Phoebus:

The gallery of artisanal contests on the website appears to be broken (something on the website? Broken? No!) and listing every single entry as having been a winner, runner-up, and merit. :I

It's not broken; it's more like how every kid in some sort of competitive event gets a ribbon or trophy or medal, regardless of how poor or well they did.

Well if all my entries came in first, second, and third place every time, I want credits for every place. >.>

(it's wrong.)

Is it just me or are the forums getting a lot less posts lately?

I'm just wondering if people have moved Lusternia discussions to things like the Facebook groups.

A lot of people are busy with university around this time of year. Finals are coming up in a matter of weeks, and many more people have plans for the holidays.

Also, Skyrim.

Yeah, what those two said. (Not to say there isn't discussions going on on the FB groups, there are, but there are other reasons for people being quiet)

I should have added "I know about Skyrim", but I'm comparing this year's last months worth of posts to last years. That's why I wanted to know if there's just less people commenting or perhaps just people moving the conversations elsewhere.

Phred:

I should have added "I know about Skyrim", but I'm comparing this year's last months worth of posts to last years. That's why I wanted to know if there's just less people commenting or perhaps just people moving the conversations elsewhere.

A lot of it is happening elsewhere.

People can actually rant on Facebook.

I suspected the former just because of how social media networks are transforming how we communicate.

Why are rants so popular though? (I find that while a little is okay, most of the time it creates a more negative atmosphere that spills into the game).

I've thought about joining the official group--though I tend to be a little private, so I'm hesitant to attach my real account, and I won't create a "special" account just for Facebook (it's against the Terms of Service and I'm surprised so many people are creating accounts under their character names).

Because people like to express themselves, and such is denied on these forums. That's actually a very easy alternative that anyone can partake of if they so wish; and not, if they don't.

That said, the 'official' group doesn't tend to be where most of it happens. There is an 'unedited rants group' where the rants go. The official group tends to be a bit slower too, though I think it still gets a number of posts because people find it easier than dealing with forums (since they are already on Facebook anyways).

So, instead of it happening in a place where they could exercise at least a bit of control, it happens where they have none at all. The group admins seem to not allow personal attacks though, at least really vicious ones, despite the 'unedited' name.

Anyone else get undelivered letters from years ago dumped into their inventory today? I just got back two from when I was in Hartstone, which was ages ago.

Evette got a letter like that, too.

Message #2512 Sent by: (system)
11/20 23:39 "An elegant white letter was unable to be delivered to someone unknown and has been returned to your possession."

Message #2513 Sent by: (system)
11/20 23:39 "A sheet of pale blue stationery was unable to be delivered to someone unknown and has been returned to your possession."

You read what is written on an elegant white letter:
**** Unable to deliver sent letter ***

This letter addressed to someone unknown was undelivered after 10 months.

**** Unable to deliver sent letter ***

This letter addressed to Gyorn was undelivered after 10 months.

Those would have to be 10 RL months, too.

During the change to letters, I fixed a bug that was stopping letters being returned after 10 (IG) months and then forced all letters that were currently stuck to return to their sender (just in case they were holding something sentimental or important!).

Phred:

Is it just me or are the forums getting a lot less posts lately?

I'm just wondering if people have moved Lusternia discussions to things like the Facebook groups.

Dunno, but it felt like there was a drop in posts immediately following the forum software switchover. I wonder if that has anything to directly or indirectly do with this perceived drop.

Janalon:


Dunno, but it felt like there was a drop in posts immediately following the forum software switchover. I wonder if that has anything to directly or indirectly do with this perceived drop.

Sounds about right. Add on that there are plenty of other places for people to get together and talk, and that the best feature of the Lusternia forums (its own homegrown emoticons) doesn't even work now, and that there are now many direct links to the places where people can talk instead, then... yes.

I'm not sure what you mean by "direct links", since I don't see any here--unless you are talking about all the articles IRE publishes and the commentary underneath them.

Iosai:

During the change to letters, I fixed a bug that was stopping letters being returned after 10 (IG) months and then forced all letters that were currently stuck to return to their sender (just in case they were holding something sentimental or important!).

Unfortunately the items in these letters have all decayed. I received a whopping 25 letters which contained 7 Remembrance necklaces, 1 pie, and one unknown object. It was nice to get back the 10,000 gold I sent to Tetres, though I will be sending it right back to him if he's still around. Kind of weird to get back wedding rings from Fania's first marriage, though.

I really dislike quests that are physically impossible to do due to design flaws.

Questing in Lusternia in general has frustrated me to the point where I don't even bother :P Too many instances where you need x number of item but only x-4 spawn at a time and by the time you get enough, everything resets.