Comment contribution.

The threads are sorted by most recently created with EGST installed on the web browser, but without EGST the threads are unorganized by date. I think one reason for less discussion is SG users cannot find newer threads to comment on while only able to view old threads they might have commented on already.

Edit: I forgot to mention the threatening power of the blacklist. To comment from your mind to then not only receive no responses from other users, but that other SG members might blacklist you for your comment can be disheartening. Honestly, the blacklist stat sometimes impact my enthusiasm for commenting on threads and I rather would lurk instead. I'm still going to give a "Happy cakeday!" to users with the cake symbols, but that's all at times.

I have a theory. It started to decline right after the changes in the points system. I myself used to visit the site a lot of times before the point system was changed. While entering giveaways I also always go to the discussion page right after. But after the changes I just visit the site twice a day and I've seen the decline in the discussion because of it. Don't get me wrong the points system changes for me are positive, but there's always a sacrifice that comes along with changes. This time it's the number of discussion in the site.

but why has it decreased so much since?

cause many ppl stopped commenting here and now use another forums (without spammers, trolls and all these boring things like cv and ratio).
No, ppl still enter giveaways and read sg-forum, they just not interested in commenting anymore

View attached image.

Also the number of new users in March,April and May are lowest since sg opened. https://www.steamgifts.com/stats/community/users

I wish it was just here but it seems to be a general trend all around the web. Being less about community and more about getting free shit. With some notable exceptions like Reddit, it seems the web is mostly about one-click copy/paste of clever/viral/political comment or reposting gifs, memes, videos. Why use words and express ideas when you can just click a button or thumb up icon?
We are devolving back to cave painting, I tell you

Too much shit-posting and spamming, and not enough substance.

Well, one thing that noone mentioned is lack of proper mobile website/app to browse the forum. Currently it's quite a pain in the back to do it on a smartphone :(

Somehow it just feels boring. Peple having the same problems (often because not reading FAQ) as years ago
Sometimes I bump a train / wish things on cakeday topic but bumping for the sake of bumping is pointless if previous comment was minutes ago, and cakeday topics require only one comment

Maybe I'm just getting sour and old, but I just feel that the topics of blacklist drama (over nothing) and constant bickering and negativity about close to every single bundle is really, really disheartening. Like if there is one game in a 10-game bundle that's being given away free, someone just leaves a comment to point out how much of a fail the whole bundle is for giving a free game out of 10. For like 2-3$. Because 9+1 (good) game for that price is just too much.

I really like how the bundle topics are done, but I have a feeling that the improved poll options just made people more willing to share their feelings, and as we know, people have problem with objectivity and subjectivity. So instead of the pretty often true " rebundle, but good games for good price" 80% of those topics are people bitching about bundle being bad, shit, the site going down, anything. No blaming or anything, but from my personal point while these comments ... add a comment to the site, they really make the site feel worse for me.

In some other way I can buy most of the bundles I want, I don't really care about tier 3s, there is no option to store Steam gifts - varity of giveaways is down because of Steam's system, and having access to most to begin with makes the giveaways, and especially the puzzles or trains less interesting (also way fewer good puzzles that aren't just jigidi) , sadly. I guess this also contributes why some people (like me) can feel that the site lost some of its charm.

I think one of the reasoning lies in the way of how interesting most thread actually are. Looking at the first page we can see how most threads are about bundles, puzzles or trains, where there isn't much to discuss to begin with aside from bumping and standard questions. Also pointless polls with the same old potato joke are not helping either.
Another reason is that posting literally ANYTHING in the forum is enough for some people to get into their blacklists, which discourage many users into participating.

A thing that personally bugs me is that there are some threads that, even if they died, get bumped constantly, which "steal" (for lack of a better term) space for other topics. Don't get me wrong, i think that the awarness threads are really nice and useful, but if nobody has anything to say anymore it's just best to let them go away.

There seems to be a noticeable jump in the number of discussions/comments created in February 2015, but why has it decreased so much since?

There was quite a bit of discussion at the time SGv2 was introduced (right before and after), and that caused a big bump around that time.

It's hard to tell the percentage of useful comments out of all comments. There are a lot of meaningless comments on the forum and giveaways. Used to be 'thanks', then changed to 'bump'. It's possible that the bump parade is getting tired.

I think that the drop might have been the result of SG discussion becoming too codified. Blacklisting was mentioned, but also the implied requirement to have a giveaway in posts, the polls, ... When people just post something, there's usually someone quick to comment that they should have done this or that (why not a poll, why does the poll not include 'potato', where's the giveaway, it's a duplicate, ...). Even if it's not specifically said, there's a general feeling that posts are judged, and posting just anything is out of the question. The most annoying to me is when someone posts something personal that's very important to them and people start telling them it's not on topic and SG isn't the place for that.

Edit: In short, and others said it too, there's too much negativity. It's been the case for a long time, but it possible grew worse over time. SG is geared toward that. It started with CV, and white/blacklisting pushed it to the next level. This things just draw out the bad apples.

It seems like a fare amount of activity has been moved to different sub-communities, like the SG discord, backlog assassins and so on. The amount of drama that's been here over the last year or two can't have helped either.

There's barely anything worth commenting on now, in-between the drama and pointless bumps. Most of the active users are now grouped up in other communities (Steam group chats, discord and so on), so no real reason to keep investing time on SG discussions.

View attached image.

I think there are many users who left SG because of changes here which they didn't like, people leaving or just cause they are not interested anymore in giveaways.
Other people are just active in specific groups (Backlog Assassins, Tohou, etc.), don't have the time anymore or don't find the discussions interesting.
It's just how those site works. Maybe the amount of discussions/comments will stop declining and rise again later.

It's because I'm not active here anymore, with my spamming and such. :P And, to be honest, you will rarely find anything interesting in the discussions nowadays.

Well, the big SG civil war started at around that time when the site split into two factions maybe even a third one for those who didn't care enough and the fighting got so heated that the site never recovered..
They used blacklists, user reoprts, forum blacklist a script to hide discussions and other means of war...
Nowadays, there's not much of a big "community" to fight on as much as before so the fighting naturally died down...

FuckingHumans #NonSexual #SFW

I barely know people who post regularly so I don't have a good motive to participate, other than say hello, bump or short messages. Last time I participate with some level of good quality was in a thread about movies. I even 'resurrected' to ask about opinions (Since the creator already watched some of the films) it but quickly died.

My personal thoughts:

• I barely use it nowadays because I don't know many people in here
• I barely use it nowadays because I barely enter giveaways. Only one or two whishlisted and checking 'playing appreciated' group (or similar groups)
• I've been playing my last win!!! and some other games with friends, so I haven't been checking other forums too!
• It's true (I think) that the quality is worst, so I don't want to participate. Most of the times is trains, bumps and "hey hey, look at my shitpost!" and those posts are treatly very different depending on how famous/loved you are in the SG community.

We

People comment when they feel welcome, when they aren't they look for someplace else - where they are welcome in.

so i think the reasons people stooped commenting and using the forum in my opinion are of posts/subjects like these:

• blacklisting
• post about users are - BOTS!!!
• patronizing posts
• restrictive attitude of some user to lower lvls
• post about lechers

etc

fix that - and you will see the forum thrives again :)