OT But What Happened to This Site ???

[Old School]

Just seems that lately we are seeing less and less people on this web site. Is it just me or have others noticed this as well? I have always liked this site because people are a bit more helpful to the beginners and don't seem to be as judgemental with people. I looked back a few years and seemed to be alot more daily active readers and posters.

[brian Rupnow]

I have to agree, we don't see as many posters as we used to. Sometimes I think I just post too much, to the point where people are tired of reading my posts. In general though, I have noticed a decrease in posters showing projects they are working on.---Brian

[Tim Clarke]

I've noticed that things have changed over the 20 plus years that I've been here. Agree not so many threads about ongoing projects, but now there are many more photos. I think the great photos may have reduced the interaction of members, because many of the previous were questions and answers. Maybe not, Brian posts great and many photos and generates plenty of traffic on his threads. What do you all think?

[gellfex]

Probably a combination of aging demographics and the dominance of Facebook. I've seen other communities wither as everyone goes to FB or Reddit for the same interest. Also it seems like the whole 'maker' movement was not much about making useful stuff, and had no momentum.

[Willy]

I believe a lot of the observations above are true to some extent. Also a factor, especially this time of year is that folks are getting out of their homes and shops to be outside and catch up on all that needs to be done after winter.
The escalation and decline in activity does seem to be cyclic in nature though, much like when at the grocery store and all the tills are full and 15 min. later there's not a soul to be seen.

Brian does seem to be the backbone at times and I look forward to each of his installments. His creativity and drive has taught us all plenty!
However there isn't a day that I don't learn something from the many posters here. Always a divergent interest and knowledge base to be had here.
Still the best game in town!

[Doozer]

Too many closed minds here
so I really don't post much.
Ain't worth the aggravation.

--D

[old mart]

Doozer has frightened the thin skinned people away.

[Alan Smith]

For me, I find myself looking to Instagram more and more. Probably because it's more of a visual rather than text based medium. I still find posting pictures here a bit of a pain. I really should make more of an effort as I have learned a lot here over the years.

[Fasttrack]

I've noticed a move towards YouTube, as well. Some of the folks who used to post threads with excellent pictures and writeups now have YouTube channels and videos of their projects. Which is a shame; I personally like this format much more than YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur.

[gellfex]

I've noticed a move towards YouTube, as well. Some of the folks who used to post threads with excellent pictures and writeups now have YouTube channels and videos of their projects. Which is a shame; I personally like this format much more than YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur.

I think there's a lot of us dinosaurs here. My kids rolled their eyes when I referred to this kind of forum as 'social media'. I like this format. A few weeks ago someone for a goof revived the 20 year old 1st ever thread on the kayaking subforum of a fishing site I like, and it took off again! You can't have a 20 year old thread on Reddit, and you need to be Sherlock Holmes to find the most recent post if it was not a primary reply.

[OaklandGB]

I find that I look at the site every day, but don't log on unless I have a reply or a post. As a complete novice still, I don't have a lot of info to share but I do pick up many tips and a lot of knowledge from reading posts. I have to wonder how many do the same out there, working on big or small projects but not really posting much.

I find that YouTube is another avenue for learning and information. I think it was stumbling upon Abom79 that was the primary reason I decided to buy a small lathe and begin to tinker with machining. Thankfully, I also found this site which serves as a go to for any questions I might have, even the real dumb ones. Everyone here seems to be machinist oriented from guys like me with almost zero knowledge to machine shop owners with years of experience. Bottom line is everyone seems to want to help each other out, and sometimes with a bit of humor. Traits that are getting harder to find these days.

Photos? Eh, I just save them to my hard drive in my "Machining" folder, then go to the post and click on "upload attachment". Pick the saved file, and you're done. No big deal really.

Ups and downs come and go. Stay aboard.

[rjs44032]

Still check-in most every day to see what's new. I post when I have something to add. But I'm still a workin' stiff. So I don't get into the shop as often as I'd like.


Keep the faith gents!


Best Regards,
Bob

[J Tiers]

Folks spending more time outside, certainly. I have been, in fact I am headed out in a bit to work on plants for an annual charitable sale here in town. When it's reasonably nice out, folks just have more to do.

And, possibly, there are fewer folks doing shop work in general. Or they went to "phone groups", that's certainly possible also.

[Doc Nickel]

Well, to bring an old point back up, one of the reasons people visit a site regularly is when there's regular content. People check every day when there's something new and interesting to read every day. If there's nothing really new and interesting, they tend to migrate over to where there IS something new and interesting.

And here, all too many of you regulars bury your content in the impenetrably-large and almost entirely unsearchable "Shop Made Tools" and "What Did You Machine Today?" threads.

Yes, many of you that have been here a while and have been regularly following that thread, have no trouble keeping up. But a part-time reader or worse a new reader? One thread is two hundred and seventy-plus pages long, the other over a hundred and fifty. I'm a regular and a machine enthusiast, and I don't read those, because they're cluttered, disorganized and unsearchable.

A new reader? No new reader is going to devote five days of intensive study to work their way through those threads. Those of you who use that thread have effectively closed yourselves off in your own little walled garden. You're locking all your content away and now complaining that there's no one left here to read your content.

If all of those shiny new shop-made tools and doohickeys I machined today were posted out in the open forum, in individual threads- as a board like this is designed for- those new and part-time readers might see actual traffic and projects- IE, new, fresh content- and maybe stick around and provide content of their own.

Doc.

[reggie_obe]

Just seems that lately we are seeing less and less people on this web site. Is it just me or have others noticed this as well? I have always liked this site because people are a bit more helpful to the beginners and don't seem to be as judgemental with people. I looked back a few years and seemed to be alot more daily active readers and posters.

Old School, what do you think has happened? Are you a forum member elsewhere? Do you see a similar ailment? Is there a root cause? Is it the OT and Pie in the Sky threads?