Off-Topic

[Blzer]

Re: Off-Topic

Yeah, I started out here when I was 14 years old (the MuffinMcFluffin era), and now I'm 36 years old.

Due to post-concussion syndrome that began in 2014, I've gamed significantly less in this past decade. I've barely even played anything the past couple of years, save some COD and Super Mega Baseball (maybe some Rocket League here and there). GTA VI will bring me back, but I'm wondering if I should wait for the PC version since I don't have a PS5.

Anyway, I find it interesting that I almost have more fun researching and discussing games than I get the time and opportunity to actually sit down and play them. There was a time during and right after college, but then life seriously got in the way.

Discord wouldn't work for me because my posts probably average 300 words haha, and I really only use Reddit for specific items and not a generalized [gaming] community where we learn each other inside and out, and whom I appreciate dearly!

I do hope this hits a new wave of people again somehow, but the format itself may be a bit too archaic. Wasn't this site supposed to get a facelift like 15 years ago?

[steelerfan]

Re: Off-Topic

I agree with some of the last few posts.

I mentioned several years ago that weekly threads for sports miss me because I don't see them unless I look for them. To me, it would make much more sense too just have one thread for MLB or NFL games, etc. each season so that once I participate in one, it'll stay in my feed on Tapatalk.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the people who start some of those threads felt like they would be losing a valuable piece of their lives if they couldn't start a new one every week. So, whatever.

Those threads are also uninteresting when the posts just say stuff like "CATCH THE BALL" or "That was a foul" or "What was that?" with no context as to even what game the poster is talking about.

Additionally, the long-promised forum upgrade that never happened has hurt. Not being able to search, in particular, makes this whole forum less useful.

I've been around for a very long time, like many of you, but I don't post much. I mainly stay in a handful of threads, but I do check them multiple times per day.

In short, I'll never post a lot, but I'd participate more if I could search and if there wasn't a new thread for every week of games.

As for getting new blood here, it ain't happening (IMO). Forums are a dinosaur (like me!).

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[Blzer]

Re: Off-Topic

Additionally, the long-promised forum upgrade that never happened has hurt. Not being able to search, in particular, makes this whole forum less useful.

If you donate, you'll be able to search again. The feature is very hidden even then, but it's possible.

Or maybe you can try this link and see if it works for you?

https://forums.operationsports.com/forums/search.php?

[Majingir]

Re: Off-Topic

Message boards in general are dying.

Things like reddit are common now because you can literally jump in and out of any conversation about any topic at any time. It's much less of a connection to anyone as you're just a post on a thread, not like anyone knows you or knows anything about your backstory/history/life or anything. You could be a poster on a sub for years and nobody will still recognize your username. It's both good and bad.

And obviously being active is a big part of it too. You can comment on a game thread on reddit and you'll see dozens if not hundreds of posts every minute about some games. Picking and choosing the subs you go in also means more likely to have people with the very shared interests as you too.

[EUBlink]

Re: Off-Topic

Please know I am not intending to appear negative in any way. I am stating how I feel about this conversation and its heavy cloud while considering how my life experiences and education could help.

The human mind is tricky. It talks to itself and then out loud without realizing how it may affect others. When older people realize their body parts are failing and begin to think about themselves more, it all goes downhill. We age quicker when we acknowledge and then discuss our failures rather than the working parts of the system.

We can sit and talk about something being dead or be thankful for what we have while we have it. Until people lose enough in life, they often don't respect the idea of losing more or want to hold on to what they have while they can.

I do not believe I could find a better example of a community of people who have come together to discuss video games and sports but ended up discussing their own lives in ways they otherwise may not have, making memories along the way. That is special. It never dies. The only things going downhill are often our own thoughts that we have to consciously wrangle and bring back to center.

Again, no harm meant. I appreciate everything we all have.

[Speedy]

Re: Off-Topic

Is OS dying?

Seems like this place is more quiet than usual, especially when you consider what’s going on, as far as Sports goes. Place used to be thriving a few years ago but I’m seeing game threads have like 30-40 posts in them, when before they’d get that many for one game.

Mill left like 3 years ago and he was the admin of the site, under Steve.

[LambertandHam]

Re: Off-Topic

I grew up on message boards, hell even late Newsgroups. Aside from Twitter the only other social media I really use is Reddit. I like the different subreddits for specific games or deals. Other than that maybe Discord for certain games(getting a group together) or for certain streamers.


I've been here a long time(14 years wow!), enjoy the community, OS is a chill place. I might not check in every day but finding a place to hang out in and post for that long is amazing internet wise. My issue is the overall internet is too centralized imho.

[BurghFan]

Re: Off-Topic

Just came across this video on YouTube; best selling video games 1979-2023

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kj2wwzpyNcE?si=eQdXk6aEeWhpnU1O" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Off-Topic

Just came across this video on YouTube; best selling video games 1979-2023

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kj2wwzpyNcE?si=eQdXk6aEeWhpnU1O" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That was pretty interesting. I'm proud to say I have played a ton of video games in my lifetime, and Minecraft isn't one of them.

[AUChase]

Re: Off-Topic

I don't check OS as often as I once did. I actually went like 3-4 months at one point but I've been reading more lately. I prefer this type of conversation a lot more. It's a dying art but I think you get better discussion through forums because there's no character limits. There are times where I think someone means well but they just don't have enough characters to get their thoughts out. I also like that OS can be a space safe from all the political bull **** that gets mixed into Twitter.

I've curated my algorithm a lot. I have maybe 50 words muted and I try not to interact with things I don't want to dominate my timeline. The irony here is that of the 123 followers I have on Twitter (It's not many) the majority of them were met here on OS. The majority of people I follow were also met on OS originally. I know a lot of us don't know each other personally but I've seen some folks thoughts for so long now (some since 2009) that I feel like a lot of us would jive in "real life."

I've found that there are some guys from OS that are better people than I imagined and just to be completely honest a few that are not very good people and are kind of putting up a facade on here. I'll see the **** they tweet and then read a post on here and It's just not the same guy.

Anyways.. as a former OS Off-Topic post champion with only 9 posts in 4 years of this thread I hate to see it dying but I also haven't really done my part to keep it alive either. Hopefully EA CFB returning helped.

[l3ulvl]

Re: Off-Topic

roll tide

[Scott]

Re: Off-Topic

Curious if any of you guys have moved over to Bluesky, if so, feel free to follow me there...

https://bsky.app/profile/shugarooo.bsky.social

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Off-Topic

roll tide

Mods, do your job. And ban this rat poison.

[SmashMan]

Re: Off-Topic

Curious if any of you guys have moved over to Bluesky, if so, feel free to follow me there...

https://bsky.app/profile/shugarooo.bsky.social

I'm not active there but I've checked it out. A lot of the talk about it in the news centers on politics, and while that's not wrong, it also misses the biggest positive change from other social media...there's so, so much less pure **** to scroll past.

Troll accounts that only post rage bait? Spam Onlyfans pages? A million bots posting about stocks? Crypto bros? Someone probably already made an easy block list to subscribe to and wipe them all out from your feed.

It's still new and at some point they'll have to make money so we'll see what happens then but for now it seems alright.

[Majingir]

Re: Off-Topic

Probably stating the obvious, but Black Friday/Boxing Day sales (and Cyber Monday if that's still an actual thing since online shopping isn't a "fad" or some new age thing like back in 2008) get worse and worse each year.

I always look out for prices on stuff I want well in advance and "wait to see if its worth getting on sale" and usually get disappointed when the time comes and it's still not worth getting because the sale is barely a sale.