Public Gang Chat

[meta187]

Over the last several weeks/months since the PGC's closure we've had several posted inquiries and such as to the where abouts of gangs in general chat and elsewhere. How a person might join, what happened to recruitment, why people are no longer allowed to have them here etc.

 

Also there are quite a few people who chose and or were left to stay in unofficial gangs after the Public Gang Chats forum closure. In the Official Gang Alliance forum all official gangs use one thread to post/rant/goof off which we reset every 50 pages as not to place too much of a strain on the servers resources.

 

In the interest of the "little guy" or indepenant folk, I was wondering if it would be ok if we were to at least allocate one thread for people who fit in the previously mentioned category?

 

Just a thought...

 

[GT-1]

 

Public Gang Chat and Recruitment forums will be shutdown imminently. These forums were originally intended for the playing of GTA games in multiplayer teams/clans/gangs. A lack of feasible multiplayer support in GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas has led to the areas becoming a social playground. As a result, now all we're left with is casual chats better suited to IM or a chatroom and the occasional spark of e-drama, bickering and complaining. For this reason, we are removing these areas from the board.

... so you basically want to create another PGC, only this time all the pointless IM style spam, bickering and moaning which caused unnecessary strain on the server will be kept to a single topic? I've seen 2 topics about it since it was closed, neither have lasted too many pages, none have had any negativity in them regarding the removal of the PGC (afaik) which shows people have moved beyond a public chat room for gangs on here. Its not going to happen.

 

 

Please note this change will not be reversed. Due to the obvious performance issues, the closure of the Public Gang Chat forum was inevitable. All that remained to be decided was whether this closure should be a temporary measure or a permanent change. The staff have unanimously decided it is time to move on and encourage the development of multiplayer clans to replace the current gang scene.

 

We offer an IRC channel, if users want IM style chat then they are more than welcome to join #pgc.

[meta187]

I see it as no different than the Official Gang Chat in the private section where in fact the same style posts are made on a daily basis. Your reply seems a bit of a knee jerk reaction than a reasonable consideration but I fully expected it.

 

I'm not going to jump on a cross to crusade for this but I don't feel it's an unreasonable request in the least bit.

[Waddy]

 

I see it as no different than the Official Gang Chat in the private section where in fact the same style posts are made on a daily basis. Your reply seems a bit of a knee jerk reaction than a reasonable consideration but I fully expected it.

 

I'm not going to jump on a cross to crusade for this but I don't feel it's an unreasonable request in the least bit.

The OGA is out of site to most members on GTAF, in the scale of things anyway.

 

We were very lucky to have been able to keep that, atleast now its out of sight, out of mind.

 

There have been 3 or 4 posts since the PGC closed down, thats nothing really considering its been ages now.

Of course the odd few members who havent visited the site in a while may come back and ask.

 

The OGA isnt that active really. I assume you would want the topic in Gen Chat, which would be a mistake in itself, it would cause more confusion to new members.

 

I am suprised at some members of the PGC who havent joined an official group, but thats their choice at the end of the day, They have their own private sites and stuff, Im sure if they wanted to join an official, most wouldnt have a problem.

[meta187]

Well just in perspective of what constitutes an "active thread" we have a few in Gen. Chat and elsewhere publicly that gather posts and pages every day.

 

What's one more?

 

That we simply dub, "Public Gang Chat" and reset every 50 pages or so?

 

Again, not unreasonable.

[Waddy]

It would be a topic for the very few members who never joined up to an official group, chatting in a topic, then people who have recently joined the forums will get involved, then mass confusion.

 

PGC is dead, sooner everyone gets it out of their systems the better, because no matter what, It isnt coming back to GTAF.

 

 

 

 

[meta187]

Well again, these reactionary statements are coming from people who were resentful and or not supportive of the PGC in the 1st place and carry the obvious tone of that. Where's the balanced and moderate view on such things? Or does one even exist any more?

 

If the request was to have an entire public board back such a reaction might certainly be warranted. When I first started a "gang" in the PGC it was simply a thread to speak to 3 other gentlemen I got on well with on the GTA4 boards and not a gang at all. So in a broader sense, hypothetically speaking, lets say a group of people were to meet in Debates & Discussion and posted and replied to one another every day in that forum and in time they started wearing signatures that indicated they were part of a "group" would they be met with the same extreme prejudice that we are showing the very ideal of simply dubbing a thread the "Public Gang Chat"?

[TenaciousD.]

The thing is everyone will see it as what the PGC became, a IM service. At the Zaibatsu topic peak we were managing 50 pages in a week, thats was with about 25 regualar members. Getting old members from the many PGC gangs (FBI, Tarkers etc.) into one topic would get through 60 pages in a matter of days.

 

It's impractical now, most members have MSN and alot of us use MSN to interact with other forums members

[Waddy]

Well again, these reactionary statements are coming from people who were resentful and or not supportive of the PGC in the 1st place and carry the obvious tone of that. Where's the balanced and moderate view on such things? Or does one even exist any more?

 

 

ffs, shut up and stop talking bollocks. Start a new thread "Who didnt support the PGC" If you want to go off on another tangent.

 

I was putting MY opinion of YOUR idea over, its a forum, it happens.

 

FYI, I was a massive supporter of the PGC, I was sad to see it go, I just saw both sides of the argument, and then lived with the final result. Not that this is anything to do with the topic.

 

All im trying to say is that in my opinion, it will not work, the reasons being...stated above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Otter]

Sort of sounds like another... official forum stoners thread, just based around another hobby. I mean, isn't it? I think it's a grand idea - not so much as a chatting thread, but more of a "keep tabs on the gang scene" thread. I can understand how it may be confusing to new members - but honestly, what isn't confusing to new members?

 

Anyhow, we've had a couple gang-centric topics pop up since, and they haven't been a problem. Is that preferable? Seperate posts, once in a while, for unofficial gang events/news?

[fred]

 

If the request was to have an entire public board back such a reaction might certainly be warranted.

No, if you were requesting that, this topic would already be locked.

 

 

So in a broader sense, hypothetically speaking, lets say a group of people were to meet in Debates & Discussion and posted and replied to one another every day in that forum and in time they started wearing signatures that indicated they were part of a "group" would they be met with the same extreme prejudice that we are showing the very ideal of simply dubbing a thread the "Public Gang Chat"?

Apart from looking a tad sad, you're more than welcome to go ahead and form such a group - but if you stop debating and discussing worthwhile subjects and start spamming/chatting with your group, then yes, it wouldn't be allowed.

[meta187]

 

ffs, shut up and stop talking bollocks. Start a new thread "Who didnt support the PGC" If you want to go off on another tangent.

 

I was putting MY opinion of YOUR idea over, its a forum, it happens.

 

 

Diplomatic as ever, Waddles.

 

What I'm looking at is verbage here, saying things like the "PGC is dead" and " pointless IM style spam, bickering and moaning" which is to say nothing fun, creative or worthwhile ever emmerged from it. Which is something to the effect of going to the butchers shop to advocate for animal rights. It's all being addressed as some grand impossibility when it fact it would be as simple as hitting "New Topic" and putting "Public Gang Chat" in the title.

 

I look at a lot of the things discussed in general chat and they are no different than much of what was discussed in any of the gang threads, media, television, debates etc. Like Otter said, It may be, to a greater effect, more of a staging area for people simply to keep tabs in a public fashion and to meet with people who would in fact be interested in joining an unofficial and or official gang. If people want to pointlessly spam and IM style post (which I've never enjoyed) then let the staff deal with those people individually, I wouldn't support people acting as such. To what fred had said, such things can obviously be noted.

 

The PGC is not dead, it lives on as an IRC channel at the moment but not everyone logging on to GTAF uses a IRC client so having a small point of contact here at the site, can't be seen as such a bad thing, can it?

 

 

That's all, no harm done.

 

Said my piece on this, in as concise a fashion as possible. I'd just like to hear views across the board from both staff and members before it's viewed as an impossibility.

[silvermanblue]

I am kinda on the fence with this issue. For one I like metas idea but I can see it becoming full of spam in no time. Like "hey dude where you been" and various replies to the question. But in the end its it up to the staff. Besides becoming official isnt that easy for alot of us, especially with my spelling/grammer.

 

But in closing yes I miss the gang chat, but its probaly best that its gone.

[tuareg]

Im on the same line with this as silver. I like the idea of it, but it just wouldnt do good. Besides, having a chat topic like that would either end up as a complete spamhole or members wouldnt even post in it much. You see, when people get whatever they want, soon they whont care about it. As stupid as it may sound, it does happen.

 

 

Anyway, you dont have to pay for the IRC chat do you?

[Blackadder.]

Maybe for unofficial gangs to get new members, we could have a really small forum, with only Recruitments, any other form of topic gets locked/deleted. Might work...

 

Then again, might not.

[Vanzant]

In regards to recruitment and such, I had an Idea of a "timed" thread for unofficial gangs. Meaning a open thread for members interested in gangs, but with a time limit of perhaps a day or so before lock. Propaganda Inc. has it's own thread and is part of Three or Four other sites, but as far as the others I don't even know if they a site or not. As far as IRC goes, it seems like no ones ever on for me, but that's because my timezone differs from most.

[Brutuz]

IRC is almost never active now, at least when I'm on, with PGC you can just leave a message for someone, but if they aren't on at the time in IRC, you have to wait till they are on, I suggest get another server or a free forum thing or something only for PGC, and have it linked from here (Like the SA-MP forums are)

[BigGamer]

Waddy, go take an anger management course. There's no need to take a tone like that.

 

meta, I gotta be honest; whatever you're proposing would fall flat pretty fast. I know for a fact (at least as far as the FBI goes) that most of the former members have moved to our private forums and continued our immature, socially corruptive behavior there. There isn't much incentive to come back here when we already do the exact same thing somewhere else, and with a lot more freedom.

[meta187]

 

There isn't much incentive to come back here when we already do the exact same thing somewhere else, and with a lot more freedom.

Happy to hear it, Paymon.

 

 

IRC is almost never active now, at least when I'm on, with PGC you can just leave a message for someone.

 

Closer to the pin.

 

I tried being active on the IRC channel for a few of the initial weeks it was open, going with the flow and I think, "Mmmmm maybe, this isnt all that bad."

 

Got Busy, came back a week or two later, dead as a door nail.

 

So yea, maybe things really have died down or out with the PGC. All existing unofficials have replied in this thread. A few luke warm replies have probably convinced me better by simply speaking for themselves, that such a thing may not be necessary.

 

FBI, Tarkers, Propaganda Inc.

 

Pretty much the last 3 independant parties who might have actual feelings or valid words to say on the matter at all (save Parcel Force, Maybe), thanks for showing up and saying your piece.

 

Go ahead and lock this and thanks for being civil enough to keep it open for it's duration.