@Star

You've really put most if not all of my thoughts into words here haha! Like, I am someone who can and does use discord pretty regularly for all sorts of stuff, so I see how it can be super appealing to go for that than to use forums which feel clunky, but like you said, they don't have to feel so bad to use in comparison.

I guess to further disclose some personal stakes I have in this sphere of discussion, I've been keeping up with another in development pet sim called PawBorough. It also has a discord where followers of the project get information and updates outside of the Kickstarter page. I really thrive in that environment, I love the community that has been built there quite a lot! But even this early on, I see quite a few cracks in the system. Oftentimes, new information will crop up in the discord without being relayed to the other platforms the team is on. This has been an issue since before the project even got funded on their Kickstarter campaign, and I completely understand why! It is suuuuuper easy to just share stuff in the real-time chat, as opposed to making numerous posts on their other platforms reiterating the same thing over and over. Usually, it sort of falls on the shoulder of fans who discuss the project on these other platforms to disseminate the information. While I'm not the biggest fan of this dynamic that has fallen upon us, I get why it is this way. The actual PawBorough website currently only has the cat creator/breeding demo, so if there's any place for a majority of the userbase to congregate, it's the discord server.

However, a few months ago we got some interesting information on what the future held for the discord (and admittedly, I was the person to ask in the first place because of my frustrations with Lorwolf's handling on the discord/forums disparity). I don't want to really get too deep into it, so I'll just say that the lead developer is not in favor of keeping it around post full launch for pretty much four (heavily paraphrased) reasons:

1. it's not the best look
2. it's not accessible
3. it directly hinders on-site activity and community growth
4. it's not sustainable

Now I don't wanna swing a bat too hard at a hornet's nest nor make assumptions on what the PB developer is thinking, but to me, this really reads as a direct response to Lorwolf's handling of the discord and forums. While I am personally much more excited and invested in PB being successful, I don't hold ill will towards Lorwolf and I don't want it to fail or fall behind it's competitors, but I think if it wants to have genuine longevity and a significantly more active on-site userbase, they need to change something. I appreciate that the team is addressing some longstanding issues with these recent updates, but the longer the forums still feel icky to deal with, the more resigned I sort of feel towards it all.

Sorry if this rambling doesn't make sense lol it's way too late for me hah.

I don't normally talk on forums. Not petsite forums anyway. I've been apart of FR for 9 or so years and I will join a forum game here and there, or maybe post an Interest Check on a dragon. But most of my forum 'activity' comes from me trying to sell, or buy things. I find that people clash WAY to much, and thus makes me uncomfortable to discuss most of my opinions openly on forum posts such as this.

Its hard to judge tone, and meaning through text. So I often write with a lot of emoji's 'xD / x-x / >.e; / =_=I|I| ect ect..' (old school instant messenger faces lol)

But its hard for me to make connections through petsite forums, and have never really been able to assimilate into a community well before. Played Neopets, never made long lasting friends that weren't IRL. Played Dragon Cave, but never made forum friends. But! I was able to make some friends through some third party messenger app (something frog?) that Dragon Cave had. And the same with FR, I've been there forever but I can't say I've made lasting connections that I hadn't already had prior to joining.

Getting rid of the Discord, or never having one in the first place wouldn't/ wont have me come here and post more. It just wouldn't. I barely talk in the discord, but I can see the conversations of others happening in real time. And that makes me feel like I am apart of the community, I have felt more welcomed here on LW than I have on say FR. And not because of the users, because they are both lovely. But because I feel more involved in LW, even if I am not actually doing much talking myself, cause I can see it all happening in front of me.
And when my anxiety lets up, I will talk, or even ask opinions on CA I am working on.
I've made several UMA threads, or Art threads on FR just to have no one say anything, or to have only a couple people say 'Maybe!' But I can post a quick image in the discord and see people actively reacting to it without even saying anything, and it makes me motivated to continue my project.

Truth be told, I only started looking over the LW forums, because someone brought up that this was a hot topic of discussions on the discord and I became curious and wanted to share my perspective. Cause the Discord really helped me personally, I feel like I've gotten to know users and have even felt comfortable enough to jokingly message a couple. Something that I don't normally do.

For me the Discord is what helps me feel connected. Without it I would just be another silent player. =\

Also just cause I've seen it brought up a couple times, I honestly don't like navigating Reddit very much myself and actively avoid it when I can. X'D I think I have an account cause when I came across a story I wanted to read, it had told me I had to have one in order to see it? I donno I made it forever ago and I think the name is something like 'SoIcanseestuff' lol

Just wanted to throw out my perspective! have a nice day c:

@Demon

Thank you that is an interesting perspective! Out of curiosity, would you consider an alternative forum format where messages could have reactions at the bottom?

Right now I'm in my head on the ways forums could adapt to be more modernized and better accentuate a game. Of course reddit has come to mind but understandable it's not for everyone, but you mention reactions and, if you'll let me pick your brain, how would you like to see a communication system hosted on LW be if you could build literally anything?

@Star
I don't mind the brain picking! c:

It's not really about the reactions. They help when I don't feel particularly motivated/ or feeling really anxious about actually writing something out. Like I can give my 'opinion' without actually having to write anything out. Like pointing up on a point I agree with or something, it takes away some of that anxiety.

But ultimately its about the live conversations happening before me, Its all happening in the moment which is what makes me feel apart of the conversation without speaking. I can observe without having to click refresh repeatedly, wondering if someone is going to respond soon or not. I can see them typing, and people are more likely to say 'Okay well I have to go now bye!' in an instant message than in a long reply on the forums. I also don't have to go in search of a thread to be apart of.

Each thread is specific, they are made for a reason, with a point that more or less is meant to stay on topic. You are answering the OP of the thread, and some conversations can happen sure but its mostly directed and about whatever the op has posted/ asked about. In a live conversation it moves organically, and the op can dip out at any point without constantly getting notified or brought back to a conversation they may not want to have a day later.

Its hard to say cause I don't typically speak in general, its watching and being able to put in an opinion quickly and in the moment that helps me. I know some rp forums that would use like Cbox on the actual forum, but that can cost money and its a lot less organized then discord. Its on site sure, but when you are wanting to post sales or show off wolves it just easily gets spammed and over run with ads. Much like a world chat room in an mmo.

There is no doubt that the forum needs some polish, and some small life hack changes that would make browsing the forums easier and more appealing. Seeing last poster/ time, having reactions would also be really nice. And of course news, changes, events, having a more prominent announcement function on the forums that people can easily see and browse. But ultimately forums are not live chat set ups, so they can't give me what I am looking for or got from the discord server.

There needs to be a healthy balance. But to be honest you can't please everyone, some people don't like forums and wont use them, regardless on if there is an official or non official instant messenger attached. And vice versa. Getting rid/ or not having something wont change that. There just needs to be a balance with the announcements.

Some people might miss SOME things by refusing to use all forms of media but thats true in everything anymore, there is voting for live shows, getting extra content for watching twitch for a game on Playstation or Xbox. HECK, if you don't have an xbox you might not get an exclusive item in a game thats on all platforms. Destiny's entire lore is practically off game. You might not get certain updates if you don't follow something/ someone's twitter, I mean its almost common practice anymore. Though again- I think News/Announcements and the like should be more visual a displayed on the forums, its just not weird to me to have to use 3rd party sites for extra info/ content. So it just doesn't bother me to have to visit two different places for different things I want from a game/ site.

EDIT: Like this is a good example of part of my anxiety with forums, someone posted before me before I saw it and now I donno if I should ping them, answer them, or if I should leave it alone. Do I make a new post? Do I edit this one and ping them?

Like in the discord I don't worry to much about that cause I can quickly and easily respond, without wondering if they'll get upset with a ping, or if they are watching the tread and already seen it and think I was ignoring them. Like it helps with small adhd anxiety thoughts that come to mind when I make a post.

Huh! I have to wonder if these discussions contributed at all!

@VNX

Me neither! I feel bad to those who replied here who said that forums were just not something they could ever participate in and that closing the discord would equal less participation altogether for them, but I'm hopeful that forums could get a spiffying up and that more people will want to spend time onsite. The number tracker going down consistently since launch has been so depressing, and while forums won't completely solve the issues I can imagine having some more on-site community can definitely at least provide a buffer to the growing pains ^^"