(A little bit of reading music) Community. Hah. Seems to be something thrown around a lot within Bungie, by both the actual community and Bungie itself. But let's be honest about it. Is there really a solid community on B.net ever since the update? Go on the mains and ask anyone and they will almost 100% of the times say no, that it has fallen apart. Ask Bungie and what would they say? 'We have a great solid community that backs us.' While it might be true in regards to the boat load of 12 year olds blindly on the #Destiny ship, that sure as hell does not apply to the rest of the forums. While I know there are members who simply don't care about what Bungie's community was (either because they are new here, aren't regular members or never invested themself in this place as much as others), I'll say that it's the great majority that are discontent with the state of the website. Now I know some of you, including some people at Bungie will react 'Shit, not this Hipi kid again with this stuff'. What do you want me to do? The Community Bungie 'loves' so much is tearing itself apart in front of them. I understand they have a game to deliver, and trust me there is nothing more I want then to see it finished as perfect as possible, but is it really worth trashing the online community that formed? All the veterans that have been here for years? I myself have been here for almost 6 years now, and there are few others that are even older here. All those members that stuck through the 'Dark Times' of Bungie going under at the start of Destiny and countless other times? We held on. We held on for you. What do we get in return? A complete site update. I'm not going to say it was totally worthless because it was not. A lot of minor upgrades were made that the community had been asking for for a while. But that doesn't mean many other of the changes were positive. Many of them were absolutely atrocious for many people here. The one that stands out way above and beyond the rest is what has been done to private groups, which directly affects other aspects of the site. Nearly the entire concept of Private Groups was nuked. The rules that allowed them to thrive on were softened for the mains while the options to customize and work within them were removed as if on purpose, which on parallel to making groups tank, made the mains go to shit as well. I'm not even going to go into the new banning and muting system and the fact that moderators are basically paper weights on this site, which then again promotes the mains even more going to shit and being a haven for ignorance. The absurd limited nature of current private groups is nearly unfair. I know some of you will say 'Hey, don't complain, they do all this for free for all of us, they don't [i]have[/i] to' or among those lines, but really? If they praise and talk so much of the community they love, then why leave it in shit? It's not like it's a couple of members that hold this belief and they have not been vocal about it. It almost simply comes down to the fact that Bungie doesn't care. If they did they would [i]at least[/i] address these issues with an actual answer unlike Achronos telling me 'Sometimes you have to play the waiting game'. I mean seriously? Is 'playing the waiting game' really worth the hundreds of members that have left the site? Quality members that used to call this place home and found them in private groups which have by now long ago tanked? I'm sure a straight answer LAST YEAR saying 'Don't expect an update this year' or something would have helped a lot. Many people have moved off site to form their own forums, such as Halo Archive (which replaces the dead Bungie Universe Forum) or the new MLP Group offsite or even Sapphire which is taking the most serious attempt at doing their own thing. Many of you new people might not know of these groups, but they were the major players in Bungie.net back then. People felt PRIDE to belong to a group. Group Wars would happen because of this. Now some of you might find this foolish, but think what you want. Being part of a group back then was one of the main experiences of this site. But now? What is the main experience or reason to remain on these forums? None that I can think of. Even my beloved TFS, another of Bungie's major private groups, is on it's death bed. All it's members even admit it and are trying to salvage the group themselves. They're tired of waiting for a promised update which keeps getting postponed, and I don't blame them. Now some of you may be asking why I am talking so much about the forums when this is mainly about Private Groups? Because they are both very much related. A lot of members only stayed on this site thanks to private groups, and posted on the mains from there. Private Groups were their refuge from the mains, but how are they a refuge is they are falling apart and absolutely nothing can be done about it? I've seen too many good people leave the site because of its current state, having no reason to stay as the mains don't offer what the private groups offered. And from all the new blood arriving, do they replace them? No, not at all. Most of them are trolls, spammers, utter shit posters, alts which add to the decay of the site as a whole, even more so then before. I myself find it hard to return here, something unthinkable a year and a half ago, after 6 years and almost 2 years with TFS. Honestly, the only reason I continue to come here is because of the group, but if it ceases to exist, dozens more of quality members will leave, which will give me no more reason to stay. This exactly is what has been happening since the site was updated with hundreds of groups. Bungie loves their community but allows it to fall apart without even saying a word about it. Doesn't make much sense, does it? This will be among my last attempts to get what is left of the community's support and make enough noise for Bungie to actually stop turning a blind eye to the state of things. [b][i][u]So please, I beg you, in the name of what Bungie.net once was, please show you're support. No matter what private group you hail from or even if you are new here. Just show some support and speak your mind on this thread.[/i][/u][/b] For an idea of the type of stuff that happened around in B.old, check all these threads out and compilations of threads and recorded history the community was once proud of. Do we even have anything to show to be proud of in this last year? [quote][quote] [b][u]A short compilation of threads that made the b.old community great[/b][/u][/quote] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=1610978]The archive of hilarity[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=3408808]bobcast banged your mom, kind of...[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=3534520]My sister is a porn star[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=1947004#39577098]The infamous cheerios thread[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=3563294]I did something stupid[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=2856294]My roommate pissed in my microwave...[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=1551724]Flood funny sayings[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=3144231]Shadows guide to the internet... no not that shadows[/url] [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post?id=2987477]Report achronos thread[/url] [url=http://halo.bungie.net/forums/posts.aspx?postID=45656580]The HRG saga[/url] no Credit to Capiton Render, what a newfag[/quote] So what do I want with this thread? Bungie to acknowledge the poor state private groups have been left in. AND, most importantly, give us some solid information on what is happening with private groups. A date we can expect anything to be updated. Give us hope that private groups haven't been forgotten, because right now things are bad. Hopefully they will listen to us and help out their beloved community.