Big Changes

[Red_91]

Some good changes, I think for now the forum is moving in a good direction though I dont think removing the warzone will really help as people will probably argue in other places. Though if they are warned I can see other members learning to solve problems over PM.

[Gerard]

Solving problems over PM, not flaming, no one-word posts and being helpful about GTA exactly the point about these changes I've been asking for - but we need people to show the members how to do that. We can't just rename a subforum and expect people to suddenly change how they act in it. We can't just remove their one outlet for flaming without showing them the alternatives.

Changing one sentence in the rules isn't going to get the message across, so I think we need a set of members to actively go around helping other members, showing them how to behave, if they do something wrong helping them understand why its wrong and what they should have done, and leading by example. That should be the job of the staff, but that's never been something that has been arranged. Perhaps the Elites should be the most helpful active members (eg Hobbas or X's lol) rather than just the people on Chris' MSN.

[Pandora]

Might sound dumb, but what does "Hobbas or X's lol" mean?

[Huckleberry Pie]

Agreed, but of course, it wouldn't be fun if we talk more of the same thing everyday - that's what off-topic stuff is about, but since this is a GTA forum, it would be better if you make a reminder for n00bs to make at least five or so GTA-related topics (or as much Tommy Vercetti stuff as you can), just like in a forum that I joined...

[Gerard]

"Hobbas" and "X's" are the two types of moderators on habbo hotel (which I have been on once or twice). Hobbas have the power to kick people from rooms, and X's just help people, with no special powers.

Obviously I'm not suggesting we follow that, but why not have members who aren't staff who officially help people? Big status, big respect, big rewards.

Also, Misho suggested to me that in addition to the internal forum awards, we give TGTAP awards to the best things of 2007 (as voted by our members) such as Game Of The Year and Film, TV Show, Gadget, Car, Sport etc etc. You could also do individuals like best actor/actress and sexiest male/female (celebrities mixed with random people in photos and tgtap members). That'd be a nice twist, and could be a starting point for a lot of discussion, and it counts as off topic. I think that's a cool idea, cos everyone has an opinion, and most of them are pretty strong (as the forum awards show).

[Pandora]

Oh, ok. I get it. I'll try helping. Probably will get people tell me to mind my own business though (*recalls something..*).

That award idea is great. I thought about it, but the next day just forgot it. But yeah, those awards are always fun.

Edit: So those awards are for this year, or will we have to wait a year?

[Gerard]

They're for nothing until Chris agrees to do them. He is the only person with any decision-making power on this site (something that needs to change). He's also in London for a few days...

I'd say we can do it this year. Just get the OK from him, create some nomination topics (and another topic to add suggestions for awards) and we should be able to start and end voting at the same time as the rest of the awards.

[GTA Don]

They`ll probably be next year,seeing as we`ve already begun the nominations for the awards and it would be too late.

It`s up to Chris.

Edited December 31, 2007 by GTA Don

[Alkali64]

As Gerard said, i totally agree that we should have 'Forum helpers'

Not only would it encourage other members to help out around the forums, but it would also mean the members who are given the honor

would help maintain tgtap and help kill spam.

[Chris]

The awards sound good but it's a little too late for this year. Something that could definitely be run next year though.

[Chris]

I have just implemented a few changes. I am about to post a topic about them in announcements if you wish to discuss them. In here we can carry on discussing other ideas which are being thrown around and haven't been decided on yet.

[Kitsune Inferno]

I have just implemented a few changes. I am about to post a topic about them in announcements if you wish to discuss them. In here we can carry on discussing other ideas which are being thrown around and haven't been decided on yet.

By "changes", you're talking about the very recent staff promotions, right?

Edited January 1, 2008 by TEC 9

[MishoM]

I have just implemented a few changes. I am about to post a topic about them in announcements if you wish to discuss them. In here we can carry on discussing other ideas which are being thrown around and haven't been decided on yet.

By "changes", you're talking about the very recent staff promotions, right?

There has also been some category re-arrangement (GTA Classics is now a sub-forum under General GTA).

[Chris]

The topic has been made. And yes there may also be some more rearrangement but I haven't finalised the idea yet, to do with the general discussion forums. The topic informs of the staff changes, warzone removal, and the general gta forum, I also briefly mentioned the forum fun and games rename.

[azn]

Well, it's the start of a new year, 2008, which also means the start of something new for TGTAP; GTAIV will be released this year, and the Mods and members should get their act together and start some research on the upcoming title...'Tis the time where we should take the advantage of these few months hence to GTAIV's release date and flood the forum with loads of GTA talk, rumors or whatever fans look for when in search for GTAIV stuff. That obviously includes myself, lol even though this is my second day here but the "View new posts" link at the top of the page normally has links to threads in the Fun and Games section or anything that's non-GTA related.

Even though TGTAP got mentioned in some gaming magazine, we shouldn't rest assured (not for a long time) that it will remain this way. This forum is losing it's balance of Leisure topics and Hardcore Grand Theft Auto talk, if this continues TGTAP will be spam paradise...not that the games are necessarily spam but some of the games are spam-ish (no offense)

I think that's enough said for the moment.

Edited January 2, 2008 by aznn

[Gerard]

Firstly, you've grasped our issues perfectly. We've made a couple of changes which will hopefully discourage the masses of off-topic postings, and encourage more GTA-related discussion (which is the point of this forum, no?). But these changes are mostly superficial (subforum organisation) and we need to really dig down to the core of why the members want to post more about their favourite TV shows than GTA.

Secondly, your signature is far too big. Get rid of some userbars (I'll let you choose which). "Biggest userbar whore" award isn't for the person with the most (apparently).

[azn]

Lol, sorry about that, I'll get rid of at least half of them, and I wasn't aiming for whatever the award was

So how are you going to find out why people don't post about GTA as much as before? Put An anonymous survey for us to take that only the Admin can read? :S

[rockstarrem]

Guys, there is a completely well thought out reason why people don't want to talk about GTA.

What is there to talk about?

All of the games have been released and over with, they've talked about them already, let's be honest, all of the GTA's have the same thing to talk about all the time. There's really nothing new to talk about, it's all the same boring old things. We don't really have any good solid info on GTA IV so we can't really think of ideas. I mean come on, Rockstar isn't releasing it until Q2 of 2008. It's usually out by now. VCS, LCS, SA, VC, III, I mean what else is there to talk about? Modding? Maybe, maybe people here don't want to talk about modding or have a console version of the game. Personally I don't like modding the game because it gets rid of the feeling of GTA for me. Weird-stupid-happenings-like-bigfoot? We all know it's all BS. It's not fun to talk about that stuff. We could talk about the Brown Streak Railroad or help someone with a mission for some time, but it gets boring after a while. I hate to say it, but there really isn't much to talk about GTA for MOST people. People like myself actually enjoy talking about GTA no matter what.

You have to understand that people get bored easily talking about these things over and over again, it's not Chris's fault, he can't magically change things, it's the members faults, the ones that just hang around the trading stalls and the general discussion forums. They're "normal people", they just don't like to talk about the same things over and over again. Obviously the GTA IV section is a lot more popular than the others because it's the newest installment.

I don't know what else to say - I don't mean to seem harsh, I know what you guys are saying, I actually agree with you, I'd like the members to magically change, but I don't think it's going to happen really. What could influence them? I just don't know, maybe a reward system or something, that might work.

[Gerard]

You have a point, we haven't seen any new GTA releases for a year (VCS), and no major ones since 2004/2005 (SA and SA PC). However we're just a couple of months away from the much-hyped release of GTA IV, which we know quite a bit about (although (almost) nobody here has played yet, obviously). And people still play GTA games.

Maybe you don't mod games (which is fine) but there are a hell of a lot of people that do, myself included. Modding is one of the big things to do and talk about here, and its what a large portion of our members are here for.

GTA IV is planned for Q2 of FY2008 (Feb-Apr), not Q2 CY2008 (Apr-Jun), which allows a considerably sooner window, although April is still probably the best bet. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm hyped up even though I won't even be able to get the game unless I buy a 360 in the next few months.

I think the problem is more along the lines of there isn't much here for people to join in with. Probably only a small portion of our members start interesting topics that people join in with, and if that happened more (which it easily could) then it would inspire more discussion.

I don't deny the need for off-topic chat, but things like most of the spammy FFAG topics are just a waste of space.

So are you just suggesting we give up?

[Urbanoutlaw]

Gerard - Give up? Absolutely not, the efforts of staff are probably what make this forum as good as it is.

TGTAP has obviously grown past just being a place where kids talk about one set of video games, I think that's a good thing.

I never put any thought towards the day to day life of someone in Chile, Europe or the Philippines until I started looking for

code segments for San Andreas. It's given me a personal view of the rest of the world I never would have gotten from TV

news.

PS. I have an X-360, bring pizza & some good hard cider. Maybe I'll even call up Sky & we could all go cow tippin'.

[TM™]

Why would we give up?

If you ask me, none of us have given up on this site. To be honest, Rem is right about what their is to talk about, but the whole point in forums is to discuss. Surely their are the same discussion's going on around each sub forum, but as a GTA Based website, we have to stuff like this, or we wouldn't be classified as a GTA Related site. Things do get interesting and fun, especially with GTA IV. Stuff like the Trailer #3 remake is actually good, because it was all set in San Andreas, and it all looked great, but alot of members would like to know what they used to make it, and where to get it (e.g. Niko Bellic's skin for SA).

Modding is probably the biggest thing that's been known to GTA for quite a while now, and for one, they look hell alot good. I for one don't own any of the games on PC but the game would be great to mod if I had it, and it would be extremely fun to test it out. We are probably known for our Download database which is good because this would get us alot of members to submit their mods and join our websites. And staff come into this part since they would be the one to accept it (But Chris only does that, not the rest of the staff. But it would be good for us staff to do).

Members that hang around outside the GTA Gaming Category would be the members that don't really like to talk about GTA, or aren't interested in it. It's not really a problem to honest, as that's what brings us a community. A reward system isn't a bright idea since members would do it for the award, not for the sake of it. I think with the Warzone removal it's made the full site itself more better. I think alot of you would agree with that, and of course most of the staff do. That is probably one step we're taking to make a change and it's done some stuff. No. 1 would obviously be that there's no more flame topics out their in the forum, that itself will make a big impact on the members who regularly visit that part of the forum. No. 2 would also be that other forums that were inactive have become active again and are being talked on, and finally, this is where I can come and help members with what they really need help with. And finally, No. 3 would be that we're now under the changing period where the forums will be changing itself to a more better community, and for the best.

We've come this far, we shouldn't stop and give up. Then we would be called Weaklings which we are definitely not. We can get better if the staff start working in a team and this would definitely change TGTAP since we would have staff members doing different roles (e.g. Site Content, Mod Accepting and Declining etc). Big changes can start changes happening if we start doing it right now.

Sorry for the long Post, but all of this has to be heard or we might never get to show the big change.

[Sherman]

Um, where did we get the idea we're giving up on anything at? We're not. Period.

[Gerard]

REM was suggesting there's nothing we can do to inspire members to post less about FFAG and flaming, and more about GTA.

TM, that's an interesting point that it isn't a problem that some people don't want to talk about GTA; and UO is suggesting that we have moved beyond being a GTA-only community into the ranks of a general community about lots of different things.

I think perhaps we need to sit down and agree what TGTAP Forums are for, then we should be able to decide what should be on here and what shouldn't be on here. I have no doubt that the 'mission statement' of the forums will be totally different to what it was five years ago, but I'm still not sure what that is. To provide a place for..?

[azn]

An example of what's happening is Halo 2 forums. Halo 2 is the predecessor of Halo 3, and the members exhausted all the topics that all the attention turned to games and open-topic forums. Why? Because they are meaningless, never ending, nothing to discuss just play along and all that. Now, this is common with just about everything...even when it comes to GTA. Thank god that GTAIV is being released this year so TGTAP can be refreshed with new topics, members and discussions!

[rockstarrem]

REM was suggesting there's nothing we can do to inspire members to post less about FFAG and flaming, and more about GTA.

TM, that's an interesting point that it isn't a problem that some people don't want to talk about GTA; and UO is suggesting that we have moved beyond being a GTA-only community into the ranks of a general community about lots of different things.

I think perhaps we need to sit down and agree what TGTAP Forums are for, then we should be able to decide what should be on here and what shouldn't be on here. I have no doubt that the 'mission statement' of the forums will be totally different to what it was five years ago, but I'm still not sure what that is. To provide a place for..?

I didn't say "give up", I'm just saying, what do we do, give them cookies? I really have no idea how we can change them to go to the GTA parts of the forum, and if we did it wouldn't last that long.