History of the community.

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Aury
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I was thinking about things during dinner, when it suddenly occurred to me. Pretty much everyone who was around when I was a newbie is gone now; basically, that entire zeroth and first generation of people who founded UTF and whatnot, they all went poof all at about the same time.

The few who remain include:
Ttech (though he was actually always rather innactive on the forums till he became a moderatore, as he was busy with the IRC channel)
George (obviously)
Betel (Sort of, he seems to be popping in and out)
Periculi (Like Betel, though atm I presume he's busy modding, considering how enthused he was over all the new stuff in 1.04 since the last version he used, which IIRC was .99c)
Gambit- (mostly on IRC though)
d1gdug (I think he was 1st gen, from UTF)

Evilbob (sebenko in IRC) was on IRC for quite some time after he became innactive on the forums, though he too seems to have disappeared recently

Fossaman came back once or twice in early '10 IIRC, and Yugi was here for a few posts a few months back, but other than that, its been complete silence.


It's almost as if there are generations:

0th generation: pre-UTF times, when the game first game out. This can be seen in how for example all the bug-reporters have their actual names listed. I presume they were emailing george directly. Some of them went on to start UTF. The community was centered around George.

1st generation: This generation was composed of the people who joined during the days of UTF. From what I can tell, it was an active and lively, community, not all that different from the current levels of activity. At this point, the community is nolonger being directly administered by george, but rather the individual administrators of the community sites (the old modding site and UTF).

2nd generation: This simply marks the transition from UTF to OTF; activity rates were still high, things were continuing as usual, but new users were usually fleeting, at best. I joined towards the end of the 2nd Generation. With the community moved back the OTF, the community became George-centric once again, though those with influence back UTF who migrated over still retained that.

3rd generation: And then, there was a sudden lul in activity. New users slowed to a trickle, as george got busy and was not able to keep up with activating new users on a semi-regular basis as he did before. It was here that many people from the 0th and 1st generation who were still active seemed to leave all within a short period of time. Activity declined sharply. This created something analogous to a power vacuum. George was busy with developing the game and RL, and the influential old regulars had mostly left. The community was still reliant on George, but it was not really centered on him at this point, given that he was busy developing the game and with his job.

4th generation: The power vacuum of the prior generation resulting several things filling it. First off, George appointed Gambit to Admin. Now that gambit, who was readily accessible on IRC by the regulars, was capable of activating new members, there was something of a revival, even if it was slight by comparison to generation 1/2 days. The forum was also restructured, and the Tinkerers group was also created. Given that the community was being again empowered through this manner, a new group of 'regulars' began to form. Realizing that filling the leadership-activity void that was left was a good catalyst for increasing activity, I began to try various methods of stimulating the community into higher levels of activity, just as frequent posting, modding competitions, and in general being extremely active myself in a constructive manner (as a result of this policy, my posts account for nearly 10% of those on OTF). With influence over the community in the community's hands, at least due to unofficial actions, the community became centered on the regulars, who were capable of much more quickly responding to the needs of the community, given that at least one regular was usually around at any given time. While it was a significant improvement over the prior generation in terms of activity levels, there was a large way to go until generation 1/2 activity levels could be reached. There was still only so much gambit could do, especially given he was still fairly innactive, as george was.

5th Generation: The current generation: This started with the promotion of the regulars to administrative and moderator statuses. With the power to directly administrate the community; primarily in the regards to OTF account activation, things have picked up significantly, bringing activity levels to something that hasn't been since since the days of UTF. This change essentially brought back the old community dynamic that had been present back in the days of UTF, by making the community nearly completely self-managing. Thus situations now could be acted upon as soon as they arose, as opposed to having to wait for gambit or george's avaliability.


So this is my experience; how I see the community as having evolved in 6 distinct phases. I myself had little experience with generation 2, having arrived towards the end, only second-hand experience with generation 1, and no experience with generation 0, other than what I have been able to glean from various sources (ie, change-logs, analysis of dates, scraps of information here and there etc.) - all of it interpolated.
My experience of generations 3 4 and 5 however are much more detailed, and I see them in light of my own experiences and actions: as you see, and also very much from the perspective of one of the regulars, attributing the changes in activity to our own actions. Though I must say it is most likely not a coincidence ;) - the numbers makes sense, that indeed the 4th and 5th generations were caused by the direct actions of the regular, long-standing members.

But I'm curious; what is your experience, and your perspective on the history of the community? How do you see it as having changed and evolved?
Last edited by Aury on Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Ttech
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Actually Taben is a 0th to 1th generation he was quite active on the old forums and I am actually according to your posts 1st / 2nd generation. Although relatively speaking that well over ~4 years ago. At this point the community changes however the replacements of the knowledgeable that the older generations had is starting to occur again which is nice because this will allow further generations of the community to develop.

In fact I was going to reminisce about the early days of the forums when I was posting, my first post was in November, 2007 having discovered the game somewhat earlier. However what surprised me was the fact that in my first post (http://neurohack.com/transcendence/foru ... php?p=8874) was about how I completed the game. This is surprising because I don't think I ever played the game without using some Extension to mild down the evils of the game. Second the sheer amount of technical discussion and activity then was astounding.

Ideas I had such as having schools in SK were actually implemented. Other ideas such as having moving CSCs and having currency conversion stations were not, however those are more trivial. But I think the community is heading back on the right track with the discussions, the 'lull' in activity occured for quite some time, but I think we are on our way out.
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Aury
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:D
Yeah, this morning I noticed I got your generation wrong, but forgot to fix it XD

Sure is interesting to go back and see what did and did not get implemented, as is playing older versions of the game.

But yes, I must say we are definitely heading in the right direction. XD
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Blitz
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Hmm, I'd say I was early to mid 1st gen cuz I joined during the rising or maybe the peaking of the UTF days. Back then, there was more going on in the UTF than the OTF. You'd see new posts on the UTF all the time but onlt once in a rare while on the OTF...then there was a lull on both forums as there was a large gap between 0.97 and the following versions IIRC and then 0.98 and the other versions came around and Trans picked up again - but this time on the OTF.

Yeah, it's almost as lively now as it was back then...or maybe nostalgia is painting a prettier picture of the past. One thing that didn't get carried over is the fanfics. I never wrote any but they were fun to read...

http://z8.invisionfree.com/Transcendenc ... howforum=3



EDIT PS:
lol, I just went and saw my first post. It was about making all the weapons 18 degrees swivel cuz I found aiming with 20 facing playerships annoying. Something I still do sometimes even with 40 facings but only 10 degrees now.... :D

And my old signature on the UTF
Transcendence is like the Ring. It is the powerful work of one man. Once it is on your hard-drive, you cannot let go of it. At most, you play with the idea of deleting it from your computer and moving on - and that only at an early stage. As time progresses, it begins to grow on your mind and slowly devours you by not letting you study or work. You hate it and you love it, but you cannot get rid of it. You have no will left in the matter. It may crash treacherously but you, its keeper, never destroys it.

:D
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Aury
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^^ updated the main posts' formatting


So there was a lull between .97 and .98?
Hmmm, I had never known that.

I like the new release model that george seems to have taken to since the 1.0 RC's, making frequent smaller updates rather than having long waits in between major updates. Seems to do a good job of keeping the community active, and I think that was also another factor that allowed for the improvements in generation 4 have been as large as they were.
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Blitz
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Yeah, the new RCs or the 1.01/.02/.03/.04 release model is a whole lot better as it keeps people interested, bugs are fixed faster and there's a whole lot more testing...
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Aury
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Personally, I think he needs to have a little button under the main download labled something like "Beta version 1.04" (or whatever the version is at the time), and then have it link to the thread with a disclaimer that its, well, a beta version for a bigger release (really meant for experienced players & people who want to make mods), and that the stable version, is recommended for use by 1st time players.

Because a lot of the generation 1 people from the accounts I have heard only check the main page, so they see that its still at 1.01, for example, when really there is a new version avaliable on the forums. (And even if they checked the forums, it might not be readily noticeable, considering people do not often automatically look at stickies & announcements I have found.)
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Aury
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Although its too early to tell, I wonder if the current changes we are making to the boards, registration, and member groups are going to trigger the start of a new generation.
Given the fair increase in activated accounts/day, I think it very well could.
Here's to the future!
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d1gdug (I think he was 1st gen, from UTF)
sort of :D

I started playing the game at 0.96a then I became an active user/member at 0.98

don't forget people from UTF like dvlenk6, oddbob and Bobby
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Aury
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I havn't seen dvlenk6 in over a year, and oddbob hasn't been on IRC in ages (and the forum in even longer) IIRC, and I didn't know bobby was UTF. :lol:
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hmm... wow, it has been a long time since the UTF days.. lol

It's an interesting walk down memory lane to think back to some of the mod ideas that were going around a few years ago in comparison to what we are doing lately.
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I still lurk regularly. It's wild how far Transc. has come.
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I lurk irregularly. Mostly whenever I pull Transcendence off the metaphorical shelf in my computer and start playing it again.

I have to say that I kind of miss some of the old faces, more out of a general feeling of nostalgia than anything else. Anybody remember Crom? His avatar had the most awesome eyebrows.
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Aury
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Yes, pretty much nobody from my newbie days is still around with any great level of frequency. :(
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Wolfy wrote:Yes, pretty much nobody from my newbie days is still around with any great level of frequency. :(
That's the good thing about a community though, in one regard, that there is a gradual change in faces. Sure, it's nice to have veterans, but it's also nice to have fresh faces rise through the ranks, impart their wisdom and build something to the community and then leave.

For example, look at me. I joined in October '11, have since completed 6 or 7 mods, created dozens of threads and am almost at the 500 post mark and will probably be around for months yet more to come, if not years.

Like Fossaman above, I will no doubt phase in and out of the community for a while, based on how often i play transcendece, until finally one day I move on.

That's the cycle of a forum community. Sure, some old folks stick around forever and fondly remember the 'good old days', but in order for things to become fresh, we need new faces. If there are only old faces around, there will be less threads because they have all been made before. But newcomers don't know that, so they make new threads, raise new topics and stimulate the forums.

So, don't get down that you don't have any old guys around here Wolfy, but embrace the young ones, nurture them, until it's time for you to move on and let someone else take your coveted 2000+ CSC place...
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