Rebuild TGTAP

[Gerard]

It's obvious that TGTAP is a mere shadow of its former self.

Back in April 2008, we were getting 13,000 posts per month. Even in August 2009 we were getting over 3000. But in November 2010, there were just 168 posts on this entire forum.

However, new user registrations are still high - 600 in November 2010, with every month varying between 400 and 800.

Do you think this site should be active again? Do you think we should try to re-engage with the community? How do we do this?

Please answer the poll above, and reply with your thoughts!

[Damjan]

New staff.No offense for Chris, but he rarely visits or I just tend to miss whenever he comes on here..And a competition would be nice, all members will say about it wherever possible.A reward that is really something priced is what most value, not just some forum award.A game, Premium Account somewhere, a New Year's gift for this time of season would be perfect aswell.

[_Ray]

We need to tell Rockstar to hurry up with GTA V

[EvoLuTioN]

New Staff, Competitions and Focus on the gang system again(Thats what got me to join here) or some other new feature.

We need proper active staff, Admins(Junior admins),Super mods,etc. I've noticed this on here and couple of other forums I used to be on, Once the staff go inactive the community start dying out.

Competitions should help get the members active again or add new active members to the mix. Get Rockstar to send over some goodies,etc to give away. I don't think they'll mind.

The Gang thing just to keep people interested till theres news bout a new GTA. Theres only so much new staff and competitions can do.

Been part of the community for almost 3 years now, Not giving up on it. Hope things work out.

[Ivan]

Evo's right. And maybe then we could contact some of the old members and get them back, that would be great.

[Mpilk901]

I still visit the place to moderate and such but there isn't a lot going on, today is the first report I've had to deal with in a month when I used to have to deal with maybe 6 or more a week.

As soon as the gang system died out I lost interest pretty quickly. Get the gang system going again and you'll get activity in the private forums. Get that started and you'll have the large amount of new members noticing this and wanting to join a gang. If this happens, they'll continue to return as they feel they are a part of the community. I know the reason for removing the private topics was to help encourage those members to post in other parts of the forum, but ultimately it stops member activity as they don't feel as inclined to return to the forum.

Competitions might increase activity for a wee while, but after their over you'll notice activity dies fast. The same applies to business; if a company offers lets say a 2 for 1 deal, it will increase sales while the offer is ongoing but because it's doing nothing to build upon brand loyalty for the company, as soon as the competition is over sales will fall right back to where they were before.

While a revitalisation in certain parts of the forum would help, there really isn't much we can do to increase activity for the long term until news for the next GTA starts to come out. Best thing I think to do is to revive the gangs. Bring back the private forums. Lower the requirements needed by each gang for members to be accepted into a gang. But most of all, the older members who have been here for a while need to make these new members feel a part of the community.

[Noru]

I'm hoping to become more active when I get a few things in my life settled. Hopefully after Christmas I will be around more.

Anyways, as others have said. The gang system did seem to keep people around and when it died, people seemed to have interest with posting at all on the forums.

I'm thinking a new design, site features and new types of interest may help. I have noticed that a lot of people seem to have been playing/talking Minecraft lately on several forums. Maybe creating a Minecraft server? Even if it's just a Classic Minecraft server so anyone can play without having to pay for Alpha.

[Chris]

Wow, thanks for this Gerard. You're really helpful and I will reward you for your hard work by showering you in unicorns and penises forever!

[Mike356]

go back to the way it used to be

[Gerard]

go back to the way it used to be

What in particular? Chris & Co can't really force the old members to come back. What do you think would help?

[Mike356]

go back to the way it used to be

What in particular? Chris & Co can't really force the old members to come back. What do you think would help?

go back to the old ipb before it had all this facebook crap and make gta the main part of the forums not the other sub forums

[JustADummy]

Downgrading isn't possible, Mike. Chris would need to restore a two year old backup and yeah, I'm back here . IMO, the merge with GTAWiki could be useful, as they get plenty of visits and a link to TGTAP wouldn't hurt and might increase registers and posts. New content too, try to be more updated in news, you've been outdated lately, you need to try to get news ASAP so Google wants to crawl TGTAP more.

As for the gang system, only if a MTA server is possible, a gang system is pointless just on a forum doing deals and saying like "bang you're killed, you're out of the gang" as I hate RP's. About the staff, maybe, some of the staff are getting pretty inactive these days.

In the news subject again, you could get a News Posters group so everyone and not only staff would help. These are my 2 cents.

Edited December 12, 2010 by Spider-Vice

[rockstarrem]

I don't think switching to an outdated version of IPB will help the community be active again. I feel it has a lot to do with Rockstar and GTA V news, seeing as that's what this sites purpose is - to unite fans of the game. Sadly, there isn't that much to talk about regarding GTA at this point in time, nothing new is happening. I suppose starting up the MTA server again and focusing on that more could definitely work, but I've learned that my strong point isn't coding, and in order for the server to succeed we need something that's unlike the rest of the servers, and we don't really have the resources available to code a new game mode. If we did, I could think of a lot of ideas, but implementing them is the problem.

I don't see much more we can really do beyond that, at least if we're making a big change. It's not really our fault - as I said before, it really depends on Rockstar and the news on the next GTA.

I'll shut up now :/.

[Gerard]

Making GTA the focus again - That's a good point. I think GTA was pushed down because those forums were really inactive, and people wanted the discussion and community side more. People wanting the GTA stuff could find it easily if they wanted either way. Let's not forget that there isn't much GTA stuff happening right now, so making it GTA-only is just as much of a death sentence. Then again, I agree we should go back to what we're good at, and I think we can do this.

The "Facebook crap" is all optional, and surely doesn't interrupt or disrupt your experience. Of course downgrading would be stupid, but we can simplify the layout and stuff though.

I don't think an MTA server (or other ingame gang system) is going to work. It relies on everyone being in the same place at the time time, which just can't happen on an international forum of this size. Yeah we can definitely run one, but it just couldn't be the focal point of the community here.

I like the idea of getting regular users to submit news (or join a news-posting team). As the Wiki founder, of course I believe in crowdsourcing and letting the users run the show here. I'll be working with Chris to see how much user-driven content we can get up here, and a merge with Grand Theft Wiki would definitely achieve that, and it would keep the whole site up-to-date.

Yes GTA V is probably 9-15 months away, but we want to be ready with a great community for the run-up to that. With GTA IV, Chris waited until it was released then expected all the new visitors to magically make the community good again, and that didn't really happen. We need to be ready beforehand, and bring in the users as soon as they arrive.

[Ivan]

Yeah, we should definitely get prepared and make a plan but as you said, GTA V is still very far away, what could we do in the meantime?

[Gerard]

I was meaning let's get the community going, we can't rely on GTA to bring/keep people here. Lots of people, lots of discussion and chat and games and GTA info and help and mods and stuff.

[mvi]

It's been a long while since GTA IV came out, I'm guessing the whole GTA scene must be going through the same issues. It won't be long till the next console GTA game, when that turns up it'll be important to get going with it full throttle. Aggressive coverage and some unique content. Back in the day I did a few issues of that GTA IV magazine and got some solid attention for it, building up a community from nothing. Something like that could be a way of making TGTAP stand out from the large number of reasonably similar fansites. Nice and easy to do in software like InDesign, probably wouldn't be very achievable in a weekly format and a monthly format might be too long, so bimonthly could work.

[_Ray]

I think that part of the problem is that GTA IV is so difficult to mod (Thx Rockstar) compared to previous GTA games, so there are fewer mods by a lot. I can't really think of many exciting mods or overhauls like there were for VC and SA, and with every update Rockstar releases, it disables ASI loaders and mods built for previous versions of the game.

[Jezz Torrent]

one thing that could help is to get staff members that are respectful. i stopped regularly posting here a couple years ago cuz most of the staff are, sorry to say, assholes in situations where its really unnecessary. and it makes me really uncomfortable that i cant post my thoughts without them attacking me...just an idea

[Nate10]

I think the lack of liveliness here has to do with Grand Theft Auto not being what it was...

...and that is NEW. Nothing was like it and nothing could beat it for quite some time which brought in plenty of clientele to the site. In 2008 I was STILL blown away by GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas playing them every day. I'm not sure about everyone else but I don't play GTA much at all anymore(recently beginning to go through the III era and about to buy IV for PC so I can reissue my love for GTA) and I have the suspicion that many of you don't play GTA every day now either... hence we're not continually posting in the GTA sections like we used to whereas back in the day all of posted in the GTA sections.

As for the poll:

1.) A new design: I think the layout is fine personally, but a new one may help. Can't say it would or wouldn't for sure.

2.) A reorganisation/restructure of the forum: COULD help, but really I think the site is good as is.

3.) New and more active staff: If they actually bring something to the table, then by all means. The only problem I see with a proposal asking for more staff is that it will make people become more active, but only to become staff.

4.) Merging with Grand Theft Wiki: I don't see what bad would come from that personally, but I also don't know the full details of what this would entail.

5.) Competitions & promotions: We didn't have competitions back in 2006 when we were super active, I don't think we need them now. Not sure what you mean by promotions though.

6.) Extra site features and new types of content: Again, I think the site is perfectly okay.

7.) Focus on the gang system again: I think this can help. In reference to the MTA server, it can be a problem to have all of us playing at the same time, but if people participate with getting the server up and running and play it then we're going to have more of us here on the forum. Some of us have busy lives though, which makes being active hard.

I do hope we get active again. Been here for 4 years now and like Evo said, I'm not giving up.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Nate10

[The Bossman]

This site needs new topics first of all, not enough new posts because the topics aren't there to post it. Even if there're as archaic as 'favourite games character' or 'favourite tv show' etc, at least everyone can have an opinion on that. Merging with GTA Wiki should be obvious to do to increase interest, surely, and maybe some competitions now and again would work well, but then again most people will just register for the competition and then never post again.

I also voted for 'used to feel like part of the community' because this place is so empty now.

[Gerard]

4.) Merging with Grand Theft Wiki: I don't see what bad would come from that personally, but I also don't know the full details of what this would entail.

Well GTW is full of detailed, in-depth content, useful information on just about every subject, lists etc. But the community is quite silent, people just get on with it, add/edit content, and don't hang around to chat. Often, new information can take quite a while to get on, as nobody is dedicated to make sure it is up-to-date.

TGTAP had the community and the frequently-updated news, and it also has the downloads. It's very light on the information and content side.

So a merger would take the best of both. Users on GTW would be invited to discuss things on TGTAP - every page could have a link to the relevant subforum or topics. Visitors to TGTAP could read the detailed content from the wiki rather than half a page of copied-and-pasted content.

Sound okay to you? The technical details are yet to be worked out, but it wouldn't be a full merger like renaming it to TGTAP Wiki or GTW Forums.

[rockstarrem]

one thing that could help is to get staff members that are respectful. i stopped regularly posting here a couple years ago cuz most of the staff are, sorry to say, assholes in situations where its really unnecessary. and it makes me really uncomfortable that i cant post my thoughts without them attacking me...just an idea

You know what, I'm going to completely agree. Mistakes were made in the past, including mistakes made by myself. I can honestly say, though, at this time I think we're all well experienced enough to handle all sorts of situations without getting emotionally involved in them. That is our duty as staff.

You might be wondering if we need a different type of staff than what we have now. My answer would be no. I feel that all of us on the present staff team are experienced enough to handle situations with dignity and respect, in any case. Of course, if someone is blatantly breaking the rules and it seems that this someone is obviously doing it on purpose, then we may be a little more aggressive in our treatment. I feel that this is necessary, though.

I think it's definitely a possibility that the old staff partially caused the inactivity, but I can't say that was the only reason. As I said before, there's no GTA news. This is a huge problem for this website. However, there are plenty of other factors that haven't been discovered yet and we are doing our best in trying to figure out how we can make this site more beneficial for you. This is what this topic is for. So, please, speak your minds. There are no judgements.

In any case, you do not need to feel uncomfortable messaging one of the admins (Gerard) if you feel there is a problem with a moderator or any other type of staff. I can assure you he takes these concerns very seriously and will do his best to resolve it in a peaceful manner. Hopefully, though, this will not need to happen anymore. I'm almost positive it won't.

[Husky]

My suggestion, is to add video walkthroughs. I have told Chris about this idea a long time ago he approved but nothing else happened. This would be a good way to promote a lot of people in the TGTAP community.

[Thomas.]

I feel somewhat bad, I used to contribute a lot to this forum and I still feel like a part of the community despite going, as one could say "AWOL" for the near part of a year, coming back once every two or three months. The big issue here isn't with the forums, it's that the GTA series has died because there has been a sheer lack of any information on any new game that could potentially be released in the next few years. That's what GTA communities need, a brand spanking new GTA game for everyone to get excited about.

Moving swiftly on...

As for the poll, I voted on the following:

- New and more active staff: I feel somewhat guilty here as well, being a forum boss. I haven't been around to look after the Vice City Forum. With regards to this issue, it's weird that I know every single one of the staff members and I have only been gone a year and a half - in other words, it's practically the same since I left, except there's no Spaz The Great anymore.

- Extra site features and new types of content: Self explanatory, although I'm not quite sure what needs to be added but it would be certainly a good addition.

- Focus on the gang system again: I would totally rejoin the Fiore Family Mafia if it were to be recreated, of course, the gang system would need to be rebooted. I would never have a problem with the gang system, in fact, it kept me on here when I was bored. It will certainly increase activity but I know that not everyone will be for this option. I gave me some great memories to say the least.

In the likely event that after I post this message I won't be seen for another 2 months (Facebook and MSN non-inclusive for those who have either), I would like to wish you good luck in revamping and hopefully bringing the forums back up to its former glory, or better. Alternatively, I could try to come on here more often, I miss talking to some of you guys, especially Scott., Spider-Vice, mpilk, Gerard and so on... it could be good to return as a full time member