Colin has been insanely busy so there’s no Community Round Up this week. In its place, I thought I’d write a little bit about what the active community means to the staff. I don’t want to divert anyone’s attention away from the events and competitions we’re having though so please, in exchange for these words I’m about to give you, take a look at the community content (also available on the left-side menu) and consider getting involved.
I joined TheSixthAxis a long time ago as a regular member. I remember lurking for a while, reading the opinion pieces and reviews. I remember loading the page each day, filled with anticipation of whatever new content I was going to find. I’ll be totally honest and say that it was the wit and charm of Alex and Michael that made me want to visit this site every day. I remember my very first comment. I remember hurriedly recording a song Michael had written about Home, it was awful (the recording, not the song). I remember when the forums launched and there was only half a dozen of us in there.
You see, it was a google search for PlayStation 3 news that delivered me to the site. It was the personality in Alex and Michael’s (and the other writers at the time) writings that made me want to return the next day. But it was the community that made me feel like I was actually a part of the site. I came for news, stayed for character and joined the community.
Now, years later, I own the place. That’s still a little bit bizarre to me and I don’t intend for it to sound grandiose. Technically, I am the owner of TheSixthAxis but I don’t fool myself. I know that without Alex I couldn’t run it. Without the News Team we wouldn’t have that constant influx of new readers, some of whom stay and become part of the community. Without the opinions and character of the writers there wouldn’t be a site here to own.
The community events and competitions at TSA are, by quite a distance, the single largest running expense to the site. The competitions now cost more to run than the rest of the site. From a business perspective that doesn’t make sense. Very few people arrive here after looking for a competition to enter so you could say that it doesn’t drive traffic and therefore won’t increase our appeal to advertisers and our prospects of making money. So why invest so much in it?
Let me clarify that when I talk about investment I will be referring to financial investment and the little bits of time and hassle I put in here and there. I don’t wish to gloss over or understate the massive time investment made by the Community Team but I will save that for another time.
The leading (business) reason I value the community so highly is for the difference they make to the site’s hardworking staff. It is almost impossible to describe how much easier it is writing something when you know that there is a good chance someone will respond to you.
Sure, all the staff are occasionally frustrated or annoyed by some of the comments we get on stories and articles. It genuinely hurts when we pour hours into a piece of writing and someone who has taken thirty seconds to form an opinion tells you what a fool you are for disagreeing. When people make assumptions about our integrity it is massively insulting because we work so hard to do things the right way. We really care about what we do and when we’re told we’re doing it badly, or when it’s wrongly assumed we’re doing it for nefarious reasons, it’s disheartening.
The negativity that occasionally rears its head in the comments sections is a tiny minority of the response we get though. We are far more likely to receive interesting discussion, well reasoned debate and genuine appreciation for the efforts we make. The difference that makes to a writer when they’re putting in the hours is immeasurable. The interactivity between staff and visitors here is much greater than I’ve seen anywhere else on the internet. It’s something we actively encourage the staff to do because we think you guys like it too. When the community speaks up on our behalf in response to the misfired negativity I’ve mentioned, that is such an affirming act of kindness that it’s difficult to put it into words.
It takes so much work to run a site like TheSixthAxis, so many hours of writing and researching to put out the level of content that we do. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people are reading that is humbling but the fact that a few hundred of those people take the time to respond and discuss our work is much more valuable to us.
The financial investment the site puts into our community is just a way to say thank you for taking the time to make our jobs here more enjoyable.
Hopefully, the staff of the site are one of the primary reasons for the community sticking around but without that community we probably wouldn’t be able to keep hold of the fantastic staff members that we have. So we all support each other. In that way I know that even though it might be my name on the deeds, this site belongs to us all.
3shirts
Stop bitching and make me a sammich
Manorhowze
Where else on the interweb would you find an article like this, the interaction between the staff and the community is one of the things that makes TSA so great.
I found the site by looking for info on the GT5p patch that added 3 new cars. I read a few articles and ended up coming back a few times to check in and ended up checking every day.
Began lurking in the forums as I’m the kind of person who normally doesnt comment but soon I was getting involved in the forums and eventually joined my first TSA meet which was a ridiculously laggy game of LBP with citizeninsane, freeze and hodgi (i think, not too sure now). Despite the lag it was fun and encouraged me to come back and got involved with Burnout meets which converted me from someone who would rarely play online into someone who would look forward to meeting up and getting involved in an online game and when Al coded the TSA meets page it all got a lot simpler to organise.
Redwink
Aw, you guys are awesome! The readers here at TheSixthAxis are here because of the quality posts you deliver and the other cool things going on! Even though there are a lot of other gaming sites around on the internet, TheSixthAxis is without doubt the best. I’ve been around here for quite some time now and hope you all get the attention and love you deserve, because you deserve the best. Keep up the good work, you know we won’t leave TheSixthAxis.
Dan Lee
I actually work harder writing for the site than I do for my full time job. It’s hard work at times, but as Cb says the interaction makes it worth it. Gotta do what you love :-D
Armonster9000
I think your site is pretty awesome. I have been viewing this site for the past 2 or so years. Thanks for all your hard work
Demibeard
Like many others here, I linked from ThreeSpeech during the very dark early days of PS3, anyone else pay over 600 for their (YLOD) launch machine?
It’s the first and last site I look at in a day, it has the most balanced set of writers I think I’ve ever had the pleasure to read and some of the community comments have me grinning like a child.
Thank you all for your excellent work.
carson321
£600?!?! i got mine launch day but it wasnt £600! £400 odd quid is what I paid, collected from woolworths down t’ road!
seedaripper1973
I bloody paid around 600 quid on my YLOD (it’s still in it’s box waiting to be fixed – which will probably never happen) but then again i got 4 games and an extra controller…
Roynaldo
I remember coming across the site with startling detail. My friend told me there were these things called trophies giving you a certain degree of personal satisfaction from doing things in games….he also told me of Uncharted which I bought and never looked back (this friend of mine is amazing btw).
And so i googled Playstation trophies and BANG! There TSA was about half way down the page.
I lurked around for quite a while checking the trophies and lists and this really strange talk of Huskies which i though must have been an ‘in joke’.
When I did join it was a small group of people who didnt much appreciate my comments and some thought it funny to 1/2 star everything i said (this star comment thing has long since gone). Could have been an initian test….i dont know. I have visited 99% of the days since then, started to play games with a few people and eventually organise a few things and write guest articles (which are pretty naff if im honest, not much of a writer).
It seems though that things dont go unnoticed round here and one day about 6 months ago i was asked to join the community team which is hard on the brain at times but fully enjoyable to see people have fun and be part of the TSA team in some sort of degree. I love it here, i dont go anywhere else for gaming news and likely never will.
So thanks guys, ive grown through this site and i hope in some sort of way the site has grown a little smidgen through me.
MWAH!!
seedaripper1973
I actually miss the star rating thing, bunonmike would be a first class leader mind! (the clever sod) nofi, any chance of it returning??
Roynaldo
I think there was a call for a facebook esque ‘Like’ button so we can show our appreciation for good comments or things we agree with without the +1 or i agree comments that seem to have gotten a few people riled up in the past.
Not sure if Cb and Nofi made a decision on that but I would welcome that over the star comment thing which had me pretty annoyed back in the day.
nofi
<3
seedaripper1973
…and all for one! <3
carson321
I was first brought to this site looking for a weekly playstation store update, which is still delivered as as promptly as ever, but since then i have even sat at the train station on many a day checking out the site on my phone, back in te day when you logged on on your mobile and one day you would get a strict, text only story updates and the next it would be the full site! lol.
TSBonyman
Nice article Peter, TSA is the first and last page on my browser every day – and probably far too many times during the day! :)