Now that they have slowed down.
There are those who fore see the demise of these boards because the user base is declining.
Me Im back to posting, mainly because I dont live in the internet and if I come back a day later my post isn’t buried.
I like thought out discussions, something this board lacked during it’s height.
I dislike it. I think we’ve lost a fair number of good people. Also, I liked the ability to flip through a single page and come up with five interesting threads instead of three interesting threads being rehashed out to 250 posts instead of a nice, readable thread that’s 10-20 posts long.
They have? You mean due to the paying requirement?
I haven’t noticed any slowdown either. Maybe I’m in the wrong forums.
It’s weird and kind of sad to see threads languish forever on GD.
My plan is to wait and try to not annoy anyone until I am the last one left and Cecil is forced to answer all of my queries.
Me, too.
I haven’t noticed a difference, and I’ve been lurking for over a year. I never really visit GD though, as it seems the same 5 topics are re-hashed over and over.
With the way the server is going, are you sure it isn’t just because people can’t check pages as fast, and therefor don’t post as much? This rumored new server should see to that.
And if you feel it is getting quiet around here, recruit! Sing from the highest tree about the wonders of the straight dope message board! Post flyers on your local college campus, in the professor louges, at the quad. Got any smart friends? Turn them on to the intelligent discussion. A message board is what you make it, and if you want more people to talk to on here you, and all of you, have to help bring them in. We aren’t exactly yahoo.com here, we don’t advertise.
I stop reading the board, when I can’t stand to read the same questions asked every couple days. That’s actualy seamed to stop lately, as it had been more guests than long term members doing that. I find the boards are fine lately for traffic, though as always the page hangs still suck.
The payment system went live years ago. Whatever slow-down there was due to that is long-since stabilised. My guess would be that you all have just been here long enough to get bored with it.
You know, it’s people like you who really piss me off!
Unfortunately, I think there has been a decline in the quality and range of debates in GD, and I also think we have had a huge lost of knowledge in GQ. There were lots of posters that were very knowledgable about very specific things, who posted infrequently, and have chosen not to pay. Way to often now, it seems that half of the answer in GQ are either flippant or just plain wrong.
Hmmm, I have been here nearly 7 years and not a lot has changed to tell you the truth except the servers are a lot faster than they once were.
The board slowdown seems to have been coincident with my getting-a-life. (ie; full-time, away-from-the-home-office employment.)
I used to refresh the forums obsessively and treat threads more-or-less like IM chats. Now, instead of reloading the forum, I go do something else and come back at break, lunch, when I get home from work, or maybe just before I go to bed, and there are about the same number of replies.
So it’s all good for me. Hell, I remember the days when I used to follow an average of a dozen threads at a time, at all times. Not too long ago, it seems.
I feel more calibrated, now. Sort of like how when there’s a string of shipments of China White that get blocked at the port, the junkies find it a little easier to float a broom for a few weeks at a time without getting too messed up. (After dying a little inside, of course.)