Why Don't Youth Predominate SD Like Other Forums?

[Aspidistra]

alt.fan.cecil-adams

[Yookeroo]

@monstro

Yeah. Why the surprise?

Because kids who are looking for a place like this won’t be turned of by a lack of avatars. Kids who aren’t looking for a place like this likely won’t find it. And those who do accidentally run across it will probably find other reasons far more off-putting (like the anti-youth bias or the general interest or that there aren’t many of their peers here to begin with or that their needs are being met by Facebook and Twitter) than the lack of avatars.

I wish we could attract more younger people.

[voltaire]

@Justin_Bailey

I think that’s the problem. There’s a perception that the average SDMB user is 40+ but I doubt it’s true. If we go by the poll Zeldar posted, the average age is probably closer to 30. Older than your average 4chan user, but not old in the ancient sense.

Here’s an age poll more recent than the one Zeldar linked. Granted, there are fewer voters in this one, but it seems to show that the average age is around 45.

The true number might be a bit lower than that, but I think it’s closer to 45 than it is 30.

[voltaire]

And now that I look at the results of the older poll that Zeldar linked, I’m a bit baffled as to how you came to conclude the average age was ~30.

[Guinastasia]

@Acid_Lamp

I’m in my early thirties and have been a member since my twenties, (under a different handle, then gone a few years then back etc) what I found turned off many of my peers was the emphasis placed upon proper writing and expression here. No chatspeak, lolspeak, l33t, or whatever other asinine way of typing was floating around at the moment. Posters are expected to be able to communicate both literately and thoughtfully. Additionally, the dope contains a very high percentage of intelligent people who do not suffer fools lightly; we have moderated the board to reflect this. Combine that with new services like yahoo answers, FB, Reddit, etc, and we’ve now got a rather large filter screening out most younger posters. As for avatars an animated sigs: I wouldn’t mind non animated avatars at all. Sigs can go screw. I hate those things.

Avatars

[PSXer]

Because there’s too many boring old people here who hate kids

[Bryan_Ekers]

@resting

I find Internet memes to be boring and unfunny.

I’m sure Grumpy Cat concurs.

[running_coach]

@PSXer

Because there’s too many boring old people here who hate kids

I don’t hate kids. They have their place in the world.
Over there.–>

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Simple_Linctus

<snip> again because of how obviously anti-young folk the board is.<snip>

Is this board anti-young, or is it just anti-the things that young people like to do?

@PSXer

Because there’s too many boring old people here who hate kids

Door, ass.

[MsWhatsit]

Name one thing that “young people” like to do that isn’t also enjoyed by people over age 30. (Bonus difficulty for the SDMB: do this without referring to animated signatures.)

[R3d_Anonymous]

dom·i·nate
/ˈdäməˌnāt/

Verb

1. Have a commanding influence on; exercise control over.
2. Be the most important or conspicuous person or thing in.

Synonyms
command - prevail - rule - govern - predominate - control
pre·dom·i·nate
/priˈdäməˌnāt/

Verb

1. Be the strongest or main element; be greater in number or amount: “small-scale producers predominate in the south”.
2. Have or exert control or power.

Synonyms
prevail - dominate - preponderate - reign

[Mister_Rik]

@MsWhatsit

Name one thing that “young people” like to do that isn’t also enjoyed by people over age 30. (Bonus difficulty for the SDMB: do this without referring to animated signatures.)

Bieber?

[MsWhatsit]

@Mister_Rik

Bieber?

You’d think this would be true, but alas. Not all of those grown-ass women at the concerts are there because they brought their kids.

[bump]

@Acid_Lamp

what I found turned off many of my peers was the emphasis placed upon proper writing and expression here. No chatspeak, lolspeak, l33t, or whatever other asinine way of typing was floating around at the moment. Posters are expected to be able to communicate both literately and thoughtfully. Additionally, the dope contains a very high percentage of intelligent people who do not suffer fools lightly; we have moderated the board to reflect this.

I think this hits the nail on the head. I’d go one further, and say that the same things that keep the vast majority of non young adults away are the same things that would keep teens and younger adults away, except that as people mature, a larger proportion of them are attracted to more intellectually challenging things like the SDMB, or great literature, etc…

I see the same thing on some video games I play, as far as I can tell. Battlefield 3 skews a little bit older than the Call of Duty games, probably because BF3 emphasizes objective achievement, team play, and a slightly more realistic style of play than the rather arcade-ey CoD game modes. Squeaky voiced kids like running around headless-chicken style, while older players like cooperating and trying to capture objectives apparently.

That, I think is why the board skews older than a lot of the internet in general.

(in other words, people who in their 20s may be concerned with posting constantly on facebook and tweeting about whatever inane thing they’re doing that very moment or where they are may become less interested in that, and more interested in intellectual stuff like the SDMB in their 30s and 40s.)

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

I guess the clean, pictureless (barring a few subreddits), avatar free look is exactly why Reddit is struggling. Oh wait, no, it isn’t. It served over 2 billion pageviews in 2011 with 35 million unique visitors, the vast majority of them tending young.

In short, it has nothing to do with avatars, signatures, pictures or smilies. The real question is, why, when the likes of Reddit and similar sites exist, would they join the SDMB? What is there to lure them away?

[elbows]

It seems to me those who value appearance, signatures and avatars over actual content have lots of choices out there to meet their needs. I see no advantage, or driving need, to be like everyone else, or do something just because others do so.

Those appearance changes are likely to dilute the very thing that makes this place different, and standout from other choices, in my opinion.

I can recognize that most sites are not this way, without jumping to the belief we need to model it as well. Will our environment really be improved by attracting those who value appearance, as a deal breaker over content?

There are plenty of places that meet their appearance needs, but painfully few places such as this. I like that, and would not like to see it changed just to,‘move with the times’, or attract persons unlikely to enjoy what the place really has to offer.

[MsWhatsit]

@elbows

I can recognize that most sites are not this way, without jumping to the belief we need to model it as well. Will our environment really be improved by attracting those who value appearance, as a deal breaker over content?

This might be an interesting and relevant comment in a thread about “Why don’t people who like avatars and blinky sigs come to the SDMB?” However, this thread is about why this board skews old. It has nothing to do with avatars or blinky sigs. As has been pointed out, if “the youth” en masse required avatars and blinky sigs in order to participate, Reddit and Slashdot would be full of 50-year-olds.

Seriously. “We don’t need young people because they will bring with them cosmetic appearance changes that we don’t like” is just… I don’t even know where you guys are getting this from.

[elbows]

Sorry you can’t connect the dots, I feel others probably can see how my comments relate to the topic ’ why does the board skew older rather than younger’.

I think I can live with you not seeing it!

[MsWhatsit]

Then by all means illuminate me. The topic is why this board skews old. You lead off with: “It seems to me those who value appearance, signatures and avatars over actual content have lots of choices out there to meet their needs.”

How is that not saying that young people value appearance, signatures and avatars over actual content and that’s why they’re not here in larger numbers?

[installLSC]

There’s a question not being asked here: why is it important that the SD be primarily the under-30 crowd? Are there are any significant viewpoints, attitudes, or life experiences that are missing now and thus requires us to get a mostly youthful audience? And aren’t already provided by the many younger posters already here?
To all the people who wonder why we don’t have avatars and similar stuff on the site, if you have dialup or similarly restricted internet usage you can’t load heavily graphic pages. A graphic heavy SD would prevent many poorer and less tech savvy posters from contributing much. And that’s a much bigger loss that not being able to get your avatar.