Quote:
Originally Posted by kipritech
My question is, Do you think the site will be a shadow of its former self, go back to what it was, or exceed its prior self?
|
I'd say calling it a "shadow of its former self" would be exaggerated pessimism. The biggest drag on the level of the site's activity seems to be the proportion of the membership that disappeared during the blackout that hasn't found their way back yet. That will probably resolve over time as some of the oldsters find their way back, while new blood replaces the ones who don't.
That said, I don't see it exceeding its prior self, mostly because of the restrictions on visible information. With some critical information having to go behind private tags (or being just left out entirely) in encounter reports, I think the encounter reports are less useful to the active hobbyist than the old reviews were, and makes it more important to the active hobbyist to have PA. Either that or a lot of information's going to be passed along backchannel.
If I were active in the hobby I'd be agitating for either form elements put behind the PA firewall forcing encounter reporters to include gift, session length, and activity information to be listed in the RoS, or making inclusion of that information in the RoS narrative a condition of granting PA credit. Since I'm no longer active, not having that information's less of a burden to me personally, so I won't be lobbying for it. (If I suddenly do start lobbying for it, that will mean I've won the lottery and am coming back out of retirement.
People will adapt to The New Order. Things will get better, even if they don't go back to pre-blackout levels.
Cheers,
bcg