Lemma Soft Forums

Well said. I couldn't agree more.

I also miss forums. I think there's a part of me that's gotten a lot more self conscious about posting because it feels more public than, say, a private discord server. And with the panopticon being how it is, you are more likely to end up in a cringe compilation than if you keep to your own little circle.

I'm considering re-opening the forums to direct registration again. The KS Forums have moved to a new server, and installed some plugins that have helped with the spam problem. I'm wondering if I appointed some new mods to take care of what remains, it would make the site more usable.

It's wild seeing so many faces I remember from when I first joined over 10+ years ago in this thread. I think there's a lot of passionate and committed people in this little niche of creation and if folks were determined to see this place alive and thriving again, it would be. I definitely prefer the forums for sharing projects and getting guidance on coding. Especially coding help, as I can browse questions that have been asked before in a more convenient way than I could on Discord.

Wow! This thread made me smile again. So interesting and positive!
viewtopic.php?t=67506

Well, I am just adding in my two-cents here.

I, as a artist and a programmer, go through phases of consumption and creation. Often the two are opposing phases. When I get artist-block, I stop and unwind, then begin consuming information and ideas again, looking for a spark. It's quite easy to get lost along the way.

When I returned, I forgot my password, and entered it incorrectly a few times. (I have a few common ones I use for forums. I guessed wrong, but I would not have guessed wrong if the password had a reminder that said... "password must be over 10 characters long", where you enter the password attempt. Or if it just ignored less, and then stated why it was ignored, other than "Incorrect password".)

Then, in order to "try again", it demanded that I join discord to get the KEY, or something. (I know a lot of people who hate discord and don't have accounts. So that may be one thing stopping some people from returning. However, I DO have a discord account, but it would not let me join the channel. Apparently, I am banned from the discord chat. Whatever... Can't think of a reason why I would get banned. However, that ALMOST prevented me from being able to get back into the forums. If you can't get into the discord chat, you can't get into the forums!

Well, that's not entirely true, because I got back into the forums, without the need for discord. I just had to reset my password and that totally bypassed the whole demand for needing to bother someone in some third-party IRC (discord). I am not sure that needing to bother someone in chat, is a real spam-protection for a failed password. Last time I checked, spam-bots have discord accounts too. That actually makes it less secure than an actual "captcha" system. (You just need one that is better, for password attempts, or a basic 5-min or 30-min lock-out attempt.)

It is good to see the community going strong, still. It could get another flux of new people, if RenPy were listed on more "Python" programming sites.

It's funny... I started using RenPy, simply as a form of a basic/advanced GUI for python to operate in. (Having a menu-system, graphics options, textual display and the ability to play sounds and videos, was a great "all in one" solution. It was a bonus that it could compile to a playable "program", on multiple systems.) To this day, I STILL don't know how to compile a python program, using just python, so others can actually use it, without having to install python or use a code-editor!

I think Unity may have also stolen a small portion of VN-Creators too. I am seeing more of those games listed in the VN websites. I guess there are a few free VN style plugins for unity. So people who hate python, or just program better in some other language, which is more "graphically friendly at 4K+", and dives into 3D realms... They have that option now.

I still think that the "How do I keep in touch?" section should be right at the top and labeled as "Interact with the community." Labeled as "keep in touch", makes it sound like you are about to be taken to some "web-form", for "submitting some message to the developer", which would often go unanswered from most sites, where those exist. It really isn't inviting, although it may seem like it is worded, literally, as an invitation. "touch", sort-of implies, "remote, isolated, impersonal distance"... As opposed to "communal inclusion".