Long term health of mafiascum

[Mathdino]

Was I incorrect in assuming EpicMafia is dying as well?

[Mathdino]

I think I'm somewhat justified in necro-ing this thread.

So I was apparently in this thread literally when it started. It was full of ideas on how to change the site to keep bringing people in.

I went on hiatus for 3 years and, unless I'm missing something,

literally nothing has changed

. I understand there was a Blitz Queue briefly but that was phased back out?

You don't need to read the whole thread, the topics were basically:

- Update the shitty graphics of this site, it looks 15 years old because it IS 15 years old

- Update the wiki to ensure this site is at the front of mafia theory

- Deadlines are too long, we should experiment with shorter deadlines (I see this was tried)

- Figure out why EpicMafia and Town of Salem draw people (conclusion was that they're both more fun-oriented than competition-oriented)

While a lot of things need to be updated, especially since these updates were necessary years upon years ago, I think this thread failed to address an important question:

Why have fewer people come to the site/stuck around over the past 5 years?

And can we do anything about it?

[Mathdino]

I think your point is a good one, and because I think it's good, I hope you won't be offended if I tl;dr it:

"We're supposed to both play to win and play to have fun, but half the time, playing to win just isn't fun, and this is a shitty game that gets in ego-fights all the goddamn time, and once newbies realise that, they get the fuck out of dodge."

While I think that's fair, I don't think Mafia is dying by any means. Hell, it's growing. MU and ToS grew a LOT in the past few years to the point where Town of Salem is a widely known thing to half my friends who otherwise know nothing about mafia.

The fact that this site has competition is proof that there's not lower demand for the product. The problem is this specific site.

[Mathdino]

eh my solution so far has been to aggressively impose my 2014 style of play on everyone else

try to undo 2016/17 lol

working pretty well so far

[Mathdino]

thank you based kison

i am thoroughly surprised that wasn't already a feature

but this was a very good addition

[Mathdino]

- List of games currently in signups (this is HUGE - but requires some work to automate queues more)
- List of games in need of replacements (optional, might not be our best foot forward)
- List of newbie queue games currently in signups

I'd love it if signups were automated, and could send out a specific email when the queue popped. Or maybe even the option for a text message? Is a text too complex?

These are all things we'll be doing immediately after we upgrade the board. Which is getting fairly close, by the way(if you're good with CSS, let me know as you'll speed up the process quite a bit).

Text notifications would be simple. If the demand is there, we could figure something out.

As for Marathons, I've dug into it a bit. It looks like we used to do them multiple times a year until about 2015. As far as I can tell, there's no real coordination for when the next one will be. I'll see if we can come up with some kind of schedule, or at the very least announce the next one well in advance.

Automation needs to be the next thing. I'm just not sure how much that meshes with the human element of listmodding.

On one hand, the listmod needs to verify all the /in's and confirmations for validity, along with certifying the mod. It's not as simple as having a bot scrub for /ins and automatically starting the game.

On the other hand, I have, twice in a row, had completely full games (filling in a week or less) in queue waiting 3-4 days to get permissions to start the game, while the listmods and administration were active onsite. This was a major blow to player interest, and someone almost out'd during that timeframe as a result.

While long deadlines and "slower" games are a draw to the site, the inactivity of a lot of former bulwarks of the community along with current higher-ups is always going to be an issue with keeping up with every new batch of players.

I want automation. My games would've run on Friday night rather than Monday/Tuesday afternoon otherwise. But I don't want automation to replace care and attention from game mods, listmods, and administration.

[Mathdino]

I feel like we're going a bit far into the realm of things that are either not going to happen, or are going to be too controversial anyway.

I think it's a lot simpler than "the lack of my pet idea".

From reviewing a lot of things around site since necroing this, I believe the site is dying because
- The code hasn't been overhauled in years
- The wiki hasn't been updated in years
- The users who make the decisions are not the users that are active in the mafia-playing community
- Other sites have caught up to MS and surpassed it in terms of new hip features
- Newbie retention is low because the site doesn't show enough interest in them or bringing them into the community (this should also be the job of the IC)

Automation is a major thing that fixes a lot of the issues with listmod inactivity, but obviously it doesn't replace the human element. And the site is just low on human capital.

[Mathdino]

so the question we all want to know is

did "mfascm" successfully bring in millennials

[Mathdino]

how often do you end a game feeling like "wow this site is 5/5 i love this place!!!"