fm2176 Posted January 23, 2019 Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 Just trying to kill some time while hopefully eliciting a response or five... Near fifteen years ago I was a member of the Living With Style (LWS) "community", a rather large site comprised of forums relating to everything from gardening to firearms to art and even to a dedicated Flames forum. In 2008 it imploded but prior to this I was a Moderator for a forum there as well as an Administrator for a couple of its upstart Zoints-connected independent sites. At the time I was fairly active on those sites as well as other mostly gun and truck forums. In recent months, I've noticed a decrease in activity here at the TIA forums. While a few others and I visit daily, and a few new threads/posts are made daily, formerly active sections such as this one are seeing sporadic new content at best. One thing that seems to still be a problem is spam, as evidenced by the now-deleted invasion of Chinese(?) characters and links a few days ago. Another problem are those who seem to register only to try to stir up the pot, such as a very recent comment about those who prefer a certain tool brand. Besides extremely large sites like Reddit, these smaller but much more user-friendly forums seem to be slowly fading from popularity. Is it the near-instant gratification that comes from social media (versus risking slipping under the radar if a question or comment is made here)? Anyway, I'm as guilty as anyone nowadays, checking the forums multiple times daily but contributing less than I was mere months ago. Any insight into how to attract more activity? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regopit Posted January 23, 2019 Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 Thanks to Instagram and Twitter I think all types of Forums are dying off. I know that TIA has been around for about 9 years now. I have been here since the beginning. The first few years I would just drop in and read what people had to say. Then after seeing that the asshole factor here was slim to none this was the tool Forum I was the one to join. I have been here as a member for 6 years now and I have seen this place grow like crazy and now I see it dropping off. I know that ChrisK works hard to kill the spammers and the assholes in check. It is only so much we can do as Mods but hopefully we will see some renewed interest in TIA and we can grow this community. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisK Posted January 23, 2019 Report Share Posted January 23, 2019 Nope. I wishe there was but alas...I’ve bounced a lot of spammers including the one you just cited. If you see stuff like that in the future give us a shout though. Thankfully like you, I am on many times a day and caught it quickly but even today I bounced a new member / troll. A lot of negative commentary has been populating posts and we are dealing with that too but that very commentary causes new members to not get involved. Prize giveaways have always been a part of the forums but unfortunately those have dried up as well and until sponsors are able to get more involved it probably won’t change. Like @regopit states, the new social medium is not Forums but social sites. I remember a couple of years ago Dan started to do these video posts on Snapchat or something like that with giveaways being done there and then involvement really nose dived here. Unfortunately TiA has really been hit by movements to popular apps like that. TiA has changed a LOT as has membership over the last couple of years, too bad really but...we are still here 🤪 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMack37 Posted January 24, 2019 Report Share Posted January 24, 2019 I'd just be echo-ing what was said above. Most of us have reconnected on instagram and it's easier to keep up there. You also get to know more about your friends other than through PMs, you get to see what they're up to daily. I do miss the heyday of this forum, this was a pretty special place.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fm2176 Posted January 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2019 I think I'm just a bit too old and cynical for social media, in philosophy if not in age (I'm 40). I have a Facebook but primarily use it to keep up with military friends. Otherwise, I prefer the relative anonymity and hands-off nature of forums over social media, which in my mind only feeds the habit of being constantly connected to our mobile devices these days. Even so, years ago I was a member of various Yahoo Groups, and while I fondly recall the days of participating in those discussions, they lack the nostalgia of forums such as these. I know that this site isn't going anywhere any time soon and hope to see an increase in activity. Then again, maybe I'll have more time and a more positive view of social media after retirement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted January 24, 2019 Report Share Posted January 24, 2019 Giveaways like UTB are supposedy returning when the new TIA headquarters are fully up and running. I may be a young one here (24) and one would probably think the younger people would prefer IG and YT over a forum. I prefer the forum in many ways over YouTube and Instagram. I still heavily use IG and YT but the forum still has its place. It is so much easier to discuss tool stuff here, ask questions, etc. I find it a lot more organised with better ways to send messages. I feel as though questions and whatnot tend to get missed more often on IG and YT then they do here. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisK Posted January 24, 2019 Report Share Posted January 24, 2019 9 hours ago, fm2176 said: I think I'm just a bit too old and cynical for social media, in philosophy if not in age (I'm 40). I have a Facebook but primarily use it to keep up with military friends. Otherwise, I prefer the relative anonymity and hands-off nature of forums over social media, which in my mind only feeds the habit of being constantly connected to our mobile devices these days. Even so, years ago I was a member of various Yahoo Groups, and while I fondly recall the days of participating in those discussions, they lack the nostalgia of forums such as these. I know that this site isn't going anywhere any time soon and hope to see an increase in activity. Then again, maybe I'll have more time and a more positive view of social media after retirement. Old....40....hahahahahahahaha 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMack37 Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 On 1/24/2019 at 8:01 AM, fm2176 said: I think I'm just a bit too old and cynical for social media, in philosophy if not in age (I'm 40). I have a Facebook but primarily use it to keep up with military friends. Otherwise, I prefer the relative anonymity and hands-off nature of forums over social media, which in my mind only feeds the habit of being constantly connected to our mobile devices these days. Even so, years ago I was a member of various Yahoo Groups, and while I fondly recall the days of participating in those discussions, they lack the nostalgia of forums such as these. I know that this site isn't going anywhere any time soon and hope to see an increase in activity. Then again, maybe I'll have more time and a more positive view of social media after retirement. You can keep your anonymity on Instagram. No real names needed, you can link it to your facebook but you can also just use email. I generally check it before work and after work, then a few times later in the night as I get bored. Turn off notifications and you will check it at your own pace. If you follow less than 400 people, it's really not that much content to go through. I follow over 1,000 and I can look at my whole feed in under 15 mins...minus the live videos stuff, that stuff can take a long time to go through(I mostly avoid that portion). I totally get the anonymity thing, I frequently search my real name and remove all content I find. It's the curse of having a unique last name, if you search for me you only get me. I also had a female stalker, it's creepy as hell. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fm2176 Posted January 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 I'm lucky insofar as having an uncommonly common name. When I search for myself I find a bunch of other English and Americans instead. As for Instagram, I may scope it out. Thanks for the info! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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