how ded is this place
- Thread starter MisanthropicDread
- Start date
I'm sad this site hasn't really taken off as well as I hoped (at least not yet). But then again, I guess I can't complain since I haven't been very active for about 2 months myself (thanks to my job).
I do check this site (almost) every day, but usually the new posts here are stuff I'm not interested in, or stuff that doesn't give any reason to comment.
I don't use the VVN Discord server (for some reason I can't even access it on my new phone. All I can see is basically the "start here" channel). I'm just not much of a fan of Discord. I like forums more.
I do check this site (almost) every day, but usually the new posts here are stuff I'm not interested in, or stuff that doesn't give any reason to comment.
I don't use the VVN Discord server (for some reason I can't even access it on my new phone. All I can see is basically the "start here" channel). I'm just not much of a fan of Discord. I like forums more.
We are hoping for more activity to come in the near future. A number of users, at least, I am one, have busy lives such as with work, that we may not always be as active as a result.
I hope over time to see the community grow and encourage more interaction.
Are there certain things you would like to see in the site, by chance? Certain activity, or just curious about the amount of activity?
I hope over time to see the community grow and encourage more interaction.
Are there certain things you would like to see in the site, by chance? Certain activity, or just curious about the amount of activity?
Defaulting to "#start_here" is a security method. To see more, you can message one of the mods or admins to access more channels. Don't worry, I did this adjustment for you already, so if you ever want to return to the VVN Discord, you should now be able to use it fully!
I feel like the reason people are inactive is because there seems to hardly be any vocal synth news. There has hardly been any Vocaloid news ever since V5 came out. I am trying to do my part by translating the occasional Crypton, CeVIO, or deep-learning related technology news and posting it in here to try to encourage discussion (I have been scouring the Japanese side of news and it is also lacking lately). But I heard that some people don't reply to my findings and instead leave a "Like" because I'm the "expert" on it (even though just replying saying if it's cool or dumb news would help with activity, I think). And because so few people actually bought V5, even if a new voice comes out or gets an update like Haruno Sora did, many community members can't try it out and talk about it.
The only synth that seems to be having news lately is Synth V, which is going to get a major update soon and they have steadily been releasing new voices, however, because the voices are Chinese banks, a lot of people can't really use them. So then the news is basically "This character came out" and "Oh, cool". The technology is developing to use deep-learning, but it's not ready for sales, so we're just stuck in an awkward technology growth period. Plus, some other vocal synths like Alter Ego are "dead" and untalked about lately.
There is different stuff users could potentially do on the forum, such as contributing cool art or music to fan clubs, posting about VTubers, asking questions about any vocal synth, playing forum games, talking about anime/manga, etc. However, it's not just the forum that's kind of dead lately, I noticed that the handful of vocal synth Discords I'm a member of have hours of inactivity. Even if there is no ground-breaking news lately, I think that community members have to do their part and try to rally around little news (such as "I made some art!") to make a buzz and lift each other up in these dry spells.
The only synth that seems to be having news lately is Synth V, which is going to get a major update soon and they have steadily been releasing new voices, however, because the voices are Chinese banks, a lot of people can't really use them. So then the news is basically "This character came out" and "Oh, cool". The technology is developing to use deep-learning, but it's not ready for sales, so we're just stuck in an awkward technology growth period. Plus, some other vocal synths like Alter Ego are "dead" and untalked about lately.
There is different stuff users could potentially do on the forum, such as contributing cool art or music to fan clubs, posting about VTubers, asking questions about any vocal synth, playing forum games, talking about anime/manga, etc. However, it's not just the forum that's kind of dead lately, I noticed that the handful of vocal synth Discords I'm a member of have hours of inactivity. Even if there is no ground-breaking news lately, I think that community members have to do their part and try to rally around little news (such as "I made some art!") to make a buzz and lift each other up in these dry spells.
The lack of news for V5 is a huge part of the problem. When there's no big news in general about Vocaloid, the forum goes dead. The Stage subforum is fairly active every day, however.
I'm also currently juggling university and work, so I'm never on here for too long once a day. Add in the aforementioned fact that there are a lot of dry spells for news and I'm not personally a Vocaloid producer, I have no reason to stay put on here every day for a long period of time. I just tend to browse here for five or ten minutes, then leave unless big news is announced.
I'm also currently juggling university and work, so I'm never on here for too long once a day. Add in the aforementioned fact that there are a lot of dry spells for news and I'm not personally a Vocaloid producer, I have no reason to stay put on here every day for a long period of time. I just tend to browse here for five or ten minutes, then leave unless big news is announced.
Well, for me that doesn't aspire to create music and know nothing about music, I have nothing to say in every vocal synth news especially the technical ones (though I did post some things/tweet translation related to Meika Hime and Mikoto). I'm pretty sure I'm a minority on that because this -is- a vocal synth forum rather than a vocaloid music forum though haha 
I will just watch from the sidelines and infrequently post in the journals section
I will just watch from the sidelines and infrequently post in the journals section
Probably partly my fault since I don't participate in my fanclubs very often. But I do like coming here for news
I think that activity was a little higher a few weeks ago; for the past few weeks, it's been kind of quiet.
I think the point made about Vocaloid 5 is a good one: if there were more Vocaloid 5 news, there would be more activity here. Synth V is the only synth that has much news these days, and it's not necessarily of interest to everyone.
The stuff everyone has going on in their lives probably plays a role, too. People in school might have had end-of-year stuff, like tests, recently, not to mention classes for the end of the year. And people older than that possibly have jobs to hold down. I'm personally in the latter category, and between that and having to be away from home unexpectedly, I haven't been active on the site to the degree I would've normally liked. I usually like to listen to people's new songs, for instance, but much of the time recently I haven't been in an environment where that was possible.
Also, it's worth remembering that not all the activity on the site shows up on the homepage. I think there are some other Vocaloid-related projects that some of our members are quietly collaborating on, too, plus whatever's going on via PM; I've got plenty of PMs myself. There's lots of activity that you can't immediately see.
Finally, I think it's also important to keep a realistic expectation of how much activity there should be. It takes time to create new synths, new songs, new artwork, etc. Add to that the fact that our site primarily serves people who speak English (not that it's that way by design, because there have been new languages added; that's just how it worked out). English-speakers are a smaller subset of the larger synth community; if you go on Piapro, it seems to me like you'll find new songs/art being shared almost daily by people who speak Japanese, because the Japanese subset has more members than the English one.
Given all that, I don't know that it's entirely accurate to describe this community as dead. It's quiet, especially quiet lately, but it might be reasonably active given the circumstances.
I think the point made about Vocaloid 5 is a good one: if there were more Vocaloid 5 news, there would be more activity here. Synth V is the only synth that has much news these days, and it's not necessarily of interest to everyone.
The stuff everyone has going on in their lives probably plays a role, too. People in school might have had end-of-year stuff, like tests, recently, not to mention classes for the end of the year. And people older than that possibly have jobs to hold down. I'm personally in the latter category, and between that and having to be away from home unexpectedly, I haven't been active on the site to the degree I would've normally liked. I usually like to listen to people's new songs, for instance, but much of the time recently I haven't been in an environment where that was possible.
Also, it's worth remembering that not all the activity on the site shows up on the homepage. I think there are some other Vocaloid-related projects that some of our members are quietly collaborating on, too, plus whatever's going on via PM; I've got plenty of PMs myself. There's lots of activity that you can't immediately see.
Finally, I think it's also important to keep a realistic expectation of how much activity there should be. It takes time to create new synths, new songs, new artwork, etc. Add to that the fact that our site primarily serves people who speak English (not that it's that way by design, because there have been new languages added; that's just how it worked out). English-speakers are a smaller subset of the larger synth community; if you go on Piapro, it seems to me like you'll find new songs/art being shared almost daily by people who speak Japanese, because the Japanese subset has more members than the English one.
Given all that, I don't know that it's entirely accurate to describe this community as dead. It's quiet, especially quiet lately, but it might be reasonably active given the circumstances.
I personally don't get much use out of Discord, either. It's a different kind of communication from forums. Discord seems to me to be intended primarily for real-time communication, like a phone call/text message, while forums are more disconnected, like email. Since I'm at work a lot, real-time communication isn't usually feasible for me. (A fact that rather bothered me, during the period between VO and VVN, when Discord was all we had.) Plus, like hamano said elsewhere, I think, forums are good for organizing conversations, and they're also good as a gradually-built repository of knowledge. For something like becoming a bedroom musician, where I'd imagine most people are self-taught, a format that offers those things provides some important advantages.
Basically what @uncreepy said honestly. V5 is a walking corpse at this point news-wise, which takes away a majority of the potential userbase since most people (shockingly) are here for VOCALOID. I don't really care for it as much anymore and am thus more active in topics relating to CeVIO/Sharpkey/SynthV, but CeVIO is unlikely to have a new VB for a while due to the engine change, Sharpkey is dead until further notice (dw it will come back!) and the only company with presentable voicebanks on SynthV is Quadimension, who are focusing on getting the M5 characters voicebanks. Hopefully Xingchen's English voicebank will get people interested.
I don't really care for the Discord as some may know, so can't really comment, but without a doubt having a Discord with similar aims to the forum takes away from forum activity. It's a strange time to be in, when a few years ago forums were crazy active...
I don't really care for the Discord as some may know, so can't really comment, but without a doubt having a Discord with similar aims to the forum takes away from forum activity. It's a strange time to be in, when a few years ago forums were crazy active...