The reason this site has stayed alive for so long is because:

1.) It has had seasons of ups and downs.

2.) It engaged foreign countries during a time when good free games were hard to find.

3.) The circulation of the mod team and it's drama was worth grabbing some pop-corn and watching.

4.) We had villains who were worth watching as well. And heroes.

5.) We were able to engage in new players with the mentorship program and people felt invited.

6.) Epic Mafia was new and exciting for all people who came here.

So if those are the reasons it was thriving what is happening today that is killing it.

1.) We've been in a down slump for far too long. The way we've been getting out of it for the past couple of years is that the mods have been coming in and being a light to the community Our current mods are so focused on finding anyone who even looks like they slightly cheated and just banning them and the accusation of one person. The mods are also using threats and accusing people of having witnesses against them in order to confess things that are not true or half truths that make them seem like they cheated, despite their own statement. Strong arming is not ok and people don't feel safe around a gestapho mod team.

2.) Foreigners have moved onto different free games. They see a bunch of whinning babies on this site who complain too much and they do not want to stay. They do not see an inviting community that is cohesive together. No one wants to be part of a community that is bickering constantly.

3.) We have current mods who have been in the position for too long and need to take 6 months off. They have banned so many people they have lost their trust in the community. It happens. It is part of the job. At the same time the current mod team is so violent in their actions that no one wants to watch it. Years ago when the violation policy was changed to be more harsh several of us said that it was too harsh and we have been waiting for EpicMafia to run into that buzz saw. All it would take is one bad mod team that is too controlling to use it poorly to start to destroy the trust of the community. We are seeing that happen.

4.) This site is hated so much now that in the past two months the normal villains that would cause some pretty interesting drama have left. Now we are reduced to watch certain factions rise up and try to fight the mod team or the website in other ways. Some of the fake accounts leading this crappy charge would suprize you. Some of them are even mods themselves current and not so distantly removed. Some of them are your favorite players. Regardless, it is the crappiest villain drama I've seen on epic for years, since edark. It doesn't help when several of the new heroes that have come on the scene are banned by the mods just because of one accusation.

5.) I hear some new players who talk about how hard it was to get into this community. If that is the case then that means 90% of the new people who join the site are not staying. I brought this up to a mod and they shot it down thinking it wasn't true. This is where your mentorship team comes in and runs things and helps the site grow, but that old practice has been shot down and the mentorship team has been reduced to an inaffective and inactive team of circle-jerkers like the mod team.

6.) Let's face it. With the way gaming is changing, EpicMafia is a game that was established in 2009 off of a 1997 internet gaming platform. Everything has changed about free online gaming; and EpicMafia doesn't meet the cut anymore. There isn't a video chat ranked system. The adds on the site just make it look horrible. This style of game play is made for only certain types of personalities.

I am sure that there are several reasons I have not even touched on, but when I come into the site every day and people are having a hard time filling games there is a problem. It only takes about 20 people to run the games on this site, but the site has been experiencing down time for the past 6 months that it has never had before. I think if you read everything I wrote you can get the site going again, but it will take some time. Anyways, it is sad to go from a community that was 3000 strong to having a 200 people fill during peak hours and a night crew. This sad post doesn't need to have any fun in it. The amount of people who complain about everything ... takes a deep breath ... the negativity will just make people run from this place. I think you can read through the lines to see how to fix everything. Tah tah.