Discussion thread about T9k's future

Just my 2 cents-

It would be worth to take a look at other successful gaming communities, and see what it is that they do well and how they do it.
 
So, here's my question: What do we want team9000 to be? Do we want the old team9000 back? Do we want team9000 to be a Minecraft community forever? I've seen Team9000 as a lot of things... a streaming site, a blog... a minecraft community. To say that we're in a state of monotony right now is an understatement.

I think there is a lack of leadership around here. Wooty's post above I think sums it up as well. Team9000 wasn't built because Wooty one day decided "Hey, I want to build an awesome gaming community". Team9000 was built because Wooty was excited about something, and made something awesome to help others enjoy it as much has he does. All of the way back to the streaming days it was like that. The core group would be excited about something, and it was infectious. I know I would have never played nearly as much minecraft if those around me weren't excited.

The problem became that whenever Wooty moved on to something else, people didn't move on with him. It happened with the streaming, and then it happened again with minecraft. When team9000 stopped streaming, I thought it was the worst thing. I loved the streams, I thought they were a whole lot of fun. I even felt honored that I could play too. The passion came out of it for those producing the content, and it faded away. Minecraft was the same way, we had a great minecraft server for a really long time. And yet again , eventually it dropped out, those running things delegated and the minecraft server went on a lot longer after wooty lost interest because he'd thoroughly delegated the work out, leaving the responsibility out.

A long time ago I realized that Team9000 was never really meant to become what it was/is. Team9000 has always been wooty's personal playground. It can be seen in the fact that whenever wooty loses interest in whatever it is, it drops off. That's not to blame Wooty at all... He's a volunteer, he does this for free. As I've learned over the years stuff like this doesn't just come together, and it's a lot of fun to come up with cool ideas for a minecraft server when you're super excited about it, but if you're not, it just feels like work. Team9000 wasn't mean to be a job, or a business for anyone, team9000 was meant to be a playground... an experiment.

I'm not sure where team9000 ends up in five years, I know that I've been around a long time, and I've seen the community evolve quite a bit. I don't have the passion for gaming that I used to. I'm in a different point in my life than I was when team9000 started. I know that others are too. That's not to say that we need to abandon the site because we feel different than we used to, that's not true. But if you're trying to force Team9000 to become what it used to be because you'd like to rekindle the feeling you once had around here, you're going to be severely dissappointed. The old team9000 is gone. It was a moment in time, and it was awesome. Things aren't the same, people aren't the same. The things that bound us as a group three years ago are not the same things that bind us now.

These days the only thing that seems to bind us is the ghost of what we used to know. For some of us that's minecraft, for some of us that goes all the way back to the JTV days. The point is it feels like everyone in this community is really just looking back to try and see how we can make team9000 what it used to be, but that's not going to work. We need to figure out what we want Team9000 to be in the future, and take steps towards making it that, if we want it to survive. UI tweaks and a rearranged front page aren't going to bring this website back to what it used to be.

People are what makes a community, not a website, or a game server, or a mumble server. What binds people together into a community is the passion for something. We've lost our passion, and we need to find something new to bind us together. If we keep grasping at the past instead of moving forward, it will surely destroy us.
 
Wooty said:
Running a successful gaming community takes a lot of work. I'm all right running a mediocre gaming community with only a little bit of work. That's pretty much what it comes down to.
Click to expand...
I dunno. I'd say we're pretty successful for what we are. :3
 
NewspaperCrane said:
Team9000 has always been wooty's personal playground.
Click to expand...

Probably true.

NewspaperCrane said:
If we keep grasping at the past instead of moving forward, it will surely destroy us.
Click to expand...

Meh, even if you all leave, Team9000 isn't going anywhere. I've been running this community in one form or another for nearly nine years now. I maintain it as a home for my hobby projects and as a favor to those who appreciate them. You're welcome to come and go as you please, but I'm not going to let anything happen to it :)


*cough*
 
So, I've read through the other "lets bring t9k back" threads, which I think equal about two or something, I dunno. Moving on, Yes, t9k is in a slump; no, I don't have any "new" ideas to throw onto the table, or at least ideas that haven't been said already. To me, regardless of minecraft, or tf2, or gamenights, etc. while they added to the..flair, if you will, of t9k, like many older members said to me: "that's not all t9k is."

Yes it's a good thing interest in minecraft came back, not sure about tf2, gamenights i'll cover in a sec, but in my opinion, what always made t9k awesome, and wont change is new people. Yes the flow of new people has dwindled to a tiny ditch on the side of the road, trickling down after a fresh rainfall, but it always lighted my face to see new people registering.

With launch we sort of have that, but any time someone joins, it's a result of wanting admin powers on their server t9k is kindly hosting through the use of said launch. I like to think we need new members; we need new ideas, new people, new faces; in essence, a new generation of t9k'ers.

I'm not saying the regular members of t9k, myself included, don't have any good ideas to offer; it's just we've heard a majority of them in the past.

What i'd like to see happen (as I can't myself cause college and pc stuffs) is Use jersey and Dagamer's idea of remodeling the homepage, move the social media links to where people can see them as soon as they type www.team9000.net. In regards to gamenights, we need someone who has the time, the willingness, the etc to host them. It was said (and god dammit I have horrible memory .-.) that game nights used to be every week, then once a month, to virtually nonexistent. let's bring them back. Update the facebook page as well; hell the most recent thing I saw on it a few days ago was from early 2013. C'mon, that's a bit silly. If there are some willing t9k'ers, bring back streams; I wasn't here for them, so I can't go into details on that. Save for the facebook thing, everything I've said was already said by others, sorry to those who rightfully deserve credit; I have bad memory.

It's like Crane said,
NewspaperCrane said:
People are what makes a community, not a website, or a game server, or a mumble server. What binds people together into a community is the passion for something. We've lost our passion, and we need to find something new to bind us together. If we keep grasping at the past instead of moving forward, it will surely destroy us.
Click to expand...
I believe everything I plagiarized here is what will re-ignite the passion t9k once had; bringing it back to even better glory.
 
NewspaperCrane said:
So, here's my question: What do we want team9000 to be? Do we want the old team9000 back? Do we want team9000 to be a Minecraft community forever? I've seen Team9000 as a lot of things... a streaming site, a blog... a minecraft community. To say that we're in a state of monotony right now is an understatement.

I think there is a lack of leadership around here. Wooty's post above I think sums it up as well. Team9000 wasn't built because Wooty one day decided "Hey, I want to build an awesome gaming community". Team9000 was built because Wooty was excited about something, and made something awesome to help others enjoy it as much has he does. All of the way back to the streaming days it was like that. The core group would be excited about something, and it was infectious. I know I would have never played nearly as much minecraft if those around me weren't excited.

The problem became that whenever Wooty moved on to something else, people didn't move on with him. It happened with the streaming, and then it happened again with minecraft. When team9000 stopped streaming, I thought it was the worst thing. I loved the streams, I thought they were a whole lot of fun. I even felt honored that I could play too. The passion came out of it for those producing the content, and it faded away. Minecraft was the same way, we had a great minecraft server for a really long time. And yet again , eventually it dropped out, those running things delegated and the minecraft server went on a lot longer after wooty lost interest because he'd thoroughly delegated the work out, leaving the responsibility out.

A long time ago I realized that Team9000 was never really meant to become what it was/is. Team9000 has always been wooty's personal playground. It can be seen in the fact that whenever wooty loses interest in whatever it is, it drops off. That's not to blame Wooty at all... He's a volunteer, he does this for free. As I've learned over the years stuff like this doesn't just come together, and it's a lot of fun to come up with cool ideas for a minecraft server when you're super excited about it, but if you're not, it just feels like work. Team9000 wasn't mean to be a job, or a business for anyone, team9000 was meant to be a playground... an experiment.

I'm not sure where team9000 ends up in five years, I know that I've been around a long time, and I've seen the community evolve quite a bit. I don't have the passion for gaming that I used to. I'm in a different point in my life than I was when team9000 started. I know that others are too. That's not to say that we need to abandon the site because we feel different than we used to, that's not true. But if you're trying to force Team9000 to become what it used to be because you'd like to rekindle the feeling you once had around here, you're going to be severely dissappointed. The old team9000 is gone. It was a moment in time, and it was awesome. Things aren't the same, people aren't the same. The things that bound us as a group three years ago are not the same things that bind us now.

These days the only thing that seems to bind us is the ghost of what we used to know. For some of us that's minecraft, for some of us that goes all the way back to the JTV days. The point is it feels like everyone in this community is really just looking back to try and see how we can make team9000 what it used to be, but that's not going to work. We need to figure out what we want Team9000 to be in the future, and take steps towards making it that, if we want it to survive. UI tweaks and a rearranged front page aren't going to bring this website back to what it used to be.

People are what makes a community, not a website, or a game server, or a mumble server. What binds people together into a community is the passion for something. We've lost our passion, and we need to find something new to bind us together. If we keep grasping at the past instead of moving forward, it will surely destroy us.
Click to expand...

We aren't (or at least I am) not looking for a nostalgia trip. You're absolutely right, we can't capture that. The point here is relevance. We're lurking in the shadows of the web, we want people to find us, see what we do, and enjoy it here. We aren't some magical magnet that automagically gets new people. I don't know what this place was like Pre-Minecraft, however, being at the top of the classic list is what got me here. Constantly broadcasting our website/mumble server in Classic got people in here, and then they stayed. The same thing can be done with other games. There's no reason we can't expand our family.

We're not asking for a complete rebuild of Team9000, we are just asking for small changes that get people to stay, and see what we offer.

Our success will come from those who arrive and stay, and realize Team9000 is the best place to chill out. However, it takes a little work.
 
Wooty said:
Running a successful gaming community takes a lot of work. I'm all right running a mediocre gaming community with only a little bit of work. That's pretty much what it comes down to.
Click to expand...
What would you be willing to allow when members in the community are willing to Volunteer time and effort to make this more than a mediocre group?
NewspaperCrane said:
People are what makes a community, not a website, or a game server, or a mumble server. What binds people together into a community is the passion for something. We've lost our passion, and we need to find something new to bind us together. If we keep grasping at the past instead of moving forward, it will surely destroy us.
Click to expand...
This is very true.
Though, looking to what worked in the past is something to consider.

Is it just me, or are we so focused on one or two aspects of gaming that we're missing the whole encompassing theme here: we're a Gaming Community. Of course there's so many branches of gaming, there's trends and fads and changing tastes in games, that catering or emphasizing on one would be ridiculous. We're a herd of cats that aren't very coordinated or influenced well, and the occasional laser dot we notice one day may uninterest us the next day.

so, with that said here's my pocket change dumped on the table:

~Game Nights need to stick around, whether or not someone else is willing to pick up the torch in organizing the calendar and advertising.
~Advertising? I think the other posts have summed up that.
~Streaming/Livecasting. I think some T9kers could do hilarious narrations of broadcasted tournaments. Or have Youtube/Twitch.tv days on a scheduled basis (maybe cycle who is spotlighted, or have collaborations). COULD IT EVEN BE TANGENTIALLY RELATED TO GAMING? YES!
~Clans/Competitive teams within certain games. Whether this is LoL, Super Smash Bros, or Runescape '07.
~Contests! Free Games! Giveaways! Everybody loves Free Stuff!
 
JerzeyLegend said:
We aren't (or at least I am) not looking for a nostalgia trip. You're absolutely right, we can't capture that. The point here is relevance. We're lurking in the shadows of the web, we want people to find us, see what we do, and enjoy it here. We aren't some magical magnet that automagically gets new people. I don't know what this place was like Pre-Minecraft, however, being at the top of the classic list is what got me here. Constantly broadcasting our website/mumble server in Classic got people in here, and then they stayed. The same thing can be done with other games. There's no reason we can't expand our family.

We're not asking for a complete rebuild of Team9000, we are just asking for small changes that get people to stay, and see what we offer.

Our success will come from those who arrive and stay, and realize Team9000 is the best place to chill out. However, it takes a little work.
Click to expand...
I tried to address you I a round about way, so I'll be more direct.

Advertising is going to do us no good if we can't get out shit together.
If you have an awesome twitch stream and people come to the site finding no one playing or talking about games and only forum game threads... Thats the kind of user we're going to attract. If we want to recruit people for a fun gaming community, we need to become one again.

You may have came here because we were a top Minecraft server, but you stayed for the community. Let's focus on that first. Other things can follow.
 
MotorKat said:
What would you be willing to allow when members in the community are willing to Volunteer time and effort to make this more than a mediocre group?
Click to expand...
Like I said before, just do it! Course if it involves merchandising or something with T9k copyrighted stuff that's a different story, but for the most part if you have an idea that you can start on a small scale and see how people like it then he'll take notice and that's when can push the idea further.

Game Nights will still be around, it's just I'm not going to be hosting them. I'll still be more then happy to update the thread and post game nights on the FB, but don't expect me to be the one hosting them. As far as people who host it's completely open, just if you need to delay a GN or won't be able to show up it may effect future hosting possibilities.

T9k is T9k, it's a random assortment of ~50 active members lately (not including random launch people that are generally pop-ins or elevator source people) that just happen to have many common interests. Whether it's online gaming, boardgames, card games, ponies, streaming, batsu, etc. this is a community built on many things, currently there is a pretty space that divides members into many groups and the 1 common thing that bonded everyone has been nonexistent now. It's just like how real friends will fall off the radar as interests differ or life events changes a lot.

Only thing I'd honestly like to see is that damn owl come off the main page, it's been just this annoying image that I've seen in my dreams for the past year staring into my soul. But yeah it would be nice to see some type of site rework for a more refreshing experience.

~Bored
 
NewspaperCrane said:
I tried to address you I a round about way, so I'll be more direct.

Advertising is going to do us no good if we can't get out shit together.
If you have an awesome twitch stream and people come to the site finding no one playing or talking about games and only forum game threads... Thats the kind of user we're going to attract. If we want to recruit people for a fun gaming community, we need to become one again.

You may have came here because we were a top Minecraft server, but you stayed for the community. Let's focus on that first. Other things can follow.
Click to expand...

I was hoping that was part of the plan.

I think mumble might be the start. So much separation in there. Too much choice. When we had less rooms it kind of "forced" people to be in one that was occupied. People talked more. Now everyone runs away and stays socially awkward in their own corner of mumble.
 
JerzeyLegend said:
I was hoping that was part of the plan.

I think mumble might be the start. So much separation in there. Too much choice. When we had less rooms it kind of "forced" people to be in one that was occupied. People talked more. Now everyone runs away and stays socially awkward in their own corner of mumble.
Click to expand...
I think it is much the same way with the forums as well. They have gotten so large with such diverse topics that people only go to certain threads and topics and don't go to anything else which leads to small groups and separation. At least in my opinion.
 
thee_pro said:
I think it is much the same way with the forums as well. They have gotten so large with such diverse topics that people only go to certain threads and topics and don't go to anything else which leads to small groups and separation. At least in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Yeah I've noticed that, people treat the forums like a message board akin to 4chan.
They come in, make a post, and leave because it's the only topic they're interested in.
I'm guilty of this too, but I mean it's pretty difficult not to. It's not like there's an easy way to change the way it works either.
 
For me personally it's the email or thread 'alerts' that clue me in to read something. I rarely look at the front page threads, maybe a few times week.
 
MotorKat said:
~Game Nights need to stick around, whether or not someone else is willing to pick up the torch in organizing the calendar and advertising.
Click to expand...
Game nights have always been "whoever wants to run a night, call bored" but its not common that anyone other than bored follows through to make something happen.
MotorKat said:
~Advertising? I think the other posts have summed up that.
Click to expand...
What are you(and everyone else) think as per advertising?
MotorKat said:
~Streaming/Livecasting. I think some T9kers could do hilarious narrations of broadcasted tournaments. Or have Youtube/Twitch.tv days on a scheduled basis (maybe cycle who is spotlighted, or have collaborations). COULD IT EVEN BE TANGENTIALLY RELATED TO GAMING? YES!
Click to expand...
Fortunately, twitch Terms of Service prohibit content that is not gaming related.
MotorKat said:
~Clans/Competitive teams within certain games. Whether this is LoL, Super Smash Bros, or Runescape '07.
Click to expand...
The problem with competitive teams is they take even more time and effort to manage than a successful community. They are a LOT of work...both from players who have to be able and willing to dedicate a substantial amount of time and the people helping them.
MotorKat said:
~Contests! Free Games! Giveaways! Everybody loves Free Stuff!
Click to expand...
Need to be careful of "buying" community members.
 
So then simplifying the forums of Team9000? Cram more discussion into less forums? Encourage more browsing?

Simplify mumble so that more people have opportunities to talk?

Perhaps what we need is less to get more?
 
JerzeyLegend said:
So then simplifying the forums of Team9000? Cram more discussion into less forums? Encourage more browsing?

Simplify mumble so that more people have opportunities to talk?

Perhaps what we need is less to get more?
Click to expand...

I would think so...start simple and expand as the need develops... No sense in trying to be everything to everyone from Day 1
 
JerzeyLegend said:
So then simplifying the forums of Team9000? Cram more discussion into less forums? Encourage more browsing?

Simplify mumble so that more people have opportunities to talk?

Perhaps what we need is less to get more?
Click to expand...
So my question with this is... Why aren't people posting now? Is it an issue of there being too many forums and people not seeing posts? Is it an issue of people not talking to each other in mumble?

Let's figure out what the problem is and define it before we try to solve it.

Let's have some people respond to this post. Whatis stopping you from being more active on Team9000? Be honest, and descriptive. Try to keep comments constructive.
 
I've read most of what has been said here, and honestly since the decline of minecraft, here and in my own personal enjoyment, t9k has become more of a social place for me more than a gaming place. Which is kinda odd to say because I disagree everyone here the majority of the time (no hate intended <3). I don't use any form of social networking, so steam and t9k are pretty much my all, and honestly I have quite a bit of fun with just that. I would love to find another game of mutual interests, or see the revival of gamenights, but as it is I don't feel like t9k is in any state of crisis, as if it could ever be. However, that isn't to say it couldn't be better.

...Althought I will say I've gotten kinda sick of the owl staring at me all day...
 
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