RuneScape Forum Archive

Apr

2006

Jefftiffy

Posts: 1,685 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I grew up here. I think I was 13 or 14 when I first started coming onto these forums. I'm now 29. 15 years of memories gone. Got in some heated arguments back in the day when you could actually be stupid for awhile instead of being hidden or locked. You couldn't curse as that was taboo. Hell, the in game system would just star messages out, and you had no choice in the matter. I got a penalty on my account way back in the day for spelling out F**k on the Pest Control docks when we lost a round and some random guy merching reported me, lmao.

Reddit and Twitter are terrible plays to discuss things as it's just a popularity contest and creates a huge echo chamber. And Discord feels like the Snapchat of social media, sure its great in the moment, but good luck finding years old information and discussions.

It sucks to see the forums go. Been around here for a long time, not recently, but for a long time. I remember back before I went to the cesspool that is Reddit seeing updates every week and coming to Recent Game Updates to discuss current game updates. Rarely ever used the trade forums past the GE introduction. I dabbled in a few other forums like Future Game Updates and Discussion.

I remember when the League of Legends forums went offline. It killed any motivation I had to discuss the game because I just can't fit in on Reddit. I hate the atmosphere, the lack of critical thinking, and the abundance of tribalism. I still hate the rules, and I still hate dealing with the mods who power trip with no accountability. The fact that you can be banned from a community just because people don't like you is wild to me. At least here I felt like even if you had that one mod tripping out Jagex would be able to step in and review it instead of that 1 mod being an armchair warrior with a massive ego and no accountability.

13-Jan-2024 04:58:24 - Last edited on 13-Jan-2024 05:30:44 by Jefftiffy

Apr

2006

Jefftiffy

Posts: 1,685 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I think the one thing that stuck out to me the most, was that even if you were in the minority and were dead wrong, you at least had a voice here. You may be told you are dumb, but that doesn't bar you from being able to make another post and farming likes just to participate in a discussion. The forums, at least what they were, was what I was hoping Reddit would improve upon. A large forum that links multiple communities together, basically the evolution of all there independent forums.

These forums may not have been perfect, and they may have lost their following but I feel that their replacement is worse. It's just sad that something I used to love has fallen so far. I grew up with kids and all we did was talk about Runescape. I would even hand write guides for my friends back before we had websites like Sals and RuneHQ. The forums felt like, even though the people around me grew out of it, I still had a community to talk to.

I know this is a nostalgia post in a way and it makes it seems like I'm yelling at the children about not knowing how it used to be, but I just felt like for something like this I needed to at least put my thoughts up one more time before it's gone for good. I loved this place and only really fell out of love as life moved on and the community moved on. I miss the old discussions and the old forums and I know they aren't coming back.

So on that note: Goodbye Runescape Forums. I will miss you and you have made such a huge impact on my life. I understand why Jagex has to shut you down, I just wish that wasn't the case. My only wish would be an archive of the entire forums like League of Legends has. Something to be able to look back on and see how things used to be (or to remember my cringe lol).

Thank you for everything Runescape Forums and all the Forum Mods throughout the years,

Jefftiffy - a current RS3 veteran player and a more recent OSRS enjoyer

13-Jan-2024 04:58:32 - Last edited on 13-Jan-2024 05:28:36 by Jefftiffy

Mar

2011

Dpower

Posts: 3,508 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

You've definitely put into words what a lot of veteran players are feeling after hearing about the closure of the RS forums.

Forums are a unique way to build a community and to discourse with others. It is something that cannot be fully replicated by Discord or today's social media websites.

Fishing For the Light Since 2006 (Started at W22 Shilo and Now I'm Here)
Proud Member Of

The Clueless Adventurers

(est. 2004)

13-Jan-2024 10:31:43

Apr

2022

Colossus823

Posts: 188 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I'm around your age and I was an active forum user roughly between 2008-2014 on my main (which I lost access to - or is deleted). I've forgotten most about that period. It will be hard to adjust on other platforms. Nothing to see here.

13-Jan-2024 13:13:17

Apr

2006

Jefftiffy

Posts: 1,685 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dpower said :
You've definitely put into words what a lot of veteran players are feeling after hearing about the closure of the RS forums.

Forums are a unique way to build a community and to discourse with others. It is something that cannot be fully replicated by Discord or today's social media websites.
Yeah, there is just something about the way the forums used to be that I just can't seem to get out of anything else. League of Legends forums were pretty damn close to it though, but albeit I was older and so was almost everyone else posting there.

I get some people are really upset because, I'll be honest, they have a lot of memories here. But even with the announcement we are seeing low double digits of people across the forums. Back in the day it used to hover in the high triple digits across most topics and some topics even would sit consistently above 1k.

Trust me I would love for the forums to stick around, but insulting people doesn't do anything. The forums are mostly dead and being dragged around by less than .01% of the community, so petitions on here are meaningless. It's probably a financial decision as well and we know Jagex, not the Gower brothers, has almost always put finances first even way back in the day (RIP free trade and Wildy). The only part that I'm not liking about the forums being gone, besides the nostalgia, is the loss of permanent official Jagex resources (clan posts, events, and the documentation of the game).

13-Jan-2024 22:53:19 - Last edited on 13-Jan-2024 22:53:36 by Jefftiffy

Ryan Scott

Posts: 711 Steel Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Finally they are closing these forums, that always had snowflake rules. Good riddance.

13-Jan-2024 22:54:43

Apr

2006

Jefftiffy

Posts: 1,685 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Ryan Scott said :
Finally they are closing these forums, that always had snowflake rules. Good riddance.
They really didn't from my experience unless that is in the last 3-4 years. If anything Reddit and other places are a lot more strict and worse overall. Never once got removed from here and only got a couple threads locked when stuff just devolved into arguments.

I would argue that if you are having recurring issues with the rules on the forums the issue is probably with yourself. Forums were made for discussions not heated arguments and name calling. Be civil and you won't be removed. Simple as that. If you think it is okay to flame people in a discussion then you don't deserve to have your posts shown. You can get heated yes, but when you yourself have said that you flame people don't be like "This is garbage" when you know you are violating the rules. It took me 10 seconds to find it not even knowing you. I quote:
Original message details are unavailable.
Omg you nailed it, as soon as you even remotely flamed another user, the player mod jumped in deleted your entire post and locked the thread.
The furthest back post I see from you is ragging on Jagex for a Facebook post of all things, lol. Idk, just try to get some of that negativity out in a more productive way and you won't be removed?

13-Jan-2024 23:59:15

Mar

2015

Apotheostate

Posts: 1,107 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

It's wild to me that you guys have all these supposed experiences on Reddit. I should preface this by saying I don't like Reddit as a platform. The way posts are sorted by upvotes is pretty much designed to create an echo chamber, and the fact that posts are quickly pushed off the front page stifles any kind of long-term discussion. Upvoting and downvoting are used as substitutes for actual discussion way too often; if you disagree with a post, instead of explaining why you disagree (i.e. having a productive conversation), you click the funny little down arrow and move on.

That said, Reddit has still been way more conducive to discussions than the RSOF has, at least for the better part of the past decade. The RSOF is riddled with trolls and egotistic mods who will happily jump in to lock threads and hide posts oftentimes seemingly without even reading them. There's a certain spiky-haired blue partyhat wearing natural selection refugee who, if you get on his bad side, will happily hound through your posts looking for excuses to hide and delete them, and if he can't find any, he'll make some up.

Meanwhile on Reddit I have a ton more freedom to post. I can shitpost on Reddit, I can argue with people on Reddit, sometimes quite heatedly. There have even been a few times where I toe the line a little bit and send posts that I figure have a good chance of getting me banned, and yet the worst that's ever happened is they get hidden.

Again, this is not a post defending Reddit and I would be more than happy if a viable alternative came around, but the RSOF is not that alternative, and hasn't been for at least a decade. This place is a rotting husk of what it once was, ruled by trolls and power tripping mods and entirely abandoned by Jagex. It should have been outright scuttled years ago. It's time to move on. We should die for the things we believe in
Not live our lives in the dark - self-deceiving

14-Jan-2024 00:52:00

Apr

2006

Jefftiffy

Posts: 1,685 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Idk, I have bad experiences specifically with Reddit mods and the rules. Can't post unless you are positive, aka popular or just don't participate in discussions at all. Appeal something against in an official or massive sub-reddit and the mod team white knights or gives me a shit ton of attitude if not flat out insults me in the appeal process.

Reddit just feels like a chore and if you don't agree with the majority, even if the majority is factually wrong, you might as well not have a voice. I have an account with 1.5k karma but because its mostly on post karma and not comment karma I can't even post in most sub-reddits because the second I have a discussion I get crusaded for disagreeing.

14-Jan-2024 01:51:25

Jun

2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,311 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

OP's memories on the closure of the LoL forums may actually have some discussion value regarding the closure of the RSOF.

Many games, even as big as the games of Riot, don't see their forums faring very well over the last few years due to all kinds of issues like cost/rewards and legacy technologies. So don't feel bad about RSOF as there are plenty of examples in the game industry.

An interesting point is Riot actually put some efforts in preserving the forums community. When they decided to shut down their official forums, they pivoted to message boards due to community request. Well, official boards didn't last a lot of years and Riot finally took them out of business a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, I think the RSOF is going down regardless of some users' needs, but I am not sure some form of message boards are out of the question when Jagex finally put up their own equivalent of Battle.net when they expand Jagex Launcher to a whole array of new games soon.

14-Jan-2024 18:20:06

Forums

Bye Forums - Long time vet