Community Announcement

[+Fates 63]

Our next moderation won't be announced and you won't have a voice in the decision.

[Darrin 3]

Please read the following knowing that my intention and thoughts are always about the membership, the community, and its collective health. Also please understand my reluctance in responding to this thread further. A big THANK YOU to all the supporters and folks who can see that a community like this takes more than just people who join and call themselves members so they have access to free "everything". To all the others here are my closing thoughts.

 

---

 

I've re-read all my posts and can't find anywhere I said anything about or eluded to money. I simply can't find those references.

 

What I did say is:

• The site benefits from a member's activity.
  
• Each post that is made and is picked up by a search engine like google makes us stronger on the net.
  
• As our knowledge base grows from members questions and interaction so does the strength of our site.
  
• A community that interacts and plays together is stronger more vibrant and fluid.
  
• The more our site gains interest and popularity the more we're willing to support it through faster downloads, more downloads, more features. etc.
  
• Modders are more likely to interact and participate in a site that is active and shows professional support for their endeavors.
  
• We've begged folks to get involved with give-aways, contests, and the like with little activity to show for it.
  
• We ask for something from the membership and they complain, say it's stupid, and overall let us know we're foolish.
  
• When our membership asked for a better, faster, cleaner place I can't remember us calling them idiots.
  
• Members that participate in our community should be rewarded with access and features.
  
• Members that don't should be restricted from full use of our resources.
  
• It's a give and take relationship.
  

There's much much more that goes along with the big picture than just the above. I'm also confident that each of you reading this can understand why I even care enough to be bothered with seeking support for such ideas. If you folks can't or won't see it because 5 posts is way too much to ask for, then you'll just have to live with the outcome.

 

I've removed the 5 post minimum.

 

Our next moderation won't be announced and you won't have a voice in the decision. Before today many of you never had a voice anyway so I'm sure it won't matter. If you're one of the "active" members in our community I applaud you and give you the green light ops go on all those that would otherwise take that away from you.

 

I'm deeply saddened by the "use it loose it" view point shared in all this. I suppose it was a good learning experience and not a total loss.

 

Here's wishing you all the best.

 

Erik Thompson

CombatACE.com

should have stayed on their six untill they ran out of fuel 5 posts sincerly simple for a poor man

[FrankTB 14]

Well we have 18,000 members, yet no ones hardly uses the forums. It seems in my eyes, at times that all we are good for is just downloads. So this is a great idea.

 

Five posts are a fair and reasonable request, I find that at the end of the to get home from work and

read the posts on the forum a great pastime in it's self.

I would like to think that I am in this for the long haul and not just passing thru and hopefully be able to contribute something usefull in the future.

[Groundskeeper 0]

Why are people complaining about you wanting them to post? I'm as quiet as they come, and even I don't have a problem with this. I don't understand why giving people an opportunity to voice their opinion and give feedback is a bad thing. It seems like a good way to let everybody, regardless of skill or experience in the areas of addons and other things like that to contribute something. Oh, and by the way, love the site. Been looking for one like this for a while. Keep it up, guys!

[jodandawg 18]

I'm not buying into the doom and gloom theory proposed by so many.

 

The fact that our community relies on each of YOU to be healthy and grow is undisputed. Where would YouTube be if no-one uploaded content. You simply can't have all the resources flowing in one direction. If you enjoy the community then you'll do what it takes to make it the number one resource which includes at the very least saying hello to everyone and making a few posts. I mean someone who has been here a year not making one single post or contribution to the site is just odd. You know sharing pictures of your favorite whip or commenting on someone's pictures just doesn't take that long but goes miles in keeping us active and healthy. After all, we do all this for you so you can continue to enjoy your past time and hobby.

 

I'm just not following the logic in the complaints.

 

We've tried so many ways to get the community involved, even the current contest of FREE products worth hundreds of dollars. That's just one of three contests we've held in the past few months with very little change in activity.

 

Offer us some alternatives and we'll gladly listen, but to categorically cast all this doom and gloom makes me wonder why we don't just turn the downloads off.

 

As I mentioned before we tried some options (read: contests) and thought about other options which included (read: still viable):

 

Slower download speeds.

Give membership with less than 5 posts dial up speeds.

Give membership with higher than x amount posts unlimited speeds.

Requiring members to post between downloads. (Read more than 5 posts would be required long term)

Capping the download size to x amount per day / week / month per member.

 

The bottom line is this is your home for downloads, why wouldn't you want to do everything possible to make it number one?

 

If anyone has a complaint it's the modders who go without so much as a thanks, and us who can't even get our membership to say hello.

 

--- Hey but if we shut off the downloads, just imagine the feedback we'd get then.

 

Get involved and help us reach our goal, you've been officially invited.

 

Regards;

[jodandawg 18]

or pay to get to the downloads section. yikes!!! these downloads would be worth a mint!!

[johnlind2002 0]

So what do you mean by a post I dont have the skill or time to mod the games but I enjoy the mods and add ons that others do

do i have to say I like a mod which I cant do now as I cant download them

[BUFF 8]

So what do you mean by a post I dont have the skill or time to mod the games but I enjoy the mods and add ons that others do

do i have to say I like a mod which I cant do now as I cant download them

1) you've got 18 posts which would have let you download

2) we cancelled that requirement about a week ago ...

[+Erik 1,733]

January 21, 2007

 

Hi -

 

I removed the 5 post minimum requirement so that all members can now download from our site even with zero posts. That happened last week as I posted about it earlier in this thread.

 

Hopefully that will make things easier for everyone and clear some things up.

 

Above I have placed a new poll into action. With the recent site move it would be helpful to get an idea of our performance. Your help would be greatly appreciated in letting me know how we're doing.

 

Also there are some new benefits to members. I won't go into detail but they should make all of you quite happy. Access to your features will become apparent as you use this site. You will be automatically upgraded as you post during normal daily use of the boards. It may take a few posts to get all your upgrades in place as they're done one at a time, and some of you won't upgrade at all depending on your activity level. There may be more details to come but it will have to be when I'm not so completely exhausted.

 

Enjoy the new stuff it's here for you. Tell your friends and lets make our home "the place to be". Oh yeah don't forget to vote in the above poll.

 

Take care everyone;

 

Erik Thompson

CombatACE.com

[tank03 1]

January 21, 2007

 

Hi -

 

I removed the 5 post minimum requirement so that all members can now download from our site even with zero posts. That happened last week as I posted about it earlier in this thread.

 

Hopefully that will make things easier for everyone and clear some things up.

 

Above I have placed a new poll into action. With the recent site move it would be helpful to get an idea of our performance. Your help would be greatly appreciated in letting me know how we're doing.

 

Also there are some new benefits to members. I won't go into detail but they should make all of you quite happy. Access to your features will become apparent as you use this site. You will be automatically upgraded as you post during normal daily use of the boards. It may take a few posts to get all your upgrades in place as they're done one at a time, and some of you won't upgrade at all depending on your activity level. There may be more details to come but it will have to be when I'm not so completely exhausted.

 

Enjoy the new stuff it's here for you. Tell your friends and lets make our home "the place to be". Oh yeah don't forget to vote in the above poll.

 

Take care everyone;

 

Erik Thompson

CombatACE.com

 

Thanks for all the hard work. It's appreciated.

[JediMaster 451]

I've not been able to come here as much as I used to (since the site was blocked at work after that hacking business flagged the site as "criminal hacking/phishing" :(), but I didn't think it an unusual requirement.

Well, ok, unusual in the form it took, perhaps, but not in the idea.

It was a legitimate non-intrusive way to increase forum participation. If you have to post 5, why not ask about that weird problem you had once? Why not tell someone else how you got around the problem they're having?

Of course, some people will resent ANYTHING being asked of them. You can never satisfy anyone, and you'll go nuts trying. :)