I’ve taken some breaks from the SDMB in years past, and since I’ve started posting again recently, I feel like the number of new posts is a lot less than it was around 2012 and earlier. But maybe it’s just my perception. What does the actual data say?
Either way I hope it stays around for a long time - this is one of the best message boards on the 'net, if not the best.
To some extent forum boards are a declining art-form. Possibly, just as smartphones, and catering to smartphones, are dumbing the web, users now more conditioned to Twitter and Facebook prefer the declamatory style to dialogue.
Which is their right. But it was nice whilst it lasted.
I was away for quite a while, and I’ve also noticed lately that the boards seem a bit less busy than a few years ago.
Numbers from web.archive org.
Total posts as of 10/01/10: 12 869 388
Total posts as of 08/20/12: 15 283 788
Average daily postings between 2010 and 2012: 3504.21
Total posts as of 08/30/14: 17 550 101
Total posts as of today: 18 459 590
Average daily postings between 2014 and 2015: 2605.99
Yep, that seems like a significant drop.
I think it’s more likely that everything is moving to Reddit, which is kind of funny since it seems like a return to form. It used to be everything has some Usenet group or another, then when self-hosted forum software like vBulletin became popular, sites would host their own fan boards. Nowadays, people just establish their own fan subreddit. Where they can use the same name and everything as a universal ID across boards related to their interests.
I don’t like Reddit much, personally, but I think that’s much more of a culprit than Twitter or Facebook here.
yeah, it’s not just here; the message board format is dwindling. another board I used to frequent has more or less collapsed into a handful of regulars shooting the shit in a few 900 page threads.
Indeed, a list server of which I’m a subscriber now has a bare half dozen members.
The message board as a whole is a dying breed. It’s hard for a message board format to compete with the likes of social media. If the site has content and a message board, then that might actually work. But a message board by itself is increasingly a losing proposition. People spend 3 hours a day on social media. When they finally log off, they’re ready to return to the ‘real’ world, which leaves little time for message boards. And as someone pointed out earlier, if they do, they can go to Reddit.
I noticed significant declines in forums starting sometime around the mid-2000s, which was right around the time that MySpace, Facebook, and Reddit came along. I’ve seen three sites I used to participate on fold up the tent completely (or nearly so) and another one has suffered declining traffic. In one case, I’ve noticed that their traffic is good but they’re getting a lot of drive-by traffic now, a lot of sign-ups but short-term posters who try the site out and move on. What’s different is that in the earlier days of forums, there used to be members who would commit to it and regularly post, which would then attract interest and bring in the new posters. That’s really how message boards succeed. Without those committed posters, the site begins to die.
As the saying goes, you need a crowd in order to attract a crowd. That’s an example of why over-moderation or poor moderation can destroy a site - I’m not at all directing that comment toward the mods here, as I have very little experience on this site. But I’ve seen this happen elsewhere on other sites, and in some cases the mods ruined them. The Mods get drawn into personal conflicts with posters and become biased and run off posters who are otherwise liked and respected by the forum visitors.
That being said, if I may offer a little constructive criticism, the message board navigation on this site isn’t really the best design. It takes a long time to find posts. Too many posts on one page. I’m sure the older posters are used to it, which is probably why the design hasn’t changed. But new posters aren’t gonna dig the design when they’re used to other formats that are easier to scroll through.
Clothing optional servers have arrived!
Here’s the data on daily averages since 2010:
2010: Threads: 117, Posts: 3,730
2011: Threads: 109, Posts: 3,582
2012: Threads: 99, Posts: 3,339
2013: Threads: 89, Posts: 3,058
2014: Threads: 76, Posts: 2,861
2015: Threads: 81, Posts: 2,572
So we’re down about 30% over the past five years. And the trend is not encouraging.
I know I’m bucking the trend, but I still really like message boards like this one. They have their place. Facebook is (IMO) for sharing vacation and baby pictures with people you truly know in real life. Reddit I could never figure really figure out how to use, with its confusing layout. Twitter I have no idea what it’s for.
This is a place for having serious discussions, and sometimes arguments, with people who you don’t know.
One symptom of the decline is that no improved forum softwares are available: vBulletin [ this ] isn’t that great, and the later iterations have actually been worse ( apart from the vendors, now Internet Brands, being a case-study in themselves ). The only real competition are Xenforo ( made by ex-vBulletin staff ) and Ipboards [ Invision ]. Plus some free stuff.
These are not inexpensive. Whilst even cheap software of other sorts is maintained by vendors, vBulletin support is… lacking.
Recently I had to go to my hobby board, which I am generally hands-off, and apart from the fact it was down to 250 regulars, I noticed that when sorting out the admin panel it had a notice that 3.9 was available. The forum is 3.7.x. So I went to download as before, and only 3.5 is now the utmost available.
You will note I had long ago updated to 3.7.
Under a new policy they will only allow updates in the 3.x or 4.x series if one purchases a new 5.x license. Now, I can understand them stopping updates for old series, since one can’t expect support forever; I could understand them charging a fee. I don’t understand why one should buy a new unrelated product to update ( perhaps for security ) an old product.
Looking for a new software — that has the traditional format [ eg: doesn’t hide posts based on voting etc. and similar gimmicks ] I was astounded at the lack of choice.
Message boards are doing fine. People just prefer to host them on Reddit.
Yeah, it’s different in that you don’t have one long conversation, but Reddit is where the people who want to talk about specific topics are going.
I don’t like Reddit much. I try to be on Twitter, but it has, no lie, told me six times that my password was compromised and that they’ve locked my account. It did it five times in a row last time I was on (over a year ago). I got so tired of changing my password I just gave up. Then I went back on a month ago and! within two weeks, “Your account has been compromised and locked”.
Fuck you twitter. Clearly someone is always trying to hack you.
I’ve been saying much of the above for years - we were given the glory that was Usenet, and the ability to hold conversations of essentially unlimited length, duration and persistence, and do it asynchronously with people all around the world… and we let it be taken away for “security” reasons and replaced with 140-chararacter kute kat chat.
The idiocracy of the future won’t be caused by ads, lousy education and genetic decline. It will be caused by a globe of people unable to communicate except in tweets. (And I predict it won’t be long before Twitter is considered a long-form communications channel for old fogeys who blather on and on.)
There’s that old joke about what dogs are really saying when they bark - “Hey!” “HEY!” “Hey!” “Hey!” - and we’re on the verge of going there ourselves.
I miss Fidonet. I miss Usenet. And I am weary-sad to have my vague perceptions confirmed that forums, for all their faults, are genuinely headed to the same museum shelf. I guess we’re too old, too ugly and not deferential enough to hipsters.
I post naked a lot.
Where? To the park?
Sure. But then I still enjoy reading physical newspapers over breakfast or lunch, a custom I fully expect to be largely or wholly extinct by the time I shuffle off this mortal coil. If not much sooner. Let’s face it - times change and message boards are probably in their dotage as a form of social media.
Little sad, I guess because like you I still enjoy the form. But maybe in a few years I’ll really much prefer plugging directly into my implanted media port :).
I believe that part of this Board’s decline in traffic, a very small (but non-zero) part, is a result of the rise of so-called ‘omnibus threads’ in the Pit.
Before such threads became a staple - actually, they’re more like a fixture now - of the Pit, I would occasionally participate in various RO, ‘corrupt cops’, ‘stupid gun’, etc., threads. I even started a few of my own.
But I’ll be damned if I’m going to wade through hundreds or thousands of posts to see if what I’d like to say or post has already been mentioned. Maybe more importantly, there’s no longer much incentive to add to the thread since anything I say will get lost in the crowd. And, unless I actually go through the effort of opening a new thread, with the specific topic of my derision in the title, no one who’s scanning the Pit page will even know that I’ve tried to add something new.
Just one example: unless I’m mistaken, there were no Pit threads opened regarding the tragic case of Sandra Bland. OTOH, I will assume (but admit that I can’t be certain) that there’s a ‘Pit-type’ discussion of her traffic stop and death somewhere to be found in the omnibus thread entitled, “Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread”. Even if not, I’m sure you get my point - in the absence of the omnibus thread, it’s a pretty safe bet that a Pit thread (or three) would have been started about her.
To the vet.