The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I was just lookin through the memberlist, and I relaised there are a helluva lot of people who registered and never posted. Or registered and posted once or twice. Now, I realise not everyone is as obsessive compulsive as I am, but what is the point of registering if you don't want to say anything?

That's like.... Orz marines boarding just to say hi, Or Kzer-Za autonomous fighters just buzzing around your ship without opening fire....

So you can lurk, but keep track of what messages you have read every day.  You know, the whole "new" icon thing.

Thats what I would use it for if I was just a "normal" Star Control fan ;)

But isn't that the same if you just register as a guest? I'm assuming you know al lthis stuff, seeing as well, you do have a forum ;)

Heh, no I don't :)

But how and why would you register as a Guest?  If you have to "register" why not just register for everything?

Or perhaps they came across this forum a long time ago, and registered because they were eager to join a Star Control forum, but were overwhelmed by what they saw and chose to just depart and never come back.

maybe they forgot?

Ha!

i would say Kohr-Ah_Primat is closest to the truth so far  ;D

Well, lurkers tend to be a big part of any forum.  I register so that if I want to post, I can, even though most of the time I feel I have little to add (I know, doesn't stop others ;))

+ reserving your nick, post read stuff, etc

or it could be a conspiracy plan by someone to make it as if this forum is bigger than it looks!

seriously, there are like barely 20 active posters here..

yes! that must be it! the government is behind this!


*notices something*

hmm

that's weird..


suddenly there's this little red dot on my wall.. and it's moving..

ah, no, it's gone. phew! that really reminded me of that movie where the sniper was targeting with a laser, and this guy saw this red dot, and then..

uh-oh.  :o

Perhaps they signed on, forgot the username they picked, and then gave up?

so many?
nah

hey I'm still alive!
;D

Every message board in the quadrant has a bunch of lurkers. At least, everyone I've ever heard of. ::shrug::

alright, thios is now officially "The topic where lurkers can present themselves and become productive members of society!" so go on, join the fray!! Weee!

But that goes against the lurker code.  :P

Alot of people don't feel comfortable posting.  Some people in other forums give newbies a bad 'rap, which isn't very fair at all.  Then there are some people who register, plan to post, but don't because their toast popped, or their computer froze, or their girlfriend called... or some crazy stuff like that.

The luker code is also highly detailed.  Breaking it would be betrayal to lurkers everywhere.

Or maybe they are busy composing great star control remixes .. like me  ;D   ::)

or maybe they joined but the sheer size of our huge words scared them off. see that i used 2 6 letter words. ops its now 3

or they joined forgot what there username was and rejoined as BioSlayer. well thats what i did.
or they registerd but didnt care for the whole having to rember there name and password and post as guests.

Or maybe some of us signed on because we remember the game from our childhood, but have made a silly decision to learn a foreign language, and just haven't had the time to post.   :)

I usually read ALL the threads. But I never post. Except for the occasional new CVS build.

Another option is that some of us are too lazy to post.  :)

Breaking the topic a bit I would just like to state : Thanks Striker! You are without a doubt one fo the heroes in this community with those updates! As long as you keep em coming, no need to post ;) And if you rerad all the threads, let me apologise at this late stage for having to have read all the weird stuff I put up around here :)

No probs :)

I know my problem is that I lurked for a while, finally decided to register, registered, and then ran out of things to say. I've decided I wouldn't post "that's a pretty good idea you've got there. Too bad it was already mentioned, talked about, beaten to death and burried in the thread <Insert Link>" since doing so is bitter, condescending, and will occupy all of my time.
But besides regurgitating somebodies old ideas before reading previous posts, nobody seems to be doing much else on this board nowadays. And they do so with such frequency that the few posts with original ideas or interesting topics that should be discussed in length immedately get piledriven to page 3 on the board!
Man, that was a bitter post. I must be in a bad mood. Time to go to bed.

Well, I have a nice 50 posts now. Usually I only post a reply if I have something pertinent to say (this post is an exception ;)).

I don't visit this place so many times any more. Too much discussion makes me confuse and I'm not interested of reading hours of forum text ...

Just too much. Probably I'll stick being a Zebranky Food. :P

You know, after my bitter post last night I got to thinking that one problem with this forum is there's just one big "General Discussion" forum that could be broken up into a few smaller forums like:
Suggestions for the Next Release
Strategy and Help
and
General Discussions.
Now PNF already has all these forums at another YaBB forum http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~starcontrol/board/YaBB.pl but who cares! No one seems to visit there, where as we get 20 posts a day here. I think this board should combine with that board, and keep this link. Sorry PNF, but this one is just too much more popular.

True, some delineation of posts would be a good thing. I for one certainly wouldn't mind going through old posts and marking them off as belonging in one category or another.

Frankly, why would I care? :P
 
The PNF board will remain as a place where any Star Control discussion is welcomed.  I cannot tell you how many projects and people I've seen come and go... mostly just go.  As long as I'm running PNF, it will always be a place that archives information, serves up news of new information and fan stuff and a place to discuss Starcon.

Even if this board and project disappeared tomorrow, I'll continue on with that goal.

I'm glad to hear that.  The PNF boards play an important role in the Star Control fan community.  I mean, without the PNF boards, there might not be the UQM boards today.  I check out both boards, from time to time, just to see what's going on in the community.  Obviously I post more here than I do there, but I don't think it's purpose is lessened in anyway by the new forums.


Wow, you really do have a lot of free time...   ;D

This is true; I've noticed the PNF boards seem to be a LOT more SC3 intensive, whereas on this board it seems to be almost exclusively SC2 intensive. I personally can't really find much to comment about regarding SC3 without having played it, so I find the exclusivity of SC2 here to actually be a good thing in a lot of ways. But I agree with Omni that the PNF boards do serve a very important purpose in the SC fan community.

And yeah, I have too much time. Toronto's a quiet place compared to Los Angeles...

I think the PNF boards cover Starcon as a whole more, including SC1 and SC3, not just SC2 as the UQM boards tend to do mostly. Also, people have less of a tendency to freak out about SC3 there for some reason... Maybe it's just Chads iron fist of rule?  ;)

The two are complimentary to one another.  I don't think that one nullifies the other.  I think some people prefer these boards to PNF, but others would argue otherwise.  *shrugs*  Things are good just as they are right now, so hopefully things will stay that way... ;)  Don't mess with a bad thing.

If thats what you want to call it ;)

I've been around a long time.  I think many people just want a single place to go to get all their Star Control information.  I can't blame them for wanting that. :-X

If I believe the PNF boards serve no purpose and no one visits them, then yeah, I'll shut them down.  But anyways, this is kind of a *silly* convo.  :-/

Dispite my starting this whole "Maybe PNF boards should shut down, I've seen the light. And while UQM is backed by TFB, you're right. It will be over one day and the PNF boards will eventually become re-populated. Perhaps with some new blood. Perhaps some of the 20 people who actually activly post here.

I physically threaten people to register on the Forum, hence all the lurkers.  Hey, an Autobot's gotta do what an Autobot's gotta do. ;)