# writers.net now has zero active members...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-net-now-has-zero-active-members/834235>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 20, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-net-now-has-zero-active-members/834235 "2019-05-20T15:21:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LynnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@LynnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LynnM)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-net-now-has-zero-active-members/834235/1 "2019-05-20T15:21:41Z")

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10-12 years ago, [writers.net](http://writers.net) was a lively, free-wheeling, usually unmoderated forum for all things writing+editing, fiction+nonfiction. Several members published novels during that time, including “The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril” and “Water for Elephants.”

This am I checked the site for the first time in a few years–zero active members. Wonder what happened…maybe people just lose interest…the Writer’s Digest Mag forum died too, apparently because of financial troubles.

Are online forums fading out? More people on social media or whatever?

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**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-net-now-has-zero-active-members/834235/2 "2019-05-20T16:23:12Z")

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I don’t know about that one specifically (although I read Writers Digest in the 90s an early 2000s I never joined their online community), generally speaking Reddit and Twitter killed a lot of message boards like this one.

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**Author:** ![Caldris\_bal\_Comar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Caldris\_bal\_Comar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldris_bal_Comar)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-net-now-has-zero-active-members/834235/3 "2019-05-20T16:50:37Z")

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Facebook groups have been where a lot of discussion seems to have migrated towards as well, at least in some of my areas of interest. Mildly unfortunate for me, as I don’t have a Facebook account. I have never been able to figure out a rhyme or reason as to why some forums were supplanted by Facebook, some by subreddits, and some have seen a less significant decline.

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**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-net-now-has-zero-active-members/834235/4 "2019-05-20T19:25:38Z")

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Hopefully, some places will reawaken as people quit Facebook over the major security issues.

It’s hard to have a decent conversation with all the teeny-bopper-level arguments are raging. “Did not!” “Did too!”  
~VOW