Social Melee Social Thread and stuff

[pit1984]

Okay this is an innovative review of melee I tried to make some serious points shoot yeah man you should check it out okay you can catch me on Xbox live

 

[Ten of Nine]

How embarrassing...lol

 

[SoapyMF]

Okay this is an innovative review of melee I tried to make some serious points shoot yeah man you should check it out okay you can catch me on Xbox live

Nice try

 

[pit1984]

Okay man I am a serious smasher I played brawl for five years man and I am a serious competitive streetfighter 4 player so I know about real fighting games believe me man I will soon have a video that scientifically proves that brawl is better than melee shoot yeah man

All these people disrespecting me are probably Gannon players

 

[Ten of Nine]

If only Melee had tripping and only 1 viable character.

Can't wait for Project B

 

[Spak]

Nah, I'm 99.9% sure you're just trolling. If you were a serious fighting game player and trying to make a serious video, you would've gotten the dates for all of the games right. MK2 was 1993 and Melee was 2001, and I don't see someone your age getting the dates that horribly wrong by accident. And MK2's playable cast was 12 characters (starting with 5), which is smaller than Melee's by a lot. Also, you got all of the terminology for Melee tech intentionally wrong. I'm just surprised that everyone else isn't calling it out as a troll lol.

EDIT: Amended my last sentence.

 

[Dolla Pills]

Nah man dates are just numbers man and shoot who needs numbers man

 

[Ten of Nine]

No one's calling him out as troll because it was painfully obvious from the first sentence. Let us have our fun my dood.

I just hope he doesn't have a legitimate mental illness, then I will feel bad.

(then again you shouldn't be using the internet without supervision if that's the case)

 

[pit1984]

Okay man I am not trolling I am dead serious I am a serious competitive player I went to a brawl team tournament there were at least nine teams I made top eight okay get on my level

Project B shoot yeah man that would be cool but I prefer a serious remake okay Ultimate Brawl 87 characters in HD 1080 P bring back tripping they could put in master chief as DLC that is what the fans want to see

Okay and you have to admit I made some valid points you have to be stoned to play melee probably every person on this form is stoned

 

[Ten of Nine]

I think I speak for all of us when I say: I agree with everything you've said so far and everything you will say in the future.


Next topic?

 

[-ACE-]

Man... Man... Ya know, man?

 

[Insolar]

Okay this is an innovative review of melee I tried to make some serious points shoot yeah man you should check it out okay you can catch me on Xbox live

A+ Bait almost had me there

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

Knuckles is the **** :D

 

[Ten of Nine]

I'm my own original character Knux

this red hurts my eyes

 

[Sempai]

Dat Video doe.

Wow, new level.
Not sure what to say about that.

 

[pikadrewuniverse]

Not sure if this has already appeared on this thread, bu it seems pretty relevant.

 

[tsmfoxmaster]

Melee is garbage haha whatever man

 

[Sempai]

Yah I never understood that video, ah well. Anyone know when the next documentary is coming out?

 

[Voltaire]

Hey, so I might be in the wrong thread for this question (if I am just throw me in the right direction) but I was wondering what I should expect at my first tournament? I'm going to Kill Roy Vol. 3 in November and I'm entering Melee singles. I haven't ever been to a tournament before, not even as a spectator. I fully expect to get destroyed I'm mainly going for the experience and the practice. But anyway what should I expect?

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

I recommend going to a few locals first. Depending on where you live, the local tourneys will usually get between 10-40 people. You will meet people very close to you who will give you basic starting advice after playing you. This is the best place to start.

When you go to larger tournaments, there is less time for learning from your play. Most of the time is spent competing and trying to find a TV.

 

[Voltaire]

It isn't super far from where I live or anything, but I see your point. There's a game store about 25 min away that does a monthly tourney, so maybe I should start there?

 

[Chainz]

Oh **** people are actually posting here? What up!

 

[KEYLIME SSB]

I hereby declare my unwilling representation of the Luigi main community! *misfires off of stage*

 

[pikadrewuniverse]

I hereby declare my unwilling representation of the Luigi main community! *misfires off of stage*

I second thee! *wavedashes off stage*

 

[KEYLIME SSB]

What shenanigans should this discussion cover?

 

[Crooked Crow]

Remember when Smashboards wasn't completely devoid of life?

 

[KEYLIME SSB]

A lot of Melee discussion threads have gone dead lately.

 

[Chainz]

Yea this site seems to be more of a semi-social network now than actual smash discussion lol. At least from what I've been seeing.

 

[scrubbingbubbles]

We can do Mel discussion, someone told me smashboards was where it's out just 2 years ago, can't let it die out

 

[scrubbingbubbles]

Like all the new 60-40s against fox lol

 

[Chainz]

Smashboards got replace with FB groups lol. Really the only use for this site is all the old info and the guides section. No reason to make a discussion/question post on here when you got FB and Discord chats for that.

 

[Crooked Crow]

Smashboards got replace with FB groups lol. Really the only use for this site is all the old info and the guides section. No reason to make a discussion/question post on here when you got FB and Discord chats for that.

Definitely. It's still a shame, though. I prefer message boards. Facebook is filled with junk and clutter. It's not as aesthetic. The platform as a whole is infested with people with double digit IQ.

Never really did appreciate Smashboards the way I should have. Thought it would be around for decades more to come. But it's just a shell of its former self. Unfortunate.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

The main problem with smashboards is the layout. Classic forums are too far behind the times.

Twitter, facebook, reddit and basically everyone else uses a tree model with each message being able to have parents and children. They also provide you with a "feed" of stuff you like based on things you subscribe to and have interacted with previously.

Nobody wants to look through thousands of posts in a single thread and try to follow individual conversations through the noise. There is no point in replying to a thread with that many posts either, because you know your message will be forgotten shortly.

@Smashboards AlphaZealot @Mic_128 Have you considered making changes to the model of the site to increase activity? They wouldn't need to be very dramatic to improve the user experience.

 

[Chainz]

It mostly has to do with being easily accessible. "Everyone" has an FB account and most likely have the app on their phone. I can check in real time what my scene is up to, tournament status, meetups, etc instantly. If I'm running late to a tournament I can quickly message everyone so they're aware. It's just more simple to stay connected using FB than SB.

Like I mention SB is more of a library. It's useful for data, but no so much for staying updated with everyone and what's going on. People prefer that kind of accessibility.

 

[Chainz]

@Smashboards AlphaZealot @Mic_128 Have you considered making changes to the model of the site to increase activity? They wouldn't need to be very dramatic to improve the user experience.

It would have to be a huge overhaul to reroute traffic back here lol. It's not a bad idea tho I'm sure something can be done that'll at least increase activity to some level. But I doubt SB will ever be up-to-par with major SM sites.

 

[Crooked Crow]

n0ne beat Mango.

Let's go.

 

[KEYLIME SSB]

I would definitely like to see a falcon main godslayer.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

It would have to be a huge overhaul to reroute traffic back here lol. It's not a bad idea tho I'm sure something can be done that'll at least increase activity to some level. But I doubt SB will ever be up-to-par with major SM sites.

Step 1, remove named threads and only reference by ID. Eg /threads/melee-social-thread-and-stuff.284387/ becomes /threads/284387/

Step 2, move away from using threads at all. Of course threads would still be part of the backend technically: each first reply to a post would spawn a new thread. The post ID is included in the old thread and the new thread in the proper order.

Step 3, focus on the people. People would subscribe to groups (subforums) and people (members) and get their content from their feed. Of course they could browse which groups (subforums) are available and read the posts in them (feed style), as well as see which members are most popular to follow and search.

At that point you have your traditional forums backend (all changes compatible with the old forums) while presenting to the user a modern style social media site, devoted to their favorite game.

@Smashboards AlphaZealot

 

[AlphaZealot]

Fortress | Sveet

What follows is a bit of a ramble that doesn't do much to attack your solution but does discuss the problem in detail.

This is something that we talk about quite a bit with the staff. It's a really complicated problem - made more interesting because perception and reality don't necessarily align. The site is still highly trafficked for example - as an Alexa top 30K website there are still hundreds of thousands of unique visitors and millions of page views monthly.

Smashboards has, historically, had it's highest traffic around the time of game launches - the lead up to Brawl and the lead up to Smash Wii U. The bulk of traffic are newer players and casual players. In the mid/late 2000s (until about 2013), the traffic for hardcore, competitive discussion was also centered on SmashBoards. The discussion data post Brawl launch (2009 - 2013) shows a linear decline in posting whereas the discussion data post Wii U launch (2014 - 2017) shows a mostly log(1/2)x curve with the caveat that this doesn't really form until post summer DLC 2015.

From an ownership perspective, the question becomes: why is user retention (as a measurement for posts per day) different post Smash Wii U launch vs. post Brawl launch? Historical traffic stats provide interesting clues. Incoming traffic today splits 70/15/8/7 (search/direct/social/referral) but back in November 2014, this was 50/20/20/10 - as a percentage, social traffic has basically collapsed vs. launch timeframe and organic search now has a commanding share. The site also still boasts a much stronger than average direct user traffic percentage when compared with other websites (most sites see 95% of traffic from social/search).

To really drill down what's happening, I often pull back and think about the changes to the wider internet when I think about this question - and the question has a simple answer that is also another question: where did the discussion (posting) go? Importantly, I'm distinguishing discussion, and not users, since Smashboards still has fairly high traffic and reach. Why did discussion not continue post-Wii U launch like it had post-Brawl launch? Where did that discussion go?

Until recently, the answer was Facebook, Reddit, messenger apps, and to a lesser degree Twitter (for top players). Now both Facebook and Reddit are shedding discussion to Discord (but not, I'd argue, Twitter). Reddit actually has several serious problems, one of which is that new properties aren't even getting established anymore as the traffic is immediately diverted to Discord (see r/Pokkengame).

In addition to these platforms, there is also the impact of Twitch and YouTube. Mostly Twitch, though. Prior to 2011, you got results from Smashboards. Now, you probably saw it happen live. Entire thoughts and discussions about tournaments and matches are either occurring in Twitch chat, or never occurring, since the information was consumed in real time. I won't touch on clips and highlights since these weren't a source of significant posts in Smashboards lifetime (e.g. it's a new user behavior and it's found it's place for being shared on Twitter and Reddit).

The last area and issue are top players - and they are super interesting. There was once a time when all the top players were on Smashboards, every day. What happened? A few new developments but the root issue is most top players are seeking to grow a following, and that's easier done on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube than on Smashboards or even Reddit/Discord. Most top players are now working on building their personal brand, and any creation of content off a platform they aren't monetized on hurts that endeavor, unless it happens to be a platform (Facebook, Twitter) that they can use to direct traffic to their monetized content or otherwise elevate themselves and their opinions above other peoples content (Twitlonger, Medium).

EDIT: There is a whole discussion on mobile vs. desktop as well that I'll keep out of this.

For Smashboards, I'm not sure a rearrangement in how discussion is presented would fix the issue, especially one that is based on network externality - it might actually just alienate the users who enjoy this presentation layer vs. Facebook or other mediums. It might just be the new reality as we approach 2020 is that traffic is based around game-launch cycles - and to some degree the continued success (until recently) of NeoGAF might represent that the old forum model still has a place when the information it's based around (new game launches) is constantly fresh. There is even some evidence of this as the prolonged DLC cycle for Smash Wii U kept posting rates quite high until late 2015/early 2016.

We are also still trying new things. This week we announced the official Discord for Smashboards and also setup a VIP discussion - the hope with the latter is this may replace things like Twitlonger for Pros and also provide a layer of elevated thought discussion vs. Twitter. Maybe it will be received well, maybe not, but as a site we've worked to implement new features of the last several years (tier list generator, guides, rankings and tournament results, groups to name a a few) with various success.

 

[Fortress | Sveet]

AlphaZealot

That is very interesting insight and my point of view has changed in many respects.

I am curious what "search" traffic encompasses. My hunch is that many people are told to find important information about their game by searching smashboards. If the format of the site changed in the way I described before, search traffic should be unaffected.

You are definitely right about the switch to facebook/reddit and twitter, and the migration away from facebook/reddit to discord. Live chat in general is a better way to do discussion and small questions, which is probably 90%+ of smash conversation. Switching the layout of smashboards to compete with facebook/reddit still leaves smashboards obsolete compared to discord in that respect.

My main goal (maybe this isn't your main goal as owner) was to get top players to return. I think their absence is the biggest tragedy. You are right about them trying to build their brand and otherwise monetize their contributions; smash is esports, and esports is business. You would have to change your model beyond what I described before if you wanted to actually capture their attention. Nonetheless, having a social media presentation would at least allow them to do the things they already do on facebook/reddit (blog, reply to chains instead of OP).

While I think they are the minority of users, you are right that some people will simply prefer classic forums over social media. Simply, smashboards fills a niche that has demand. I can see why it would be a bad decision to leave that niche empty to compete for market share in an established niche (especially one dominated by powerhouses like reddit and facebook).

I'm sure you have more plans than you care to discuss in public forum, and that you have many capable advisors to bounce ideas off. But if you want another voice, I have a few ideas about how you might make the site friendly to social media people without sacrificing the benefits of classic forums you touched on above. My degree is in computer science and I have worked as a developer for basically the past 4 years. Smashboards has been a major part of my life and I would love to see it be as successful as possible.

In any case, I appreciate your time in responding to me in the first place. Keep doing great things!