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[Smiling Spectre]

Originally Posted by Igorovics

I feel sorry for this site. I haven't logged infor years, but started to visit again few weeks ago ... But still, I miss the times when Abandonia was full of life.

Well, main reason is that Kosta sold site and left ten years ago. Then some part of community left as well. Then Abovo decided to "improve" the site - and badly damaged translating base and functions in process. Then some more usuals left... Old generation, just like you, haven't time for this anymore, and younger haven't interest... So we are here. Some of us, at least.

[Japo]

The website was remade at the same time and as part of the deal when Kosta sold it, so it became as broken as this at that time, and the very moment the deed was done, no more work would ever be allowed for developing bug fixes or enhancements. The buyer was not Abovo but another company called Studentis, iirc also Swedish. A couple of years later Studentis went bust and Abovo bought it out, or something like that, it could've been just a rebranding, I don't know the legal details.

Afaik they wanted to remake the website because it was considered dated and the new one would be an improvement. The only things wrong with the old website were: content management was too manual; and the layout didn't scale to wide screens. And it looked old/retro, as opposed to this "nice" white-on-white theme we now enjoy. But this website doesn't scale wide either -- which is of course an opportunity to stylishly cram ads to the right. And the attempt to build a proper content management system based on Drupal was apparently aborted early, so we now have at least as much manual file management work, and many more bugs and pitfalls.

People have been leaving continuously, long before and after these events, more or less regardless of them. It is normal and expectable that people leave. The reason why the community has shrunk is because there haven't been enough replacements. Part of that can of course be blamed on the bad state of the website, but it's likely also because many fewer people are now interested in abandonware. The games that still fall in our turf amd haven't been taken by GOG.com are now too old to generate traffic.

[underdog]

Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre

[...]
- Site have nag screen on the every download with "please support us with money".
- After Wikipedia decided to ask for donation, many years ago, someone found it a brilliant, and added the same nag screen at the Abandonia. Wiki removed the ad after one week. Abandonia keep it.
[...]

remember how they initially claimed it was a non-profit site? at least they removed THAT bit of ... creative reality... *ahem*

[Smiling Spectre]

Japo, what I mean is that there are too many "shrinking" events, but close to nothing "expanding" ones. When engine was changed, we lost ton of non-standard-ASCII translations that never was fixed afterwards. Hardly working tag system added to this too. So, I believe, we own a lot of translators loss to that.

When most contributors/editors left (soon after that), it added to the site visibility too. I dunno why it happened, but it was negative.

Site owners totally _could_ improve state of it. Participating, fixing engine, communicating with admins, etc. Instead, they considered site as crumbling house: let's use it for advertising, and what's good else in it?

So we have archaic site, close to none new reviews, no translations and almost extinct community. *shrug* Well, I am still here, and you too, so at least it's not our fault, right?

[Japo]

Originally Posted by underdog

remember how they initially claimed it was a non-profit site? at least they removed THAT bit of ... creative reality... *ahem*

Do you think they're so evil...? They were just so lazy that they copy-pasted the Wikipedia blurb literally. Kind of dishonest, but if God favors the prepared, it makes sense that the Devil favors the lazy.

Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre

Japo, what I mean is that there are too many "shrinking" events, but close to nothing "expanding" ones. When engine was changed, we lost ton of non-standard-ASCII translations that never was fixed afterwards. Hardly working tag system added to this too. So, I believe, we own a lot of translators loss to that.

When most contributors/editors left (soon after that), it added to the site visibility too. I dunno why it happened, but it was negative.

Site owners totally _could_ improve state of it. Participating, fixing engine, communicating with admins, etc. Instead, they considered site as crumbling house: let's use it for advertising, and what's good else in it?

Indeed, I did not mean that disaster had no negative consequences in traffic too... I mean not 100% either way... anyway never mind what I said.

In my paranoid opinion, Studentis had the idea to turn the website into an advertisement billboard from the very beginning, and they care nothing about anything else. Likely the only problem they saw with the old website is that they couldn't fit enough ads into the every single page. So that's why they invested work in changing it, but after they were done hanging the ads and the website became non functional, they or Abovo never saw any need to spend a cent in fixing it.

So we have archaic site, close to none new reviews, no translations and almost extinct community. *shrug* Well, I am still here, and you too, so at least it's not our fault, right?

But if WE are around and the place is shit, maybe it's OUR fault?

[Smiling Spectre]

Um, I am always over-optimistic, and always give second chances, until I have any hope in it. So while site is still alive, it's hope!

Yes, yes, I know. :|

[Scatty]

Originally Posted by Japo

But if WE are around and the place is shit, maybe it's OUR fault?

Fun meaning aside, you've got to admit, that every regular member who stopped logging in years ago, basically inspired every other regular member to stop to log in, as well.
Not to put blame on anyone, it just happens, life and what not. But it's also a responsibility of all of us, to what happened to the site over the years, not just on those who are seen as carrying the main load. There's been so many people active at one time, but earlier or later, everybody thought, oh well I stop logging in now, others can still carry it.
Thing is, others felt compelled to follow that example and left as well. Now what we've got, is that no one is there anymore. It's just the fact, that everyone of us matters, making up the community. Only most choose to forget that.

[Japo]

Yes of course. And at some point so much momentum is lost, that the whole thing stops. But also the same people are in different times of their lives, so even if they don't leave completely, they don't spend as much time posting as they used to. And the Dissidents' stunts, as much as they added thrill and drama, didn't help to keep one friendly community together...

In any case a community needs some rate of replacement to stay alive. It can't be a private club of the same pals forever. Already one or two generations of regulars and staff had left while the community was still growing. And even after the website remodeling we had a good community and strong staff for a long time.

And again the remodeling of the website did not help... And as bad as it is now, at least everything works as well as we can expect. There were times when the website or the forums were completely or practically down for weeks and months (database error...)

[kemo]

Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre

So we have archaic site, close to none new reviews,

Users can't submit reviews because the system is broken... at least, I can't submit reviews.

[Smiling Spectre]

Users cannot submit "proper" reviews directly, right. Just because this ability reserved for the staff.

But you can:
1. Found the "safe" game (get it from "safe" list on site, or ask about your one).
2. Write the review about it and make several screenshots.
3. Contact Japo and request ftp access. And upload all above. Maybe with game, but not always (FTP have it's limits, so most CD-version will need to be hosted somewhere else).
4. Give sign that you did all of that somewhere in the forum.

After that someone will put this review on site. I can, for example.