I'm only here because it's familiar (come in for graphs and shit)

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Darkside55

Darkside55

The Freeman
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I only come here because it's familiar. It's no startling realization or sudden epiphany--I've been thinking it for awhile. No particular reason I'm bringing it up now, either...this thread's a product of boredom.

And that's what you've become, Halflife2.net. You're boring. No, don't get upset, don't get all indignant on me. You're boring. Flat-out, 100%, no-redeemable-qualities-to-be-found-here boring. And I've brought along the charts to prove it.

I want to start with an overarching chart of my experience over my almost five years on HL2.net.

enjoymentel4.png


You can see that when I first started out here I was interested. This was back in the day when I never posted outside of Rumors and Speculation, when all my time was devoted to talking about Half-Life and the UPCOMING Half-Life 2. My interest in the site took a nosedive just before HL2's release, came back afterward, and steadily rose up until some point around...when is that...2006? 2007? And it just kept dropping from there, held up by a few interesting threads and posts.

Before I go any further I'd like to state this isn't one of those fageddy, oldtime bitchfits about how stuff was better in the past, because it wasn't. Actually, if you'll take a look at the next graphs, you will see that Halflife2.net is surprisingly formulaic and has remained so for the past several years. For nearly five years now, these are the threads our forums have consisted of:

halflifeforumsqr1.png


theloungehu0.png


otherforumsxa9.png


I've all but stopped visiting the Half-Life forums. There's only so many G-man threads one man can take, and I've got no interest in replying what I think GORDEN/GORDAN Freeman's first words would be for the eight-millionth time.

My first stop's usually The Lounge, but it's just a regurgitation of things I've read in the newspaper/online this morning, or more accurately things I read YESTERDAY morning, or the day/week/month before, because news seems to travel slowly across this community, but inevitably when someone hears it--no matter how late--ALERT THE PRESSES, HL2.NET MUST BE INFORMED. Thanks for that, btw.

The rest of The Lounge is, "I have X problem, please halp," and polls on everything from "What's the most attractive body part on the opposite sex" to "Which hand do you wipe your ass with, Halflife2.net?" We've had so many polls about our community's habits, preferences, and daily lives that one would think we'd be able to all write biographies on one another, but sadly when it comes time for the bi-monthly "Write about the poster above you" thread nobody knows a good goddamn thing about who they're talking about, so it becomes a discussion about avatars and INSERT RAPE JOKE HERE.

I could visit the Image/Video Dump, but it's also stuff I've either seen before or giant wastes of time. Every single image dump has read like "4chan seven months ago," "lolcats," and "bad image motivators." Videos posted to the forum include, "Look at these f*cking people and reply how much you hate them," "Best fight ever part nineteen: Yep, it's the guy with the hook in his eye again," and "Youtube Jamboree: Random Edition."

I was tempted to blanket post "Shit nobody cares about" under the rest of the Off-Topic forums, but eh. Really though, it's ALL shit nobody cares about. You don't even care about it, reader. You couldn't care LESS. You don't want peoples' opinions on games, movies, and music; you want people to know your opinions and you want to be the first person to report on new or interesting stuff. You're mainly in it for postcount +1.

And poor art forum, nobody gives a shit about you. The only time people care is when someone draws Alyx tits.

That's Halflife2.net in a nutshell. So why do I come by?





Are you blind? Read the title. Familiarity, folks. It's routine. I've gotten used to coming here and come here only out of habit. You can almost guarantee Darkside's not going to be one of those fagets that posts an, "I'M LEAVING HL2.NET FOREVER" thread and then returns with some bullshit excuse, simply because I would've left years ago if logging into this site wasn't an almost automatic exercise in bookmark-clicking.

Well, what about the members? I enjoy the lot of you, but you're all rather familiar too. I got graphs for that shit too, check it out:

membersbb9.png


So, I didn't post this for circlejerkery (I hate that), but just as a reference. I'm sure if most of you were to create a chart of members like this, yours'd look pretty similar. The good news is that the vast majority of members on here are pretty cool dudes, which helps if you're stuck in a community where absolutely nothing of interest is going on. Pat yourselves on the back for that one, folks.

Also, made another pie chart for mods:

modssy9.png


True story.


And that's that. I wasn't going anywhere with this, so if you've read this long, hope you enjoyed the graphs, el oh el. I'm not going to say how Halflife2.net can stop being boring, or even give you a "Thanks for being familiar," because really that ain't my purpose. In fact I really don't even give a shit on YOUR ideas about how Halflife2.net can be less boring, because there's really no solution. This board ticks by on the off-chance somebody's going to post something magnificent about werewolves or some other kinda thing that everybody gets in on and it grows to twenty pages of awesomery. And in the interim, well, just so you know I wipe with my left hand. I just saved you a poll.
 
I enjoyed the graphs very much.

I love the mod graph. :p
 
where are pies

All i see are pac men with multi coloured innerds.

:eek:
 
Wow, it's like you looked into the core of the forums and saw the truth.
 
I was going to quote you bit by bit and discuss it with you, but then I realised that everything I was going to say was too general, and there was no point in picking out certain bits that I agreed with, don't agree with or "lol"'d at.

But then I agree with most of it. Just the other week I was sat here noting that most of the posts that I provide the community won't actually warrant a response or even get noticed. Most people will tl;dr it, including myself, as there really is little of interest that I can add. I don't actually have a graph of the percentage of posts that have gone unnoticed, but I can tell you I've managed to end plenty of threads. My own interest in particular has been waning as the number of newcomers keeps increasing and the number of old threads keep popping up again. Not resurrections of interesting threads that might question Half-Life or the story behind it, generally not even resurrections at all, but totally new threads which cover the same topic discussed only last week. I'll find myself skimming through a whole thread ignoring posters I know won't actually have a reply worth noting, or missing out discussions I know are a repeat of that previous one we had in that other thread three doors down.

I've been trying to contemplate the whole postcount++ thing, and there's really no conclusion I've come to. In the end, we're all here to get noticed, and we're all here to be seen. It's what the entire human social interaction is about. Whether it's a "lol i agree!1" or "stfu ur wrong", even an amusing punchline (which my posts are quite derift of), or maybe even a thread like this. Sure, you're not going to post a "LEAVING HL2.net FU ALL LOL", but that's because you know that it's too obvious. So you post something amusing and interesting which gets you the same result, if not more subtly. You're still doing it for the attention. Selfishness. What can you do? Even this post here is under the same category. I want my opinions noted. I want someone to see the post and respond. To show that they actually care about what I have to say. While I was going to argue that everyone is here simply for attention, you could argue that they're here to find more about HL or similar, or to discuss views. A graph of the reasons why people are here would be an interesting one to make. But of course I didn't, because I'm not funny.

At this point I realise I'm rambling, so I'd just like to note that he's right. But what the hell can you do? [rhetorical question, please do not respond with an answer]
 
I agree, its rare to find an actual engaging and interesting topic on the forums nowadays, I wont even start at the Half-Life 2 threads, what confirmed their demise was yet again another 'omg lyke teh strylyne iz 2 cmplx!!!11', I mean jesus christ what numties do we have playing this game.
 
To be honest, those random incidents and threads like werewolves, EXTREEMMMEE and will your toaster run half-life 2 is what keeps me here. You just know another thread like that will pop up, some time.
 
Face it, you all suck.
 
In an attempt to push this thread from the "shit nobody cares about" section into the religious debate section:

So I heard this J. Christ guy was a really nice guy, except HE NEVER EXISTED!
 
Pulse said:
GENTLEMEN.
Click to expand...
This is also true.
PvtRyan said:
In an attempt to push this thread from the "shit nobody cares about" section into the religious debate section:

So I heard this J. Christ guy was a really nice guy, except HE NEVER EXISTED!
Click to expand...
Halflife2.net is perhaps the only place where, instead of Godwin's law, on here the longer a thread continues the chance of a religious debate breaking out approaches one.





And Jesus was totally Mithra in disguise.
 
I take full responsibility and apologise profusedly.
Also, I'd like to try and post in the HL2 section, but I can't until I play Ep 2. I doubt those boards have changed at all though.
 
I felt a light indignation swelling up upon first reading, but then I realized you're right. :O
 
I'm here because I don't feel like establishing myself at another forum. I mean, hell, first I'd have to find another forum.
 
Sulkdodds said:
I take full responsibility and apologise profusedly.
Also, I'd like to try and post in the HL2 section, but I can't until I play Ep 2. I doubt those boards have changed at all though.
Click to expand...

No. They haven't. Don't go there.

And catch up, man and play Episode 2!
 
Que-Ever said:
I'm here because I don't feel like establishing myself at another forum. I mean, hell, first I'd have to find another forum.
Click to expand...

This as well. New forums suck. I was on the Counter-Strike forums for at least 5 or 6 years and I rarely set foot outside of it. It seems it transferred here when HL2 was announced.

I can't really think of any other forums I'd go to.
 
Could somebody recommend any friendly forums with smart opinionated members? (Shangri La, in short :p)
 
My biggest high was probably the Ep.1 release. It's awesome when you don't know stuff.
 
Why and what is "No Picture:dragon shirts" under the Forum content Pie Chart(s)?

I'm sure there's only a grand total of two threads about dragon shirts so far. :rolleyes:
 
Darkside you truly are the one. You can see past all the bullshittery and see the website for what it is; code.
 
oh don't be so picky. there are bad and good moments in life, just chill and go with the flow.

when hl3.net will be up hope to see you there. i've got plenty of new controversial and insulting religious threads on my mind :thumbs:
 
I can agree with the familiaity keeps me here bit (well that and also because I like to virtually kick some of you in balls on a semi-regular basis) ...but again this forum (any forum for that matter) is what you make of it but it does help to take a break every now and then
 
I was reading that whole message in a "Zero Punctuation" way.
 
CptStern said:
I can agree with the familiaity keeps me here bit (well that and also because I like to virtually kick some of you in balls on a semi-regular basis) ...but again this forum (any forum for that matter) is what you make of it but it does help to take a break every now and then
Click to expand...
Which brings me to a question to Stern. How the hell did you manage 30,000 posts in a few years?!

Unless someone spams up the forum with something like: How *post* are *post* you *post* doing *post* today *post* ? *post*, I don't see how it's even remotely possible.

Stern truly is amazing in that respect I suppose. :|

Oh, and what's going to happen when Munro finally gets bored of this site and decides to close it for something like, "Half-Life 3.net" or, "Portal2.net?"
 
I find that the majority of posts i'll actually open are ones created by members who have had interesting posts in the past. I suppose that falls within the realm of ritualistic and routine. I'd say theres probably 1 good post a day.
 
I like this place. These boards are for the most part, excellent and entertaining.

Aye, the actual Half Life sections can get tiresome, and sometimes Off-Topic in itself can clatter to a halt, but overall I still enjoy it.

I spend a bit too much time on here when I'm supposed to be working. :shh:
 
And yet, despite everything in the OP, halflife2.net is still the only forum ive ever seen with such a diversity of conversations, personalities and interests. Every other forum ive been to hasnt got nearly the amount of different discussions that we have here.

But really, its inevitable that you get bored with the site. At first everything is new and you dont know everyone yet, and as time goes on you see the same discussions come up again and again to the point where you can graph everything. I dont see how any forum could be any different. In fact, I dont see how any conversation could be either, in forum-post form or in real life talking form. We talk about things we know and things that interest us, and until a massive wave comes in and washes out all the hl2.net regulars, the same topics will come up.




Also, I blame the zombie convention.
 
This is all Salmon's fault. He doesn't even post anymore. Damn awesome mod stealing his time!
 
With regard to what Krynn said, that brings up some other things.

Halflife2.net isn't actually a big forum. Remember that time we were rating each other? In that thread I actually typed out the lot of us; there are just shy of 200 active users. You might think, "Wow, 200 people is a lot!" but it really isn't, not in an online community. With that many users you DO get diversity, it's true, but at best you'll only have a handful that like what you like or who you're able to discuss with.

Now, if you look at a larger forum, something with thousands or even tens of thousands of users, you'd get diversity but there's the chance you'll have more people to talk about the things you like to talk about.

And remember that we're a Half-Life site--the common thread between us all is Half-Life. Beyond that, all this off-topic stuff, that's all sideways. What movies you like, what music you listen to, games you enjoy outside of Half-Life; it's all up for grabs. If you look at a place where there is less diversity in topic, specialized forums, then you're always guaranteed to have a discussion about things you like rather than posting on a forum where that is not the board's uniting interest and hope for the best.

So we're not specialized enough for everyone to enjoy all the topics posted, but we're not large enough for the diversity to be appreciated.

As an example, I could post in the games forum about fighting games but in all the times I've brought them up nobody really seems to care. Likewise I don't care any time someone on here posts about cars. Judging by the first page of the Lounge it seems the only thing people are getting down on are dinosaurs. Everybody loves dinosaurs, though.
 
Darkside55 said:
Now, if you look at a larger forum, something with thousands or even tens of thousands of users, you'd get diversity but there's the chance you'll have more people to talk about the things you like to talk about.
Click to expand...

Sure, if it isn't lost in the sheer volume of posts.


I like this forum, the right amount of people, right amount of memes, right amount of serious discussion, slightly too little dinosaurs.
 
Saturos said:
Which brings me to a question to Stern. How the hell did you manage 30,000 posts in a few years?!

Unless someone spams up the forum with something like: How *post* are *post* you *post* doing *post* today *post* ? *post*, I don't see how it's even remotely possible.

Stern truly is amazing in that respect I suppose. :|

Oh, and what's going to happen when Munro finally gets bored of this site and decides to close it for something like, "Half-Life 3.net" or, "Portal2.net?"
Click to expand...

you know you could search my posts for your answer ..it's not filled with "How *post* are *post* you *post* doing *post* today *post* ? *post*

I dont see why I have to rationalise my postcount whenever somebody feels the need to stick their noses in other people's business ..so I'm not going to :p
 
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