Your New Retro Gamer Community Team

[jpishgar]

Resist the urge to hit [SKIP INTRO].

Well hello!

I'm Joe Pishgar, your new Community Director! I'm here with my team, Alucard (Josh) and Sutvar (Caitlin) who will be helping out the forum community at Retro Gamer. By way of introduction, before jumping over to tech media, I worked in game development for Sony, Disney, and Microsoft on games like Age of Empires 3, Virtual Magic Kingdom, Settlers of Catan, Star Wars Galaxies, and Rise of Nations. I've been a lifelong gamer, playing M.U.L.E. on an Atari 800, Jungle Hunt on ColecoVision, screaming incoherently at E.T. for the Atari 2600, and working my way on up to Gunsmoke on the original NES. I rock out to chiptunes, watch hour-long speedruns of Mario 3 on YouTube over dinner, and really have just too much junk in the way of 8-bit figurines of gaming glories past that it borders on hording. Apologies, what appeared to be by way of introduction has turned somewhat into a confession. To the point!

We're here to help. You've likely got questions. Here's a few answers in advance.

Q. What does your arrival here mean for Retro Gamer?
A. The Retro Gamer community will continue to operate as it has always, without much change. The one major difference is that you'll have access to far greater resources than before.

Q. What does this mean for the community policies and the way things work in the forum?
A. No revolution required, no coup necessary. No big policy changes or guidelines shifts. Not going to rock the boat, toss the baby out with the bathwater, or any other euphemism for screwing something up for the sake of change itself. Over the next quarter or two, we'll likely empanel a new group of moderators from the active folks here to keep things clean and tidy at the spam level, and look into sprucing up the place with a nifty new theme. And of course, maybe adding in some new (better!) categories for retro games discussions. Sidenote: There's a few items I'd like to know, like what *technically* qualifies as a "retro" game - how far back, and how far forward? Does a Gamecube game qualify? How about Space War from 1962? These are the questions that gnaw.

Q. What, if anything, will change though?
A. Go about your business, nothing to see here! Really though, my team and I will be nudging the community here towards health and growth every so often. And we'll be making ourselves available if there's ever any complaints or issues that we can resolve. We're here to serve as your point person/s and advocates.

Q. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
A. Open mailbox. Read leaflet.

If you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer them! For those of you interested, please do keep a look out for future announcements about moderation team opportunities, and requests for feedback on possible tweaks to the board skins/templates for better viewing.

Glad to be with you, and here's to an epic trip down nostalgia lane!

Warm Regards,
Joe Pishgar

[Sutvar]

Hi everyone!

I'm Caitlin, one of the Assistant Community Managers here for Retro Gamer. I happen to be the resident data hoarder and an Admin Supreme for the team. My favorite things to do are making charts and sending memes to people. If you have any questions or need help sorting out an in-forum issue please reach out to me!

[Antiriad2097]

Welcome in. Will we ever see you post again? Staff around here have a habit of popping up briefly, then disappearing into the ether without actually solving any problems or fixing things. Subs people seem to be the worst for that, you might want to have a look at the 'tracking lateness' thread for a good example of that. Everyone comes in with good intentions, but ultimately the company lets them down and fails to give them the power to adequately deal with issues.

Right, gripe out of the way, you at least seem like you have good backgrounds for this so its a start.

Now how about a first point of action for the community team. Unban all the people who were banned for talking politics, when the AUP changed and bans were made for posts that predated that change. It really was shameful, it came from somewhere on high, and was frankly embarrassing for the editor to have to publicly support. We lost good people, even moderators, to that cull. It's probably too late and may not change anything, but as a goodwill gesture and an indication that you actually have some power, it would be good.

[jpishgar]

Will we ever see you post again?

Yup. Hi!

Also, I may lurk from time to time, but I will most assuredly be working towards improving the place!

Unban all the people who were banned for talking politics

We're not beyond extending a kind of potential amnesty, but doing so would be predicated on the intensity of the infraction. I know that politics and certain subjects can become quite heated and factional, and often lead to a dissolution of the interpersonal relationships that form the backbone of a community - particularly one dedicated to something that's not even tangentially related to the subject of contention. If you'd like, IM me a list of the individuals in question who you think would justify extension of amnesty, and I'd be happy to review the matters with folks from before.

[Tom_Baker]

Hi everyone!

My favorite things to do are making charts and sending memes to people.

Any chance you could knock up a meme of a slightly drunk Scotish guy saying " I need another pish gaarrr"
I'm rubbish at making memes.Thanks

[Sutvar]

Hi everyone!

My favorite things to do are making charts and sending memes to people.

Any chance you could knock up a meme of a slightly drunk Scotish guy saying " I need another pish gaarrr"
I'm rubbish at making memes.Thanks

[The Laird]

All sounds very positive, welcome to the forum and hopefully some big improvements can be made. Changes have been needed for a long time now.

[DPrinny]

Can I just say on the matter of unbanning banned members


Huh huh I said "Member"

[RetroBob]

Hi folks - nice to see some resources put on the forum.

[jpishgar]

Out of curiosity, what do you guys think about adding on a new and improved forum skin? Something, perhaps, to match the Retro Gamer aesthetic?

Thinking perhaps with a handful of tweaks, something out of the box with minor edits to graphics like:
http://preview.themeforest.net/item/h2o ... w/21290777
In "Nuclear" green or "Green", I'm thinking. Quite likely without the distracting animation at top.

Would you guys gravitate more towards a darker theme, or a lighter one?

-JP

[Spector]

We're not beyond extending a kind of potential amnesty, but doing so would be predicated on the intensity of the infraction. I know that politics and certain subjects can become quite heated and factional, and often lead to a dissolution of the interpersonal relationships that form the backbone of a community - particularly one dedicated to something that's not even tangentially related to the subject of contention. If you'd like, IM me a list of the individuals in question who you think would justify extension of amnesty, and I'd be happy to review the matters with folks from before.

That is one of the most grotesque posts I have ever seen on a forum. It's so American in its use of Silicon Valley corporate jargon. The insincerity of it is terrifying. Is it a joke? It looks parodic: "We're not beyond extending a kind of potential amnesty, but doing so would be predicated on the intensity of the infraction." I don't know what the hell that means.

I can just imagine you in Human Resources in a California office somewhere beginning answers to questions with the word "So" all the time and all the other fake stuff you guys have infected English with. I don't find this funny at all. I find it deeply offensive.

[jpishgar]

Hey there,

I was being quite sincere! High Corporate Buzztongue aside, it would be dumb to offer a blanket reprieve for past offenses with zero context as to why, who, and how things went down. If a handful of folks were banned for discussing disallowed subjects before guidelines went into place prohibiting that, then common sense would provide that kind of ban be lifted. But if others were banned for spamming, or griefing, repeat ad hominem attacks, or other egregious offenses, it'd be bad form to lift those types of bans since doing so would harm the community.

If I wax Vogon from time to time, it's not with malicious intent. It's that I'm disinterested in tripping landmines in a legacy community and doing more harm than good. But let's put a pin in that and sychronize our synergies to maximize our paradigm KPIs, shall we?

In the meanwhile, my request for more information on the subject of those distant bans was legit. If there were some that took place that you (or others) feel justify a return, shoot me the names and context in a private message and I'll review. In addition to that, is there other stuff you'd like to see change?

-JP

[DPrinny]

A few got banned just because of politics, they lead to long blocks of text and flaming when somebody didn't agree with them

Then the bickering started

It got tiresome
Its now all on another site, its tiresome

Out of curiosity, what do you guys think about adding on a new and improved forum skin? Something, perhaps, to match the Retro Gamer aesthetic?

Thinking perhaps with a handful of tweaks, something out of the box with minor edits to graphics like:
http://preview.themeforest.net/item/h2o ... w/21290777
In "Nuclear" green or "Green", I'm thinking. Quite likely without the distracting animation at top.

Would you guys gravitate more towards a darker theme, or a lighter one?

-JP

Spectrum style

SPECTRUM STYLE!

SPECTRUM STYLE!

SPECTRUM STYLE!

Or MegaDrive

Or Dragon 32

[Antiriad2097]

Out of curiosity, what do you guys think about adding on a new and improved forum skin? Something, perhaps, to match the Retro Gamer aesthetic?

Thinking perhaps with a handful of tweaks, something out of the box with minor edits to graphics like:
http://preview.themeforest.net/item/h2o ... w/21290777
In "Nuclear" green or "Green", I'm thinking. Quite likely without the distracting animation at top.

Would you guys gravitate more towards a darker theme, or a lighter one?

-JP

Those themes are about a million times worse than what we have, cluttered with crap that detracts from the actual posts.

It was bad enough when we had to get used to avatars on the right, which is still weird when every other forum has them on the left.

What we have is simple and functional. I'd suggest putting the avatars back to the left, but if you're proposing more radical changes, it would be wise to put those forward for review before doing so. I can't see any advantage to the changes in those demos. There was uproar at the last change, loads of people moaned about it, and some worked out scripts to display things the old way in their browsers.

I guess some of that will depend how bothered you are about us old timers versus getting new people in. The bans pretty much killed the community, so there aren't many of us left and its pretty quiet now. It didn't help that even the editor was made to stop posting stuff like his youtube previews of the mags and it was obvious he'd been gagged from above, rarely saying anything now. It really put up dividers between the mag and community.

Fwiw, I understood the previous post and why it was worded as it was. Made perfect sense to me.

[jpishgar]

Its now all on another site, its tiresome

That tends to be how it happens. One of the controversial GRAPES (guns, religion, abortion, politics, economics, sexuality) emerges in a forum dedicated to anything but emerges, bickering occurs, relationships fray, an exodus is triggered in the interest of preserving broader discussion and the bickering follows until the newer community melts from the intensity of the animosity, and the old one loses what constitutes its quorum. Yep. Classic. Fortunately, there are fixes.

Spectrum style

Show me?

It was bad enough when we had to get used to avatars on the right, which is still weird when every other forum has them on the left.

I wondered about that. Having them on the left is considered industry standard. Any change forthcoming would doubtless include that.

Those themes are about a million times worse than what we have, cluttered with crap that detracts from the actual posts.

Show me ones that you like!

but if you're proposing more radical changes, it would be wise to put those forward for review before doing so

Any template experimentation would be provided in advance to the community at large for feedback.

There was uproar at the last change, loads of people moaned about it, and some worked out scripts to display things the old way in their browsers.

That happens. Any interruption to the normal, expected habits of regulars is going to prompt negative reaction. It's part of the whole process. Though my aim is usually to offer alternatives and seek consensus. So even if the veteran members of the forum aren't pleased with the new fandangled hotness, they can still opt for the older theme.

I guess some of that will depend how bothered you are about us old timers versus getting new people in.

Old-timers are always top priority for me. Without you, there's no community. You care the most, and are invested the most, sticking around the longest and participating the most. So we'll do what we can to serve your needs first and foremost. Beyond that, new blood is always good. There's a LOT of retrogamers out there who'd be interested in sharing their experiences and hearing yours, and I think there's room here for new people. The trick is not sacrificing the experience and comfort of the old-timers for the newcomers, while still making the place a welcome spot for the newbie.

-JP