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Post by mithras on Feb 9, 2018 8:20:20 GMT
I've made a Tapatalk account and it looks like I'm logged in to the Herdstone now, but sadly can't access any content.
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Post by gjnoronh on Feb 9, 2018 14:58:41 GMT
You can't see any or you can't create any content?
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Post by decker_cky on Feb 10, 2018 5:01:29 GMT
Hey guys,
The site is completely down. Gary sees the site because I upgraded him to admin (it has nothing to do with tapatalk accounts).
Here's a rough summary of what happened:
The invisionfree to tapatalk switch was an opt out process that I missed, and unfortunately we can't undo it. Once the forum switched over, it was apparent that the Herdstone's anti-spam measures were no longer effective, and tapatalk's anti-spam features were utterly useless. There were hundreds of spam posts daily (plus spam text messages, etc..). The switch to tapatalk had also ruined our style sheets and made the forum more difficult to browse.
Given how slow the forum had become since AoS dropped, the fact that posts no longer showed images unless a user paid photobucket's ransom or someone put in a bunch of effort to re-host, and the fact that work and family prevented me from putting in the time necessary to iron out any difficulties, I had already been considering pulling the plug on the Herdstone this past August. The disaster of a transition to tapatalk felt like a final straw. I decided that for at least a temporary basis I would disable the forum. Since then, I've started a new job.
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Post by knoffles on Feb 10, 2018 6:53:46 GMT
Thanks for the update
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Post by gjnoronh on Feb 11, 2018 13:17:58 GMT
I miss the people the most. Decker you did a great job for so very long on the forum. Glad I see you in some FB Blood Bowl discussions from time to time. I keep wanting to yell “Decker!!!” Every time I see you post.
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Post by And again... on Feb 11, 2018 15:33:03 GMT
... well done AoS, not killing on Warhammer but its communities too. I hope the same things will happen to this new game all those who ''pplay'' it.
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Post by gjnoronh on Feb 12, 2018 0:22:29 GMT
Really dude as a long time forum admin/mod it wasn’t AoS we were losing steam long before it to Facebook and Twitter. Here is arguably the largest Blood Bow website they have a new “uncharged rules” edition from GW in the last 2 years and it’s a ghost town check out the last Post date in various sections. www.talkfantasyfootball.orgThe Blood Bowl Community Facebook group has more new posts per day (possibly per hour) then the largest forum for Blood Bowl gets in a month. The FB admin just posted stats I don’t want to misquote but I think it was 30,000 posts or something in the last year. It’s not AoS it’s other social media being easier to use.
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Post by knoffles on Feb 12, 2018 8:25:45 GMT
I find FB, Twitter etc so transitory in nature. Good for some things such as finding games, quick answers but rubbish for anything long term. It’s not just forums though, most blogs I follow (and my own) have a similar trend of readers declining. It might have something to do with the demographic changing and the need of some to get that quick instant gratification before moving on.
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Post by And again... on Feb 12, 2018 8:32:51 GMT
Ah so I imagine it's just a mere coincidence that WARHAMMER forums have been abandoned around the summer of 2015. It's all fault of social medias which had been around for years unchanged.
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Post by knoffles on Feb 12, 2018 9:05:50 GMT
Yes AOS was likely the main contributing factor, I don’t think anyone here will argue against that but a reasonable number of the player base also quit after 8th dropped due to the sweeping changes to the rules. Our point is there were other contributing factors too. Hardly anyone here is a fan of AOS so if you are deliberately trying to be inflammatory with your guest account posting you are sadly on the wrong forum.
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Post by gjnoronh on Feb 12, 2018 12:00:35 GMT
Naw must be my imagination having modded or adminned the headstone and the Daemonic Legion forum since 2004 or so. Also AoS must have wiped out the Blood Bowl forums as well. Sure TWF took a hit but TWF was also quieter during 8th then during 7th. I also was on the biggest Warhammer list serv on yahoo groups in sixth/fifth ed. AoS must have killed that too back in around 2003 technology changes young players are the lifeblood of these gaming systems. They are far more likely to use newer tech then older players. In fact for AoS it’s starting to move to “WhatsApp”and the like instead of Facebook. To include some additional external data (besides just looking at the Blood Bowl forums) here’s that post by the Blood Bowl community Facebook admin which is one of several larg Facebook groups for Blood Bowl www.facebook.com/groups/bloodbowlcommunity/permalink/1768000499919136/“Group nerdy stats!: 15.1k Members ~ 12k Actively taking part. Averaging about 64k interaction a month. Nicely done BBers!” _64,000_ interactions a month for a game that has a much smaller fan base then WFB did. 12,000 actively participating members with 15,000 total members. Even if 90% of those were 'likes' that's 6,000 new posts a month. TWF has been around much longer, was THE place for serious Warhammer players and served a much larger game. Roughly 7000 members all those years. warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/
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Post by decker_cky on Feb 14, 2018 5:13:51 GMT
Obviously can't access the stats anymore, but Herdstone had a steady decline from basically mid-7th edition onward (somewhere around 2007-8), with a small increase when the 7th edition book came out, and a small increase for 8th edition which quickly was suppressed.
Remember - early 8th edition armybooks were brutal (HE -> VC -> Daemons -> DE -> WoC was a year of soul crushing releases if your army wasn't on that list).
There was barely a blip during end times when beastmen got marks back, then the forum went cold with AoS.
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Post by gjnoronh on Feb 14, 2018 14:23:03 GMT
The DL forums single busiest day in terms of users was the day the 7th Ed book came out - we saw far less then that when 8th ed was released. But the DL Forum was it's busiest overall during the Storm of Chaos era.
Steady decline since then - technology was part of it. Declining popularity of WFB was some of it. Early 2000's WFB was the second highest selling miniature game in the world behind 40K by the end of 8th we were someplace around 5th-6th. This is per GAMA stats (The Game Manufacturers Association)
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Post by grandmasterwang on Feb 14, 2018 16:13:00 GMT
You should join this forum then!
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Post by mottdon on Feb 14, 2018 16:24:45 GMT
It's a great place to be!
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