Ideas for increasing good traffic to GameSpot forums

So, we've been dying a slow death. Can we do anything to stop it? Perhaps GS will do something about it.

GS will probably do nothing about it. Good content attracts people. But GS is more concerned about updating the site's appearance and creating an entertainment hub of mostly passable movie/game clickbait content.

I doubt there's anything us, the users, can do.

Get youtube e-celebs to do let-plays overreacting with wacky high pitched voices?

The site is essentially one giant ad mechanism; whereas before they used ads to generate revenue so they could make content, now they generate content to post ads. I imagine that's why every single article has a video or two now.

Anyway, anything that doesn't generate ad revenue or lacks a place to put some stupid video probably won't get any support. Surprised they even have forums still.

I've tried a few times before. Most people I talk to that used to post here simply have no interest to return.

Forums are ancient Web 2.0 artifacts, they are not ever going to get more popular, everyone has moved on to faster, more convenient forms of social media, like Discord.

I would suggest adding a invite a friend thing.

Unions were the bread and butter of the social fabric here. With those gone, this is just another games forum, and not a very popular one at that.

Bringing Unions back now wouldn't help matters, those folks are gone for good. The term 'screwed the pooch' comes to mind.

Wonder if anyone lost their jobs over it? Probably should have.

I came into this thread with the impression that the OP would be presenting ideas.

I am disappointed.

@madrocketeer: Aw, shucks. Lol. Ok here are some ideas:

Bring back unions. (Already mentioned)

Try to be like another more popular forum.

Do a reset.

Add a visit to the forums to the GS contests.

Whelp, those are my ideas.

Bring back the level system.

The Gamespot needs to be a spot for Games. It needs to keep up with the games of today.

The Gamespot needs to be a spot for Games. It needs to keep up with the games of today.

Boobs.

@phbz: Got anything you can spare or display proudly?

Meaningful content and the catchy post will increase traffic to GS.

I would give up on any ideas that the staff would need to do. THE best thing we as users could do is take action ourselves.

We can start our own GameStop forum Facebook Page, where people can talk about games, trade games, schedule play parties online, etc. Same goes for Twitter, reddit, discord, twitch etc. This would give the community some more online presence and visibility. (We could invite our own friends to join a lot easier)

It would take a lot of time and energy, and since most of us on here are probably all adults with lives I don't know if a group of users would dedicate the time and energy to do this.

Well the 'Best of 2019' could have a link to an official forum thread for discussion.

Maybe get rid of the 'Political' threads from the top 10. Or have separate top 10 sections for gaming vs non-gaming.

Allow emulation and home-brew discussion :)

Add special forums for people to trade/buy/sell games and hardware

In terms of unique views the forums contribute very little I believe.

It would be nice with more active forums.

They got rid if all the cool stuff they used to have that encouraged user engagement. Stuff like user reviews, personalized groups and community badges for example. That was about the time most of the older users I knew started vanishing. They put a lot of time into that stuff which just vanished. The next big disappearance happened after the Jeff Gertsman incident. People started shifting to Giant Bomb. In the end GS has shot itself in the foot one too many times. There are better alternatives out there now...from YouTube to Facebook. Doubt they can turn it around ar this point.

@verbalfilth: I'm starting to lean toward this outlook.

@Willy105: I think you're pretty much correct. Us older Internet users will probably continue to appreciate message boards, but for the younger generation everything is geared more towards social media and videos.

I don't necessarily think the newer way of building a website is better, but it has much more mainstream appeal. In that way, maybe GS is doing an alright job of staying relevant. It's not so much about building communities where people can come together anymore. It's about interacting with whoever you choose and getting and giving attention.

This forum is like Drangliec, we all came here but have slowly forgotten over time why we are here, or who we even are, or who we were ?

Stop fracturing the community with subforums, combine everything into a single "games or off-topic" hub and allow anyone who was banned for not illegal things before the TOS overhaul (i.e. porn posting, racist/hate speech, etc) to come back.

Thought they did that………...

Did they? I don't even remember most of GS history at this point. I guess that didn't work either.

But hey, they got their increased comment traffic that they wanted so badly.

A lot of people were un-banned at one time, but I don't remember the specifics of it.

Apparently they unbanned everyone by accident at some point during one of their site changes and they decided to just leave it. It was probably more work for them and I bet they assumed most of those people had already moved on and forgot about this place.

They have seemed to cut all personality from the site which has killed the site engagement as well as the forum engagement. It seems as though their publishing team has condensed to the point of being only able to be on autopilot. They need to reinvigorate their site by having a vision and folding the community into that division. Instead of being a one-size-fits-all type of site with a wide variety of content that doesn't have as much depth as it could, they need to hone their vision and execute.

Old poster here for a rare visit.

I think the biggest mistake was the whole overhaul. I know some kind of overhaul was needed, since old site was getting more and more glitchy, but it was a bit too drastic. Getting rid of the unions and UCBs took a big hit for the community. That, combined with the fact that people were already getting sick of the decisions made here led to a community which is a shell of its former self. Even if they brought back unions now, it would be too little too late. Most of those who used the site for unions have long since moved on.

Nothing can really help at this point. Theses forums have been gradually dying for years, and so has the site as a whole. I think the final nail in the coffin happened when Giant Bomb joined with CBS Interactive, and Gamespot essentially became a clone of Giant Bomb. That said, Giant Bomb is the closest you'll get to the old Gamespot. At least Jeff and the crew still produce video content. Sometimes even Rich Gallop makes a guest appearance.

I like to think of this place as a dead mall just enough people around where it doesn't become to overbearing.

Maybe biggest mistake the site did. Lots of forums find themselves with less traffic than a decade ago. Social media has stolen a lot of traffic from places like this.