The Community is gone. There is no longer a Seventh Column, and what always hurts the most is when I think about that and realize that it wasn't the darkness the killed us, but the last few months. At every turn the community has cried out, voicing their concerns and thoughts, and we've only been met with silence, or empty reassurances. How long did we scream for sub forums until they finally got implemented? How long will we wait for other things to change, if ever? There are very fundamental things that are killing this community, and it honestly saddens me to think that at the rate things are going, my time on this site, over six years, might be coming to an end soon. And I've said this before, I don't want the old community back. I don't mind change, but this hasn't been a change, it been an extinction. There is nothing that makes people value their accounts. Groups are a shell of what they used to be, and the forums aren't a forum. They're a message board where most conversations only happen between a small handful of people. I don't mind change when it's an improvement. I don't mind trying something new. But we've tried this now for a rather long while, and no one is happy with how it is now. Things need to change again. [b]1. Dialogue[/b] The last time we made a stink like this as a community, we got a little bit of dialogue, and we ultimately got some change to how the forums fundamentally worked. A change that didn't solve all of the problems, but was still a step in the right direction. Why can't we do that more often? I understand that there are other more pressing responsibilities, but is it really so hard to once in a while making a thread and asking "how do you guys feel? What do you think is working, and what could use a little more work?" Constant dialogue like that is not only great for you as a company (its a great way to show your involvement in the people who support you), but it's a boon to the community. Why not let us help you help us? What's so wrong with that? [b]2. Investment[/b] People need to feel more invested in their accounts and the community as a whole. There is nothing tying anyone to their account. If I were banned today I could simply make a new account a few seconds later, and be just as effective in interacting with this forum as I am now. I'm not saying member titles need to make a comeback, but there's not denying that in the old system they carried weight. Mythic members have always been trolls, but because of they're title bars when push came to shove people knew they could rely on them. Who do you turn to now? Some kind of title system, whatever it is, lets people put worth into their account, and is a way of highlighting more esteemed users. Yes the system has problems, but it also has a lot of benefits. [b]3. Groups[/b] Why is it that every Group Spotlight has been a community not from Bnet? Yes, the Destiny community is wide and varied, and it's important to highlight that, but are there no communities of equal caliber here? There are, but they lack to tools to prove it. Forum traffic has been reduced entirely to the group wall, which is fine, they're a great way of staying in touch and having small talk with others, but they don't allow you to have the kinds of drawn out, expansive conversations forums do. Groups need more tools to actually be meaningful. Right now they're great for getting a custom clan tag in game, and having a little IM chat with your close friends. There's not much else. [b]4. The Forums[/b] This is my last point, because in comparison to the others I think it's the lowest priority. I don't entirely dislike this new forum structure. I think tags and sub posts have their place, but in this current incarnation these are more of an expansive message board then they are a forum. Discussions are limited to the person who made the first post, and the person that replied. A nested comment might be the best comment in the entire thread, but no one else is going to see it, other then the person it was originally directed at. These forums are great for getting through a lot of information quickly, but they're not meant for discussion. Look, I still think you guys are one of the best companies out there, and I still cherish this website. I mean, I've spent more of my life on here then I have anywhere else. I don't want to bring back the old days. Yes I'm nostalgic but I understand and value change. I just want to make sure that change lets this rich and varied community continue as strongly as it once did, and not as a swarm of angry complaints that drown out everything good.