[the_logos]

Nobody wants to advertise to other MUD owners I'd imagine. Advertising here is valuable for 2 reasons, however, neither of which have anything to do with advertising to MUD owners but everything to do with what MUD owners do:
1. Lots of MUD owners send their players to it to vote.
2. TMS places highly in MUD-related searches because lots of MUD owners link to it.

You can theorize that somehow, magically, the forums are going to become a magnet for players but I don't really see a reason for it. There is no "mud community" I'm aware of despite how often that term is thrown around. There are "mud communities" oriented around the individual MUDs, and smaller communities of developers oriented around a few MUD forum sites.

I mean, just look at the popularity of MUD forums around the net. Achaea's forums alone are considerably larger than TMS or TMC's forums and Achaea didn't even put up official forums until 2004. When a single games forums (and I'm sure Achaea is not the only MUD with forums that size) are more popular than -any- general MUD-related forums that ought to tell you something about how MUD players in general view their community. Further, even with the size of Achaea's forums, most of its players don't participate in them, much less ever read or participate in general mud-related forums.

It's only natural and to be expected. You don't find an international "bar" community. You find communities around specific bars. You don't find an international "town" community. You find people generally more interested in the community OF their town. Similarly, players are just naturally more interested in the community around the world they call home. Disproportionately, it's developers who have a reason to participate in a meta-community, just like with most things (like a bar....bar owners may communicate and go to conferences or whatnot together, but their patrons don't).

--matt