General Chat / Where's all the activity?

Maybe it's just that I'm not completely adapted to the new site yet, but where is all the activity happening? I see the screenshots are now the focus of the site's main page, which is great, but the forums feel relatively dead. Are people just lurking and not posting or is there an actual lull in activity? Or are the forums just pretty much obsolete at this point with the screenshots and projects taking over the organization of the site?

I think the screenshots and projects are definitely the priority. The only real active forum topics besides the streaming topic are in the general chat. 

You know, I think it feels so different because we are missing a "new replies" tab. In NE4 that was the first place I went so I could see all the new replies for any forum, not just for screenshots/parks. Is that tab still around somewhere?

http://www.nedesigns.com/new-content/

Click New Content on the 2ndary red bar. The forums were never "popular" on NE4, only the dump place was..

Speaking of the New Content tab...whenever I click it, I get a message that says:

 

"There appears to be an error with the database.

 

If you are seeing this page, it means there was a problem communicating with our database. Sometimes this error is temporary and will go away when you refresh the page. Sometimes the error will need to be fixed by an administrator before the site will become accessible again."

 

Any ideas on what's going on?

Hmm, think I just fixed it, try it now?

It works now, thanks!

The activity will return at Christmas after I get back from a week at Disneyland Paris

Inspiration will be majorly high

Too busy right now with school + work to browse the interwebz atm

coming from a "sort of" outsider (been roaming since NE2 or 3)... I am still finding the new layout really difficult to navigate. Not disrespect to the creators of the new NE, the site still looks amazing and very visual... but I think the activity left when the site changed.

 

To me its just overwhelming when you first enter the site... screenshots everywhere... forum threads are very different. The accolades have no presence on the homepage, a thing that I thought really intrigued me whenever I entered the site. 

 

I feel like the usual users of NE use this newest edition with no problem... but to outsiders and newcomers, it is still sort of confusing to look through. I love the idea of the "screenshots" on the homepage, but I think accolades should have just a big presence, and forums should be more similar to how they were organized on the old site. 

 

I don't know how constructing sites work, and i'm sure this took forever to make, I mean you can tell by how new and improved it looks. I just feel like the sudden change may confuse newcomers to NE. I seriously mean no disrespect by this post.. The site looks fantastic... just for me (and a few others), it's still a little too difficult to get used to. 

To be fair, we do normally get a 'lull' around this time of year. Activity tends to pick up all the way to the end of summer and then it drops off again, to pick up all the way to the end of summer etc. etc.

threads like this pop up every 6 months every year of NE's existence regardless of what version the site is on. RCT is a private single player game that takes time to hash out something that we consider "good" now days. That's all there is to it I think.

Did my annual drop in at NE, looks like the place is dead compared to what it used to be. Where's all the posts?