Topic: Goodbye/Vacation Thread

@ralphdibny Hey, my friend, thanks for the follow up and congratulations on your new venture. I’m happy for you that it seems to finally be a place you can really feel satisfied with in your career. Wishing you all the best for success in the business.

And I suspect that that Rog deleted everyone from Push Square all at once. So I don’t think it was anything personal against you or anyone else in particular. I’m guessing it was just a new start that was need for him. It does leave some mystery and uncertainty, but in our last communication he seemed okay, insofar as analyzing a simple PSN message can indicate, that is. I don’t know. Maybe he was about to publish his book and become famous so he needed to sever all ties of his former life? That’s what I choose to believe anyway.

@ralphdibny ✌️ we’ll miss you yellow-poo 😉

@ralphdibny Glad you have found a job you enjoy doing, those can be hard to come by. Hope it all goes well for you.

I wouldn't take it to heart about Roger deleting you from PSN, sounds like he did a clean sweep. He seemed to be his usual self when I messaged him just before.

@ralphdibny Good luck and god speed with you future endeavours sir! All sounds like exciting times for you at the moment and it must be nice to have more control and ownership over your time these days with the issues you've had with work previously.

I'd be interested to hear what you put together and (to combine this post and the music thread one) bandcamp might be the best place because, as you say, it can be listened to for free or bought.

All the best to you though.

I was wondering what had happened to @LN78 and now I realise @ralphdibny has gone too. Christ, this place is becoming a bit of a ghost town. Definitely feels like the heart was sucked out of the place when Rog went but any sense of community has dried up by now. The distance between staff and regulars has never felt larger, partly due to a lack of community-engaged moderators. I’m not sure I really see much of a path forward for the forums unless new regulars come in and restart some of the old events, like we didn’t even have the screenshot competition last year for example. It’s sad really.

@nessisonett Forums are kinda of a odd thing of late I noticed. While alot of old forum user are leaving for various reason it seems the younger crowd just doesn't partake in forums like they did 10-15 years ago. I find that alot of younger generation use service like Discord alot more then just the random forum. That and I don't know maybe it's me but the younger generation just doesn't seem as socialable.

@Tasuki Yeah, Discord has largely replaced traditional forums. I’m only on here because I was a subscriber of ONM, which then shut down and I moved to their forums… which then shut down and they recommended Nintendo Life. They still have some of the old lot contribute every so often like Chris Scullion and Matthew Castle after all. Then it was a sideways leap to this site when I got my PS4. It just feels a bit like the soul has left the site in recent months with regulars going and things like AI generated thumbnails being edited out after I called it out with zero acknowledgement, articles being labelled news despite having a heavy editorial slant etc. It’s hard, I hit 10 years last year but we’re supposed to be in the height of the PS5’s lifespan and both enthusiasm and engagement is the lowest I’ve seen it.

@nessisonett Yeah it's not just here that's like that Pure Xbox sees very little activity and the only reason Nintendo Life is as active is because of the pending announcement of the Switch 2.

I remember someone making a forum thread about the screenshot competition a few months ago?

Unfortunately there was barely any replies to it from what I recall, Ral didn't reply when I tagged them (Who ran it the year before after Rog left) and then I was ill all of last month so I never got around to at least starting it up.

@HallowMoonshadow It’s not anyone’s fault really, the forum is just sort of dying slowly.

@HallowMoonshadow Hmm, I don't remember that. Sometimes I don't see notifications, though. Although I would've said no regardless.

Maybe I'm just old, but the slow erasure of forums is sad to me. I know platforms like Discord, Reddit or even Social Media are sort of supposed to be the modern equivalent, but it isn't quite the same. I probably spent way too many of my teenage years on forums, rather than being out and living my life, but with a forum everyone was there for a shared purpose, threads prompted focused conversation on specific things. You knew your place. No matter how niche of a discord server or subreddit you find, it still feels like you've walked into someone's house party you don't really know all that well, and tried to shove yourself into a conversation you weren't invited into, in the hope you have shared interests. Push Square is really the last forum I still regularly frequent and if this forum ever goes completely, I think the internet will be a much lonelier place for me.

@Pizzamorg Agreed. I’ve been able to avoid Discord, Reddit, Twitter, etc and find Push Square forums to be the right level of camaraderie and engagement without being an albatross around the neck that social media tends to be.

When I occasionally talk to gamers in the real world (like visiting GameStop or talking with friends who play) I’m always amazed at how much better informed I am about the hobby and how much more I seem to enjoy it. I think if one gets their information from social media outlets they you get a filtered and curated view of things, targeted often at the lowest common denominator.

Through PS I’ve been exposed to many things I’d never have found otherwise on the recesses of the internet. I know because I was that person before 2017.

I appreciate the breadth of personality and experience that has been present on the forums for years. I hope the community stays together as long as possible.

This for me is a real problem in in real life conversations too, a few of my closest friends know that I weirdly hyper fixate on like "how the sausage is made" on things, so when they bring up like some movie or something I go on a tangent about the tech that was needed to achieve a specific special effect or something, they let me do that.

But when I am just talking to someone about something in person and it is just like the most base level conversation of whatever we're talking about, I am actively fighting the urge to talk about all the stuff that went into that moment or whatever, for fear if I nerd out like that I'll come across as strange to them, so I am not actively enjoying the interaction really.

@Pizzamorg Yes, I’m the same. I often hold back my thoughts because I feel like people judge my nerdism or they just don’t care about the same details I do. At least on the forums here people can eyeroll and scroll past my pontificating monologues at their own pace and preference. 😂
Truth be told, I often hold back even on here. I’m pretty sure no one cares about a lot of the things I find interesting.

Nevertheless, you’d think that if you went into a video game establishment and asked about a new release or brought up conversation about a critically acclaimed game that the staff or people there would know what it is. I’ve been surprised how often I get back a blank stare.

I think what it comes down to is how people.spend their time online. Dedicated forums tend to attract a certain type of person for example Push Square attract Playstation fans, a particular video game forum like World of Warcraft forums attract WoW fans they almost feel exclusive and so most people nowadays probably feel like why I would I got to a WoW forum to discuss a PS5 game. Where on Facebook or Twitter people feel like they can talk about anything, and reach all their friends. They don't need to be a Playstation fan to hang out here or a Minecraft fan to hang out on a Minecraft forum if that makes sense.

I genuinely appreciate this. I appreciated too when I joined Push Square how people said they had actually seen and liked stuff I'd written on Nintendo Life, too. I know I've not always been the most well liked person on there, clashing with many over certain topics I have stubbornly strong opinions on, so when a person says they liked X thing I'd written, it is a just a nice reminder that you aren't disliked by everyone 😂

@Pizzamorg Haha, I'm never the most well liked forum member either, but this place has always made me feel welcome. I appreciate that it's such a tight-knit community where everyone (mostly) gets along and is happy to join in on any discussions. It's a shame to see it shrinking in members over the years, but I can't say I've always been the most active either. I hope to never see this space dying, because it's genuinely my favourite place and people to talk and read about games with.

@Th3solution @graymamba (aka colonel Kilgore haha yellow poo 😂 ) @JohnnyShoulder @Herculean @Thrillho @nessisonett @Tasuki @peacesalad

Thank you all for your kind words, really very much appreciated. Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply yet, I've had a lot on but I read them all as they came in and they meant a lot to me 😀

I gotta shout out @hallowmoonshadow @ralizah @crimsontadpoles too, loved our chats on crash team racing back in the day and along with @lieutenantfatman , some deeper chats in the chitchat thread and reviews thread and various quizzes

Same to @kyleforrester87 @neddstarksghost @thrillho and @zupertramp - loved doing the health and fitness thread with you peeps and moaning about work with some of you lol

Big up to @mcnoisy too for being a stalwart of this forum and @tjuz @ltsarge and tigertiger (i forget their forum tag 😬) as well!

And of course Rog in the star trek and mgs threads!

I have definitely missed a lot of people out but it has been a number of years and I just wanted to give as much props to people who have made a difference in my life

Lots of love to you all! 🧡

@ralphdibny I'm playing catch up on this thread a bit so apologies for the late reply, but thank you for writing that post. You've hit the nail on the head in a lot of ways.

Roger deleted me on PSN too which I was a bit surprised by, as I got on very well with him. But I don't think there's any malice in it, it felt like he was having a life reset sort of moment. Sometimes you just have to clear out to move forward, so hopefully he's doing good.

I've been on Push Square since 2015 and there have been occasional dips in how busy the forums get, but it does feel quieter overall these days. I feel guilty when I think about this, as I've definitely been less active over the past year or so. The last eighteen months has been difficult for me (divorce, deaths in the family, job loss, all sorts of upheaval) but I'm coming out of it now (hopefully!) so I'd like to try and engage with things like Game Club a bit more. Perhaps it's down to us as regulars to give things a kick when needed.

Anyway good luck with everything, you're a good person and I've enjoyed all engagement I've had with you. Give us all a look in if you ever need to let off steam. The Push Square doors never close.