Soliciting opinions on our community's future.

[ROBERT DUNN 2]

My purpose in opening this thread to all forum reading members is to initiate a discussion regarding what we want msFLIGHTS.net community to be in view of the impending release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (known locally as FSXX (per Coast)).

Do we, in general, want to maintain the small groups of us that gather in our specific channels for customary comradery and scheduled purpose?

Do we want to draw on our now 10 year existence and current facilities to encourage those FSXX simmers looking for such to explore what we here do?

Do we prefer to take little or no action, make no external announcement of community mission and just see who may show up on our Discord or our forum?

There exists a FSXX Discord forum already. It is segregated currently into a public section open to any Discord user who can find it and, separately and protected, an alpha testers' section requiring Microsoft moderator validation verifying current registered alpha tester status for entry. (Historic alpha testers have, apparently, all now been granted beta tester status - a question of semantics IMHO.) The only dedicates FSXX website forum that I know about currently is the restricted Microsoft forum at https://forums.flightsimulator.com/. Reddit and AVSIM are currently very active in discussion of this FSXX subject.

Depending on community response to this thread, I reserve the right to edit its purpose or delete the thread if the question I ask becomes bothersome. If more appropriate and of interest, please feel free to create a structured vBulletin poll on this or any related subject. Hell, feel free to pursue any constructive initiative you want on this community opinions subject. I will answer my own questions and engage in dialogue with those who post here as may seem appropriate.

[Waterman981]

I think back to the days of MS Flight and how this group all started. Basically due to the in game multiplayer and match making. FSX of course had it's gamespy lobbies that have all disappeared, but it wasn't quite the same. I've never even tried built in multiplayer for P3D or XPlane. The point being if people through the in game multiplayer find a bunch of folks flying together, and from the sound of the multiplayer discussion it could be a Live, All Players, or a private Group session, I would think groups flying in public sessions would attract more people. It looks like JoinFS does work with MSFS, so that lets folks come from any simulator, but only if they know.

Depending on how things go for MSFS I would think communities using Live or All Players would be the ones to thrive. Although if the missing elements such as helicopters are not added, and there are lots of griefers, the platform as a whole may not survive.

[Kalo]

I would say we should keep on doing what we have been doing; hosting group flights and whoever wants to attend are welcome. We should see a surge in attendance once the simulator is out. Who wouldn’t want to buy the new simulator and try it out? Is anyone planning on not trying it out? I expect to never touch FSX/P3D again once the new sim is out (unless something is hideously wrong with the release). Of course we should also support anyone that wants to still host flights in FSX/Xplane, I just expect myself to only host flights using the new FSXX.

I’m sure the release will have some issues and likely take time to iron everything out, but it obviously looks much more promising than Microsoft Flight, I doubt there will be any big enough concerns to prevent us from our regular group flights on release.

I agree with Waterman about players being attracted from online play. With regards to advertising I would say we should only do it in appropriate channels like we have always done, mainly on websites like AVSIM that provide a forum to advertise an event/group flight, or in a Discord channel like the one Bob mentioned IF they allow event advertisement. I’m not sure what the server/session hosting will be like in FSXX, but we could advertise our server if they have a session list like they do in FSX.

[Waterman981]

As a refresher, here's the official video on how multiplayer will work.

[ROBERT DUNN 2]

While I do feel that the public release of FSXX this coming August would present a singular and fleeting opportunity to make the simming public more aware of our community, I personally have decided not to make any extraordinary efforts to publish about nor describe msFLIGHTS.net. I would gladly participate in a generally supported effort to entice simmers, new and old, to explore our community but I don't believe we have the community interest nor current support systems still in daily use to be of the required level of service. I currently vote, then, to just wait and see who might show up on our forum and/or Discord, who might wander into some publicly viewable group flight we may have in progress and just "wing it" regarding any description of our community mission and customs, support in sim operation that may be sought by new arrivals, etc.

I see by the "Who has read this thread:" avatars that those friends of mine whos' opinions I value have either replied with their counsel or had time and opportunity to so post. I will continue, as is my custom, to sign those posts I make elsewhere, including my alpha tester reports, with my usual signature block:

ROBERT DUNN 2
msFLIGHTS.net

Thank you all for your attention to this thread.

[Karl]

I will continue, as is my custom, to sign those posts I make elsewhere, including my alpha tester reports, with my usual signature block:

Hurumph, hurumph