AG wrote:The same is true of my surf club. We've developed a great community on FB,
A lot of my shred friends are also on FB, and I keep tabs on them through that.
Its just funny to me that our unknown game shares the same initials as perhaps the world's biggest internet phenomenon. Also, its similar to some other interests of mine...
I take from this "coincidence" that footbag is connected to, and at the heart of, everything else. Most may be unaware of this, and maybe some are in the know, but its really all about FB!
Last edited by Outsider on 29 May 2011 13:51, edited 1 time in total.
"The time has come to convert the unbelievers..."
Jonathan Schneider --- sometimes showers with his Lavers on (to clean them)
The Ministry of Silly Walks
NYFA
BAP
I've spoken to at least two footbaggers who I'd consider in the top echelon of footbaggers who derided modified and were placing in the top 10 at worlds at the time. Both of them used to post on modified a lot, and then started only posting occasionally as they rose to be top players. I'm not sure if they play much now, but I've definitely seen the view Bob is talking about in the past. I've also often seen people put forward the notion that "modified is not the footbag community," expressed in a negative opinion of modified. I've always thought of this as a strawman, since modified is clearly a sub-community within the footbag community, and I doubt anybody has ever thought that the two things are the same.
Anyway, I know I've said this before and people strongly and emotionally disagreed with me, despite the fact that I said I didn't think this was something that would ever actually change, but I think a big part of modified is the footblogs, which create disengagement and isolation, rather than creating connections and engagement.
Before footblogs existed, you'd see the development of players through topics like "new moves" and there'd be a growing conversation and interaction. People would be inspired by seeing other players of the same abilities, forge bonds and challenge each other. Now that we have a series of topics just about ourselves (footblogs and challenges) the only interaction is between people who already have a connection. If somebody is drilling the same moves that I am, it's unlikely that I'll find out about that unless I read every blog and every challenge topic. Instead of being exposed to each other, we're only exposed to the people whose blogs we follow. This naturally creates less interaction, and so a less active forum, which is less attractive to new members, and a slow downward spiral.
Scalable things on the internet are driven by activity and a tipping point in the direction of a positive feedback loop. Not enough activity leads to less activity, high activity leads to more activity. Modified is definitely on the wrong side of that tipping point and things will probably get worse unless we can increase the activity of the forum, which can happen either by increasing active members or by increasing the interaction between existing members.
Forums are, by definition, a place for discussion. Creating footblogs changed modified from being a forum to being a space for personal expression. Blogs on the internet follow a power law. The vast majority of blogs have almost no readers, while a very small number have more readers than almost all the other blogs combined. We see the same thing to a degree on modified. The footblogs sub-forum has the most number of posts, but almost all those posts are just monologues. This is why the challenge sub-forum has 343 topics, but only 4 (~1%) have had a post in them this month - because the challenge topics rely on interaction to exist, but by being individual topics, there mainly isn't any, so people lose interest and stop posting in their own challenge topic.
The obvious solution is to get rid of footblogs and challenges, forcing people to interact with each other all the time, instead of mainly continuing their monologues. Since footblogs is by far the most active sub-forum, and it's likely that the majority of active users therefore approve of footblogs, this is an unrealistic solution, so instead our best hope is that people try to post more and interact more in the other forums. If there is an increase of discussion and interaction on the forum then that'll attract more members and create continued growth.
I seem to remember disagreeing with you on the footblog thing in the past, but either I didn't read what you were saying probably or I misunderstood it or something. I think that makes a lot of sense and would help the community. I think i would still find another place to record my sessions though, and maybe post my bigger accomplishments in the appropriate sub forums here for all to see.
I think that makes sense too. I don't read challenges or footblogs much either whether I should or not. I actually didn't realize how much a structural difference in a website can change something like communication on that level. Same with Nathan Anderson's perspective on small scenes with regular weekly sessions and everything. I don't do that at all, but I see that it could and probably would make a significant impact on things. Really quite fascinating, I'm glad i read some of this discussion!
I read most of the first page and I guess, and all i have to say is; first, I don't create topics or discussion most of the time, but if i see it I like to respond. This makes me check the site less, but i do check it. I also comment on people's youtube video's quite often. I think "newbies video's don't get commented on" was brought up. I comment on everyone's video's if i see progression. And anyone really good I sometimes see it as pointless to comment because it's so friggin awesome and we all know it anyways - other than a thank you for posting because it does take effort.. I don't see footbag doing too to bad, but it's been fairly similar since i started.
Sporatical_Distractions wrote:I'd be more active on this forum if I still had the internet. This website was the only thing that inspired solo kicking for some of us.
This. It's really the only interaction I get with other players.
I don't really know what argument (if any) this supports, but something I've noticed about modified is that it's all completely in english... I understand that a substantial amount of players not from US/Canada know the language and participate on this forum regardless, but there is clearly a biased demographic in the online footbag community towards english speakers.
A little off topic, but does anyone else here use RSS to follow the forums? I think the UI of phpBB is fucking terrible and is a big reason why people are engaging less, especially through the footblogs. It's almost impossible to keep up with all the posts if you just refresh the browser page 40 times a day.
I almost never visit the standard web interface for modified. Instead, I see this:
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