A rant about HL2.net and its community

Sheepo

The Freeman
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This post began as a rambling reply to a PM from Yorick about the new layout for the site (great job by the way, sorry I never got back to you) which basically encompassed a random circus of opinions.that led to nothing. So here it is, more organized.

CONTESTS: I think the use of contests to bring the community together is a fantastic idea, but I feel it's been poorly executed for the most part. This site has dozens of very smart and talented members who have proued some really great things since I've been a member here. We should be having large scale contests with a long entry time with subjects that encourage established talent in our community but don't prevent new talent from emerging. Poetry contest is a fantastic example, but the fact is the vast majority of contests have closed within 2 days, had fairly silly subjects ('come up with some badass catchprases', 'tell bluewolf you love him'), have resulted mostly in people with >10 posts emerging and clawing for random free shit, and have gone mostly unnoticed by our regular members. From what I can tell there have been like 15 contests within a week on facebook that have resulted in little to nothing. I imagine month long contests in which many talented members contribute, several old faces return, and new talented members emerge. Oh, wait, such contests already exist and are ignored by almost the entire site. Why we don't work the short story contests through 'News, announcements, and features' is beyond me. Getting free games isn't the only thing that matters in life.

ARTICLES/REVIEWS: Well, I actually think this is a fine idea and you guys have been doing a pretty good job with it. As long as you have quality writers and interesting subjects it will be pretty good selling point for the site. Just announce them through 'News' and keep them in a record (I'm pretty sure this is how its currently being done) and I'm all for it. Oh, and fix the wiki please.

COMMUNITY EVENTS/CLANS/GAMES: Well my main issue is one that has gone almost completely unaddressed by the leaders of the site, is these pesky things called clans and community games that never seem to work out. We are a site that is mostly focused towards video games, the vast majority of us have a service that connects us all through games, and there are atleast a dozen of us playing at any given time, yet we can't seem to set up any sort of organized event and the few times we've made attempts they've ended up failing and then are completely forgotten. I don't know how to fix this problem (aren't I helpful?) because I honestly don't know where it comes from, but hell if we can't fixlife2.net it somehow.

Well, this is pretty much it, minus a rant about miscellaneous which I decided to leave out. This might do better if we put it in the lounge, but I dunno, I'll leave it up to a mod to move it if they want, or maybe just ban me. Anyway, happy to be back, love you guys.
 
I can't be sure on how many entries the larger contests have had. It really depends on how valued the prize is that determines the length of the contest. If it's just a $50 game, sure, 2 days max and hardly any restrictions. The main point of competitions is not only to have fun but also build awareness of the games. I doubt that most of the competitions that have been held in this website was from the kindness of Munros heart, but from the generosity of the devs who made the game.

The other stuff weren't real rants but I can say that this site will never be a hub of a clan community, we have a large broad out look on games, nothing in particular.
 
I didn't know there were competitions on our Facebook page. I need to join Facebook.
 
I think it's kinda funny that we never seem to be able to muster enough cooperation to get into a server for online play at the same time, but I imagine that's not specific to this site?
 
The other stuff weren't real rants but I can say that this site will never be a hub of a clan community, we have a large broad out look on games, nothing in particular.

Pshaw, "The definitive source for all things Valve"? I play with the .netters probably half the time when I play L4D2 or TF2, it's not like there isn't a large base, we just need more organization.

I think it's kinda funny that we never seem to be able to muster enough cooperation to get into a server for online play at the same time, but I imagine that's not specific to this site?

Definitely not, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make a focused effort for it.

...

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=163736

I appreciate things like this, whether it was influenced by this or my chat rant or not, and I think it's a really good idea for the site. Sorry I can't personally participate in it this year.
 
I think it's kinda funny that we never seem to be able to muster enough cooperation to get into a server for online play at the same time, but I imagine that's not specific to this site?
Join the HL2.net Steam chat, and ask if anyone wants to join you. You'll usually get some response.

Or just join someone else playing.
 
Ha, I think it's crazy that like half of the people in the Secret Santa thread are members who rarely post or haven't posted in a while. Awesome.
 
I think we should start up D-Colon again.
 
My avatar and yours begs to differ, love.
 
ya the contests on hl2.net are so rigged....... who do you gotta screw to get a free game?
 
You know what we need? more noobs and dumbasses like on steampowered.
 
And give me free reign to be as brutal as I want to them.
 
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