TGTAP Shake-Up

[Gerard]

Following a few suggestions and a lot of deliberation, we've made some big changes to TGTAP!

Subforum Changes

You'll notice a number of subforums have been moved around and many deleted/merged. The biggest changes are in the General Forums, GTA Gaming and GTA IV categories. Forum Bosses should speak with the staff if their forum has been changed.

Gangs Retired

The gang system on TGTAP has now been retired. This is due to the gang community declining in activity and consisting of old members; and the gang war modification has never been able to be upgraded to the work on the current version of the forum software. We are open to suggestions for a replacement, but we have no specific plans at this time.

Old gang members still have read-only access to their gang subforums for the next few weeks. They can request that some of their topics are moved into the public areas (ie Members' Lounge) by replying in this topic. It would be great for the other members to be able to join in some of the discussions and fun topics you guys have.

Staff Changes

A number of long-serving Staff have retired from their positions: Righty, Spaz, Chris82, MishoM. I'd like to thank these guys for their long service to TGTAP - three of them have been staff here for 5 years now!

This has left us with a much leaner staff team, and we may be open to offers for new staff soon - so get active and be on your best behaviour!

Do you like these changes? Should we change some of them back? Do you have more suggestions? Reply here.

[EvoLuTioN]

I don't mind making the gang forums read only but don't get rid of them (assuming that is what you mean by 'next few weeks"), a lot of work, effort and memories has gone into that part of the site.

Cheers all the retired Staff, Good job maintaining the site.

Edit I don't seem to have access to the gang forums.

Edited May 9, 2010 by EvoLuTioN

[Alvas.]

Really, the gang system should be brought back, I'would love it. And about totally removing the gang forum, I'would say never.

Also, even can't access the Gang Forums.

[Gerard]

At the moment, the gang forums are only used by a handful of old members, and most of them are inactive too. That isn't really useful for 99% of the membership here. It also means that those members just talk there, instead of outside in the main forums where other members can join in. It's significantly contributing to making this forum look 'dead' to some people.

We are planning on getting rid of the gang user groups, which means that the gang forums have to be accessible to either everyone or noone. Obviously the discussions are private, so we won't make them public, so they will be archived and invisible. However, it would be great if you could figure out which topics are okay to be public, and then we can put them in the lounge where everyone can enjoy them.

I agree it would be nice for the gang system to be brought back, but whilst a lot of people have shown an interest, not many people actually bother to get involved. There is a huge amount of time and effort from a staff perspective to setup, manage and maintain the system - and for the past few years that has pretty much been a waste. If we could work out (together) a way to do this that people would use, then I'm up for it.

[Noru]

I like the Subforum Changes, makes everything look a little more organized then what it looked like before.

Anyways, I noticed the two forums I had were merged. Ballad of Gay Tony got merged with Lost and Damn and Gameplay was merged with GTA IV Discussion and Help.

The last thing to those wanting to view their private gang forums, You can get into them if you have the direct link to it. I had the LCF forum bookmarked so I can still access it that way.

[Alvas.]

I can't find the gang sub-forums. Where are they ?

[Gerard]

At the bottom - here

[WRX22B1998]

ah thats too bad about the gang system

havent been on here for like a week lol, i looked today and its same stuff, people asking for critical game files etc haha.

maybe you could implement some sort of forced sticky. or like a big FAQ page that people get redirected to as soon as they sign up. what do you reckon ?

and oh yeah the vehicles subforum so dead lol. i would post stuff in there but it'd be mostly links to blogs and stuff so idn.

[Alvas.]

At the bottom - here

Well, I got this message when I followed that link -

I can't see them at the bottom either. Look -

Something is wrong.

[WRX22B1998]

@Alvas

I got the same message.

I'm just wondering what happened with the MTA Server, the TGTAP one. I know that people stopped going on after a bit but how come its gone, I thought it was ad-supported ?

[NickS]

The Gang system's going!!!

That used to be the only reason why I joined this forum.

And I got that message too when I tried to access it.

[JustADummy]

I think these changes are good, well the gang system would be great, we could make some sort of ads or something to get people in the gang scene and then we could reopen the MTA Server or something.

[Gerard]

Try now. It should only be accessible to gang members, not just any member. But I made the "Forum Gangs" subforum itself public now.

The gang system has been inactive for years now. All that's really been happening is that a small number of gang members talk in their private subforums. Those members tend to do ALL of their socialising in there, hidden away, instead of in the rest of the forum. This is contributing to the appearance of inactivity (since all the active members talk in public).

The MTA server never took off because of a lack of commitment from anyone involved. It requires someone not just to say they want to be in charge, but to put the effort into getting the server, configuring it, and running it. Then they have to make it interesting enough for other members to want to join in regularly.

However, I thought instead of a 24/7 TGTAP server, it would be better to run MTA tournaments a couple of times a year. What do you guys think of that idea?

As for guests, they get a register link at the top. Log out and see.

[NickS]

I can access the gang forum now.

I like the sound of tournaments! I'd go in whenever there's an announcement of one

[Alvas.]

....However, I thought instead of a 24/7 TGTAP server, it would be better to run MTA tournaments a couple of times a year. What do you guys think of that idea?

Yes, that'll be nice. But instead of a couple of times a year, how about a couple of times a month?

[Gerard]

Yes, that'll be nice. But instead of a couple of times a year, how about a couple of times a month?

That leaves us with the same problem we have now - nobody has the time to run that sort of system. The idea of a tournament is that it is occasional rather than continuous. But it would be big, probably taking a whole month to do.

I don't mean just one deathmatch, because that would be insane and unfair, and it's not as if everyone could be on at the same time. I meant a proper knockout tournament. We could have a league in each continent, and the winners (or the winning teams) battle it out against each other. The winners/winningteams would get prizes and benefits on the forum.

[EvoLuTioN]

Love the idea of tournaments, Maybe have some even for Gta4. You guys should get in touch with Rockstar and get them to send you some stuff to give away (t-shirts, Stickers, posters, etc) I don't think they'll mind, giving away stuff once a year for a larger community seems like a pretty good deal.

Its sure to get more people interested and take it a bit seriously.

Also I'm just gonna rant on a bit here,

Lack of commitment to the server is not exactly true, Couple of us were pretty much always on (Wrx, Earthbound, Noru,etc), I guess the development side was a bit slow, then again we were all pretty new to Lua and were still learning. Fairly sure that it was the which server got really unstable towards the end (Going down for hours, not showing up on searches) After which people stopped going on.

[Alvas.]

That leaves us with the same problem we have now - nobody has the time to run that sort of system. The idea of a tournament is that it is occasional rather than continuous. But it would be big, probably taking a whole month to do.

I don't mean just one deathmatch, because that would be insane and unfair, and it's not as if everyone could be on at the same time. I meant a proper knockout tournament. We could have a league in each continent, and the winners (or the winning teams) battle it out against each other. The winners/winningteams would get prizes and benefits on the forum.

That'll be great. I'would say go for it.

Also, tournaments for gta4 would be great too.

[Thomas.]

Damn, it is an end of an era for TGTAP.

The Gang System was actually the best way for people to make new friends and new people to talk to. Friendly rivalries between the LCF and the FFM were once in existence back when the FFM first formed. It truly had its worthwhile memories and maybe some that are wanting to be forgotten but it was a good place to have a chat, chill out for the day and catch up with your fellow "gang members".

[Spaz The Great]

Wow, a gang system that has been dead for nearly a year now, and that is more important to talk about than retired staff members? Geez you guys, we love you too!

Oh yeah, I bet no one really expected to see me again. Sorry guys, I've been dead busy recently. Work, running a house-hold, payin' bills, shit like that.

Hope you guys are keepin' it unreal around here, you'll not see much more of me than you have recently. I've been meaning to pop in just to say hi, but again, busy.

[WRX22B1998]

Try now. It should only be accessible to gang members, not just any member. But I made the "Forum Gangs" subforum itself public now.

The gang system has been inactive for years now. All that's really been happening is that a small number of gang members talk in their private subforums. Those members tend to do ALL of their socialising in there, hidden away, instead of in the rest of the forum. This is contributing to the appearance of inactivity (since all the active members talk in public).

The MTA server never took off because of a lack of commitment from anyone involved. It requires someone not just to say they want to be in charge, but to put the effort into getting the server, configuring it, and running it. Then they have to make it interesting enough for other members to want to join in regularly.

However, I thought instead of a 24/7 TGTAP server, it would be better to run MTA tournaments a couple of times a year. What do you guys think of that idea?

As for guests, they get a register link at the top. Log out and see.

Ahh i see. hmm i could've helped if I knew you guys needed help. Anyway, yeah tournament seems like a cool idea I suppose...tbh the server was really awesome at first but grew boring (as did MTA for me). If we had a organised thing about it, like for example once a month we all go on it'd be cool.

[Alvas.]

Wow, a gang system that has been dead for nearly a year now, and that is more important to talk about than retired staff members? Geez you guys, we love you too!........

I totally agree with you Spaz. And me and S-V have been talking about this on msn for a while. I mean the old staff members who aren't active anymore, should be removed and new members should be made staff. And this should be done as quickly as possible, it should not be like 'oh! man...we'll do it later', if you know what I mean. Only if we manage to keep TGTAP active will the other sites like Paynekillers or Red Dead Redemption be active.

TGTAP is the flagship website of the network. With that being dead, you are launching other websites ? Its like not repairing a damaged road and making new ones. If you know what I mean.

[JustADummy]

^^ Yes, we can't let TGTAP be EVEN MORE inactive and stuff like PayneKillers/RDP/AlanWake are. This forum just needs something new, like a tournament yes.

[Gerard]

We'll discuss the tournament in a separate thread. Keep this one discussing the changes that have been made, and ideas for more changes.

As for the network, I see what you're saying, but not sure it works like that. TGTAP is old, people will have moved on to other sites - Chris wants them to move to his sites not other peoples'.

That said, TGTAP really needs to get more popular again. Anything we can do to help that we should do. But this site is entirely Chris's responsibility, I just help run the forums.

This is my 3,333rd post

[Thomas.]

Maybe invest in advertising it a bit more on other websites, however, this be a little bit expensive. I could certainly try spreading the site around to my friends and what not, but most of them aren't into GTA any more.