WRtL Flowchart

Just a note: Yes, this is WishLine inflicting his opinion of the forum again. Yes, I know I'm not doing myself any favours. No, I don't particularly mind, I'm only trying to help.

I had a big think over what I could see of where Line Rider and WRtL is at the moment. I drew another diagram, really trying to analyse the 'slump' that we seem to be in at the moment.



First, a Key
Arrows mean 'therefore'. Basically A ► B means 'A causes B' or 'B is a result of A'
Green highlights issues with people, and the way they use the game
Orange means issues with the game itself
Purple means issues with WRtL as a forum
Red is the big issue in the middle, that everybody wants to fix

Second, definitions
An active member who keeps returning to the forum and contributes semi-regular on-topic, important posts. By extension, somebody who just stares at the index and posts nothing doesn't count so much.
Discussion is on-topic LR related discussion about tracks, styles, and helping new people get to grips with the game. Also, discussion about the forum itself counts.
Engaged Riding is competitions, collabs, community projects and so on. Hard-core Line Riding.

Analysis:
The red issue of Forum Inactivity in the middle is produced by two (obvious) green issues. Fewer people joining, fewer people staying active. The problem with fewer people joining is less to talk about. Forum is devoid of bad tracks and newbies in need of help. Therefore less discussion. The problem with less discussion is 1) that it makes the website smaller and hard to find and 2) people get all gloomy. This defeatism usually takes the form of 'oh, a years ago everything was great and now look at us...'. People really miss it, don't they? People who feel like all is lost don't contribute, which makes the forum look even more dead, which makes people even more gloomy. Look at the purple arrows - they make a circle. People who get so disillusioned eventually leave...people going inactive...forum is less active.

Another green issue which forms part of this vicious 'circle' is that people are playing less Line Rider. Why? Some of it is simply a lack of people (few new riders come, some old ones leave etc), some of it is the game itself. More on that later. What is the upshot of this? Well, fewer tracks are out there. This has issues for the forum (less discussion, less engaged riding) - which leads in some cases to disillusionment and inactivity, but also an issue for Line Rider itself (not well publicized). Notice the second pair of arrows between Less Engaged Riding and Fewer Tracks - the more of one the more of the other, the less of one the less of the other. They're linked.

This is where the orange issues really come in. Line Rider is 1) old, on not-the-best platform and 'niche', and 2) People have totally forgotten its existence. As a result, no new riders, and no new members. Hence, no new discussion, etc,etc.

Also, note that forum inactivity itself is causing its own problems - fewer tracks, defeatism and because the website is hard to find on the Internet because it's so small. More 'vicious circle' stuff

That's my own summary of the situation. Does anybody think I've missed anything or my logical processes are off somewhat?

• So what can be done:
  The most obvious ones to tackle are the orange issues - note that only orange, LR-related issues (outdatedness/no advertising) are stopping new riders from coming up. We owe people like Mhenr and Conun for working to revolutionize Line Rider and get it back into public viewing. Advertising strategies would also potentially work.
  
• The purple issue of Defeatism is also a major one. People need to look forward, not back. We could try moving again to a more powerful, useful forum if it would make people feel less homesick. But sadly, our TechDawg and vBulletin days are gone. What are we going to do about it, besides be sad?
  
• The green issue of people making not enough tracks is an issue too. If everybody made tracks, there would be more discussion and more publicity for Line Rider.

Those are, in my opinion, the ones that need attacking. That's my opinion. What are yours?

My opinion is that it's all pretty f***ing obvious anyway.

Summary: Line Rider is dying because it's boring.

(tehee I picked shut up ) No but on the serious side of things..

^this, sorry Wish, you kinda just wasted a whole lot of time but it was a good summary!

(another summary of mine)

Irtl was growing, it crashes. Techdawg disappears/ stops uploading videos and less people see his channel. Less people see his channel less people know about Irtl. Less people know about Wrtl, which is why we gain one member per year

EDIT:

Wishline wrote:So what can be done:
The most obvious ones to tackle are the orange issues - note that only orange, LR-related issues (outdatedness/no advertising) are stopping new riders from coming up. We owe people like Mhenr and Conun for working to revolutionize Line Rider and get it back into public viewing. Advertising strategies would also potentially work.

You suggested nothing to be done, how do you propose we advertise?

The purple issue of Defeatism is also a major one. People need to look forward, not back. We could try moving again to a more powerful, useful forum if it would make people feel less homesick. But sadly, our TechDawg and vBulletin days are gone. What are we going to do about it, besides be sad?

Moving the forum would create us smaller/would do no good, homesickness is not the issue here.

The green issue of people making not enough tracks is an issue too. If everybody made tracks, there would be more discussion and more publicity for Line Rider.

You say it as if it is that easy, oh sure just keep making tracks we will grow. No the tracks people love and enjoy are the amazing big scenery tracks, but we have nobody who really does those anymore, and we got new members through TD, since he has so many subscribers. Nobody here now comes close to that number, LRG has a thousand or two,BHCS has some 4thousand but they quit line rider. You suggested no ideas, I get it you are trying to brainstorm but we have been doing that for awhile now.

Well, you put a silly poll option, you expect people to vote for it

Well, perhaps it's advisable to focus on the scenery side of things then? Scenery contests and such.

Reason I didn't suggest any individual ideas is I wanted this to be a big aggregate thread with all the issues summarised, as opposed to individual little 'let's do this', but I see what you mean.

WishLine wrote:Well, perhaps it's advisable to focus on the scenery side of things then? Scenery contests and such.)

The problem with that is because most people are bored with LR, and those who I see who aren't make mainly quirks, there is practically nobody here who still does scenery. I've tried to myself, but it's hard to force yourself to do something you don't want to do just for the sake of the community. That's why I think a new LR may help. We need something new to inspire us again!

By the way, I like these threads you've been making. It shows that there are still those who care about the forum enough to put time into constructive posts. Thanks for that.

^ Actually, more people do scenery than quirk. There was a PotD a couple days ago about that.

^Well, it doesn't seem that way. There are 749 threads in the Bare Tracks section, and only 135 in The Green Room.

Basically, Line rider is dead, so no one is on our forum, so no one is posting, so our forum is dead, so line rider is dead because of a lack of community, with LR being dead, the cycle repeats.

iPi wrote:^Well, it doesn't seem that way. There are 749 threads in the Bare Tracks section, and only 135 in The Green Room.

Scenery tracks take longer now that the established norm for density and such is like a bazillion thousand million lines, and they're easier to give up on.

Hedgehogs4Me wrote:

iPi wrote:^Well, it doesn't seem that way. There are 749 threads in the Bare Tracks section, and only 135 in The Green Room.

Scenery tracks take longer now that the established norm for density and such is like a bazillion thousand million lines, and they're easier to give up on.

Yeah, a quirk might be 600 lines, scening it would mean over 30k, for most people that means splits and editing, extra work, and then criticism because it isn't as good as a big track maker who is known for being awesome.

Lol, I figured that out as soon as I posted. I can't debate, because I always find flaws in my points, which is why I usually just lurk in these threads.

iPi wrote:By the way, I like these threads you've been making. It shows that there are still those who care about the forum enough to put time into constructive posts. Thanks for that.

Then you're a rare breed. Look at the 'WishLine, just shut up' option

WishLine wrote:

iPi wrote:By the way, I like these threads you've been making. It shows that there are still those who care about the forum enough to put time into constructive posts. Thanks for that.

Then you're a rare breed. Look at the 'WishLine, just shut up' option

TBH. I enjoy these. Even if you do only care about the rank, or looking good, or whether you want the site to grow. It's entertaining and something to do, reading and commenting on these debate threads, learning how forums work, etc.

mhenr18 wrote:My opinion is that it's all pretty f***ing obvious anyway.

Summary: Line Rider is dying because it's boring.

Besides this,
you make it seem like we haven't tried these things before. (inb4 hurr durr defeatist).

Seriously, we have tried advertising, have people leaves links and things in their videos, getting people making videos on youtube, making a promo vid on the irtl channel (I think that was released right?).

If you want to go ahead and try doing more advertising, be my guess.

"people making not enough tracks" It doesn't work like that. You don't just tell people to make more tracks.

For the record, I do not enjoy these.

ryderofthelines wrote:Less people know about Wrtl, which is why we gain one member per year

Might I say bull [censored]? I saw the newest member bar change twice in the past week. We just don't realize it when the new members come on in the first place because we're caught up in our little groups. I'd say if at least one person pms each new member that comes on, (Which is obviously more than you guys think), we could get an active site going. Remember Gazz, the guy who tried to join Novicity? The reason he posted there was because I had pmed him welcoming him to the site. He's now gone, maybe for good, because directly afterwards we shut him out from the community and he felt left out. All of the new members are just shy.

Opal Rider wrote:

ryderofthelines wrote:Less people know about Wrtl, which is why we gain one member per year

Might I say bull [censored]? I saw the newest member bar change twice in the past week. We just don't realize it when the new members come on in the first place because we're caught up in our little groups. I'd say if at least one person pms each new member that comes on, (Which is obviously more than you guys think), we could get an active site going. Remember Gazz, the guy who tried to join Novicity? The reason he posted there was because I had pmed him welcoming him to the site. He's now gone, maybe for good, because directly afterwards we shut him out from the community and he felt left out. All of the new members are just shy.

https://iridethelines.forumotion.com/statistics

scroll to the bottom

/agreeingwithyounotarguingagainstyou

Opal Rider wrote:

ryderofthelines wrote:Less people know about Wrtl, which is why we gain one member per year

Might I say bull [censored]? I saw the newest member bar change twice in the past week. We just don't realize it when the new members come on in the first place because we're caught up in our little groups. I'd say if at least one person pms each new member that comes on, (Which is obviously more than you guys think), we could get an active site going. Remember Gazz, the guy who tried to join Novicity? The reason he posted there was because I had pmed him welcoming him to the site. He's now gone, maybe for good, because directly afterwards we shut him out from the community and he felt left out. All of the new members are just shy.

Yes I know, I was exaggerating a little bit

Well, if we do contact new members, maybe that would work. I also wish people would own up to hitting the 'just shut up' button. . Since there are a lot of you.

rabid squirrel wrote:

Opal Rider wrote:

ryderofthelines wrote:Less people know about Wrtl, which is why we gain one member per year

Might I say bull [censored]? I saw the newest member bar change twice in the past week. We just don't realize it when the new members come on in the first place because we're caught up in our little groups. I'd say if at least one person pms each new member that comes on, (Which is obviously more than you guys think), we could get an active site going. Remember Gazz, the guy who tried to join Novicity? The reason he posted there was because I had pmed him welcoming him to the site. He's now gone, maybe for good, because directly afterwards we shut him out from the community and he felt left out. All of the new members are just shy.

https://iridethelines.forumotion.com/statistics

scroll to the bottom

/agreeingwithyounotarguingagainstyou

I'm one of the most active posters and nobody still knows me .