How are people finding this site?

I will be starting a campaign to get users who post detailed analysis of video games onto this site instead of wasting time posting on large message boards where their contributions are forgotten in a day.

Honestly I don't know how people find a lot of specialist websites unless they are kind of balls deep in it already. I remember when I first started my quest to obtain VGM, STC, SEMO, RPGFan, Chudah's Corner, Daryl's Library and probably some other websites were my foray into the community. Years of getting my fix from vgmusic.net, vgmix and ocremix led me to pursue a community who loves this sort of thing. It may be that having a lot of activity was a time, a time of rare VGM and a burning hobby. Kudos to you for trying to advertise for STC. I hope your endeavors are fruitful. I feel like all the most passionate people for this kind of thing are here but of course we haven't found everyone yet.

To be honest the opening post makes me question the impact I've had on others as far as introducing them to a hobby. I can't think of too many instances where my interest has acted as a springboard for someone else. I'm usually on the other side of the equation. Maybe I just can't remember? I'm not trying to sell myself short here.

The only ones I can remember was getting my one friend into power metal and then there was when my friends and I got the fourth member of the ground into retro games. However, in the latter case I don't think it's fair to count that because a three-to-one ratio is a disproportionate amount of influence.

I don't think I can credit myself with turning anyone on to VGM. That said, people usually get a fun kick when something they grew up playing comes out of the speakers in my car, Usually it's a Mega Man or Donkey Kong Country track. Still, for the most part it's never gone beyond that. I've had people ask me if I'm the guy who was playing chiptunes as I passed them by in my car. Given the small size of the town I live in can safely say it was me

I do occasionally get soundtracks for my one friend but I don't make guesses as to what he wants. He's usually pretty clear on the ones he likes and it's never the ones I play when we're around one another. He's a sucker for early Blizzard (Diablo, Starcraft) and I just got him the Bastion soundtrack.

Still, if I could turn someone onto the hobby to the point where they's start buying soundtracks I think that would be insanely cool. Not in a "feed the ego" way but a "I could share this with someone I can interact with more personally" way. Of course, I'm not trying to discredit internet discussion when I say that, but I think most will understand one may be more visceral (that's probably not the right word) than the other.

Honestly, the best thing to do to recruit new members is to talk about soundtracks/music. That aspect seems to have died out here (both in terms of music and collecting), so what motivation do new people have to stick around on the forums? I remember being absolutely flooded with impressions and new discoveries (and sale threads!) when I first discovered these forums (some of the music I hold onto today in high regard still) but I don't see how someone can get a similar fix from these forums nowadays.

Funny you mention this. Granted sales threads aren't as common as they use to be, but when we get them it people are selling off their collections. Additionally, and this may be just me, I just don't see the variety in people's wares that I once did. I can think of quite a few albums I'd buy, not all rarities of course, but I don't see them very often. For example I don't much Mega Man Zero stuff come up.

I guess what I mean is, it was more common for people to sell stuff off without totally liquidating everything. I get why that isn't the case (why drop $30 for a soundtrack that you'll be lucky to sell for $5-10 nowadays, especially if it isn't part of a big franchise and especially when downloading is an easy option), but the market was much healthier/livelier.

Quoting this whole post for emphasis. I agree very strongly that if there isn't active discussion about game music there's really not much point in these forums being around.

Looking at the releases from the past year and the rate at which streaming is gaining popularity, there's a case to be made that the VGM scene is as active as it's ever been, it's just hard to keep up when we're all busy with a hundred other things. So if people when they come across a interesting bit of VGM news or discover/rediscover some great game music could post here, it might not only kick the VGM discussion back into gear but also rekindle some people's interest.

Not pointing any fingers at all here since if there's anyone who should be playing an active roll it's me. I'm working on a few ideas to make the site more relevant and useful but the simplest (and probably most effective) thing is to just post.

As for the number of potential members: I can see on the vgmdb forums that around 400 registered users visit those forums every day.  If you count unregistered folks, it's even more.  That tells me a lot of people are interested in VGM.

But even with that userbase, the post count is low.  They get maybe 10 posts a day.  As others have said, for the most part there isn't that much to talk about.

Adam, I'm going to bring this out, because I feel this is something that needs to be addressed. Quite honestly, I'm not happy that you deleted my last post regarding the Conan books which I posted here
http://soundtrackcentral.com/definitive … cks/tp8336
You say the most effective thing to do is "post" and then you delete posts. This was the second post of mine you deleted, and I will argue for NO REASON. Sure, maybe the post was off-topic, but so what? Off-topic posts are nothing new, there have been thousands of off-topic posts on STC. Are you going to be policing all posts now, or just mine? Note, I'm not being snarky on the last question, I really want to know if this is how it is now? I don't know if you have been deleting other people's post as well? I can understand deleting a post or thread if people start posting racist/unethical opinions/remarks, but other than that, I don't favor censorship. Especially when I just posted an off-topic remark about the Conan books, which people may have been interested in. I'm less inclined to post here at STC when the admin goes around deleting posts for no good reason. Say what you want about places like nintendoage (and there probably is a lot to say) but at least the admins don't just delete posts. That's my opinion.

I'll say what I've been wanting to say for a while: if your improvements don't have anything to do with the forums then don't bother. Read into that how you will.

Also, I second what avatar! said. The editing of certain posts in the past is *part* of what has given me such a adversarial view of the admin over the years. That said, I'm sure coming from me that probably has little to no value.

I'd kinda would like to hear if my posts are being deleted, even if the reason would be just "off-topic", instead of stuff just going into ether.

And in topic of getting new members, I do feel like that getting people to talk in forums is somewhat a relic of the past. Even so when our common interest in here is a small niche 'genre' in the vast majority of music. And majority of people just check stuff in Youtube or some other places like that and comment in there how good FF VII's soundtrack is (not).

Heck, even on that one stupid sharing site, people don't seem to talk much about game music other than PLZ SHARE, THANKS FOR SHARE etc.

Though, perhaps getting more reviews out could be nice (pity that I can't help that, can't type proper review if my life would depend on it), and perhaps trying to partner up with other sites like OSV or VGMO to boost up the chatter.

One thing that could be nice is a new discussion for new reviews that people do in here, as I just check these forums usually, and never the reviews.

Ashley, your quote was jumbled up so I'm not sure exactly what your first paragraph was getting at or whether it was directed at me.

Avatar, the thread you posted to is titled "Definitive Conan the Barbarian/Destroyer SOUNDTRACKS", in the SOUNDTRACKS forum on a website called SOUNDTRACK Central. Nobody is clicking on that thread expecting to read about books. Your post was plainly off-topic and there are any number of sites that would have moderated it similarly, and many probably wouldn't have bothered mailing you directly to notify you and send a copy of the text (in case you'd like to re-post it in the appropriate forum) as I did.

I really try not to step on any toes here but let's get down to it. For a while now there has been a small number of members here (VERY few - "small number" almost overstates it) who have posted a proportionately very high number of off-topic or no-substance posts. Frankly it lessens my enjoyment of my own site that I've put a fair amount of money and a huge amount of time into, and I feel fairly sure that it affects the enjoyment or at very least the relevance of the site for other visitors as well. I try to moderate as little as possible (and for what it's worth there are plenty of times that other members report posts and I leave them untouched), but I'm not going to refrain from doing what I think will improve the overall experience of the site, particularly when related to the site's focal topic - soundtracks. Nor am I going to feel obligated to explain myself every time I do when that time could be spent on more important things.

If there's anybody who has found my administration of the site unreasonable or my treatment of them unfair, well, I haven't done anything here I feel the need to apologize for (aside from not updating more often), and I'm certainly not going anywhere. There are approximately a million other places on the internet to post about things not about soundtracks which I don't administer, so you're absolutely entitled to post in one of those.

And if anyone does feel they themselves have been mistreated they are absolutely encouraged to speak up here, though I feel fairly certain it's limited to the two who have already said so.

Do you do that for other deleted posts if they're actually worthwhile posts but off-topic? Like you won't probably bother mailing if there's just posts that should be deleted or discussions that got bit heated. I think there's been few of those kinds posts for me. Though, probably for better if they got deleted, I sometimes can get bit heated and get snarky/FU-mentality with some topics.

Anyways, now that I think of that new review = new discussion, could that be done easily with this forum software? Or could be even album = new discussion, if there's more than one review for album. And discussion as in discussion and not just telling how bad the reviewer is and how wrong he is, as sometimes discussions can turn into that.

Razakin, I very rarely delete posts and I think aside from avatar's above complaint and ONE particular user who has made his disdain for me known, the last time I deleted a post simply for being off-topic without at least mailing a copy of the original text to the poster was a post of XLord's about a Street Fighter art book in the Street Fighter IV soundtrack thread. That was years ago and I've regretted it ever since

On the rare occasion where a thread gets out of hand with personal attacks or what not, I post in that thread to make it clear that I've made deletions. Razakin I think there may have been a time or two in such instances where you had replied to such a post, so when I deleted the offending post then I needed to delete yours as well because there was no longer any need/context for it.

But again, I really don't have time to explain or theoreticize about every administrative decision when I could be doing one of a hundred more important things, many of which are related to this site. (Just now I was about to make a thread about the top VGM tracks of last year until I again got sidetracked by this discussion.)

Besides, there's really no point. I've been moderating these forums for probably fifteen years now - if anybody feels my treatment towards them during that time has been unreasonable or unfair they can just say so here and that'll clear things right up. So far it's been avatar and Ashley Winchester.

I couldn't have said it better myself and I feel exactly the same way.

Well then, you should get rid of the "open topic" forum, and it make it clear that this site is only for soundtracks. You may want to get rid of "gaming" too, since that is a bit off-topic as well. Or maybe you want to keep gaming and add "movies", and other categories. At any rate, it's your call, but I feel over the years this site has become a husk of what it once was. If people don't feel welcome, why would they join this forum? I think alienating two people that have contributed much to this forum (myself and Ashley) is not exactly conducive to such a small niche place, but whatever.

I've actually advocated getting rid of the Open Topic forum because it just seems to invite, well, open topic discussion. Which normally isn't a bad thing but has been basically ruined by prattle and bloviated posts over the last 5 years. There are a few people that post here that I feel use open topic as a personal blog or notepad or idea dartboard and ... that's just not what it is.

I've been here for a very long time so I think me and Adam are on similar pages. I think ultimately this is just a generational gap. 15-20 years ago sites like this, Cloud's Villa, gmrdatabase, Chudah's Corner, RPGFan, SlightlyDark were essentially gateways into an incredibly small, niche hobby that was expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to navigate. Those barriers no longer exist today due to changing technologies, changes in consumer consumption, and even to some extent some of those same early "players" moving on and doing bigger and better things, like VGMDB, SEMO, etc.

Is this site smaller and less trafficked than it used to be? Are there less users here than back when I started? Is there less activity in the marketplace? For sure, on all counts. Is it something that needs to be addressed or remedied? I personally don't think so, or at least not much more than what Adam has already done over the last couple years (modern forum layout, modern web design, still posts reviews, at one point at least maintained a few social media accounts).

I think there is a pretty big generational gap between the "old" vs. the "new" in that the older generation are consumers of content and the newer generations are engagers of content. I see this a lot in gaming right now.

At the end of the day, this is Adam's site and we're all just visitors on it.