So, I was bored, and so I was flicking though the birthday/leaving etc thread in People Park, and I saw a few members leaving because they said they felt ignored and left out by the members of the new forum, and don't fit in anymore.

I'm really confused. I made my account in 2006, on the old CR forums. I had a huge period of absence, then I started playing AA again and so innocently came back on my favourite AA site, unaware of what changes had happened to the site, and logged in as usual. I didn't even notice the forums were different until I read on the threads.

I guess my question is, why are people drawing a distinction between the new and old forums so much? I'm not quite sure what was lost in the change (topics I'm guessing?), but is there any reason why members of the old forums couldn't carry on being members on here?

Just some of the things I've read are phrased so that it seems as if everyone and everything from the old forums was lost completely, and the members never came back. But surely they would just search and log in as usual? Just on a new forum.

I wasn't aware of this until you pointed it out. It seems a little odd to me - I've been here about as long as you, went inactive for a little while at one point, and have been here since. Doesn't really matter to me all that much which forum we're at.

But I guess for some people the somewhat disjointed history of the forums makes them feel a little out-of-place. I'm sure there's some people from the "new" C-R boards that never migrated back here once the downtime started, while there's older members that never moved to the newer boards or simply left. My guess is that for some people, the people they know have left, and so they have little interest in staying - and that's their choice.

The new forum is a little cliquey, to be honest. >o< It didn't seem to be a problem on the old forum because there were just so many people there, but because the new forum has the member base spread pretty thinly, I think people have just gotten used to communicating with there own little group. I don't post very often, but when I do, pretty much no one replies to my remarks, and they carry on business as usual. It's a little intimidating to just jump in around here. :/

There might be a few reasons why the bulk of the members didn't transfer over. They might not have been attached enough to the series anymore to feel compelled to make a new account, they may not have been able to find the URL for the new forum (especially now that the main page is down), perhaps many of them didn't post very often to begin with and would prefer to just lurk, they're waiting for the main forums to come back online, etc. I personally had a hard time trying to find the link to the forums after the website went down. >o<

I'm a fairly new member (but I lurked for a while before). I don't understand, either. I guess that every old member that left had their own personal reasons, though. If they had felt left out, they could have simply told us. I don't want to just barge in and make the veterans feel unwanted. :gumshoe:

We're a diverse group, and there's room for all. I don't see how they could feel left out. I'd welcome anybody to come here, old or new. The more, the merrier!

But I'm not that familiar with the old forums, so maybe I lack the critical knowledge to understand their sadness. :scruffy:

Either way, I feel quite guilty for making some of the old members leave (if I did play my part in making them feel ignored).

Ah, well. Members leave, members come. That's the way it goes, I guess.

They didn't have to make new accounts, if it's the same as how mine worked anyway :hodohobo:

But yeah, I see what you're saying. I actually have no idea how I found the back up forums now you mention it. Since CR was down, I guess they are pretty hard to find again.

I didn't start this thread to imply that all the old members have gone because the new ones kicked them away! :sweatdrop: Don't go feeling guilty haha, that wasn't the aim. I was curious from what I'd read. But it is a silly reason not to return, I'd think. I never really felt that way when I returned.

EDIT: Sorry for double posting, I just went to delete and edit now but I don't know how to delete... :bellboy:

I didn't mean to imply that you did! I just feel gulity, I suppose.

But, I dont understand. I just hope that everyone on these forums make the move to the new Court-Records, when the time comes. All of you guys are great! :larry:

Hmm. I distinctly remember having to create a new account when the "new" forum was launched, hence my lack of posts. Maybe there was a glitch when I tried to login initially, because there was no record of my username and password in any combination.

Now I want to double check that I don't have two accounts floating around! XD

Edit: No duplicate. >o<

Well that's really odd! I know I haven't made a new one, my join date proves that. Maybe an error and some work/some don't?

@Popo: Are you sure you're not talking about how you had an account on the previous version of the forums prior? If so, if you didn't have an account on these particular forums from way back when, you would have had to of made a new account for these forums. They're under different hosts and such, so the username would not have transferred.

@Samboo: Yeah, if you already had an account on the invisionfree forums, you wouldn't have to make another one. Apparently our accounts still work great.


I will say, honestly, it feels pretty cliquey here to me and to be honest, I find the forums a whole lot less interesting than I used to because of that. Tbh, I was never a gigantic fan of PW, but liked it enough to become a somewhat humble fan and joined the community because, at the time, it was fun and whatnot. Honestly, I have no reason to stay, nothing is keeping me here anymore. If anything, I think I'm just slightly hoping for something of an American release of a new game to keep my interest somewhat, but even so, that's a stretch. I used to invest loads of time into these forums, but I don't even lurk here as often anymore. When I came back in 2009, things were really different because so many people I knew had left.

Like it's been said though, 99% of the old people have left due to lost interest in the series and loss of friends or beloved community members. Happens everywhere, it's really nothing new. Everyone eventually moves on.

I'm one of the new members who just lurked on the old forums, so I guess I, too, fall under the category of "doesn't really get it". :gumshoe: I want to apologize if I'm contributing to the "cliquey" feeling... I don't mean to..

I guess the fact that a handful of us talk every day on Skype doesn't help...

I'm late to the party. :sweatdrop:

I'm quite new to CR (and AA too). I only discovered Ace Attorney around the time AAI was released (2009 if I recall correctly). I eventually discovered CR, the one that is currently down, and lurked for a while before I made an account. I didn't have many friends there, because shortly after I joined the forum went down, and I had to sign up here to be able to post.

I guess some people just feel attached to the forums/ friends on the forums, and when the forums changed/ their friends left they feel like it's not the same place anymore, and in the end they leave too. I also heard that some people with account on the main CR are waiting for it to come back, and don't want to join here.

What's wrong with that? :scruffy: You think it contributed to the 'clique-y' feeling?

I feel the same too. It doesn't matter if anyone is a new or old member, I treat them as my friend. :larry:

I lurked around some threads, made an account, posted a little bit, noticed I wasn't noticed very much so I took a break from CR. I think I should change that and continue lurking/posting, gotta find the right people in the right thread.

I've been on CR forums since around 2007. I do feel that a lot has been lost with the other forum. There were a lot of topics (good topics, too) gone, and many people didn't make the move over. I've been relocated to these forums before, and though it's been my CR home for nearly a year, this will probably always seem like the temporary forums to me. Maybe it's because I don't hang around the RP sections, but I always have this weird feeling that we're all hanging on by a thread here. The foums on court-records.net is my home, imo.

Edit: Plus, I seriously miss the spoiler tags that actually hide things and the updated smileys.

Clearly your best course of action is to start a Mass Effect thread. Though ME3 won't be out till March, of course.

Also, this topic made me realize something somewhat odd: I don't really have any close friends here on C-R. Instead I'm just (or at least try to be) amiable with the community at large. And you know what, I'm actually fine with that. :pearl:

(Of course, the fact I haven't touched an instant messenger in two years and the fact I don't roleplay probably has something to do with that...)

I'm one of the new members too... I did notice the cliques in here.

I don't really mind being ignored. Because I usually get ignored all the time...

I also apologize if I somehow contributed to people feeling left out and leaving...

I joined the old forum back in 2009. Then when it got shut down I left and came to this forum around February 2011. I did notice the cliquiness around here, and it concerns me a bit. I think we should be more welcoming to new members.

Well I wasn't on the old forums at all, even as a lurker. I joined this place mainly for GK2 updates and gradually made friends here. I've always tried to be welcoming to everyone and not ignore people, but I admit I'm not as active in the discussion boards as I was.

I apologise if I've ever come across as cliquey, I know that if the situation was like that when I joined I'd never have had the chance to make friends here, so I'd hate to think I'm stopping that for others. :gumshoe:

That's a good idea to start with. I'll get on that soon. Thanks for the suggestion :larry:

I lurked on this forum back in '08 before the switchover but I only joined the new forums in late '09 and came here when the forums went down pretty much straight away. I probably couldn't really be considered an original member though. Still recognise more than a few people from the old-old and the new-old forums. I do think that if AAI2 was being released in English though, more original members would be inclined to start posting again.

I'll be honest, there is a bit of a clique feeling on this forum. I've already identified two such cliques. However, even though I associate myself very heavily with the Skype clique, I'm always open to talk with anybody. So if you ever want somebody to talk to, feel free to shoot me a line. As Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender once said, "Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights."

How did the Skype clique come about?

I wouldn't call the Skype Chat a "Clique". We let everyone join who asks and it's not like we had any conformity or something going on there.

It happened like this: The AA VS LB Roleplay was getting so insanely popular that Regi, Triple and me had a hard time managing it via the discussion thread, so we downloaded Skype and started managing it this way. The Chat grew, more and more CR members joined and now it's a pretty huge chat. It's true, we have a pretty family-like atmosphere in the chat, but I assure, we are not issolating ourselves on purpose or trying to stay apart from the rest of CR. We just find it fun to chat and RP. That's all. And whoever feels like it can join in anytime.

Erm. We're really just members who talk on Skype. It's not like we won't allow anyone in. :sweatdrop: Anyone's free to join. If you want to add me on Skype I'm "regiwi1" on there. Add me and I can add you to our group on there.

I must be one of the few people who don't really associate themselves with really any clique. I just generally enjoy reading and posting on Court Records.

Same here. Though, I wouldn't be opposed to joining a clique. :scruffy:

There are cliques around here? I didn't really notice, nor do I think I'm in one. I'm not too sure. :gymshoe: I'm a new-ish member around CR, joined in 2010, mostly because I felt like showing off my, at that point, fail sprites.

Allow me to revise what I said:

It's not a clique in the negative sense of the word (We are most certainly not exclusive, and we add people constantly to the chat), but we are a group of people who share similar interests. We enjoy our discussions and we don't force anything on anyone.

I joined this forum roughly around the time I finished AAI and decided to make my own AA game. I found Court Records and thought it was an awesome place to get resources (and get gifs to show off my fandom) and I noticed that this CR had a forum, though it was the Emergency Backup.

I really didn't notice the cliques, but as I started to visit more, I started to see some definite ones. I've also noticed that most of my posts NOT pertaining to my art get ignored (well, I shouldn't complain about that. That last part is practically the sum of my life) and I started to visit the forums less and even stopped spriting for a while and stopped on my own game.

That being said, I really don't understand how some of the older members would be leaving? Maybe they lost interest in the game/forums or they were only here awaiting for AAI2 localization?

I find it funny that others call the other forums the old ones. These are the old forums, they were around in 2006. =) We got the other forums I think sometime in 2007?

Yeah, lost interest probably. For curiosities sake I went on my profile and viewed my really old created threads, clicked on some of the old members whos names I recognised, and found out their last activity. There's a few who have been recent, but I haven't seen them post :gumshoe: Then there's others who haven't been on since like 2006/07, so that will definitely be lost interest.

I'm sorry that you all feel the Skype group is a clique. Really, it's more that we all know each other well and are friends now; we don't mean to exclude at all. I myself am just bad about replying to people at all, so I'm sorry... :gumshoe: Just post up your Skype name if you have one and we'll add you. We even have people that aren't on CR in there, so if we are isolating, then it's not on purpose...

To be honest, I don't see where the supposed "negativity" in this thread is, or what's so bad about it's subject matter. Sometimes people lose interest, or have other things come up. I doubt any member's actions have forced someone away.

I still didn't know there were any cliques here, and now the only one I know of is the Skype one. :gymshoe:

I don't think it's about cliques as much as it is about shared topics. For examples, the roleplayers are certainly a group as its members spend a lot of time roleplaying together, thus growing fond of each other. I consider myself as part of the sporker group, where we also spend some time reading and commenting on each other's sporks and making referances to each other's sporks, try to keep the continuity, etc. So I'm kinda fond of my fellow sporkers (and the people commenting on the thread). I'm sure other forum members can find a "group" of their liking as well, be it about a specific fandom (other than AA, obviously), a shared hobby or whatever. What I'm trying to say is, nobody should feel left out. Be an active member and you shall be recognized. Or at least I think this is how it works. ;)

^ Yeah, it takes being an active member more than anything. I've only been here three months, honestly, but I already feel as part of the family because I post all the time.

THE SKYPE CHAT IS NOT A CLIQUE.

Seriously, why is everyone saying that? Everyone there is friendly and nice, and accuse the members that are there to be doing something that is usually seen as being standoffish and rude isn't very nice. Cliques are people that don't let people in, and trust me, the chat is not like that.

Like Regiwi said earlier, anyone is welcome to join. We aren't excluding anyone.

I'm sorry. I'm just getting tired of people spreading rumors that aren't true.

Eek! Mad peoples. I don't think of it as a clique either, but, I didn't really know what to call it.

I think the reason is why they think it's a clique because only people who knew each other well are there. They didn't want to be left out or be a nuisance, or worse rejected.

Me and cliques... not a very good combo. Very sad tale from my past... :gumshoe: :butz:

Despite this, I don't really mind if I don't belong... I sometimes get ignored so... *shrug*

Well a lot of people have joined without really knowing anyone there. We've had a couple of people who aren't even from the forums join. We're all Ace Attorney fans so I hate to think people feel we're unapproachable or something. I mean, at the end of the day, we all just joined this forum because we like Ace Attorney (I believe, although I don't want to generalise since there may be people who haven't played any of the games here.) so noone has any right to exclude anyone else from anything.

I don't really know what else I can say. I hate to think that I might be making people feel this way.

(Oh, also, I'm sure a lot of us have experienced problems with being made to feel like an outsider, myself included. That's why I hate to think that I might be making anyone else feel like that.)