So this really isn't the best time for us in all honesty. Many players are leaving for a multitude of reasons (most notable one for myself personally is Lunary, rip). Now, a lot of you already know the gist of things, people leaving due to toxicity, school, internet issues etc. I'm sure all of you are as sad as I am to see people go (whether it's temporary or permanent). But here's the thing, there are things that we, as a community that we can do to attracted old and new players and make sure that they stay.
Aight check this out cuz this is where players, site admins and DEVS (Caps on devs cuz there's one bit for them that's kinda important) can do something.

Firstly, toxicity. If you don't like it, STOP IT. I saw waaaaay too many people on Lunary's leaving thread saying stuff like 'yeh omg this community is so toxic'. No one likes a toxic community, so what do you do? BE NICE TO EACH OTHER. Sure, troll a bit, trashtalk, whatever you want bro, it's all good, BUT make sure you acknowledge that there are LIMITS to how much you can say and do! You want people to stop being assholes? Fix yourself first.

Now I'm sure site admins/mods who are reading this are probably thinking 'good on you Suli, taking initiative' or whatever. Here's the thing, I respect you all but you guys need to seriously get stricter with some s***. If someone is blatantly saying s*** to another user, give them a warning or two. Perhaps a temporary ban if needed. This won't make you lose traffic in the long run!!! Seriously, do something!

Okay, now onto the devs. You're all young people, I'm sure you all have real life responsibilities to attend to, but you need to keep in mind that you are losing players!!! and considering the fact that you have announced what is your biggest update yet, this is an awful thing. You don't even need to release Beta as a complete state, release it in two parts as you did with v9 if you have to. But please, keep hold of your player base's attention!

Y'all already know. It's yaboi Suli talking here. I've contributed to Lloyd's meta more than a lot of people out there (who have also dedicated time to my main, shoutouts to you guys!), I've called out dodgy wiki sites and fraudulent clans, I even streamed and posted youtube videos at one point. And looking back, I think my efforts were not wasted whatsoever. I myself planned on going on a temporary leave until Beta since I found the current state of the game quite stale (I still do). However, after reading Lunary's leaving thread I've decided to stay and contribute however I can. I was told in a Skype group that there is a possibility of Smashboard articles of our community, so I wanna do as much as I can before we end up looking like a bunch of toxic kids (Which we really aren't if we just put a little effort!)

tl;dr fix yourselves players, do some s*** site admins/mods, release some s*** devs
gg

I really hope people take this to heart.

the easiest way to make sure we DONT recover from the slow time we're having rn would be to split beta into two updates. it would be boring kind of like a v0.9c of sorts and less groundbreaking and likely to not spread far enough to garner the attention we need. that's the thing with big updates like this - it's an intentional decision and although its disappointing as hell to see people so quick to give up on the game as i think v0.9b still has a lot of room to grow, it is basically expected that a lot of people are going to leave. if beta is big enough and in-your-face enough it will bring those players back and also tons of other people. this happens with basically every wait between demos. i think the difference now is that our intake of devs has tried up thats why we've been pushing hard for people to apply lately. the only way an 'open door' team like this works is if we have people coming in to replace the people who are leaving - otherwise if void leaves we won't have a sexy voice, or if i leave we wont have someone that's awful at coding and gay as hell. these are things the team still needs to have to succeed even if void and i are driving in alaska and i lose control of the car and have a head on collision with a pack of sleddogs in the iditarod.

but yea it's a good point with the moderation i think i've been a little too lenient myself, we're really rude to new players and players who aren't necessarily competitive and people who just want to have fun and i am definitely going to start handing out warnings for that rather than simply posting and telling yall to quit playin. toxic isn't just being mean to other tournament players and such toxic is something that is an overall general community feel and it's not going to get better unless we all start policing ourselves and others. smack talk is fun but there's a line between that and being an a**

Thanks for taking the time out to reply. I see where you're coming from in terms of the way Beta should be released. I guess the only suggestion I have is to make an announcement, I mean a BIG announcement, twitter, youtube and facebook, saying that Beta will take longer than expected to release due to a shortage of devs. If the people don't know, they won't care. Also, releasing some dev diary updates and more screenshots could also help in keeping the player base's attention. I know I'm not a dev or a mod or anything but I'd love to talk further about this privately if that's what you'd like/need/whatever.

Again, thanks a bunch for replying!

WIP. I suppose the pleasant people need to be more vocal. Perhaps I should grow up and apply to be a moderator, lol.

I agree about treating people with respect. I hate most people here, but I don't blast it in people's faces.

Why do I get the impression this is aimed somewhat at TSF?

I remember that when v0.9b came so many players came out of the woodwork and the scene exploded overnight, and I hope that Beta will reach beyond the channels we've gotten players from previously (word-of-mouth, buried Reddit comments) and try to make the game in the general Smash community's consciousness, a la Brawl Minus: even if you don't play Brawl Minus, you probably know what it is. It's natural for the community to dip a little (especially as the summer ends), but I think that as long as we have a dedicated base of players and a place for people to come to, then we'll be OK.

Now of course we have to have a community that people legitimately think is cool and worthy of being a part of, and that's where I support what everyone else has said. I think this game has a much larger divide between the filthy casuals and fun-cancellers than the main Smash games (in essence, I think a lot of people come from the larger Smash competitive community and a lot of people come from word-of-mouth around schools and stuff, and those communities don't intersect a lot), and I hope that as a community we can segregate the two a little and provide a place where people of both kinds can feel appreciated.

Ultimately, I think the main thing the SSF2 community needs to keep players is exposure. So many people who hate on SSF2 on Reddit or elsewhere really don't know anything about the game, and so they download it, go to the character select screen, see Goku, and never play the game ever again. I think people will be really impressed by Beta and this game if they just overcome prejudices and treat the game as the next demo of PM, and I hope that Beta will come closer to achieving that.

Along the same thought that you expressed at the end about the CSS and Goku, Luigi's lack of inclusion put many people off. As if they thought that new characters (resentment often turned towards the anime characters) were taking the place of classic veterans like Luigi. I'm glad they did the roster in the order they have, I always felt like Luigi being in ssf2 was a given considering he is from the original n64 roster.

I think that Beta will bring in a boom of players, idk if it will be larger relative to 9b's popularity surge but it will definitely be a big one.

it's been 3 weeks since the smash con reveal trailer lmoa

beta will be big and fresh and its likely that most people who left will slide back into the community once it releases

including me lolo

See my tW post if you havent already

I don't think retarded, useless clans are the problem here.
How self centered.

I agree with pretty much everything besides the releasing of a two part beta, or any beta related content at all. See TSON's reasons. I really think the community needed something like Lunary's departure post, he was honest with how he felt about the community, and who's to say he isn't the only one who feels that way. Just saying.

Fair point .
That was very selfish of me, I apologise.

The one person I agree with a lot is TSON, especially with regards to new players. I remember AnimeKing2020's tournament which was...unconventional, and people absolutely roasting him for it. Additionally, people who aren't trying to play competitively can feel like they are a little cut off from the community. These people are often denounced as "randumbs" and are even just outright hated for trying to play their way. (I know I'm guilty of this and I imagine most people are too).

Now, I feel this is present in all of the Smash games. Newcomers in Smash 4 are often denounced as "For Glory _______". Tournaments bias in favour of top players by bending the rules a little (Press Start with Hax, Mango and S2J) and in general, I feel that the Smash community as a whole is pretty toxic, so it isn't really just us. But I feel that we do need to improve, and Suli makes a very good point in this thread.

I will finish my rambling by agreeing with Klemish. The community did need to hear both Lunary's thread and this thread. Hopefully this will lead to some improvement.

tl;dr - I agree.

Ultimately, I think the main problem with casuals v competitive players is that there isn't any place for casuals to discuss the game: we have the forums, but this place is essentially just for competitive players. Hopefully at some point there will be a place to discuss the aspects of the game that aren't competitive (single-player modes, items, common counters to common spam tactics, "interesting" tier lists, etc.) where they won't be shouted down, and hopefully make the competitive community happier by reducing posts that none of us care about or want to see, and we have a place to redirect people instead of just telling them to git gud.

+1 for this idea