Not quite sure how long we have been on active on this Site - it was not that long after first joining, but I am sure that I remember when these forums were full of entertaining, enthralling and sometimes controversial threads. I remember seeing a thread start one morning and by the time I got home from work it was pages and pages long?
What has happened? The forum activity seems to desperately short on active postings and those that are get the odd message or so meaning that you can be away a week, log back in and not much has really happened. Has the site lost its core membership and is just hanging on now?
I am a member of another forum that represents a tiny single interest hobby group in this country (nothing sexual - a nerdy old mans hobby - don't ask) and it has to be ten times busier than this place now.
Maybe I am looking back and imagining this place to be different to how it is now but I find myself logging on here less and less frequently and finding that nothing really is happening on the forums and so I leave it a little longer until the next time - and so on, and so on...
Thoughts anyone? ...
I will be back this time next year see if there has been an answer? :-)
As it happens TH I have been having the same thoughts in the last few days, although on a lot shorter timescale.
I can't really remember what the forums were like a few years ago, I tended to skulk in the shadows back then. However, even as recent as two months ago the forums were busy, but they seem to have died a death since Christmas.
i think it was always going to happen when the Ca was merged with the cafe as most that used the cafe never ventured into the Ca forum and visa versa
I wouldn't pay to use a forum, probably why i still hang around, truthfully it hasn't really been the same since Dec 2005.
We've been members for almost 4 years now. No where near as long as many of the regular forumites but long enough to rack up a fair few posts. I have to admit that even after over 3000 posts I still don't feel like a regular.
When I started using the forum there where the cafe, CA and JFF forums. I personally thought that worked well. You would get regulars and new posters in each and some people who dipped in and out of each. I rarely used the CA forum as it was constantly full of heated debates, arguments and quite a lot of bickering and quite personal comments. That's not what I go into a forum for. JFF and the cafe were much friendlier and inviting. You could have a laugh, a flirt and lots of friendly banter. In short, people were made to feel welcome. When the cafe and JFF merged, in my opinion, that's when the friendliness stopped. There were so many threads complaining about other threads and 'dullard' threads that people just stopped posting as much in the cafe .... About anything! Of course the heated threads in the CA continued.
With the recent restructure, all of the heat from the CA is now in the 'fancy a chat' forum. I honestly don't blame people for not posting. Especially those new to the forum. It is so uninviting, unfriendly and full of personal comments.
I check the forum every day but rarely post. The bitchiness is something that I personally don't want to get involved in. In my opinion, while people display such aggressive and personal behaviour the forum will continue to struggle.
The forums are as dead as ever I have known, long gone are the days of multiple tabs and pressing F5 in an attempt to keep up with a multitude of very fast moving threads. They lost a lot (most) of the very regular posters following the sell out and have gradually been declining in quality and quantity (imo) since then.
Prior to this the cafe had mostly been about having a laugh. The sort of political threads that the CA section catered for were definitely in a minority. There were still fallouts but these happened mostly by accident rather than design. Although a good internet ruck makes fascinating reading for the uninvolved, just like looking at a car crash, it's probably not healthy, and that is all the CA type threads consist of. Why would any but the committed warrior join in them but unfortunately there is very little else to post on.
"Loose the sniping and bring back the fun."
I believe the mix of the forums has killed it.
Years ago I used to write threads, covering all topics from emotive, sexually, politic and fun topics. I felt there used to be a good input with people giving their opinions on all sorts of subjects, could have a laugh and ask for sexual advice.
I value peoples opinions, some posters used to really make me think and it was a place I would ask for opinions, advice and generally enjoy being around.
Sadly there have always been those that like to put others down, without giving their opinion but prefer to attack. There is a art of debate and giving opinions. Personally attacking and just wanting to personally criticise others for me isn't a pleasant place to be. A few years ago a couple of people even took this over to private messaging me which led me to give up being bothered to write threads here anymore.
I still look into the forums and I still see personal attacks still seems what some use it for. Something that I personally never do. I would rather share thoughts opinions and a laugh.
I have often thought about writing threads again. I have started and then thought what is the point. It often feels like a battle ground in here and not a welcoming place to be.
Very sad really.
I would like to see the forums split again so there is a place for everyone again and the parts you don't like you don't need to enter.
Time to bring back the goldfish Neil.
When the forums were at their height the chat room (singular) had 120 people in at its very busiest, usually far less than that and no cams. At busy times now the chat rooms have upwards of a 1000. It's obvious where most people that want to interact using pixels are spending their time now. Why get involved in a forum arguement when you can watch tits?
Have a look at the status of every single person that has posted on this.
Says it all out loud to me............................
Everyone has godlike status.
Almost all the posting are the same people, making new faces think long and hard before posting replies.
Why post a response when you already know who and what the reply will be.
Point proven ?????
I know what the status means and am aware that most posting are by the same people.
Those that are new may not understand this and some do indeed see it as a status not to be toyed with.
They then decide discretion is the better part of valour...............
You took my original post as an attack, though it clearly wasn't.
It was pointing out what new faces see when reading the forums.
You became sarcastic, and if I were new,then maybe would have just left this thread and all future ones well alone.
, something is surely seriously wrong where this forum has about 20 regular posters if that. If the site owners were that bothered I am sure something over the last year would have happened. It is what it is.....a tiny forum with owners and members who really do not care about it as the posting figures now prove.
