What can be done to reverse the decline?

[ConfederateSS]

--------MAYBE IF PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHY THINGS HAPPENED. THEY SHOULD READ THE REAL THREAD....IS C.C. DECLINING....
--------I also agree about...Flame Wars and Freestyle...All The High Command has to do is put them back...But I don't know how C.C. would let the lost members know.
--------As for the SPEED GAMES...I don't know if this is what Jn means...But I noticed a change for the worst....TO cater to a few. C.C...stopped Speed Games from being 5 mins. flat....Changed the games ,to 1,2,3,4,5 mins a turn...Why?,so that a few people could try and win a 1,000 games in a day. When C.C. should have went the other way. Making it more real life playing,5,10,15 mins a turn.
--------As for some people's crack about other changes...The public pool makes up the majority of the site. Most join to play R.I.S.K....But THE HIGH COMMAND has bent over backwards,to cater to a few...The Minority on the site. THE CLIQUES,CLANS AND TOURNEY GOERS. Making change after change,settings,maps etc.etc...DESTROYING THE BASIC CONCEPT OF THE GAME...Which brings everyone here in the first place...Driving the core of the site away...
--------As for the dice...I could careless, play a 1,000 games ,lose a 1,000 games,play a 1,000 more...There are to many cry babies ,only worried about winning,ranks,blah ...blah. The for mentioned few that the High Command caters to. Instead of what brings people here in the first place...Having fun playing the game of R.I.S.K... ConfederateSS.out!(The Blue and Silver Rebellion).

[owenshooter]

Wait so if "only 1% use the forums" is your argument against Aram, but in the next breathe declare flame wars is a major part of the decline. Doesn't that mean that even if the site deleted the forums entirely it would only affect 1% of the site population?
How can some forum change be such a drastic hit to the site in one instance but such a minimal factor in another?

um... i kind of consider that one of the main points for the decline of the forums/community... different aspects of the site died due to different reasons... for instance, tournaments are dying and that has nothing to do with the forums or flame wars or global chat, but they are dying. i don't think you can really argue that the forum and it's community have in large part, been decimated. i applaud the recent efforts by the new team and BW to revive things, but they aren't even a shadow of what they once were, at the present moment... i hope that clarified this for you... and seriously, when ownership and their minions go about the systematic destruction of a communities forum, don't you think that reflects on how they feel about their users as a whole? glad that owner is gone... the black jesus has spoken...-Jn

[CoolC]

Being away from the site for about 5 years and now coming back to play a bit here's my thoughts:

Implement an easy and advanced mode, maybe as two tabs on the games page or an option in your account settings. Where the easy mode is pretty much standard risk without any odd rules. Keep it as simple as possible. Filter out all the complicated maps. That way it's very easy to get started for new players or old ones who forgot most of the rules, while retaining all the advanced game modes.

Improve the mobile experience and consider releasing a real program ("app") for the mobile platforms. Absolutely get into the different app-stores even if you, like many others, just release a thinly veiled interface to the site.

Consider doing a redesign of the site, but if you do please keep the current design as a user-selectable theme and/or don't do the current "trendy" thing with gray flat icons and massive amounts of whitespace. IMHO most websites (and more) these days look considerably worse than sites from 1995. Go ahead and implement new html5, css3 and stuff but remember to degrade gracefully so it still works with old browsers or javascript disabled. It's fully possible to have both worlds.

And remember that things do go up and down. People come and go. I was probably considered a "lost" member but then suddenly return, and since it was so fun to play again I even consider subscribing once more.

[IcePack]

Welcome back