On Forums, Meltdowns, and Myopia

Change, as we all know, is a constant.  Things come and go in wargaming and on the Internet as in all other areas of life.

In general, it seems commonly acknowledged that the virtual hobby community has been splintering as new social media platforms appear, each catering to more specialized interest- Facebook, new rule-specific fora, blogs- what have you. 

I don't see that in itself as being a bad thing, but it has been making me take a look at La Bricole, and for a long time now I had been wondering if the time has come to close it down.  

Traffic had been slow to non-existent in recent months, and I'm responsible in large part for the slide.  I have to admit to myself that I haven't done nearly as much as I could have done- if at all- to reverse the trend.  Partly this has been due to the law of diminishing returns- the fewer the posts, the less people visit, so that then fewer people could be bothered to post- me included.

This was not helped by the dreadful- and poorly handled- migration to Yuku, who have almost killed the site for me in terms of trying to administer it. It resurfaced with a clunky interface, is unattractive, and has been horribly unreliable.  I found myself "locked out" of my own forum on many occasions, faced with disappearing avatars, and almost nonexistent communication- or piss-poor people skills with Yuku staff when it did occur.  Before the migration, we had a lively and active forum for its size.  

So what with traffic decreasing alarmingly I found myself getting my Napoleonic fix on other fora out there, primarily TMP, and was on the verge of closing down La Bricole for good.

But these days there has been no joy at TMP either.  That is another forum in decline, but for very different reasons.

I had been a member there since the turn of the century, and at one point was even a subscriber.  But no longer.  Over the years TMP has inexorably been getting further away from what it originally did best, serve as a place people could get together to discuss gaming.

Somewhere along the line I feel the site has lost its way. For a long time I just held my nose, and tried to ignore the antics and nastiness that went on, but it has reached a point where just sticking my head in the sand, turning off the more poisonous boards, and hoping the noise would go away is no longer an option.  No use me pretending that its just a harmless hobby site.  It's not. 

Some of the stuff being posted there now is plain toxic.  I know I'm not alone in thinking the moderation (sic) has become increasingly capricious and erratic, alternating between the heavy handed or alternately the non-existent.  TMP's FAQ has more rules than you would find in an old SPI mega-game, but it doesn't appear to help- there are still more dramas and meltdowns than all other hobby sites combined.  

Ultimately it's just not a healthy pool any more for me to want to swim in.   

There are a lot of decent posters there for sure; talented and enthusiastic people I like, and for whom I have a lot of time- you know who you are! 

A number of boards seem in danger of becoming no more than echo chambers, safe-spaces where those of a certain political slant can spout off drivel to their hearts content- especially given the purges that have been taking place of late.  I really don't want to know what the politics of other gamers might be.  Gaming for me is a hobby, a place to put all the real-world crap aside for a bit.

Weird scenes inside the Gold Mine, and I no longer want any part of it.  It's been very frustrating watching the decline, but hey- Bill's house, Bill's rules.  It is his right to run the site the way he wants it- and it's my choice as to whose company I wish to keep.  Thank you for your service, TMP- but I have better uses for my time.  

Fortunately, there are some much more professionally administered alternatives out there, such as the LAF,  TWW or The Guild.

So as that door closes, I need to keep others ajar. Bottom line- I have decided to keep La Bricole going.  

I will keep it as if for now, and will endeavor to try and post there regularly (when it lets me!).  Perhaps traffic will pick up, who knows.  But by August it will get a reboot, and I will start it up again using a different forum platform- probably PhP-BB, but I'm open to alternatives.  

It will take a very long time to build up an active membership again- should it ever do.  But now that I'm through with TMP- and I know for sure that I am not the only one-,  I still believe there is room for a wargaming forum with a focus on Napoleonic Wargaming- without the sandbox spats!  I'll give it a shot anyway and see what happens.  

And the most active wargaming forum of which I'm a member happens also to be the smallest, so it is not just a matter of numbers.

*****

Finally, confessions of an aging grognard: I've been finding the eyestrain creeping up on my during painting- a result of spending a lot of time at computers, and the consequences of having well over a half-century's worth of birthdays behind me.

So I ordered an Optivisor from Front Rank.

Definitely an improvement for making out the detail, and well worth the money. And it creeps out the cats. 

Somehow a regiment of French Chasseurs à Cheval had- fortuitously- found its way into the box, evidently for ballast (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it...).

And that's probably the last unit of French I "need". I do hanker after Mirliton's mounted bandsmen, though.

Deploy Skirmishers!

Just a quick post to promote the new year's painting challenge at La Bricole, our small (but friendly!) forum dedicated to Napoleonic wargaming.  

The theme this time is light infantry or cavalry of any description, in any size and scale and in any numbers from vignette to brigades, depending on your productivity and ambition!

So if you have any eligible unit lying around unloved and unpainted, now could be a good time to get it down and to share your success with others!

More information can be found here.

Newcomers always welcome. Deadline for completed entries is February 10th, 2014.

 

Voting has begun on the la Bricole painting competition!  

Nine members were able to meet the (ambitious!) targets set out in the competition rules, and you can see their entries here ranging from 18mm to 28mm miniatures.  Some of the contributors are well known in various forums and in the wargaming blogosphere, and their artistry has not disappointed!

There really is some fine painting and basing in evidence, as well as some great work-in-progress by those who were unable to get past the finish line.  

I have my favourites, but I ain't telling yet...

Any registered member can vote in the competition, so drop by and show your appreciation.  I know a lot of people have been burning the midnight oil on this one! 

Voting is open for 14 days, until April 17th (Tokyo time).   I'll keep the counter on top of my blog here running until then. 

"And what of your Wurttembergers...?" I hear some people saying.  

My own entry stalled in March (surprise, surprise...not!), due to real-life interference, over-ambitious targets, and haste in ordering miniatures before checking to see what I would actually need.  I ended up having to do a number of conversions, which actually turned out quite well.  But more of this in a future post.

Competition ideas!

This coming January will mark the 1st anniversary of my taking over the administration of the La Bricole Napoleonic wargaming forum.  

To celebration the occasion of its rebirth- and of its resurrection after it's near-meltdown at the hands of the Forumer techs in October- we will be holding our 1st Painting Competition in the new year.

Before the competition rules and glittering prizes are announced, registered members of La Bricole first get to vote on the suggested topics for the competition.  (New members, of course, are welcome!)

These poll be found here.  Everyone gets two votes, and the poll runs until the end of the month.

Once the theme is chosen, I'll officially launch the competition around the end of December.

La Bricole recommissioned!

As some of you may already know, there has been a change of stewardship over at  La Bricole.  
 

La Bricole is a forum devoted to wargaming the Napoleonic wars, and has a small- but dedicated and very friendly- membership.

Over the past few months Iannick Martin, the forum's founder, has been finding himself with more and more demands on his hobby time.  By late December having to deal with a new job and various other commitments led him to the conclusion that he would not be able to keep on running the forum given the little time he had available, and that he would probably be forced to shut it down in the near future.  

On learning this, I offered to take over the management of the site myself, rather than to see it fade into oblivion.  

Iannick readily agreed, and as the old site was a real pain to use in many ways, we decided that this would also be a good opportunity to move the whole forum over to a more user-friendly format.  

So here it is!  You can find the new forum over at:

 http://bricole.46.forumer.com/

The emphasis at La Bricole has been on discussing Napoleonics very much from a wargaming perspective and with a love of eye candy in mind, but of course any contribution or question about the Napoleonic Wars would be welcome. We are a very laid-back bunch, with (so far!) none of the rancour that some Napoleonic discussion has seemed to generate.

Thanks to Iannick for his hard work with the forum over the years! It is much appreciated.

*****

So for anyone who enjoys talking about wargaming in the Napoleonic period, please feel welcome to come over and visit the new site.  We would be glad to have you participate, or even just to lurk there from time to time.  But of course the old saying still applies; what we get out of a discussion very much depends on what we put into it!

Hope to see you there.