Sssssssssssoooooo, have you ever wondered...

Oh bunch of reasons, all the already listed ones (language, timezones, blacklist fest)...

But i think the main and easiest one is... time.
It takes time to enter, browse, write- more time then to flick to the next tiktok, next youtube video or tweet, not to mention answering messages/chats notifications or dms in any of the dozen places one would

It would all be more bearable if overall people had more time, but statistically were getting the opposite. From commuting to gig economy to digital work (uninvited extra homework), the future where we were supposed to have more time have been leaving too many with less- and waaay more things fighting for any of the free time one gets

Commuting,etc (no pc or tv) appeals to quicker exchanges- the chats, doomscrolling social media, where tiktok thrive. One can quickly enter GAs on mobile but threads are harder.
I for example dont like writting on mobile much, shorter messages, more reading. I only ever look at discussions on my pc- if/when the time enables

Then on the free time at home people also want to fit the dozen things they want in the time available. I for one can see time going by quickly when i engage with foruns(this os other ones)- meanwhile theres all those games in my backlog begging to be finished, a dozen new films and series, some books looking at me in disdain from their shelves... not to mention some housechores piling up or the odd going out and someone going 'dont say youre too tired again'

Also ive been here for awhile and i can say age can be a factor too. Ive went through phases, both of interest and lifestyle- so ive already been to overly active to missing(hiatus) and so on... btw one of the things the drove me away back then were blacklists, ive seen me going from almost none to a bunch with absolute zero ideas to why- except ive been in discussions and saying opinions so... then sometime later i wasnt caring anymore about things like that- but then... time. Simple like that.

Also theres the niche/subject. I love foruns and communities (nowdays discord filling much of what ive engaged in foruns years ago) and they tend to be more focused, from ones specific to some games and genres, to all the ttrpg communities i engage with... SG is broadly gaming- but you may have noticed that even that is bit lower... sg tends to discuss itself. A metacommunity around giveaways, the way its own site and rules work, and then bundles and deals.

I love that, the whole idea and by god do i love deals(library ever increasing)- but of all things i like those are veeeery low on my list. Gaming, even my least liked genres is above for one.

Every now and then i engage more in some thread because some interesting discussion, but i dont see those (that interest me) often in SG- and i dont feel compeled to starting then either since theres a bunch of other places more geared to then. Also on sg i see way less people engaging more or proper- short answers the norm, some opinions sometimes arguments... but actual exchanges, conversations and debates are waaay lower. Ive been to literally 10-so pages of older phpbb foruns long conversations/debates over specific things where half the community was engaged and puttin their 2 cents, feeding the flames or tryinh to fan the same flames. Cant have that here

I wonder how much the blacklisting and the competing interest(entering GAs) affects things. For example the flame wars ive been to in communities i was active in were all with friends or people that later became friends( i luckily havent made enemies from forum discussions, yet).
But this is sg. And the moment we have things like blacklists and whitelists things change...

Its like all the trappings of current social media but a bit worse, because the impacts are more felt- sure cancelation is a thing on social media but it only really affects famous people with too many followers. Black/white lists and groups have palpable effects directly tied to main site activity- so you bet people are less inclined to pour their hearts and opnions out there

Im not saying this as being wholy bad. For one is that exact thing that makes SG very clean- extremely low incidence of trolling, hate speech etc. But the double sided blade is it makes people even less engaged or interested.
Also just think about it- if there were no foruns the userbase would be almost the same. Thats telling of something. Communities can rise and become the main thing, an organic birth, and that could happen to sg still- but the main point of attraction not being a subject but entrying raffles makes that very hard.

But i still see potential to become move lively once again. Btw i consider SG the one place to discuss all things steam and other pc stores- steam foruns didnt got me,some famous gaming foruns i never liked the community as much... So who knows, things may change once more

Bump :)

1 day left bump :)

In my opinion,most people are here for the freebies and dont bother talking since they came here out of greed (good or bad kind). But there are those who, although came to this platform for the freebies,met people and started talking,or decided to open up and make a change, or started to give away freebies and thus created chances to talk with others,etc. But also,like kappaking mentioned, timezones do play an important role on when people talk here and when not (as well as their schedule,job/school,responsibilities,etc) so its natural for a person from italy not be available when someone from california is online (though there are exceptions but it doesnt happen all the time I assume). I am guilty of coming her for the freebies at first,but now....I still kind am here for em but also cuz there are some nice people here and some nice and interesting discussions happen from time to time. In other words,im gonna be here for some time,so, might as well talk from time to time. Though everyone has a reason,it falls on the points i discussed above (thats how it is more or less). Thank you for coming to my ted talk and have a lovely day or night

bump

Thank you for the giveaways! You provided chances at several games I was not previously familiar with! :O

I have it on good authority, that there is a total of 4 people on here.