Have you noticed less traffic on forum sites?

[LONDONER]

I do notice that Fridays, Saturday and Sundays there are far fewer posting on GS. I don't use either Facebook or Twitter

[Albie]

I haven't been here long enough to notice any downswing. And this is by far the largest forum that I post on.

I agree with Twisttheleaf. I can only come on about once a day, and if there are too many conversations to sift through, I wouldn't be so active as it would take too long to get caught up.

[Virge]

DUDE, do not feel guilty! Lordy, lordy. We do like having you around but you have SO much going on in your life. (Envious of that!) You're doing great things… so GTFOOH already!!!

Thanks Mike. I explained some of the reasons I've got so little free time now on this new thread Also I'd appreciate any of your nefarious digging to get threads related to it. I meant to include one about NOM being fined $50,000 for illegally transferring money from their "education" fund into their political fund. We had Jay's parents here for 8 days. They left Thursday which was the beginning of spring break from school. This will be a big party for me hahahahaha! I have to make two 48 hour round trip drives and maybe three before I have to go back to school on the 18th.... after that things get really busy. Gotta carpe all the damn diems I can while the money is there to be made.

I haven't been here long enough to notice any downswing. And this is by far the largest forum that I post on.

I agree with Twisttheleaf. I can only come on about once a day, and if there are too many conversations to sift through, I wouldn't be so active as it would take too long to get caught up.

Albie don't be afraid to do any sort of threads. Some will go over big and some won't. Anything to start up conversations. I can tell you from experience these guys in here can take on heavy subjects and funny ones and really surprise you. I did one once about my theory on the "Purpose of homosexuality" and it turned out to be a monster with everyone contributing to the great discussion. Then I got a big surprise when I started one on Hands Free Orgasms, Male Mutliple Orgasms and how to achieve them.... and NOT ONCE did the thread turn porny like it usually does when Jay and I discuss those things IRL.

And who the hell would have ever expected a thread about if it is rude to eat on the couch would stay on the board for FOUR MONTHS AND 32 PAGES.

All the threads on relationship drama, Grindr and hook up app drama, and generic whining will all be the same after you've been here a while. Honest. It got to the point where I saved bookmarks on comments I'd done so I could get to them fast to copy & paste them for new threads.

[Rareboy]

Sadly, I think that the day of internet communities is passing....not totally unexpected...the novelty is gone and many people have gotten from the interchange what they needed or wanted and have moved on.

I've always loved the idea of the corner bar or coffee house...living out in the country means that we don't have this opportunity like we had when living right in the heart of a large city.

Across the board now though, grindr and other hook-up apps have allowed the stripping out of socialization and generally with young adults under the age of 30 now...I find many of them just simply do not have the skills or the desire to socialize casually with others.

As has been pointed out, on some sites, the trolls basically took over and bad moderation has resulted in many people looking for more depth and intelligence in their time on-line just leave the poorly managed boards.

But eventually, if you've been on boards for some time...and over at JUB, I've been there for over 8 years...you do start to feel as though you've heard it all, seen it all and discussed it all before and as Virge recently pointed out...it can start to make you more cynical or brittle.

I'm glad though, that through my life, I've seen the golden age of so many forms of electronic media and experienced and shared the excitement and novelty. At one time, neighbours and families used to gather to listen to the first radios...then parties to watch the first TV's and then the first colour TV's with friends. Increasingly, as tech has become personalized it has allowed us to focus only on the one-to-one...maybe a good thing...or maybe the thing that will turn everyone into egocentric neurotics.

But no matter what, it now allows us to casually be part of a literal global village...for the first time in history, borders don't matter, time is irrelevant and we can reach out to one another in almost any country at any moment. And we are beginning to take this for granted.

But I'll still be hanging out here in my fave virtual bars and cafes.

[Pyromancer]

One thing I've run in to...guys who come here to meet people to talk to elsewhere. I've had 5 people, none of whom has posted more than twice, ask if we could email, Skype, text, etc --- they don't participate in the forum at all, and seem to treat it like just another transient place to meet men. And yes, as LJAY said, they were all younger than me (I'm 24)...

[ShiftyNJ]

Definitely noticed it, also many of them (not so much here but FB and Instagram) are diluted by barely-disguised advertisements and the picture-full-of-words memes which are cute but not the same as actual conversation.

That said, I posted text on my FB three times in the past few weeks that got over 50 likes and a long thread of conversation between people from different aspects of my life. That is always cool to see.

I have been on a journaling site for 14 years; it went very quiet around 2007 when Facebook really took off, but I'm still there, and recently been very devoted to it and attracted some new people to my friends list. A few people who had given up on their blogs have returned because, as Twist said they missed the more in-depth posts, vs. silly memes.

[matty7]

I have noticed we have virtually no women posting anymore which is a shame , there was a sort of breakaway last year where many good members left after certain things happened with the running of the site etc, that was a shame but things come in cycles and im sure an influx of chatty new posters would change things - I do miss the chat room though - I spoke to many lovely people in real time and that was fun

[Iceblink]

I'm going to assume Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, kik, grind'r ... type places have taken over. JUB was once a thriving forum that I feel is now mostly a troll haven in its death throes. Gay.com was once very active that also died, IMO.

When trolls take over a site it can be the death of it. [MENTION=20947]MikeW[/MENTION] mentioned moderation on sites and there are some people who are against any kind of it, but the problem is without it a site owner can lose control of the site and when it gets to that point it makes it difficult because if you start eliminating the trolls, you're banning the only people left.

[Iceblink]

I haven't been here long enough to see GS in its "hay day", but what -drew- me here was the sense of community. The welcoming people and open discussions.

I think, if the board was overpopulated, that this wouldn't be as much the case? It would feel more impersonal, yeah?

What makes this page special is that sense of community and closeness here with a smaller number of people posting, but I wonder, would just a few more people in the mix help Andy sell that spot at that top that says "Hey, your 468X60 Banner Ad could be RIGHT HERE!"

[Jason111]

Yeah, probably because forum admins need more than a day to approve my thread.