Maybe it's just me, but given that lately I see less than 2,000 users on this forum, together with sooo many silly Reddit Kiddie re-posts, it's hard to believe that Meta is actually still supporting this User Forum. I hope that's not the case since, as a very longtime forum member, I've gotten a lot of good advice in the last +6 years.
i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 64Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with 2x2.0 base stations, Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers
If they were made from Metas AI - as @kojack mentioned - it looks to me like a (poor) attempt to bring popular questions – rather than Facebook/Instagram problems – into the forum.
Ten years ago, the VR userbase was enthusiasts and tech-heads and the hardware was expensive. Now the most popular headsets are something to get little Jonny for Christmas. The hardware still has some issues, but users don't have the skills to search for answers and rectify them.
Four Rift CV1s, Quest 2, Quest 3, Lenovo Explorer WMR, GearVR GOOGLE PREMIUM ACCOUNT
Saying it was Meta's AI doing the posts was just a joke. 🙂
The reddit copy/paste thing is just a trick to get spam links into the forum without moderators noticing (although some of us non or former mods do spot them).
Copy existing post from a related community (like reddit) and post it.
Moderators may see it and think it's legit.
Come back a week later when the thread is off the front page and not being observed, and edit in spam links.
Google will pick up the post and index the links, and the forum's search may reveal the thread to new people, but mods aren't watching.
But I'd happily deal with never ending reddit copy/pastes in exchange for stopping the flood of instagram/facebook help requests.
Meta really needs a separate department for account support. While facebook, instagram, whatsapp and meta accounts all belong to different departments, the fact that they can be linked together and one being exploited will affect all of them means there needs to be a central system for dealing with it.
I'm with you guys on the Facebook help thing. It would be great too, if the Talk VR section was just general VR chat, not just free from Facebook help requests but also general complaints-free... there's the help section of the forum for problem sorting, but I understand there needs to be a bit of an overlap where people want to blow-off here too. We used to sometimes copy help requests into this section as it got more views... it's just that these days, the proportion of general chat threads to problems/complaints threads make it not such a good place to for those of us without problems to come and chat anymore.
I'm thinking early development kit and CV1 adoption days, when there were way, way more problems, hardly any software and pretty much no complaints (unless I'm miss-remembering)... we just figured out how to sort things out between us and it was all part of the fun.
Not sure how the forum can practically get closer to how things were really without a major uplift in resources to keep on top of help/complaints/facebook/instagram sorting. Just a result of the change in the consumer nature of VR as you say @oculusness coupled maybe with Meta's general reluctance on paying too many staff members to monitor/moderate their platforms.
On the plus side, I'm using my headsets more than ever.
13700K, RTX 4070 Ti, Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming, Corsair H150i Capellix, 64GB Corsair Vengence DDR5, Corsair 5000D Airflow, 4TB Samsung 870 , 2TB Samsung 990 Pro x 2, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, Quest, 2, 3, Pro, Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (10.0.26100)
I'm thinking early development kit and CV1 adoption days, when there were way, way more problems, hardly any software and pretty much no complaints (unless I'm miss-remembering)... we just figured out how to sort things out between us and it was all part of the fun.
We still had some annoyances, like problematic people. But we also had the actual developers hang around here. Plus in the DK1 days the software was open source so we could help debug stuff.
I think the biggest problem is there's now a layer of abstraction in the middle that wasn't there in the past. Instead of VR enthusiasts and developers talking directly with the headset developers, it's now VR consumers talking to support staff, and maybe something gets passed on to the headset devs (but we don't know if it does, and we don't hear a direct reply). In the past our VR discussions on here (or reddit to talk with the high ups in Oculus) could influence things. But now there's not much point since nobody in a position to do anything is present.
Kinda feels like everything is dead in here, nothing but support requests or negative posts.
2017 - 2020 were indeed the golden years.
My primary focus is to increase adoption of high-end VR experiences, and the crowd sharing that interest seems gone in here, or are silent observers.
Still there are many high-end enthusiasts using Quest 3 hmds, and it's really strange that the interest is so limited in here - to me Reddit has totally taken over. That's in spite of the number of high-end VR Quest 2-3 users probably is way higher than it ever was with the Rifts in 2017-2020.
Personally I miss the old boardies, we had tons of great discussions, even if we did not always agree.
Having Oculus Support in close contact with engineers also was great. Now it feels like no one cares, especially for PCVR.
Fun thing I still greatly appreciate my Rift CV1, and my enjoyment of VR has not decreased. But maybe I'm a dinosaur enjoying the lukewarm ashes before everything closes, lol.
Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD "Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"
Well really @RuneSR2 you've only been promoting non-Quest VR to Quest users on a Quest focused forum. I get you like high-end just as many of us do... but you stick to your own threads more or less, which is mainly the CV1 and the PSVR threads.. you've abandoned your Index thread somewhat... but it's the anti stand-alone stance that a few of the old guard adopted that didn't really do much to help the forum. No real engagement with the Quest users who visit the forum to discuss their new hobby.
Even the non-meta VR forum that I now visit more than here is by and large very positive to all forms of VR including stand-alone. The stand-alone vs PCVR thing always seemed stupid to me, as if one detracted from the other. Most people, I think, understand the affordable option is what's keeping VR alive, the likes of nvidia and their price-performance direction of latter years is what's killing all forms of PC gaming including PCVR.
VR should not be just for those with a spare $3k-$4k and upwards, if it was, VR would already be over, games devs wouldn't touch it. As it is, with VR capable PC prices as they are, VR focused devs only have stand-alone as a realistic target to sustain a business around.
I don't get why meta need to cater for people who are already served well by several other headset manufacturers anyway. Unless you think no-one should do dual use stand-alone/PCVR headsets? or you think they would do a better headset for the price... which they wouldn't if we consider their pricing is based on limiting hardware consumer cost in order to build a userbase. If they catered for so-called high-end meaning PC-only?, then why would they limit the headset price? Just get a Pimax or a BSB, I'm sure they have forums too!
All in all, it just seems like a lot of silo thinking and I'll be blunt... entitlement.
Rant over.
13700K, RTX 4070 Ti, Asus ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming, Corsair H150i Capellix, 64GB Corsair Vengence DDR5, Corsair 5000D Airflow, 4TB Samsung 870 , 2TB Samsung 990 Pro x 2, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, Quest, 2, 3, Pro, Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (10.0.26100)
