A lot of people left now that the layout has changed

It's true. The Gamespot community has changed drastically since the layout has changed.

I think most forums are seeing a downturn in traffic these days with social media and all. Hell, Usenet is d-e-a-d.

@br0kenrabbit: Yeah, but who wants all their opinions and such over their public profiles? :-P

I don't social media simply because I'm from the old school where you keep your personal details out of the public sphere. If you Google my real name (not gonna tell you so don't ask) you'll find a few local news clippings and that's it. Well, except for other people with the same name, but they're not me.

@br0kenrabbit: same here regarding the privacy (and I wouldn't ask your name). But I'll let you in on a little secret - my name is Matt. :P

Well Matt, I'm glad we got that out of the way.

@br0kenrabbit: Cool story, bro.

Gamespot is a house of lies. They're not even on Snapchat, so get rid of that ad.

It has.

I think that one of the major reasons for many leaving is the leveling system; it was a feedback loop. Going through the process of gaining levels and being rewarded with a new title was an extrinsic reward, which is not the best kind of motivation, according to Self-Determination Theory. When that feedback loop was ended, people lost interest.

Well this is an old topic. Someone just wake up?

I think a lot of it has to do with the GStepo banning a lot of users, including some heavy posters.

GS thought police are a big part of the decline in posting.

And I thought it was just me.

yeah but most people left like three years ago

You're a couple of years late man.

getting cOLD in here

I get Snaps from them...

Gamespot is not the only community that changes. The world changes, every work place, people, ect change. If you can't adopt to change, they your in trouble. It is a constant reminder that we are just pawns in a game owned by others. If you don't like it, do something about it. Educate yourself, get rich and own companies. Change it to how it was, and we will all admire you and the way you run things. But if i guess correctly, your stock owners, and counselors, and corp junkies will eventually change your layout. The world turns. Watch Tron, or Batman, there's an example of what companies go through.

@horgen: Really? I see IGN but no GS well I hardly know how to use snapchat anyway.

GS changed their layout? It's the sign of the apocalypse!

I try to add them as a contact but they dont show up anywhere. lol. I just got SnapChat im pretty noobie.

To be honest, I pretty much now post in social network like G+ community only because it's mobile friendly and GS has yet to make GS mobile friendly is what's killing it, nowadays, no one just doesn't have the time to sit down on the computers like the good old days due to work and other life activities. The Internet Cafe are dead here in the U.S, [some are still alive] since it's what was the reason to post in forums. Gaming sites these days are just dying out and to me, social network is were it's at.

It seems the forum ended when Airshocker was banned.

what-a-guy....

And The_Last _Ride as well.

People left when GS changed everything from the comment section, and so did i. I'm barely ever on this website, it was GS's plan to cut the traffic down and it worked.

@davillain-: IMO if a user has been on the board for at least 7 years and is pals with people, especially moderators, they should be exempt from the rules and have some sort of "You're special" badge to signify how important they are.

@Random_Matt: Not only that, GS also banned a lot of those users from the article comments as well when the change happen back in 2013 revamp. Nowadays, I just post on the forums as it is.

Its the adds on the front main page what making me not want to come back. I use to like the like button but that's bugged to hell also.

You should try navigating the forum with a tablet, it's like that bit in Rambo when the soldiers order the peasents to run through a mine field.

Layout in combination with moderation changes. The thing is, people don't really care about that much about the layout of a forum. They just want something that works. That has always been Gamespot's problem. They're always changing the layout or getting new forums or whatever instead of actually FIXING bugs and glitches. We don't need a new website; we just need one that works!

I love how when you start using the forum that your join date changes, been here for at least ten years i reckon. Oh, coincides with the GS revamp.

Uh people worked and went to school back when the forums were busy so.........

You don't have much time here that's for sure.....el oh el.

@LJS9502_basic: Probably shouldn't threaten users.

I didn't. You have a problem or something?

@LJS9502_basic: Pulling your chain.

BTW, are you using a app for GameSpot or basic browser like chrome?

My PC dude. Luxury all the way....all the time.

People get bored, I get bored... but videos keeping me coming back though.

Seems like a thread like this pops up every other month. Yes the layout design was a terrible idea in terms of the forums though the rest is okay but the forums themselves have been completely ignored since the redesign launch despite being one of the highest visited places which was mind boggling. Also didn't help that good users got banned in the past couple years who were actually active unjust or not.

It's almost the exact same thing that happened to gamepro's website many years back with eliminating levels and the bad forum redesign except this forum didn't get 4 new mods two of whom were power hungry, one who hated men for whatever reason and the other banning every gaming fanboy.

I blame Eddie Makuch, this all falls on his shoulders.

@mattbbpl: Are you a radar technician?

Nah, I'm a software developer/security technician/whatever the heck they want me to be at any given time involving a keyboard.

The new site change and the moderation has ruing GS.

As for forums all around having a decrease in traffic could be due to the high levels of censorship they have depployed over the years or simply because after years of thinking "community" "feedback" "user content" etc. was seen as something good and that all forms of media should have, but in the last 3-4 years you seen a change where alot of websites had restricted the comment section and dont see the "comments section" "community feedback" etc. as some good anymore because.... people were pretty harsh and communities where pretty aggressive.

You'll see that alot now, I know yahoo pretty much wants to hide there comment section so people wont post anything. Websites got tired of having to spend resources on policing and making sure bad things werent on their comment sections. So they keep changing what bad content was... more censorship was instilled and less accessibility to commenting.

Most websites see forums and comment sections as a burden now, compared to 4-5 years ago.

GS simplified and a lot of people wanted out.

That, and the great April Fool's Day Massacre a few years back. A lot of really active, "good" users felt burned by that (despite being hilarious) and left, and with them went a good chunk of activity.

I don't think it was just the layout changes, but a combination of other things, that occurred over a short amount of time.

For me, when I left, it was the following:

layout change
the British invasion (not necessarily a bad thing, but I was kind of put off by the fact that suddenly british accents dominated what is an American website)
The April's Fools Day Massacre and the exodus of good users
The Giant Bomb fiasco
The noticeable presence of the parent company's policies (i.e. CBS trying to squeeze every dollar out of a gaming website)
And as of late, the influx of non-gaming (comic, movie, and general "nerd culture" stuff) content.

But I am back now, and while I regret it, it is still fun to post here. But yeah this place is dead, at least relative to where it was pre-layout change.

I haven't been around for about two years and came back just a month ago or something. I really miss the old GS, leveling, unions, emblems and yeah of course all those friends. Though I do post every now and then but mainly on gaming issues.

It has, very different from 2013.

It was already dying in 2013. Prime OT was last decade.

Very strange to read this thread and see some of the replies. OT died when the rules became more lax due to the pushing of some individuals who had befriended the community manager.....and they didn't like so they left. That was the start of the decline. Even at it's most stringent ToU OT was a busy place. They also brought back the banned users....most of whom weren't really good users.....some good users got banned...yes. But saying it was all redesign and bannings is wrong.

I remember this place being lively when I was posting a lot. Now I just show up every couple of months and leave a post if the top thread isn't 4 days old.