Is it just me, or does it feel like the forum is decreasing in people? [Archive]

Aedilred

2014-03-09, 12:51 AM

It may just be me, but It seems like the Forum used to have a fair deal more people than it does now, and seems less alive. Anyone else have that feeling?
It's something which for the last twelve months or so I have consistently felt about every online community of which I'm a member. I don't know whether there's actually any validity to it, or whether something has happened to affect my perception.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if forum activity here were decreasing. I think the activity of an individual member of a given community tends to follow a similar pattern: an initial period of adjustment, a period of consistent engagement and heavy posting, then a gradual weaning off as they develop other interests and the forum starts to get repetitive, so they drift away. Relatively few forumites remain prolific and productive members of any one community for more than a couple of years. The trick is to recruit new members at a sufficient rate to replace the old ones drifting away (the theory probably isn't that different from normal population management). Activity decline can also be cumulative, since as the posting rate drops, people will start to check the forum less frequently, and thus post less. I've seen (much smaller than this) forums die remarkably quickly, going from apparently sparkling health to wastelands within a couple of weeks.

But in any case, order to attract new members you need a reason for them to visit. The main reason new people - and many existing ones - will visit this site is for the comic, and updates on the comic are less frequent and regular than they once were. This has been the case for a long time (although might have been mitigated for a while by Erfworld) and we might now be starting to feel the long-term effects of that. However good this forum community, there are a lot of forums out there, so there's no particular reason why people should come here specifically.

Remmirath

2014-03-09, 01:01 AM

I suppose I have noticed the general posting speed around here is slightly less overwhelming than I once thought it to be, but I figured I was just finally adjusting to it -- I've mostly spent time on much smaller forums than this, and when I first joined this one, I hardly ever posted because I felt topics were moving far too fast to keep up with on a reasonable basis.

I know that my activity level with regards to forums is fairly random. Some days I feel like posting, some days/weeks/months I don't. For me, it has something to do with how much I've been having to deal with people in person over a period of time, but I'm sure there are other reasons that other people just don't feel like checking around much.

Although I must say my impression is that forums in general have thinned out a bit in recent years. My cynical hypothesis is that too many people lack the attention span for lengthy posts and conversations occuring over a period of a day or more, but there's probably a more optimistic explanation out there.

factotum

2014-03-09, 02:29 AM

I think it's been particularly quiet for the last few weeks, but that's mainly because the comic is on hiatus--anyone who would normally read the comic, then pop over to the forums, isn't here. Whether that's part of a long-term trend is something I don't know.

Bickerstaff

2014-03-09, 02:42 AM

Killer Angel

2014-03-09, 04:06 AM

Castaras

2014-03-09, 06:34 AM

Getting near end of university semesters and school will be picking up for people. Deadlines and tests/exams are a right @"!£$@. :smallsigh:

Mauve Shirt

2014-03-09, 07:28 AM

Aedilred

2014-03-09, 01:17 PM

A lot of Old Gold has transitioned to FB, where they do most of their real-life comms and are present most of the time anyway. I think that's true of a lot of internet activity, sad as you may find it.

I do find it sad, and bizarre. Facebook has an appalling comment-management system; one of the worst I've ever seen on an online text-communication platform. It's also a nightmare to locate and navigate older threads. It baffles me that people have migrated away from dedicated discussion forums with proper thread management to Facebook for that reason alone.

I'm also surprised given that Facebook's most salient feature is the absence of anonymity. It doesn't seem to stop vituperative flamewars and trolling, though, so I guess we can finally put that old chestnut to bed.

Remmirath

2014-03-09, 01:55 PM

Also, finals are coming up if you live in America. And probably other places to, but I don't want to make assumptions. Anyway, that would probably effect a slower posting-rate by members here.

Ah, yes. I suppose that does likely have something to do with it. I've always been a bit out of touch with the scheduling on such things -- those were always in May (and December for the autumn semester), the only years I actually had them.

I do find it sad, and bizarre. Facebook has an appalling comment-management system; one of the worst I've ever seen on an online text-communication platform. It's also a nightmare to locate and navigate older threads. It baffles me that people have migrated away from dedicated discussion forums with proper thread management to Facebook for that reason alone.

Indeed. It's difficult to keep up a conversation with even one person on Facebook, let alone several at a time -- and you can't even properly format your comments without copy/pasting from a word processor. One can't find even old events if one wants to look back and see what time something was a year ago. It only works in the moment, and that not particularly well, in my opinion.

I'm also surprised given that Facebook's most salient feature is the absence of anonymity. It doesn't seem to stop vituperative flamewars and trolling, though, so I guess we can finally put that old chestnut to bed.

Considering that some people act like that even in person, I'm not surprised that the lack of anonymity does little to nothing to help civility.

It does, however, make it impossible to communicate with other people you don't know around the globe on the same subject if you don't want to add as "friends" a whole bunch of people you actually have never met. Which I, at least, don't. I have relatively little actual information about myself up there, but it's still more than I want the peoples of the world knowing.

Proud Tortoise

2014-03-09, 04:32 PM

Facebook's younger membership is actually on the decline. It is becoming the domain of grandmothers and big business.

Mauve Shirt

2014-03-09, 05:17 PM

What do you mean, impossible to find old threads from a year ago? Everything is organized in a timeline on every page. :smallconfused:
It's not like you can read super old threads here anyway. Hellooooo lack of search function.
As for the removal of anonymity, most Playgrounders who initially communicated on Facebook had done so in real life, so the mystery is gone.

Also, I'm still a young person. Where are the young people hanging out these days? And don't say Google+, I've been there and it's still a ghost town after all these years.

Lord Raziere

2014-03-09, 06:17 PM

Facebook's younger membership is actually on the decline. It is becoming the domain of grandmothers and big business.

wow. Myspace must be grinning, waiting to say to Facebook "Welcome to the Has-Beens Club. Not so great now are you?"

if what you say is true, which there probably is evidence for, seeing as how news networks are starting to integrate facebook into their shows...

but then my question is: if they're not on Facebook, where are they going now?

Aedilred

2014-03-09, 06:56 PM

What do you mean, impossible to find old threads from a year ago? Everything is organized in a timeline on every page. :smallconfused:
The amount of time I've spent scrolling up and down looking for a thread, waiting for sections of the page to load, because you can't easily jump to or survey posts from a specific period or of a specific type and have to view the whole thing at once, and the threads aren't displayed properly chronologically anyway, and even when you do the thread itself is a jumbled mess, assuming you're even on the right timeline to start with... I've just given up. It's a complete waste of time.

(It's kind of ironic that Facebook stores all this information about you for the rest of time and is happy to sell it to marketers and the like, and you never know when it'll throw up some old photo you never wanted to see again, but it makes it really difficult to find any of it yourself.)

The Playground isn't perfect in that respect, and a search function would help, but it's still immeasurably better.

Amidus Drexel

2014-03-09, 07:09 PM

School's busy, and a lot of the people I know here are gone - some temporarily, some permanently. I read through things, but outside of a few PbP's, I don't post much anymore.

I'd be interested in seeing how many accounts are active anymore... Of the thousands of accounts here, how many have actually logged in (much less posted) in the past month?

warty goblin

2014-03-09, 07:12 PM

I visit the site as much as I ever did, but I find my desire to post steadily dropping. Part of it is that my tastes and interests seem to be ever more divergent from the mainstream of this forum, part of it is that I don't really feel like getting into an intensely pedantic argument about most things, which tends to happen a lot around here. I'm happy to talk about various nerdish things, but I have little interest in quarreling over them, or their attendant cultural norms.

TuggyNE

2014-03-09, 07:32 PM

(It's kind of ironic that Facebook stores all this information about you for the rest of time and is happy to sell it to marketers and the like, and you never know when it'll throw up some old photo you never wanted to see again, but it makes it really difficult to find any of it yourself.)

They know who their customers are. :smalltongue: :smallyuk:

Velaryon

2014-03-09, 09:04 PM

wow. Myspace must be grinning, waiting to say to Facebook "Welcome to the Has-Beens Club. Not so great now are you?"

if what you say is true, which there probably is evidence for, seeing as how news networks are starting to integrate facebook into their shows...

but then my question is: if they're not on Facebook, where are they going now?

Twitter. This has come up in more than one of my library school classes - Facebook is less "cool" now more teens are using Twitter. Which also explains why Facebook has adopted things like hashtags and trending topics.

Mauve Shirt

2014-03-10, 05:20 AM

Twitter. This has come up in more than one of my library school classes - Facebook is less "cool" now more teens are using Twitter. Which also explains why Facebook has adopted things like hashtags and trending topics.

Wut. Twitter was way down in coolness last year... I've seen the graphs and everything. :smalltongue:

Also, talk about something nigh-impossible to hold a conversation on! Not truly searchable by time or year, most conversations are backwards and littered with nonrelated celebrities.

banjo1985

2014-03-10, 05:32 AM

Comic hiatus doesn't help, but the forum definitely has got quieter in the last two years. It was really noticeable when I cam back after 18 months - posts in FB, Arts and Crafts and SMBG in particular have dropped considerably.

Finlam

2014-03-10, 06:32 AM

I don't really feel like getting into an intensely pedantic argument about most things, which tends to happen a lot around here. I'm happy to talk about various nerdish things, but I have little interest in quarreling over them, or their attendant cultural norms.

You hit the nail on the head. People are moving elsewhere as the community decays. This used to be a cool place to talk about anything and everything nerdy and tabletop related and now it's becoming a place where angry people have pedantic and repetitive arguments every time they feel the wrong pronoun was used.

warty goblin

2014-03-10, 10:37 AM

You hit the nail on the head. People are moving elsewhere as the community decays. This used to be a cool place to talk about anything and everything nerdy and tabletop related and now it's becoming a place where angry people have pedantic and repetitive arguments every time they feel the wrong pronoun was used.

I don't mind people arguing a bit about pronouns; those actually effect people.

I don't even think the community's gotten particularly worse either. Mostly my patience with nerd pedantry has really decayed over the last year or so.

Errata

2014-03-10, 03:45 PM

I do think forums in general are waning slightly, with competition from other forms of social media, even though most of those alternatives make it harder to have substantive, sustained discussion. And this forum in particular has suffered from intermittent updates to the comic.

Flickerdart

2014-03-10, 09:52 PM

but then my question is: if they're not on Facebook, where are they going now?
Snapchat ans WhatsApp are incredibly popular with teenagers and other young demographics that mostly communicate with pictures and short phrases.

warty goblin

2014-03-10, 09:57 PM

Snapchat ans WhatsApp are incredibly popular with teenagers and other young demographics that mostly communicate with pictures and short phrases.

And here's me wondering if messenger pigeons aren't too distracting, and whether to downgrade back to smoke signals.

ShadowFireLance

2014-03-10, 09:59 PM

And here's me wondering if messenger pigeons aren't too distracting, and whether to downgrade back to smoke signals.

I am laughing far too hard at this. Nice.

warty goblin

2014-03-10, 10:12 PM

I am laughing far too hard at this. Nice.

Good. I had to resend that message with Mr. Yellowtoes after Blackwing got eaten by a hawk taking it to my ISP. I'm glad his valiant sacrifice was not in vain. Now here's hoping Beth Bluefeather makes it through OK.

Lord Raziere

2014-03-10, 11:08 PM

Snapchat ans WhatsApp are incredibly popular with teenagers and other young demographics that mostly communicate with pictures and short phrases.

ugh, What next, LetterChat? hieroglyphs? pictograms?

communicate with singular symbols?:

Betty: A
Bobby: 7
Betty: G
Bobby: ?
Betty: I
Bobby: !
Betty: C

*rolls eyes*

Tyndmyr

2014-03-10, 11:19 PM

In answer to the OP, this does seem to be the case. It might experience a bit of a spike after the release of 5e, as honestly, a lot of the ol' versions have been kind of talked to death. New things for optimizers to chew on and argue over might cause more conversation.

Animastryfe

2014-03-11, 01:23 AM

Killer Angel

2014-03-11, 06:56 AM

Here (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/giantitp.com)is alexa.com's stats on the overall giantitp site. There seems to be a decrease in activity during the last few weeks, but that is probably due to the comic's hiatus. I have checked alexa.com's information on the site during a previous lull and boom, and the site's activity seems to be based on the webcomic's updates. However, this does not show forum activity specifically.

Plus, the forum staff is planning to add a few new moderators, so (IMO), it's an indication that the overall work needed to keep up the pace of the forum, is not slowing too much down.
(I know that "work needed" is different from "decrease in people", but still is something)

Tyndmyr

2014-03-11, 08:14 AM

Plus, the forum staff is planning to add a few new moderators, so (IMO), it's an indication that the overall work needed to keep up the pace of the forum, is not slowing too much down.
(I know that "work needed" is different from "decrease in people", but still is something)

I suspect at least part of that is the unfortunate influx of spam. There's a LOT more of that visible these days.

EmeraldRose

2014-03-11, 09:21 AM

I wouldn't be worried. This is something that's happened a few times over the years. People come and go, and then sometimes come back. I mean, there's probably lots of people we could look around and say "Hey, where'd ______ go? Haven't seen them in awhile."

It's one of the good things about this forum. People know they can leave for months/years, and then come back and pick up as if they never left. (I've done it myself.)

Things will steady out eventually.

Grytorm

2014-03-11, 03:04 PM

Then you have a few people like me who rarely post and doubt anyone really recognizes them even if they do see me.

Legato Endless

2014-03-11, 06:47 PM

Speaking in slightly more general terms, this thread fills me with a twinge of nostalgia envy. I tend to get into various social phenomena fairly late, after they've reached a certain popular notability. It's a bit tonally depressing when people speak of the Gotterdammerung of a hobby community.

I'm also a lurker, and I was reading the webcomic since 2010 until I finally decided to join Thr forum. A friend of mine and this webcomic were what got me into tabletop. While I can freely utilize google-fu to find subjects on the site, the real tragedy personally is the inability to search postings. I like the general forum quite a bit, but have a definite yen for the ability to follow certain people's postings. Where I've seen enough engaging writing to be vaguely curious about random other comments. Or who turn a mundane predictable conversation into something enlightening/entertaining.

I'm also biased though towards this web format. Reddit is entertaining, and helpful for aggregating news you would never think to search for, but the community is a vast chaotic flux which often precludes a legitimate back and forth. Twitter is very counterintuitive to me, and perhaps I don't see the point beyond well known people sharing to vast crowds. Fine, but not enough to justify being a time sink. Facebook I simply loath, having never understood why younger demographics were enamored with it to start with. It's decent for finding people decades later, but as a sharing/discussion/social website its clunky, badly designed, consits of dubious design upgrades, and most appallingly, its a frelling demanding timesink.

Then again, a mainstream Hollywood action film last year joked about how blogging isn't done in the new tens, so maybe I'm really out of the loop. Anyway. I hope the site maintains a decently sized community through the rest of the run. I don't regret what comparitively little time I've spent here.

tldr- Forums are nice. Like this one.

Grinner

2014-03-11, 07:12 PM

...its a frelling demanding timesink.

And this site isn't?

I've spent time just passively browsing these forums, only to realize that two hours have passed and that I've accomplished absolutely nothing.

Legato Endless

2014-03-11, 07:19 PM

And this site isn't?

I've spent time just passively browsing these forums, only to realize that two hours have passed and that I've accomplished absolutely nothing.

Sort of. Facebook has a general wave it expects you to keep abreast of. You can't just walk away, not without someone saying something or experting a responce here or there. Here you can simply say you'll he gone, or just walk away for a month like I did earlier this year and come back, with the exception of rp commitments. I can also breeze some days by just checking the subscribed threads links. You can easily lose some hours here, but it doesn't resemble the lifestyle I see Facebook becomes. Obviously, your mileagemay vary.

Duck999

2014-03-11, 07:31 PM

It may just be me, but It seems like the Forum used to have a fair deal more people than it does now, and seems less alive. Anyone else have that feeling?

I once said this in random banter, but other people didn't seem to feel the same way. I really agree though.

ShadowySilence

2014-03-11, 09:34 PM

I just recently returned to GITP after a year long absence from the site, and to me it doesn't look any less busy now than it was then. The conversations have shifted a bit, and faces aren't all the same, but for the most part everything seems to be about normal to me.

If there is any real "shift" in the number of people, I think I'll probably turn around by this Summer, but even then that is just part of the ebb and flow of the life-force of a forum.

The only forums I ever really worry about with this sort of stuff are ones with less than 300 members, those can die if they have a drop in interest, but something this big has at least some insurance.

I also second an earlier comment, once 5E hits the official shelves, I think people will be chatting about that quite a bit and giving it a good test-run. :smalltongue:

warty goblin

2014-03-11, 09:40 PM

I also second an earlier comment, once 5E hits the official shelves, I think people will be chatting about that quite a bit and giving it a good test-run. :smalltongue:

Alternatively, when 5E comes out we could just randomly select and incinerate a member a week. There'd be less screaming, a drastic reduction in flames, it'd be savvy marketing - not even 4chan actually sets people on fire! - and save everybody a good deal of time.

ShadowySilence

2014-03-11, 09:43 PM

Alternatively, when 5E comes out we could just randomly select and incinerate a member a week. There'd be less screaming, a drastic reduction in flames, it'd be savvy marketing - not even 4chan actually sets people on fire! - and save everybody a good deal of time.

Ohhh, well that sounds fun, why don't we start now? We can just put everyone's name in a hat and see who gets picked first. :smallamused:

Legato Endless

2014-03-11, 09:50 PM

Alternatively, when 5E comes out we could just randomly select and incinerate a member a week. There'd be less screaming, a drastic reduction in flames, it'd be savvy marketing - not even 4chan actually sets people on fire! - and save everybody a good deal of time.

I object strenuously unless each charbroiled playgrounder has a breezy two hour trial overseen by a kangaroo court. Just crisping people isn't enough of a gimmick to see us through more than the summer. 5e debate...will just not go away when it comes. >_<

We should at least have fun before the simmering.

Killer Angel

2014-03-12, 06:58 AM

Brother Oni

2014-03-12, 08:01 AM

ugh, What next, LetterChat? hieroglyphs? pictograms?

You are aware that the Chinese use numbers for their version of text speak?

Mandarin version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFTW_abinnM).
Cantonese version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6mQyXp2_kw).

Pictograms are used by default. :smalltongue:

JustSomeGuy

2014-03-12, 08:18 AM

Considering that some people act like that even in person, I'm not surprised that the lack of anonymity does little to nothing to help civility.

I guess you've never stumbled upon two strength coaches having a heated discussion on squat dynamics, or the ensuing maelstrom of team accumulating and nutswinging! It's kinda funny, but at the same time pretty embarrasing that scores of fully grown men will get so bitter over something so minor. I'd bet that this isn't unique to the topic of high bar vs. low bar squats (the same folks also get into it over straight line vs. s line pulls, straight line vs. j line benching, geared vs. raw lifting, it seems to be a continula series of the same arguments recycled over and over! My point is that surely other people must argue about other stuff too, surely?)

Bulldog Psion

2014-03-12, 10:27 AM

Mostly, I'd say there might be a temporary slackening because the comic absolutely won't update until the 31st. I know I've posted a lot less since there wasn't the incentive of a possible comic to keep me returning. It'll pick up going into April, though, I surmise.

Karoht

2014-03-12, 12:44 PM

It may just be me, but It seems like the Forum used to have a fair deal more people than it does now, and seems less alive. Anyone else have that feeling?I used to practically live on this website because I had next to nothing else to do at work.
Then work became work-like.
And changed my hours to when people usually aren't talking much outside of the play by post/recruitment/OOC threads.

Ibrinar

2014-03-12, 03:35 PM

I didn't noticed such a particular trend. Plus, judging by the number of newcomers in the "hello and Welcome new members", i would say that the recruitment keeps a (more or less) regular pattern, with maybe only a slight decrease (after all, the catchment area of a forum dedicated to gamers, is a finite quantity, so some slowing is physiological)...
I think it is very hard to judge based on the new member thread.
Most people only make a few posts, the majority of the post is from a relatively small number of posters. There are 52k entries in the member list (people without at least 1 post are apparently not shown) and the bottom of the main page says there are 12.7 million posts. The 100 people with the most posts alone have made 1.5 million posts so around 12% of all posts, the first 200 2.4 million, the first 500 about 4,3 million posts. To contrast number 10k has 112 posts if the average of all 42k after them was 100 posts (which is obviously to high) they together would have as many posts as the first 500.

My point is most people who go to a new member thread will do so during their first dozen posts or so, but only some of them will ever contribute significantly to the forum post output.

Although the assumption that a steady number of newcomers turn into whales (to borrow ftp terminology^^) might be reasonable.

Hiro Protagonest

2014-03-12, 03:57 PM

I have noticed that SMBG seems less active than usual, but I myself have long ago stopped participating in Kiss or Kill, and only really check two threads in that, 2000 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do in RPGs, which is far less popular than the knockoff its counterpart in Roleplaying Games, which is already on its fourth thread, and The Caption Contest.

But the general Roleplaying Games and 3.5 section seem to be active, although I am noticing a lot more posts now made by people who've signed up after I did. The Gaming (Other) community is pretty much intact, as far as I can tell.

WalkingTarget

2014-03-12, 06:52 PM

Most of my historical posting was done in the Media forum. Grad school did a number on my ability to keep up on the new hotness as regards what people are generally talking about and, since then, actually having a job that requires me to do stuff for most of my day cuts down on how often I can even read forums, let alone participate. It makes me somewhat sad, but that's life.

Velaryon

2014-03-21, 02:37 PM

I object strenuously unless each charbroiled playgrounder has a breezy two hour trial overseen by a kangaroo court. Just crisping people isn't enough of a gimmick to see us through more than the summer. 5e debate...will just not go away when it comes. >_<

We should at least have fun before the simmering.

Only if we use real kangaroos. :smallcool:

AtomicKitKat

2014-03-31, 10:08 AM

I've been here since I think Strip 20-something? Like around the "V-man" strip which started the whole "(Roy thinks)Vaarsuvius is a dude?" thing. In the last 5 years, I started a new job, and have had a lot on my mind. Alongside which my main activity here used to be looking for interesting stuff in 3.0/3.5, "exploits" and "cool stuff", which generally meant I spent less time within Friendly Banter and more in Gaming. And some in the Comic forum, discussing class/level geekery. Once 4.0 gained traction, my activity in Gaming tapered off, so I shifted over to Friendly Banter, and given certain mental things I've had built up over the years, I left for a while to brood over castigations and remonitions, in an attempt to make sense of what I've been doing.

tl;dr: Life and other stuff got in the way.

Don Julio Anejo

2014-03-31, 04:50 PM

I've read in a few places that Zuckerberg originally wanted Facebook to become a utility, not a "hip new thing" the way it was in 2008 and the way Twitter is now. I.e. people using it to keep in touch, companies using it to reach out to get feedback from their customer base, celebrities reaching out to fans, etc. A hundred million teens using it to instant message each other is counterproductive to that goal and they were only useful to make it popular, but they aren't the core target market because they're not really.. marketable as a commodity except to a few advertisers. Grandmothers using it to follow cooking shows and talk about recipe books (to use a stereotype) IS marketable, and fulfills the role of a utility.

Basically, Facebook wants to be more like LinkedIn and less like MySpace.

Me personally? "Pedantic arguments" is the perfect description of what I've been experiencing. I say something, and immediately one or two people (it's usually the same 1/2 people per topic too) immediately jump out and contradict me with something like "yes but you know in this rare case in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire page 92 line 5 a throwaway line contradicts your argument despite everything else about it making sense, ergo you're wrong and stupid." Why I stopped posting in media.

And friendly banter seems to trend a lot more towards LGBT threads (which I have no interest in and can't meaningfully contribute) and a lot less from general discussion such as this one.