Death of a Guild...

[xDarkPisces]

A dank, stale breeze rolls through the worn wooden doors into the bowels of a guild that was once full of life and happiness. Dust sits, heavy and gray, on bar stools, lounge chairs, and stereo speakers that have gone so long without use. In the midst of it all, a sadness hangs in the air. Shadows of joyful memories dance on the floorboards and the fading echoes of laughter roam through the halls... This is the Any Topic Guild. What's left of it, anyway... Its youthful users have moved on in the world...

Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic... Or maybe it isn't. This place used to be so full of life. I used to struggle to keep up with threads from all the discussion involved. Now, I post in the Phunkeh, and a full day passes without a single reply. What has happened to this place?

I know the answer. The core of the ATG, the few original oldies that started this guild... They've moved on. The first-tier oldies, too. They've all grown up. It's really one of the saddest things I've thought about in a while. Like so many others I kind of... made this place a second home. Now it seems the Guild has died. Except for a few ragtag posts here and there, there's not much activity. Time is the only thing to blame here.

So, discuss memories of this place. Discuss moving on and holding on. Discuss the ATG, when it was in its prime, and now that it has... moved into the past.  

[aretoo]

Well... to be honest, I usually stop by here at least once a day, but it's not as much fun if there's no-one to talk to... smile I like to think of it as taking a nap, or a hiatus. And there's plenty of activity, still, but it's now moved to irc, or Facebook, in a lot of cases. :/  

[Saverio C.]

Perhaps it's the death of the Phunkin thread! I blame that devilish place For the exile of the games and RPs to the cold sub form. If you want more people you have to invite them. Slowly people dissipate from their online hangouts. You have to keep an influx of new people. Keeping new members means giving them somewhere to hang out while they get to meet other members. Thus the games should be taken out of exile and return to a home in the fore front of this guild. LET MY PEOPLE GO!

I know the true death of an online clan too well. Just last month my alliance in Evolution 5 disbanded after 5+ years of playing and three years of being number one for three rounds straight the leaders ended and most of the members left the game. I am still fighting on in the game, but it's not the same.  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Oldies? A lot of oldies are still here. Look at aretoo and Svareio or however you spell his name. And Pancake. Aaaand... I'm sure wakusei is still around. I hang around, but Steam games and taking care of kids takes up a lot of time and energy.

Who else... In any case, this guild can never die, it can only go to sleep. And a lot of the members hang out in the places that aretoo mentioned.

Btw, aretoo, I always say your name with three syllables.

:3  

[Surazal Dloc]

I agrees with aretoo. I think most people now when they wanna hang out and chat with their ATG buddies just go on the IRC because its just quick to get the point they wanna share across and get a response. plus it just aloows discussion to move faster and is lots of fun too. I know half the time all I do is go into the IRC.  

[Kusaragi]

I agree that ATG isn't DEAD, merely sleeping or moving out of the apartment. I would like to say that I check back here fairly often but, sadly that's not 100% true. I check it weekly at this point, because it's hard to be on at the same time as others. There used to be so many of the threads that I would be HAPPY to join in and add my two cents, but lately there's just been less and less enthusiasm.

I know that my drive to keep the guild and it's threads alive, but I can't do it alone.  

[Saverio C.]

Jaft

Oldies? A lot of oldies are still here. Look at aretoo and Svareio or however you spell his name. And Pancake. Aaaand... I'm sure wakusei is still around. I hang around, but Steam games and taking care of kids takes up a lot of time and energy.

Who else... In any case, this guild can never die, it can only go to sleep. And a lot of the members hang out in the places that aretoo mentioned.

Btw, aretoo, I always say your name with three syllables.

:3

So yeah, ******** you buddy.  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Not before dinner, Saverio. o3o  

[God-The-RapistV2.0]

Jaft, I feel so unvalidated now.

GRM and I have been here for four years and we're still not old enough (or maybe cool enough) to be considered Oldbies?  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Nah, I just have an Alzheimer like memory. That, and I can forget things ten seconds after being reminded.

There are definitely a lot more, but the names escape me.

So adding you two, and maybe Lobo? Alarias is on vacation, I think. Or a break.


Edit: I guess we can include Onyx too, but I think of her more as the guild deity.

Which reminds me, who are we sacrificing this year?  

[Thaliat Everwood]

Yeah, this place has gotten a little quiet as of late. But it isn't dead yet. I spend more time in my three guilds (one which is dead really, but now I use it to test code for my other guilds) than I do in here lately, only because of the slowness.

Maybe we can start a posting revolution. Revive the ATG. Or we can just reminisce, not that I've been here quite long enough to really participate in the latter.  

[Saverio C.]

Thaliat Everwood

Yeah, this place has gotten a little quiet as of late. But it isn't dead yet. I spend more time in my three guilds (one which is dead really, but now I use it to test code for my other guilds) than I do in here lately, only because of the slowness.

Maybe we can start a posting revolution. Revive the ATG. Or we can just reminisce, not that I've been here quite long enough to really participate in the latter.[/quote

If we move the games back to their rightful place we can solve all our problems.

 

[La La Leprosy]

i just came back to gaia and i honestly do try and post and be active in here, but since there's so little activity and response i tend to just float elsewhere until someone else comes along hours later it seems xD.

i miss it too, though.  

[[ Terra ]]

As usual there is is not a care for poor unlovable Terra. I've only been around here since February '06. crying xp

Things are pretty quiet here at the moment but I can usually find people in the IRC. Perhaps the idea of us having a chat room was a little too effective? That said, I do check in here every day and it sounds like a few others do too but for some reason we're not really posting. I don't know what we are waiting for. Someone else to start the discussion?

It probably wouldn't hurt to maybe encourage some new blood around here, too. Of course, for new members to want to stick around they need to see that there are other people active... Just saying because according to our guild homepage 18681 members but only a handful active. We don't even make the top ten popular guilds list any more, which is apparently calculated by "a top secret formula based on user activity." It's to be expected that some people will eventually move on and if we don't encourage other people to want to be a part of our family it is also to be expected that eventually or guild will also become inactive.  

[wakusei]

I'm still around, yo.

I just don't hang out outside the guild so when it's dead in here...I go into lurking mode.