I think you're being very naive by thinking nothing can save RV. It was the community that turned RV into one of the most comprehensive Runescape fansites in existence. It was the community that created a relatively long running monthly "newsletter". It was the community that created a unique PHPBB3 forum theme. It was the community that hastily knocked together a new main page after the "incident". It was the community that helped keep RV together through some of our darkest times. Our community has made some great things happen. It's just a shame it's this same community that wants to watch this great corner of the internet, which they all contributed to, rot away into nothingness. It's like watching a dementia patient in a nursing home. people, much like memories, keep disappearing. And sadly there is no new people to replenish the ones that leave. With the status quo as is, eventually RV will peter out into nothing, and that is just the most depressing thought.

I understand that RV is almost definitely too far gone nowadays to even bother a "revitalisation" project. And with many RVers with the opinion of "why bother", or lack the time, or just genuinely can't be bothered, nothing will get done. Someone will pipe up every now and then, saying "why don't we turn RV into a X Y Z" and the same naysayers will say "Why bother? Nothing can save it". A few people might chuck together some sketches, someone else will say "got no time anymore", the others will say "I can't be bothered", and then the topic will die and fester in Village Hall like a wart. People who wanted to help out will become unenthusiastic, and then they won't bother starting a "revitalisation project". And three months later, someone else make a post, or a topic saying "lets turn RV into X Y Z", the same naysayers will pooh-pooh the idea, and the cycle repeats itself.

However, there is still a minority of RVers who would very much like to see the remnants of this dying website turn into something at least sustainable again, though these people are few and far between. I still fully believe that these people could create something at least sustainable if they put some blood, sweat and tears into it. However, if that happens before RV drops off the internet for the last time is still up for debate.

__________________
There is a village, which is hidden in the shadow of a mountain.
Everybody is suffering from a lack of light.
One day, the eldest of this village leaves for the mountain with a teaspoon in his hands.
The others ask him what he intends to do.
He replies that he is going to move the mountain.
"But you will never succeed!" they cry out.
"No, i will never succeed, but somebody has to start."

~~~The Wising Up Song - Misty's Big Adventure

Hidden: 

Kikori wrote:

Runevillage the forum is pretty well much done. Runevillage the group will eventually die, but as long as we're still friends with each other in the end, it's still a pretty big thought in our heads. Runevillage the family is forever, no matter where we settle down. If absolutely nothing else ever comes of Runevillage in the future, that alone is a pretty damn awesome thought.

I respectfully disagree, and here's what I disagree with:
Having been behind the scenes and seen it all happen, there was definitely no lack of vision and no lack of enthusiasm. I don't remember how many pixel-perfect-measured mock-ups Jackstick made for so many different pages, but it was a lot. There were a few disagreements I guess, but from what I recall it was mainly Demon taking issue with Jackstick. I also disagree that the general population doesn't want to change. You're entirely right that people like familiar and nostalgic things, but back when RV2.0 was underway (under Knux's direction, then Glodenox's I think, then Jackstick's--there were a lot of RV2.0 incarnations) the general public at large couldn't wait to see it. Remember how the Pub used to look? When the RV 2.0 Forum Style was released early, people loved it.
Exactly!
Exactly exactly exactly.
Wants? No. No no no. I would love for RV to go back to the way it was more than anything else I want for this site. You keep saying through your post that people want this to happen. I'm pretty sure you're the only one.

Anyway, you already hit the nail on the head with the real reason RV has dwindled. Our community grew up and left us. We were all in what, junior high and high school when we started? Now most of us are in or have graduated from college, with lives of our own, and sometimes wives and kids of our own. Situations change over 11+ years.

And here's my proof: back when I was in high school and spent 20 minutes in class editing and coding up RV guides, I had an awesome team by my side coding guides at the times of day I couldn't. We had a team of writers, a team of editors, a team of coders. A database team. A Villager newsletter team. If you review the Villager Offices Credits flash video I posted last March, here are all of the names you'll find in it:

Andrey
Aragorn Ix
bartoron
Blackmage172
Blaze1200
BOOM!
Donut Juice
dr henry
Fullmetal Shinobi
Gamestar
GCSE
Ghandiguirist
Goten
Hoof Hearted
J@nr0k
Jaron
Knux
Mageman
Monk Basher
mr penguin12
Neil 1231
Raab Himself
Rabadzija
Richboi0
Rocky Martin
Sherbros
The Fire Demon
the123king
TheAmericanIdiot
Toa
Topsummoner
Tru Ninja
`Tyler
Ultragast
Whydidijoin
Zilla
ZxC

37 people. And if any of them became inactive, we replaced them with others, like Landerpurex. That's what it takes, king. We had 37 people on the Villager team, and I don't immediately have access to the old Guide Writer/Editor/Coder userlists, but we had comparable amounts there too, and it wasn't too often that they overlapped.

RV isn't dying because we want it to. It's because people like Glodenox, Demon, and Jackstick (among a few others) can't singlehandedly replace the several teams of 30+ people we had. It's not their fault that they left RV to live their lives and RV suffered as a result, but it's also not our fault that RV no longer has the manpower and resources to turn itself around.

__________________


.

.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just sayin', Steam could revitalize the site. It might not attract the crowd we want, but it could bring in new members.

__________________
Add me on Steam! Click this thingy!
If you're in the Runevillage group, it makes it easier to identify you!

Hidden: 

Kikori wrote:

Topsummoner wrote:

Riptide wrote:

I used to get you and J@n mixed up. Except your funnier. And nicer. Happy 21st bro!

Oh man Jan, you just got zinged by Riptide. How much does THAT suck?

Well, statistically speaking, slightly more than a giant suckusaur. A dire one.

PenguinGuy wrote:

Lets see if I remember how to play...

EX REX IS MAFIA SCUM FOURTHVOTER UNVILLAGE BLAH BLAH BLAH SCUM BLAH WINE IN FRONT OF ME BLAH BLAH META GAME BLAH BLAH BLAH SMELLS OF ELDERBERRIES BLAH

Right?

What I don't understand is the point of transforming RV into something else. This was a forum for RS players, we all came here for that purpose. If you change purpose, you are going to lose most people who don't connect to that purpose. Yes, you may bring in a new community, but now you just have a completely new site. I just don't understand the point. If you want to build a new site, go build one. Why does RV have to become the new site? Is the internet so full there is only room for one? Right now the sites purpose to preserve the RV community, which is perfectly acceptable.

But the reality is that transforming the site into something else that would revive it was always a long shot. In the end it was most likely going to be a sad failure, a jumping the shark moment for the site, and a sad end. There is nothing wrong with RV's past and current path. There is dignity in it. To go back to your metaphor, we are in the nursing home, but we don't have dementia. We are accepting of our current state, knowing you can't turn back the clock, but you can enjoy your memories and what you still have today. What you are suggesting is chemo that has virtually no chance of success, but will lower our quality of life and possibly kill us.

I've always appreciated your passion for wanting to save RV, but I'm very confident we chose the best path.

__________________

Hidden: 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RV hasn't been RS-focused since Jagex dropped us. After that, we shifted towards gaming in general. Arguably, that was the point of no return.

__________________
Add me on Steam! Click this thingy!
If you're in the Runevillage group, it makes it easier to identify you!

Hidden: 

Kikori wrote:

Topsummoner wrote:

Riptide wrote:

I used to get you and J@n mixed up. Except your funnier. And nicer. Happy 21st bro!

Oh man Jan, you just got zinged by Riptide. How much does THAT suck?

Well, statistically speaking, slightly more than a giant suckusaur. A dire one.

PenguinGuy wrote:

Lets see if I remember how to play...

EX REX IS MAFIA SCUM FOURTHVOTER UNVILLAGE BLAH BLAH BLAH SCUM BLAH WINE IN FRONT OF ME BLAH BLAH META GAME BLAH BLAH BLAH SMELLS OF ELDERBERRIES BLAH

Right?

We didn't shift focus to general gaming (unless you consider rearranging and renaming a couple forums a shift of focus). As I said, the purpose has just been to serve as a hangout for the existing community.

__________________

Hidden: 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And what would Steam suddenly make attractive about this website to new users?

__________________
Guild Wars 2

~ Kudzu, Dreamer, Frostfang, Eternity, Flameseeker Prophecies ~
~ Nevermore, H.O.P.E, Moot, Incinerator, Meteorlogicus, Howler ~
~ WvW Rank 964, sPvP Rank 75, 25,437 AP ~

Steam offers a platform to connect with many potential members. We've got a group for RV already up with like 400 members, and I'm pretty sure at least half of them don't even know what the site is. If we shift our focus from RS to another game, say CS or TF2, we could bring in new blood by advertising through our Steam group for server events or something.

And after writing this I forgot Ead basically gave up on the TF2 server, yeah?

__________________
Add me on Steam! Click this thingy!
If you're in the Runevillage group, it makes it easier to identify you!

Hidden: 

Kikori wrote:

Topsummoner wrote:

Riptide wrote:

I used to get you and J@n mixed up. Except your funnier. And nicer. Happy 21st bro!

Oh man Jan, you just got zinged by Riptide. How much does THAT suck?

Well, statistically speaking, slightly more than a giant suckusaur. A dire one.

PenguinGuy wrote:

Lets see if I remember how to play...

EX REX IS MAFIA SCUM FOURTHVOTER UNVILLAGE BLAH BLAH BLAH SCUM BLAH WINE IN FRONT OF ME BLAH BLAH META GAME BLAH BLAH BLAH SMELLS OF ELDERBERRIES BLAH

Right?

Hahaha, that is a perfect metaphor. I love it.
Yeah.
And it makes me terribly sad to no end.
I was playing TF2, and I was like "oh, I bet I could invite some Villagers to play" and I checked in on the RV group. We have 438 members in that group. Only 25 of them have actually shared their ID in our forum thread for Steam IDs, and that probably helps to explain why I don't recognize who the other 400 are.
Man, it's not a group for Villagers. It's a group for when we added anyone and everyone we could find online in an attempt to look active, and what it ended up being is a subset of the Internet, many of whom have no relation to us at all. It's not even a group of our friends anymore, because only 6% of them even know each other.

__________________


.

.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jaron, thanks for doing this!

At the risk of sounding super cheesy, it's like a little living memorial to what a lot of us considered our second home while growing up and playing RuneScape. I think it was absolutely the best solution. It's no secret the awkward state RuneScape is in, and trying to shift focus of the community towards anything else would have been to take on giants like reddit, Facebook, and Steam. Long gone, I think, are the days where you could throw a phpBB forum onto a domain, promote it in the chat of an online game, and get a little foundation of users to register and participate in any meaningful way. Everybody is on subreddits and Facebook groups now! The Internet has grown up a lot in the past decade, but I'll always remember how special RuneVillage was for its time.

Also, this is the perfect opportunity to regain the #1 spot for Total Posts!

__________________

Goten is dead!

[Nonspecific nostalgia and positivity]

There, I've contributed to the discussion again.

__________________

Imagine a perfect beach
Without a mermaid
Imagine a perfect hideaway
Without a time
Imagine a perfect Eden
Without a friend, without a serpent
"Feeling lonely and content at the same time,
I believe, is a rare kind of happiness"

For not being here to long, reading half of this is so depressing. I use to stop in to read the monthly news letters, but I didn't have a account to go to the forums at that time. (I regret not making one sooner) In my personal opinion, I think RV still has a chance to be active again. Its a matter of getting the word out it actually exists. sure people know of the site, but only those who have been here already. I agree that steam would be a good place to start getting new members.

I just passed Dr Henry, 1 down 5 more to go! That's about 7,000 posts I have to make, but if my past membership is any indication, it should only take roughly 5-6 years.

Thanks. RuneVillage had a great run while RuneScape's popularity was booming (remember the Miniclip days?) but what I wanted the most was to have some way to read our old posts without losing everything, and moving things here accomplished that pretty well. I'll never forget the times we shared, and now, I don't have to. Plus, it keeps RV available for the people that drop in every few months or so.

P.S. Haha I didn't even notice I was 28 posts from being #2 in Post Count! FINALLY.

__________________


.

.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You all had your chance to become a FFXIV fansite.

Had. Your. Chance.

__________________
It's tough, but I still play. I keep losing, but I still play! - Taichi
Digital Complex is officially launched!

We would've just become Weebvillage

__________________

It has a nice ring to it.

Fair enough. Always good that people are contributing with nonspecific nostalgia and positives.

It also wouldn't have lasted, sadly.

__________________

Goten is dead!