and the wiki). I know I'm not one of the main contributors to Felarya, but it is always fun to see people comment on my ideas. At least having a voice makes me feel included.

And I agree with whoever said that we need to revive the Roleplay section. Thats why I made my Hell Rp, but I am always looking to expand to new RP's, Things kinda stopped this summer-early fall on that front.

I am here and was often wondering why there are so many Things You find in a typical Fantasy-RP-Rulebook regarding Surroundings, interesting Locations and People You can meet and Stuff - and no one does RP. I mean - what´s all this Effort for, if there is obviously near to no one using all this Work?

I just love to rp - but I don´t like those `Hey, let´s all gonna end up as a Pile of Shit somewhere!´-Stories. In these Cases the theoretical Immortality in Felarya is made totally irrelevant. For me this Setting has a much more to offer, so I love Stories with somethig to discover - just as I think Women are much more than Guys with a Hole, where I have none. So I look around, think of Things I like from all the Stuff I like around here - and perhaps I´m gonna use it in some pf my RP-Backgrounds - and the longest RP ever seen so far here (over 1000 Posts, including a Sequel of now almost the same Size) tells, my Theory works. I call this the `Theory of verified Success.´    

And by now I think the Post-Impetus has slowed down enough for many of YOU Guys too, so You can join in - if You like. This Offer still exists. But until now most of You were fading away, seemigly without any Reason. I know three, four Guys around here, with whom I can rp, knowing they are coming back - but I also think in a Forum with recently 1368 Members this Number still could increase a bit. But in the Projects I may start in the Future: It will always be an RP and no Battle Game. I love Interaction, learning to know interesting Characters, so my RPs are not meant to be like Ego-Shooterz. There Battles CAN occur - but they are not the Main Attraction. Well, okay - Jormungdang and I plan a Visit to some of my Worlds with some Characters from here - and if they land on TUVALU II or TIERRA SANCTA, there could be a bit more Ruckus...

I'm around, but I've never been one to contribute much to content.

By definition, to maintain a steady population in the community, you need to make sure that new members appear at least as much as old members retire (which is an inevitable occurrence due to life in general). Here's a question: if a new member joined on today and wanted to be a contributor, and was willing to pour a ton of time and effort into it, what would you most want them to do? Does the framework support them doing this without an inordinate amount of effort?