Growing TG2 community...

Started by Njen, January 10, 2007, 12:32:27 PM

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Njen

I just had a quick peek at the stats down the bottom of the front page of the website, and I noticed 1162 members already! That's quite a lot of people, not to mention all the guests who browse the forums.

Oshyan, got any stats as to how many downloads the Tech Preview has gotten so far? Or the number of registered users? Just being curious (and impressed!)   :)

Dark Fire

These forums have been a huge success - it is now easy to communicate with just about all of the people who like using Terragen. These forums also make it easy to share good tips - a very useful feature, considering the vastly increased number of settings there are to experiment with in TG2.

Al_frog

I have been pulling for a forum for some time now so I am thrilled to see it and how well it is working.  The Yahoo! mailing list type group is just totally inadequate for this type of complex subject matter.  The mailing list type of site just constantly causes communication issues because users are being bombarded with emails that they really don't have an interest in.  I am really impressed with the features on this version of the SMF software. (Including the fact that it just flagged a typo I made before I even noticed it.)  Now if I could just learn to use TG2 adequately....  Thanks!!!!!!

Dark Fire

You didn't have to recieve emails from the Yahoo! group, although I do agree that the forums are much better.

Cyber-Angel

From both a commercial and public relations stand point these forums just had to be. Now that Terragen is going mainstream as a commercial product with a four item product line, as part of a professional service to their high end user base; and the folks who will eventually use TG2 in production and VFX work would expect away to ask product support questions and receive answers to them in a timely manor.

With this in mind then and the fact that so many software companies are offering forum user feedback and some such as Nevercenter offering user cantered development of the software there had to be an official forum for the Terragen community.

The trouble with the Yahoo list was and maybe still is was the overriding feeling by some members of that list that they where not been listened to which lead to a lot of accusations and so forth been put around that at the end of the day could have been handled in a better way, but that is what can be said now with benefit of hindsight.

The problem with the Yahoo list that I can see is topic hijacking where people just copy and paste what the last poster said and 5 in every 10 posts that I have seen there has been like this. The other part of the problem that I see with the Yahoo list is topic drift, but form what I have been able to find out this is quite common with these kind of E-mail lists.

People are more sophisticated now with their exceptions about what they want form a software company and that company's product/s to be; deadlines are tighter and law suits are more common if you cannot deliver on time and under budget.

I think the nature of what Terragen will be will be greatly shaped to a greater or lesser degree to what is said in these forums and of course in the court of public opinion weather that's right, wrong or indifferent; in the end soup to nuts that's just the way things will be.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel 



Dark Fire

Quote from: Cyber-Angel on January 11, 2007, 08:51:35 AM
I think the nature of what Terragen will be will be greatly shaped to a greater or lesser degree to what is said in these forums and of course in the court of public opinion weather that's right, wrong or indifferent; in the end soup to nuts that's just the way things will be.
These forums are a great way for Planetside to find out what we want and what our most common problems are. After all, there is little point in them making features that nobody wants or needs.

The Yahoo group was always doomed due to Terragen's popularity - it had no structure and therefore made it hard to keep track of conversations and their topics. The group also had the problem of people filling it with needless rubbish a few words long that just agreed with previous messages. The forums seem to be immune to this problem so far.

rcallicotte

This has been my best experience with a user community on forums so far.  Very helpful.

:o
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Dark Fire

I agree, these are the most helpful and amazing forums I have ever been on - even better than the forums of open source (and supposedly more friendly and community-based) software such as NSIS. I am struggling to work out why these forums are so good. My best guess is that the combination of Terragen not being incredibly well-known and the years of glimpses of TG2 has produced a large bunch of Terragen-enthusiasts who have suddenly found the perfect place to talk about Terragen and share their work - these forums.

rcallicotte

DarkFire, I'd agree that there's a great hunger.  What I think is the greatest influence of bounty on this site is the developers and the original beta testers coming online and sharing their knowledge, specifically helping us one at a time.  That is humility and tends to spawn life like we see here.


Quote from: Dark Fire on January 12, 2007, 03:22:22 PM
I agree, these are the most helpful and amazing forums I have ever been on - even better than the forums of open source (and supposedly more friendly and community-based) software such as NSIS. I am struggling to work out why these forums are so good. My best guess is that the combination of Terragen not being incredibly well-known and the years of glimpses of TG2 has produced a large bunch of Terragen-enthusiasts who have suddenly found the perfect place to talk about Terragen and share their work - these forums.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

FrankThomas


rcallicotte

So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Will

that and we are all rather mature nd want Terragen 2 to be all it can be  8)

Regards,

Will
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

old_blaggard

Yeah, these forums are pretty impressive.  I really like the SMF features, and everyone here is really helpful - I haven't seen a single person get flamed yet ;).
http://www.terragen.org - A great Terragen resource with models, contests, galleries, and forums.

Will

Quote from: old_blaggard on February 01, 2007, 06:44:02 PM
Yeah, these forums are pretty impressive.  I really like the SMF features, and everyone here is really helpful - I haven't seen a single person get flamed yet ;).

heh yea I may be the youngest guy on these fourms being only a sophmore in highschool, which would explain the lack of flaming.

Regards,

Will
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

Dark Fire

Quote from: Will on February 01, 2007, 06:45:47 PM
Quote from: old_blaggard on February 01, 2007, 06:44:02 PM
Yeah, these forums are pretty impressive.  I really like the SMF features, and everyone here is really helpful - I haven't seen a single person get flamed yet ;).

heh yea I may be the youngest guy on these fourms being only a sophmore in highschool, which would explain the lack of flaming.

Regards,

Will
There are quite a few active young people on these forums, which is interesting and shows that there is a potential for Terragen to be introduced into some qualifications. For example, oggyb, MeltingIce, Will and I are all apparently under 20, and yet we are top posters 10, 7, 2 and 4 respectively.