The future of the Steam Powered User Forums

[kijib]

bring back the forums links in the game library page, I dont want your lousy game discussions

[Zefar]

They link to the old forums here http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/ with this comment.

"Looking for the old forums? They're still available at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/ "

But I think it will take quite some time to make this forum dead.

[smili]

I don't understand all the downtalking of the existing forums. I kindof like it here. I try to stop in at least every other day. These forums are a great place to find out about specific games and have conversations. Maybe I'll like the Hubs and the new thing, but I've just been extremely confused the first few times when I've clicked on it. Mainly I was wondering "where are all the good conversations I've come to expect?" and "what is all this clutter?" It just seemed disjointed to me - sortof like facebook - full of light unimportant noise. On the other hand I see value in the forums here.

seriously - if that was the main forum in the first place I'd probably have never used it. But again - I value these forums and the people and support in certain groups that I have conversations with.

[GirlPower23]

Originally Posted by nrnoble

This weekend gamers in Steam Discussion are having a glorious time demonstrating their foul language vocabulary and texting skills. Clearly they have figured out there is no infractions being handed out, and the worst that happens is their post gets deleted. Generally speaking a person who's intent is to attack\insult\troll expects to have his post deleted, and don't care because its often hours after the fact when it doesn't matter anymore because the insult\attack has already been delivered.

There is one person there that just replies with meme/gifs.. I don't know why he is still around.

[nigel]

Originally Posted by Zefar

They link to the old forums here http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/ with this comment.

"Looking for the old forums? They're still available at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/ "

But I think it will take quite some time to make this forum dead.

But the 'forum' link on each game's page links to the discussion page with no suggestion there is an alternative forum (if you didn't already know).

For example, when looking at Lunar Flight in my library, clicking 'Forums' takes me to...

http://steamcommunity.com/app/208600/discussions/

Not the significantly more useful...

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...lay.php?f=1388

Not to mention that there is already another link 'Game Hub' on the library page (and a button as well) which would take you to the discussions anyway.

It seems pretty clear to me that the Valve policy is to make the 'old' forums difficult to find for new users and eventually shut them down.

[MustardJeep]

<sad laughter>

All links to these forums are at a minimum of two links deep now.

From the in-client Community tab.
<> Click Community
<> Click Discussions
<> Click Steampowered URL
<> Scroll down and click the game forum you want

From the store front
<> Click Game (if on front page)
- Search for game store front page if not on first page
<> Click forum link (if present)

I've been through a few forum management migration changes over the years and well SPUF will go from main stream, to Tier 2, to quiet, to lights on but not abandoned. It's just a fact of the direct links being removed/buried and that's fine.

Valve's "Discussions" are F2P garish designed to push and sell product, and that's fine too.

But while Valve practices good business keeping SPUF open yet buried(almost dead) it will take a massive non-recoverable PR "oops" the likes of which only rolling out HL2 EP:3 could save them from to swing things back.

[rickyk]

Originally Posted by nigel

For example, when looking at Lunar Flight in my library, clicking 'Forums' takes me to...

http://steamcommunity.com/app/208600/discussions/

Not the significantly more useful...

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...lay.php?f=1388

^ Pretty much this. ^ Couldn't have said it better.

There's no comparison in the amount and quality of info available in both places. Some may argue that it will come with time. But if that's the case, they could have found a way to integrate info from the SUF from day one. If they had done that, a lot of us wouldn't be so apprehensive about losing access to these forums at some point in the future.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally Posted by nrnoble

This weekend gamers in Steam Discussion are having a glorious time demonstrating their foul language vocabulary and texting skills. Clearly they have figured out there is no infractions being handed out, and the worst that happens is their post gets deleted. Generally speaking a person who's intent is to attack\insult\troll expects to have his post deleted, and don't care because its often hours after the fact when it doesn't matter anymore because the insult\attack has already been delivered.

It's 'Greenlight's day 0' all over the discussions... Which, up to some extent, was expected.
I expect it to go down by a notch in a near future. But not without issuing some bans/warnings to some accounts that may have been saved making the rules and their enforcement more clear and swift.

I really don't envy the job mods are going to have. Aside moderating this forums now they have to watch another with several orders of magnitude more users.

However, i have to agree on the impression on some people here that the 'quality' of the discussions is as of now several points below what can be seen in SPUF.
(I have yet to subscribe to any thread in discussions, yet i have more than a dozen open in any given time here) Discussions seems more a 'fire & forget' comment zone than a proper 'discussion' area.
Hope it gets better with time.

[EyTschej]

Originally Posted by dxmc

But who is this forum serving ? Only 1 in 50 customers has a forum account here and most of those are pretty casual users, many of them creating an account to address one issue in one thread.So if we're talking about active members of this forum we're probably talking considerably less than 1 %.

Exactly. This forum here is about quality rather than quantity. It's a place to go when you are looking for useful information rather than meaningless spam. Players that have no account for this forum right here obviously have nothing to contribute, so we don't miss them. Instead, they seem to be spamming the new "discussions", which is fine with me since I totally ignore that crap and stick to this wonderful place right here.

[CTRL ALT DEL !]

It seems the forums tab has been removed from

Store Community News Forums About Support Stats

Store Community News About Support Stats appears on every page expect the forum page, but Discussions are on every page, I think these forums days are numbered.

[GDL]

Originally Posted by CTRL ALT DEL !

I think these forums days are numbered.

I hope not, I'm not spending more time jumping through hoops on yet another Valve stupidly designed UI.

[CTRL ALT DEL !]

Originally Posted by GDL

I hope not, I'm not spending more time jumping through hoops on yet another Valve stupidly designed UI.

Players will use the easy to access forums, if you go to steam powered on the web, it no longer directs players here anywhere. you must search for the forums on google or have a favourites link.

I often flick from one to another, but now your can't just flick back without the back arrow on your browser. No new users means in the long run it will die.

Without the link, there will be no new users and old users will drift to where most of the users are.

[GirlPower23]

Originally Posted by CTRL ALT DEL !

Players will use the easy to access forums, if you go to steam powered on the web, it no longer directs players here anywhere. you must search for the forums on google or have a favourites link.

I often flick from one to another, but now your can't just flick back without the back arrow on your browser. No new users means in the long run it will die.

Without the link, there will be no new users and old users will drift to where most of the users are.

There is a link right before you go into any of the discussion boards.

[Powered by src]

Threads: 1,407,367, Posts: 14,870,127, Members: 807,709

Whats the point of trying to drive down forum with this kinda user amount?
That "discussions" wont ever be able to get as many users as steam forums has now.

So even if steam forums was to close down, "Discussions" wont ever be as active as steam forums are.

[CTRL ALT DEL !]

Originally Posted by GirlPower23

There is a link right before you go into any of the discussion boards.

Looking for the old forums? They're still available at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/

Yup, that will atract the new users I'm sure, If I go somewhere and see old forum and new forum and I have to sign up for the old forums but not for the new forums....

... As I said SPUF's throat is cut and it will slowly bleed to death from loosing people to spud / as well as normal member loss over time.

I would like to bet the forum signups have dropped significantly if it isn't at a complete stand still already.

Some communities here will take time to die, but die they all will, until the user count is low enough Valve will just close them.

There will be very few complaints that make there way to the new forums and none that aren't ridiculed with move on they died ages ago or you still have an abacus as well?