Whistling
Good writeup though, I find most of your points pretty agreeable. Just gonna add the whole “dropping your project being the norm” thing is what really leads us to making substandard blitzes in the first place. Not trying to point fingers or anything since I myself abandoned my own project a while ago.
I accompany FEU and Serenes for more than a year and i still don’t fell confortable with the more experienced members, but i don’t wanna bother them(i only made this accont this week to ask a simple thing, but it was useless since nobody helped me anyway). i want to learn and increase myself into fe hacking.
I personally like febuilder more than buildfiles because febuilder is simple and has a lot of information on how to use it, i cant use buildfiles if i don’t know how, i feel like they don’t want other people in the community. also i don’t get it why they hate smaller hacks like PMEs, sure there’s a lot of it and it does get a little annoying after some time, i mean, i am part of pokemon hacking for 8 years and still has a lot of people making all pokemon in (insert game here).
As for blitzes, i just agree 100% with daar.
Just my opinion as a “new” member 
FE: The Destiny gets left out (by name) of the history books yet again.
I have a different train of thought about the community. This will probably not be a popular opinion but I think some of the difficulties we’re facing come down to the board software itself. Discourse as a forums software is…interesting. I like how it looks and it’s pretty easy to use and post with. But, I think it worked better when FEU was a smaller site and not the 1000+ site members and ~450 discord members that we are today.
The software seems to be based around the idea of one never-ending forum index, kind of like reddit or imgur’s front page but without subreddits for specific things. The closest we get to any kind of sub-forum is the Categories system. Maybe it’s just me though, but I rarely sort the forum by Category, instead just looking at threads that have had recent activity. Also, be honest with me, but how much do you actually scroll down the forum index looking for random threads? I don’t really do that either. Topics get pushed down pretty frequently, soon to be lost into the forum unless someone goes looking specifically for it or had the thread bookmarked.
Most of the discussions in this community seem to happen in the Discord these days, and I’ve seen people joke that the board itself is nothing more than a glorified library to search through (via Discord and FEUbot may I add, meaning you don’t even have to use the search on the site if you don’t want to). But Discord itself isn’t that great for extensive discussion on a topic, since all we’re working with are a handful of channels for hacking. If a conversation is happening in one place, you either have to wait until it’s done or try to awkwardly butt in with your questions or content. It’s not the best setup for asking questions, though when it does work it’s great to get help instantly and often from multiple people at one time. The biggest downside to the discord however, is that questions answered in Hacking Help for example don’t always make their way to the forum, our so-called library of documentation. So it becomes a guessing game of whether or not the information you’re looking for is archived on the site or way back in discord logs somewhere. Having more documentation and question threads in specific locations on the site benefits everyone and reduces how much repeat questions we have, and how often we have to ping the Wizards on discord for info.
As this site grows, I think we might be better suited to a more traditional forum software, where people can post threads in dedicated sub-forums without fear that their topics will get washed away by a bunch of one-off questions from people or more popular threads being bumped often. I know Categories somewhat mitigate this but I’m legitimately curious how much people sort the forum by Category. I also think people should try treating the forum and discord the same, and try to use both equally too to avoid that feeling that the forum is just an afterthought to the discord.
Will this help? I’m not entirely sure, and I also don’t expect it to happen given the scope of my suggestion. But it was just an idle thought I’d been having recently and now seemed like a good enough time to share it.
You’re getting a call from my lawyer.
Feeds into both buildfiles and the debate surrounding MC
How many people here remember Hextator? Old enough to remember the time when FEditor ruled without question because the Great Spud himself made it, and everything he said was final? It was the norm back then for experts/wizards/etc to have the attitude of “no; you don’t know any better” when asked about anything. The reality that FEditor is a messy app that breaks your rom without telling you was unthinkable. If you asked how to do something like make a str/mag split back then, you would be told “give up; it is impossible” instead of being shown the resources to start learning assembly. The community is always capable of improving, but its current state is downright saintly compared to the hostile elitists’ club that originally existed. It’s why I learned to do everything on my own: I was afraid to ask the big guys for help because I was convinced that doing so would completely destroy my reputation to the point that I wouldn’t be able to show my face again.
You have my one hundred per cent guarantee that if we were still using FEditor, this conversation would not exist because everyone would still be dancing to Hextator’s tune and too afraid to do half the stuff that we can do with hacking today. I use both buildfiles and FEBuilder and they’re both a huge help, allowing me to make ten FE8 chapters in the time it used to take me to make one FE7 chapter. Is this thread a cry for attention? If you are actually trying to be constructive here, manufacturing hysteria by saying “the community has gone to shit” does very little to help things.
This was my first assembly-related post.
I didn’t really have the right language/experience to communicate well with Cam at the time (and I assume he’s more experience now than he was then as well), so getting help here was kind of difficult (and unproductive).
You can see that Hextator’s later reply is rather demeaning, however, especially since he didn’t direct me to the right resources to begin with.
I’d say part of the issue then was how much smaller the community was. There were fewer people FROM WHICH to get help in the first place. And those that were, were as Alusq said (I say those, I mean Hex).
Nevertheless, I do agree that there’s a bit of regression (imo the golden era was just prior to FE: The Destiny’s release, where we had Cam, me, Venno, icecube, and jj all actively hacking – but that’s a tangent). I’ll see what I can do to address the concerns. I’ve always made it a policy to have lax moderation; I’ve found SF’s rules to be fairly draconian (a bit of an exaggeration, but certainly strict than here). I’d like to keep it that way, but it’ll just take a bit of thinking to come up with a good, effective compromise.
Fwiw, not blaming anyone in particular here, but I do think many of the issues are caused by a shift in user base. Part of that is just that the crowd has gotten larger – it used to be no more than 20 people who’d post frequently, and everyone knew everyone. My point is that I do believe the decline is the fault of the userbase. But I also believe it’s my responsibility (as an admin) to mitigate the negative effects that they may have (on themselves).
Arch really needs to put in a dislike post button.
Also, as a non-hacker, I think I’ll stay out of this conversation, my experience doesn’t seem to be pertinent.
Please realise that hacking in this context falls into gray areas and that what you’re saying amounts to
If you don’t credit the original creator(s) for their work.
(Source: https://nedroidcomics.tumblr.com/post/41879001445/the-internet)
Everybody knows that what is being done in this regard is quite a gray place, and the large team responsible for the games that we’re messing in are… responsible for those games.
I did not realise that this was happening.
It seems that a lot of people have switched over to using Discourse as a means of getting hacking help, which saddens me, as this very much defeats what Arch’s vision for FEUniverse was meant to be. I think half the reason for the decline is the existence of the Discourse itself.
We are supposed to be a library of resources, not a chat room.
It doesn’t help that new members are told “just use Discord”.
Discourse is fantastic software and so much better for what we need than the garbage that is IPB. I read that someone was concerned about their topics being “pushed down” by new stuff - if that is your concern, perhaps you should post in your topic more.
I like that Discourse gives equal weight to each topic. ANY new topic goes to the top, regardless of what it’s for.
I am sorry to the new members if you feel or felt intimidated, even back when we were just starting out. I have been doing this for far too long (this year will make the 9th year I’ve been in the hacking community) and I’ve grown impatient and time-poor.
If you have noticed a decline in community standards and you see it happening then it’s up you uplift the community. This applies to all of you. You are the community and it is what you make it. If you want the forums to be more active, then use them. If you don’t think people should use FEBuilder, perhaps you should write some tutorials explaining how to use buildfiles. Or, perhaps you need to make buildfiles easier to use.
More than anything, however, you need to remember that this community was founded to HELP EACH OTHER.
So help each other.
Wouldn’t this site be more functional as a library of resources if it was set up more like a library? FPZero has a really good point that Discourse is really counterproductive in that regard. Even quality content eventually finds it’s way down where no one’s eyes will likely see it again. As you said, people can bump their own posts back up but necroing and double posting isn’t a great feeling.
Add in the fact that online forums just seem to naturally breed awfulness and you have a lot of reason for people to lean toward the Discord server. Also if you write something stupid on Discord it’s gone only a bit later
On a brighter note… I found this gem in the graphics repo 
We certainly need more threads posted here that answer questions asked in the Discord. Maybe it’s time for a tutorial/doc request channel in the Discord? Ask about something that needs an explanation and hopefully someone can come along and create a thread here about it? If people are truly interested in the community’s health and being able to include new members, there should be people willing to contribute to this.
I disagree. I’ve got plenty of links that I set up that still get liked and used which are no longer on the front page. We have the search function as well as the wonderful ability to link to other postsand tag users when their opinion is required. Believe it or not, a lot of our traffic comes from Google searches for FE hacking, so even if a topic is not on the front page, it’s quite easy to find via Google. This is why making forum posts is so critical! They’re each their own page which you can access just by searching for the right keywords.
A wiki-style site has been suggested in the past, as well as a homepage. I do like the idea of wiki pages but they’d have to be managed and edited and then this would end up being separate to the Discourse software which would be quite annoying. A homepage would also need a team to manage. I’d rather that each user and topic have equal weight (as they do now) and that each user have the ability to create their own pages if they wish.
We deliberately do not have necro policies here because we want to encourage people to revisit old concepts and post new discoveries where possible. It is what keeps the community alive and it demonstrates to other users that we are constantly learning and still researching. Once again, because each page can be found via search and via Google, it’s important that every thread is kept with the most up-to-date information and links. This is why I always go back and update my old threads with new links so that no one is ever reading old information.
I stress that it is up to you to manage each thread and tutorial - we are basically the pioneers now and no one is going to do it for you. If you want people to contribute to your post, then make it a wiki post so that anyone can edit it.
I must say it again. Use the forums. Make posts. Discuss things. Ask questions. Post pictures. Make example videos. This was how we grew as a community originally and this is the advantage we have over everything else. Remember that every single one of your discussion posts here is archived FOREVER (or as long as we can pay for hosting lol) so that other users can view the page and view the discussion. The more buzzwords you can use in a post, the more likely they are to come up on a search later. I guarantee you that most searches for “Fire Emblem hacking” lead to this very website - this is how we attract new members and inquisitive minds, which is what we need.
Just make a forum post lol. we don’t need more channels than we already have. it’s already confusing enough
On this note, I feel it’s important to state that sometimes veteran users can misunderstand or simply not know what it is that actually could make the more technical aspects of hacking such as ASM or Eventing difficult to get into. Making it more clear what kinds of tutorials the community would benefit from and how older ones may need to be revamped would be pretty helpful imo. I certainly could’ve used with this earlier myself, having struggled with hacking from when I joined 2 years ago roughly to only just understanding eventing and the buildfiles method after/during VBA dropped.
Still don’t understand what the big deal was
Maybe it’s not my place to say it, as I don’t hack very often, but I haven’t seen much of these issues personally. If that’s just because I’m not around as much as I used to be or not due to college I can’t really say, but I myself do not feel there’s any real issues. Sure some asshole might show up and act like a prick from time to time, but in a large and open community like this, that’s a given, and I don’t really see the issue with the occasional asshole as long as he doesn’t violate the code of conduct/if he does, he receives his dues for it.
Still don’t understand what the big deal was
Likewise, it was only one person who had an issue with MC having that much control anyway. Hardly a debate.
I mean on the forums there are so many outdated tutorials I have some trouble finding specially what I want. I think the discord is the quickest way to get a question answered due to how easy it is to send an answer or reply. And more often then not it’s up to date info I receive
