We Need To Chat

I'd like to clear the air a little bit regarding my becoming manager of Cloud Sixteen and what I was hoping to do by becoming manager and releasing this server, and what I aim for in the future. I saw a post on playerMeta that really got on my nerves because it was so misguided that I typed out a pretty lengthy reply to it and I've just now came to the conclusion that if one person could possibly think that then other people must do as well.

It's no secret that Cloud Sixteen has been slowly dying for a pretty long time now; ever since 2016, the activity on these forums and the number of HL2RP communities has slowly been sinking into irrelevancy. I myself took a multiple very long hiatus' from even thinking about Garry's Mod roleplay, to the point where I don't think I've joined and tried to seriously involve myself in a community that wasn't my own Eve Gaming since 2016. @kurozael himself noticed the stagnation of these forums and was/is intending on completely wiping the forums - the last 7 years of history on this website will be wiped out in the blink of an eye.

I was hoping that by becoming manager and making these forums something like how they used to be back in the days when this was a great place to come on and take part in discussions that I could bring back a lot of users and reinstall the faith they once had in these forums, and I think I'm doing an okay job at that so far, and I don't plan to let anyone down. I'd like to keep making these forums a better place, with every incremental improvement and with every new user (and old alike) that come to this website and take part in the community. And there are a lot of concerns that come with this sudden influx of activity; the most resounding of which is, "when will it end, and when will the community go back to dying again?"

The main problems that plagued Cloud Sixteen in the past were rampant shitposting, lack of incentive to make posts that were of at least a decent quality, and users not nurturing new discussions in any meaningful ways (which is sort of the same as shitposting). As more and more of the community's most active and respected users left, the less and less new people came here to talk. Nothing new was being said. Nothing new happened for a long, long time. And so, I thought of the idea of bringing back titles; people used to shitpost their way to these, so how do we combat that? We make them ratings based, and this should incentivise not only giving out reciprocal ratings but also to increase the quality of posts. I also thought about the idea of a HL2RP server, and I came up with this idea for a bunch of reasons;

• HL2RP is still fun, regardless of how dead the scene is.
• It'll hopefully bring new people to the forums.
• It will give the community a chance to have their pitch on an "ideal" official HL2RP server.
• It will give us something to do.

I never had the intention of "saving clockwork" or "making HL2RP great again". That is not why I am doing this, it's not why I am doing any of this. I'm not trying to make the forums better so kuro gets more money from sales. I'm not trying to make the forums a better place so the roleplaying scene comes back to life. I am trying to make these forums better because I, like many people, have spent a lot of time here and genuinely care about this community we have spent so so long in. I have very fond memories of sitting in my IT class when I was 14 years old and sneakily going on C16 in the middle of a lesson just to check out the new posts and talk to everyone on here, and now I'm coming up 21, and before last month I used to check the forums maybe once a week, which is more than practically any of the old timers who stopped being active here do now.

Regarding the merge, I had no idea FPSPrussia had a reputation around him. Like I said, I had been out of the RP scene for a very long time, and when I came back, I found he was banned on C16 two years back for flaming admins, so it's not like I saw much of his behavior on here either. Had I know, I never would have went forward with the merge, and I'd like to make that very clear, since a lot of people are under the assumption me and him are friends. We're not. I just saw an opportunity to maybe merge two player-bases and expand the community and took it for face value, I never expected there to be such a backlash revolving purely around his reputation and behavior.

My only goal for making this community a nice place to be again is to make sure that all of these long years we've had on here don't go down the drain, and to do that, we need to set out some more generalised ground rules which shouldn't really be put into the official rules list. In order to make this a better place to be, and to prevent kuro from wiping this all out, we need to step up the level of quality in posts made on these forums. You can shitpost all you want in the private sector, that is precisely why it's there.

From now on, I don't want to see any topics with low effort titles, kuro has made a point of this before but it looks like we need to really start taking it into account.Throwing @Tommy under the bus here, here are the words straight from the horse's mouth:


I agree with him, if we're going to make these forums a much nicer environment where we can just have chill discussions then we do need to take a better approach to how professionally we maintain our posts and the way we conduct them. Once kuro releases his game, should it get anything of a following, we want to make these forums a nice place to be for anyone who comes here not looking for roleplay related products or discussions.

If you want to help me make these forums better, not just for myself but for all of you here, then you need to be with me on this. You guys have trusted me with this position and I don't want to let any of you down, but if I'm going to make the effort, you guys have to as well.

Thanks for your time, I know this is just the start.

EDIT: I'm leaving this announcement open for any constructive criticism or discussions relating to anything I've said above, but let's keep it as clean as possible, please.

 

Honestly. I don't think it's just Cloud Sixteen. I've been around since OA. A lot of complaints I've heard relate to three things.
-kuro
-Clockwork Updates
-Gmod as a game.


I think with S&Box, C16 has a chance to start anew in a good way. If a new RP chapter continues there, I believe that this will please many people. Especially since S&Box promises to be more dev friendly with updates for added game modes that don't break them in an update, as well as better transparency with developers. People are tired of an outdated system and game. So we can keep trying to beat a dead horse, but I for one, am ready for a new RP generation in S&Box.


This is coming from a nobody who always brings up a server every year because I still genuinely enjoy CWHL2RP.


I think the forums should be focused on cleaning up the problems here, as you mentioned some great points, by the way. Which is why you became manager.

 

I really like the direction you're taking the forums, and cloudsixteen as a whole. It really sucked to watch this place fall into such a state of disarray. It went from a fun place to relax to really kind of a dark place with all the shitty people(who are thankfully now gone and sticking to their own little corner.)

Please never leave us Sixx <3

 

I think the primary reason the forums are becoming inactive is the fact that people simply don't have much to talk about.

Cloud Sixteen has, for the longest time, been focused on Clockwork for the most part and because that part of the community is fading, people start vanishing alongside.

If you want people back, give them something to return to - a new, exciting project is surely going to bring people back.

I know a few projects were already underway but it seems like they are also inactive now.

Best of luck.

 

Honestly, I think you're doing an excellent job so far. I haven't felt more accepted and welcomed into a roleplay community since I first joined UWG.
I agree with your statement wholeheartedly. HL2RP never stopped being fun, if I can join the scene in 2018 and be having the time of my life, then so can anyone else. The official HL2RP server, I think, is an excellent thing to work towards and work on. In my experience, communities that don't have a thing to do, a goal to work towards, or an object to maintain, fall apart or die quickly. With the roleplay scene beginning to fade as a whole, we should have a community bonfire to, if not keep our lands lit, at least let the people know we were here, and that it was fun while it lasted. But with said server, variety should be emphasized, I would support different iterations of the server with different lores or themes, because everyone is tired of vanilla HL2RP, and I don't want to have your stock, plain server, being what people strive to. The Cloud Sixteen HL2RP server, in my opinion, is an opportunity for the community to show off all of their separate versions of a Magnum Opus.

That is the most pretentious thing I've ever said, and I mean it wholeheartedly.

 

I don't think it'll cut it.
HL2RP has indeed been a driving force for the community for a long time, but, as I said, people started moving away from that.
I don't think an official server will change that.

 

Feed a fed horse!!!

But yeah, kuro has a point. I remember a bit back the forums used to have good, constructive threads but after that it just turned into constant shitposting. We need to turn this around, and Sixx already is already succeeding in doing that. I can't wait to see how this actually turns out.

 

This is what I'm referring to when I speak of transparency. Inactive projects or seemingly inactive.

We don't need a timeline or constant feed of updates. Just a sliver of life that shows us we're here, in cloud sixteen waiting for something.

If we're all here just talking and chilling. We're basically a discord server.

 

I've already stated 1,000 times (and in this very thread) that I'm not beating a dead horse feeding a fed horse, I think HL2RP is fun and if it dies altogether, cool, whatever, I'll still always be down to play on a fun server with some good people. I'm also ready for a new RP generation man, more so than ever, but that doesn't mean we have to stop playing what we have right now! I'm not trying to stretch out the lifespan of Clockwork, I'm not trying to extent the longevity of the Gmod RP scene, I'm just trying to put up a good server so we can all have some fun and make the forums a bit more active again. That's all I want to do.

That's very true! I hear you 100% and I'd like to start turning this into a more generalised forum in time, but when everyone here came here for the same thing it gets a little harder to make sure those people don't disassociate and leave again. I would like to make this more of a gaming forum though. But like @Songbird said, hopefully the new server will bring back some people and new people alike, and we can all grow and change these forums together now that this community has an active staff team and, not to suck my own dick, a manager that actually cares about it.

But please, please, just for the sake of repetition, understand I'm not trying to save roleplay. I am trying to have fun and make these forums a good place again.

 

I gotta say that I have to agree with you to some degree regarding the matter that everyone has seen the same old Clockwork routine and expect something more fresh and respectable.

I would have to highly agree with kuro as well regarding the matter of more advanced posts, however it’ll take more then just this to get something on the way and I appreciate the matter that you’ve taken such high level of consideration and determination to deal with all of this.

 

As mentioned in my previous post. I still love Hl2rp and I still bring up a server here and there. But to be honest. In /my/ perspective, it is beating a dead horse. Think about it. We're all waiting for the next generation, we want to enjoy this. We all do, but how can we do this with so many limitations, so many needs unfulfilled.

I'm speaking of course for the general populace. People don't think like you and I do. I still love the game mode. Love the game. Which is why I'm still playing it here and there.

But we can't force people to enjoy a game that they can't enjoy anymore. So I agree. You should do the server to have fun. I support you on this. But just remember, people are cold & relentless. People want more and more.

 

Also, If I may say, @Sixx you shouldn't just let the community define you. You, as our manager, should be able to step back and see the work you're doing. We can all sit here and applaud you and commend you for days, but if you don't see that you're already making steps in the right direction, then nobody but you can help yourself.


I'm not claiming to know your mental state or what you feel currently. It's just important to remember that you control the work you produce. You're gonna do great as long as you stick to your morals, buddy.

 

I feel like we've only been hearing the mass opinions. What about you @Sixx what would make things better to you? Server wise and forum wise? I feel like it's well deserved and important you speak your mind freely. You're just as involved as we are.

 

Honestly, you're doing a good job so far, and I'd like to thank you for that. Finally someone is taking initiative to try and get C16 out of the state it's currently in. What really matters it that you're trying something, and that gives me faith that maybe, just maybe, something can be made out of it. Some of the reasons the community ended up in the state that it's in wasn't entirely in anyone's control, or at least the management here. Gmod has been going downhill for a while, and a lot of the old veterans here just decided to grow out of the gamemode. It'll happen to all of us eventually.

Again, I profoundly appreciate the effort you're putting into the community, and that you've gotten rid of the shitty people that helped contribute to this mess in the first place. The community already feels more welcoming. Hopefully something great can be made out of this. Hopefully C16 can be as fun as it used to be. I also really like the idea of the community server, and the gamenight idea you proposed. Make C16 great again?

Keep up the good work!

 

You're a cool dude, @Sixx. You've been manager for like no time at all and already C16's a way better community. It's good shit my guy.

As for the state of HL2RP, it's not something that's easy to keep going, purely due to its very nature. It's a gamemode that burns bright but dims quickly, which sucks, but we have so many people here that still enjoy the gamemode. As Danku said:

It's not gonna last forever, we should enjoy it while we can, and I think an official server would go a long way towards making that happen. Who knows? We might even start bringing it back to life if people see an official server. Could end up getting some people that have drifted away back involved.

TL;DR We love you sixx so make the goddamn server <3