Community members should be aware by now that the official fan community forum has been exchanged for a community system, which works quite differently to a straight forum. It's been a shock to many, particularly the English-speaking users, who have found that having English and German users combined into one set of boards resulted in the proliferation of discussion in German, and a severe reduction in English threads. This has now been remedied, bringing about a great improvement in user-friendliness, but many English users have stopped visiting before the change. The only way to make the community revive for English-speaking users is to use the community, so I hope those who have faded away will come back and stamp their personalities all over the place, because we all know that Rammstein fans are personality-plus!One thing I love about the new community is the ability to share media directly against your account, and the main community feed, so you can see where people are active. You can also friend people and filter the community feed to see what your friends in particular are up to. You can also subscribe to sections of the forum, so you get updated directly when people are engaging. It's very different to the old 'Fan Arena' format, but has way more potential for creating a real family of fans.
I for one have had fun visiting using the Chrome browser by Google. It has GLT built in, so you can go into the German section and read what people are saying, by accepting the browser's offer to translate. If you, like me, are trying to learn German, then switching the translator on and off, to see what is posted in both languages, is awesome.
Chrome is my browser of choice. It has issues with some stuff, so I keep my other browsers installed, but I primarily use Chrome, because it is a superior tool, in my opinion. In a multilingual scene, such as that of Rammstein fans, it really comes into its own. I can read Rammstein World and Rammstein Mexico without having to struggle with copying and pasting content into GLT.
Anyway, back on-point, I really hope people give the new community another chance. I had a really good explore last night, and find myself more and more pleased with it, but the lack of participation that has resulted from such a drastic change is not sustainable. We need to engage, support the community, and ensure it continues to improve.
Many of you won't know this, but I am an active campaigner to get Rammstein's fans to unite. Over the past 18 months-plus I have seen change, and more is to come. I hope these changes get the due consideration and support they deserve. The momentum needs to increase, rather than waning, as it has been, due to the ennui and jadedness of the fans.
My goal is to see more fans engaging on fb, Twitter, the official community, and on their own sites. Link to one another, communicate, and cooperate. Follow each other on Twitter, like each other on fb, join the official community, and link to all the other fan communities on your own fan-sites and MAKE it work. It won't happen overnight, as we have witnessed, but nor will it happen properly if we don't partake.
Okay, pep-talk over. Think it over.
