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Forums General Chit-Chat I miss when these sites were busier

Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 17:55:53 )


No ill will meant toward voltra in its current state, its still such a very cozy site--definitely my favorite avatar site remaining.
But I cant help but feel a little sad when I pop on on occasion. I always get the feeling like i really wanna come back to these things and hang out longer. But there's not a lot going on. I kinda miss logging into a site and every time I refresh the page, theres a bunch of new threads popping up at once. I hate feeling like forum-like websites like these are a dying fad because they were always such a wholesome corner of the internet to be in.
My happy little place to mingle with the best kinds of people--for some reason these sites usually draw in amazing personalities and creative types.

I still enjoy voltra on the occasion that I do drop in to chat a bit.
I hope to see it bustle again some day. Maybe when we all get too sick of mainstream social media again, who knows? Perhaps avatar sites can get a second wind some day XD

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Donator — Am Potato Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 18:25:21 )
I totally agree with you. And i feel like the slowness also makes it a little difficult for new users to get comfortable in the new-to-them place. Or at least that's how it feels to me. Like yes, everyone's super welcoming here, but I spent nearly all day yesterday just refreshing the forums landing page, hoping for a reply on a post I made or a hang out thread i hadn't posted in and for the most part it was pretty quiet.
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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 18:37:49 )


@Alorrena:
Right, I get these moods where I just wanna pop on and chat with everyone
and I love the chats I get with people but then I run out of thoughts to have, and there's no other threads active to like... jump in and join a conversation somewhere else.

I used to always thread hop back in the day. Was so much fun having a variety of people to chat with or read their threads. Always user made events going on and things to do that last more than a moment because enough people are involved. If that all makes sense, I'm being real vague XD

I just miss the old spark of avatar sites so much!

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Donator — Am Potato Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 20:23:59 )
@Jolly: makes perfect sense cause i used to be like that too, or there were always the threads that were always active and the topics changed frequently. Lurking used to be a viable thing to do when you ran out of things to say too. Not so much on quieter sites, sadly.
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Donator — He/They Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 20:25:43 )
(˵◕ ᴥ ◕˵)ノ Hello there


Well i know it gets a bit bussyer when an event is around (wich i heard is soon?)

But i agree, im not super active but i come online atleast once a day.
I also think its like a cycle? bc there isnt alot happening other wont do anything ect


。.:☆*:・ヽ(˵◕ ᴥ ◕˵)



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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 21:29:37 )


@Alorrena:
Yeah and art forums were always bustling with new artists wanting practice, and avi-proud ones seeking art.
Art shops left and right, projects and contests.
I miss all that! Like a little online city bustling and noisy XD
Now we're a little village, which is nice in its own ways cause there's no one toxic here. And we get to know each other easier.

I'd never want anything quite as big as what gaia became back in the day, that was a bit chaotic. But like, Ernya in its prime was the perfect pace ^^
Had quiet moments, but mostly bustling.


@GoblinsAndTea:
THat is true! I'm terrible about missing the events ;;
Or will only have time for about a day. But they are where I have the most fun on here for sure <3

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Donator — Am Potato Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 21:37:06 )
@Jolly: I was never on ernya, but menewsha like... 6 years ago was pretty nice. it was busy but not too busy, and there was always someone to talk to regardless of the time of day. It was also super easy to just pick a couple threads and sit in them and chat and create a sense of community. Sometimes when sites are slow it's hard to make friends i think. Gaia forums scared me so i barely touched them unless i was rping. and even then, that was rare. gaia forums were intense and often felt hard to navigate.


@GoblinsAndTea: i'm like brand spanking new here, so i look forward to any events!
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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 21:43:01 )


@Alorrena:
Perhaps its a subject of adhd, that I feel like I need several things to do at once at any given time
so I thrived on gaia for a while. Juggling between RPing, art threads, hangout threads, PMs. I got into making my own art threads and streaming as well. Met my best friend on there and he and I've been friends for 12 years since!

Buuut gaia got weird and I'm pretty sure its not any more active than voltra is now days.
Funny enough, I send a ticket in one day asking them if I could have my account deleted cause I had a new one and didn't want it immortalized. 3 YEARS LATER, like a month ago, I got a reply saying no
XD

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Donator — Am Potato Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 22:48:02 )
@Jolly: it might be an adhd thing. i can see that. i had to have at least 3 active rps going in order to feel satisfied, and if any of them slacked i'd try to find another partner to add into my list! and then like 1 or 2 hang out threads where i could just chitchat with people.

i haven't been on gaia in ages, but when i was a teenager that was practically my whole life. but i was literally only ever on towns. that's actually where i met my hubby (this was like 2005 or 2006? something like that.) i didn't like him romantically back then but he became my best friend. he also didn't get on forums ever either. Roliana was my first website where i was in forums semi regularly, but i wasn't on roliana regularly, so... there's that. Menewsha was my home, for sure, but then life happened and i just didn't have time to get on or i didn't have a working laptop. and now it's basically dead, which is sad. but i know a few people i talked to on mene are on here, as well as a few people i DIDN'T talk to, so hopefully it turns out okay. i do like the small community feel Voltra has though. Its cute :]
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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 23:18:21 )


@Alorrena:
I tried to log into gaia to see what its doing now, but I have officially completely forgotten my login lmao
for the best I think.

I did play around on towns in the earlier years of gaia, that used to be fun. Full of confused preteens, myself included at the time. Hahaha
but 99% of the time I was in the forums messing about.

Yeah, voltra definitely has a more comfortable feel to it. There's more heart in it.

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Donator — She/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/1 23:26:18 )


I miss that too. I remember in 2007 I was on the phone with a friend and we were both on Gaia in the chatterbox. We would refresh the page at the 'same time' but over the phone so there was a little bit of lag, and the threads we would find would be different because there was so much going on. I love avatar sites and I would agree with you that this is one of, if not the best one, right now. But I wish that more people still liked and used avatar sites.

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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 00:05:28 )


I think some of the problem is that no one even knows what an avatar site is anymore!
I used to be able to google the words and get a bunch of articles on "10 best avatar sites of 20**!" or threads within various avatar sites that just happened to pop up based on verbage used in the titles. Now, it pops up with irrelevant results D:

But another part is that people are addicted to the kind of social media that feeds ego
I'm guilty, going so far as to draw something only because I know it'll grab attention on some algorithm.
I'm super tired of it though, especially after that recent thread I made complaining about en-eff-tees

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Donator — She/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 00:31:49 )


That part is true. They were popular before social media. I wish that it wasn't so popular. I do like keeping up with old friends that don't live near me, but people are way too addicted to those and studies show that lots of time on social media sites like FB or Insta make people feel worse after using them.

I like that on avatar sites it's about the people in a get to know each other way, and not in like a superficial way.


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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 00:38:48 )


Yeah, there's just so much negativity highlighted on social medias like that.
I feel like it has very much affected how negative the world is outside of the internet sometimes. Just poisons our mindsets!

I dont feel like I have to have caution with what I say on these kinds of sites. ANd of course, I can do more creative things with the thread layouts and no text limits. I used to always involve myself with event things, which is something I wanna try doing on here once I think of ideas that I can work with in between busy schedule.

Maybe I can just
stop
relying on twitter for entertainment

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Donator — He/They Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 05:36:57 )
(˵◕ ᴥ ◕˵)ノ Hello there


@Alorrena: Ah welcome! The events are honestly alot of fun here and i love the items that get released for it aswel


。.:☆*:・ヽ(˵◕ ᴥ ◕˵)



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Donator — He/Him Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 06:02:05 )
Yeah I like when these sites are active.
It's a lot easier for me to jump into chatting here than it is on something like discord.
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Ping me!

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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 16:22:07 )


@Shark:
saaame, discord is too quick for my pea brain :vanora_xd:
or theres just only room for one discussion at a time, depending on the server im on
and then I run into an awkward situation where I'm the only one over 13 (and 29 being a big jump, begins to feel uncomfortable so I leave)

but it is the closest thing I get to social fulfillment sometimes, outside of worklife socializing

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Donator — He/They Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/2 19:28:19 )

I don't really get the appeal of most other social media formats as opposed to forums. Everything's organized, there's plenty of room for long and ongoing posts, and things stay where they are so you don't have to be present in real time to be part of the conversation. But it is what it is, I guess. I'm not holding out hope for forums and avatar sites to make a big comeback, but it would be nice if they did.

That said, the things about avatar sites that always held my attention in the past just don't seem to happen much, if at all, any more. Contests, people being interested in art shops/requests, sharing writing, debates and heavier, longer-lasting topics, etc. Avatar sites used to feel a lot more engaging. There was a wide variety of opinions and experiences, regular ongoing threads where anyone could contribute, and a lot of sharing and exchanging going on. If it's mostly small talk or chatting about NPCs and events, I don't feel as encouraged to post more.

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ALWAYS PING ME

Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/3 03:58:00 )
Partially why I came back to Voltra was because I wanted to wean off other social media because I noticed I was just scrolling a lot lately, which doesn’t feel healthy Dx It is sad to see though that forums are a dying breed. I miss the old days when there was so much activity, and sometimes Discord feels rather overwhelming or hard to jump into.
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Voltie — she/her Posted 2 years ago ( 2022/02/3 05:07:07 )


@Count Trashula:
You're absolutely right, those things stood out to me a lot too, even if I didn't participate in all of it. It created such an atmosphere. Like, standing in a school yard where everyone is just hanging out in their own unique corners of the lot, doing various things and engagements.
This site is great for having events popping up frequently that can be pretty fun, and I love the heart that goes into their NPCs especially as of late. But there's still some kinda thing that is missing?


@Mokuroh:
Thats also whats bringing me back to here. I guess i"m chasing a nostalgic feeling, the old fun and innocent joys that internet USED to provide me. I've been much less inspired even in my artwork these days. Avi site engagements kept me motivated and busy when I wasn't at work or dealing with life.

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