this is a serious question. team17 seem to have largely moved their community to facebook, a page which is certainly far more active than the forum right now. hardly anyone posts on the forum anymore except to post stuff like "I LUV WOORRRRMS" and to ask the same five questions about the w:a beta.

i called this two years ago (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=33720), saying the forum maybe had two years left, and it's only gotten worse since. so how long until team17 decides to shut these boards down to save on bandwidth/vbulletin licensing fees/etc.?

It's been shut ten months.

Depends on when/if Team17 go bankrupt or get bought out. Having a forum is beneficial to a games company so they can attract buyers and stimulate interest.

I honestly can't imagine this forum being a massive drain on a company the size of today's Team17.

A lot of people don't seem to get the joke in the "Is W2:A Coming to PC?" thread...

I honestly don't know how long this forum's got left; days? weeks? months? years? Who knows. In my opinion though the Facebook page is not exactly helping the forum, and will probably give it that final push off the cliff. There are some T17 staff who do agree with us that the forum should take precedence over the Facebook page, and the importance of the online community...

maybe they should host the updates HERE rather than on the facebook page. ya know, put the major information and such here on the forums and link to that information on facebook. the information is listed the same but people are redirected here. eventually people will sign up and join us in our complete lack of lives.

The problem with the forum is that people have to actively visit it. Facebook lets them get Team17 news in amongst all their other interactions, which is how the web works these days. Twitter does that. The news feed on the main site does that. The forum can't do that.

I don't use forums at all much these days. I don't think anyone does. Blog comments (pingbacks included), Twitter, Facebook, Google Talk, and email. That's how these things are done now.

Basically forums are so Web 1.x it hurts but nobody's quite figured out how to fix them. I suggest they all export a list of new threads as an XML file and then we can sign up to loads of forums and only have to actually visit one page to deal with them.

You could have the forum email you daily the new replies to any subscribed threads and list all new/updated threads in a forum. Combine that with a web-based browser and its sort of the same :p

Why don't I set up a bash script to email me every day and say 'hey, remember to visit the team17 form today'?

Because I have that. It's Shirdel's post reports.

Why don't I set up a bash script to email me every day and say 'hey, remember to visit the team17 form today'?

Because I have that. It's Shirdel's post reports.
how many does he report and i can i have a look at some of them

I don't know. All I know is that most of the post reports seem to come from him, Muzer and Ben. And I'm not showing you them because it feels like it might be immoral and would definitely involve doing work.

I've said it before, this forum does not properly provide for a community. It does not have general communal areas, just a mix of specific chat topic groups (Online Orgy is arguably not a general communal area, and is not styled to be one, which is the problem). And when the intelligent posters get promoted to business class, here in OD, the Masonic Lodge of the Worms world, the rest of the world loses its role models. The forum is company-run, not community-run, and that counts in how people use it and feel whilst using it. It's not a Worms community forum, and does not seek to promote the improvement and expansion of the community. It does its job but is not ambitious enough to provide that special feeling for its users.

I can't blame Team17 for moving on, Facebook is an acknowledged important modern marketing and broadcasting tool, which can help news about the company's products force its way in to the vision of many strangers. Regarding the popularity of forums today, I agree with Andrew that they are, basically, not as convenient as the other more lively technologies he mentions. We need organisations like Google, and people with similar vision, skill and commitment to take a look at forums.

We should also take a look at the public perception of Worms, that 'old game'. Exactly what is there that is really exciting enough to make people give up their time to investigate it further, outside of playing it? Customisation? No, not in this day and age of gaming when people have come to expect so much in their extra content, when it takes the form of 'DLC' packages and whole game 'mods'.

In our minds we must separate the Worms community from the Team17 Forum and what its intended use is (a business interest). Which one are we more concerned about? Or is it the strength of the Worms community at the Team17 Forum that we are concerned about? Or is the Worms community Team17's only community, and the two go hand-in-hand? Why is that?

T17 could easily post updates on the forum and then post links to the posts to Facebook. That way they are generating traffic rather than diverting it.

You have some valid points, Matty. I just like this place because I know you lot, I've grown to like you all, Worms is a major part of my life and I feel comfortable posting here.

For me, even if OD is the only active part of the forum, I'll still visit. I'm better at visiting this forum than using IRC and everyone I know on this forum already visits this forum. Not everyone is on my MSN or email or in IRC or on my Facebook. Frankly I quite like it that way; I wouldn't want everyone on my MSN anyway, not because I don't want to communicate with them but because I don't use MSN as much these days and I'd lose touch with people. Again.

Following my recent extended absence I felt I had lost touch too much. That made me sad. Being here more actively, regardless of what you lot think of me, makes me happier than not. It's nice. It's homely.

Cup of tea, anyone?

Matty, a flickering avatar in conjunction with a long post is definitely a bad idea.
Please, stop the one or the other!

Other than that, I don't care about Web 2.0. Heck, I could even care less about Web 1.0.
For me, the internet could be reduced to plain text and a bunch of pictures.
That gets the information content along easily.

Please, stop the one or the other!

Push Esc when the page has loaded and the animated gif will stop animating (On Firefox, at least). Made it easier for me to read.

Other than that, I don't care about Web 2.0. Heck, I could even care less about Web 1.0.
For me, the internet could be reduced to plain text and a bunch of pictures.
That gets the information content along easily.
What, you mean like Twitter, the Web 2.0-iest thing that ever Web 2.0'd?

I tend to think 'Web 2.0' is generally about social connectivity; RSS and XML and so forth allowing every website to syndicate and post to every other website.

A bunch of text and pictures gets content across, but that's all it does. You don't need the internet for that. You just need a book. What's even the point in having an internet if you just use it as a book? We have books for that.

Matty, a flickering avatar in conjunction with a long post is definitely a bad idea.
Fine. Behold Quasar Matty!

What, you mean like Twitter, the Web 2.0-iest thing that ever Web 2.0'd?

I tend to think 'Web 2.0' is generally about social connectivity; RSS and XML and so forth allowing every website to syndicate and post to every other website.

A bunch of text and pictures gets content across, but that's all it does. You don't need the internet for that. You just need a book. What's even the point in having an internet if you just use it as a book? We have books for that.

Except the internet is much more accessible than a book. :p

It's like a library you can see through any computer. Computers are much smaller than libraries. In fact, you get computers in libraries. You don't get libraries in computers. Except the 'net. That's like a library you can see through any computer. Computers are much smaller than libraries. In fact, you get computers in libraries. You don't get libraries in computers. Except the 'net. That's like a library you can see through any computer. Computers are much smaller than libraries. In fact, you get computers in libraries. You don't get libraries in computers. Except the 'net. Are you still reading this? That's like ignoring a library you can see through any computer. Computers are much smaller than libraries. In fact, you get computers in libraries. You don't get libraries in computers. Except the 'net. The 'net is far more fascinating than this post. This post would also never be in a book.

Push Esc when the page has loaded and the animated gif will stop animating (On Firefox, at least). Made it easier for me to read.
That's a useful little thing to know about.

It'd be cool if they posted links to the facebook updates in the anouncements section as I don't use facebook.

A bunch of text and pictures gets content across, but that's all it does. You don't need the internet for that. You just need a book. What's even the point in having an internet if you just use it as a book? We have books for that.
Except the internet is much more accessible than a book. :p
Yup.
Also, the information on the internet is mostly free.
(Except for major part of the scientific magazines that is.)

That's the reason why I have stopped buying the occasional video game magazine.
Except for the cheap full versions and budget re-releases they have on their cover discs, I think printed gaming magazines are more or less obsolete these days.

Besides, I have a daily newspaper subscribed for when I want to sit in the garden with a cup of coffee, especially on my free days.
Most of the time I read the same news in the online version of that paper.

What, you mean like Twitter, the Web 2.0-iest thing that ever Web 2.0'd?

I tend to think 'Web 2.0' is generally about social connectivity; RSS and XML and so forth allowing every website to syndicate and post to every other website.What's the point of having several websites all repeat the same info?

RT @SupSuper What's the point of having several websites all repeat the same info?

What's the point of having several websites all repeat the same info?

It's not about repeating it. It's about exposing content in a machine-readable format. Then people do interesting things with it and read it in any program they want, rather than having to specifically visit that particular website from time to time to check if it's updated.

It's not about repeating it. It's about exposing content in a machine-readable format. Then people do interesting things with it and read it in any program they want, rather than having to specifically visit that particular website from time to time to check if it's updated.
So that, once a functioning brain interface has been constructed, the data can directly get fed into our cortices and we don't even have to do any physical work any more at all?

With any luck.

People will just sit there, writing or directing robots to earn money that they spend shopping online and having match.com poured into their brains for years until they find the perfect partner at which point they try to get up to go meet them and realise their bodies have atrophied to nothing.

Kinda like in Wall-e?

Possibly. I haven't seen that yet because I'd still have to get up for that.

Possibly. I haven't seen that yet because I'd still have to get up for that.
...Not exactly. :p