How many posts are made on here each day..?

Ok, so, after a very successful fish forum find I decided to try and find a craft equivalent…Oh My Goodness…!

It took 3 days to get a reply to my introductory post… The wonderful TFF usually has a welcome within minutes!

I asked if I was missing something (TFF is my first forum experience), look what came back
Well done TFF - this must prove how fantastic you all are

How many posts are made on here each day..?​

Too many, especially by me

Most forums used to be busy like this one. I remember a few of the early fish forums and I got email notifications of new posts and ones I had answered. I used to spend hours each day going through and deleting emails while checking the posts. This continued for many years and then came Facebook (FB). The forums held on for a bit but as more people hopped on FB, the forums slowly died.

Slowly but surely more forums have closed down and people have migrated to this one. As long as we have a band of knowledgeable people and a warm welcoming smile, we should be able to keep the members here. But it also comes down to the forum remaining open and that is reliant on money.

Oh dear!! I guess we both got quite lucky, this was my first forum too. Tried a few entomology forums but they are chocka-block of very old men who only speak on a highly scientific level about genera that I've never even heard of. Lucking out isn't too bad though if it means this is where we landed.

PlasticGalaxy said:

Tried a few entomology forums but they are chocka-block of very old men who only speak on a highly scientific level about genera that I've never even heard of.

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LOL, I know that feeling. I have been fortunate to know a number of very intelligent people who worked in various fields of science. They were lovely people but sometimes went off talking about things in scientific terms. By the end of the conversation most people were scratching their heads wondering what they just said. I used to translate for them and break it down into simple terms.

Yeah I really do miss the days of forums. Social media has killed the majority of them off and its a shame.

Social media can be useful for getting a quick answer on something but the biggest issue in my opinion is that information is never retained on there. On a forum I can look back on a post from 10 years ago. On Facebook and reddit it can be difficult to find a post from a day ago. Social media also feels a lot less "connected" and more shallow then a forum. On here you quite quickly get to know people pretty well. On most of the reddit and facebook groups I'm in I would be lucky to really recognise even 3 or 4 people.

All that being said though I have found reddit is pretty good for craft based discussion. I have a bunch of crafty based hobbies and there is normally at least 2 or 3 subreddits dedicated to them and they are all generally pretty open and welcoming.

Discord is actually another potentially good place to find groups with common interests. I'm on a few discord servers for various things but honestly I do feel a bit like an old man trying to use them (and I work in IT as well so that's saying something).

NannaLou said:

Well done TFF - this must prove how fantastic you all are

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We ROCK!

We also have the best contests!!

I'm a member of two fish forums. The other one used to be busy but now has a new post once every few days. I suspect the reason is the current owner. As an anti spam measure, all potential new members have to convince him they are genuine fish keepers before he'll let them register, and I think that puts most people off.
But I'm also a member of a family history message board dealing with one specific Welsh county. To join that you have to show that you have a connection to the county before they let you join (my great grandfather was born there, as was my husband which is why they let me join) This one is busy so it doesn't put family historians off.

In many ways, the internet has become like a person with dementia. Great knowledge and experience can be in there, but alas, try accessing it. Forums were one of the last popular forms here with memory and archives, and very few of them survive.
I enjoy some FB groups, but they have to be really on one topic. That's limited.

I've seen a lot of forums congratulate themselves and vanish a year later - people have to work at these things. I joined in 2011, had a couple of people attack everything I wrote and wandered off to friendlier places. An e-mail this year made me look again, and the dynamic here is totally different. It's a really friendly forum here now, with a lot going on. I'm glad that automated system went fishing for old members, and seemed to want me to vote for tank of the year so passionately!
To whomever runs it - thanks.

GaryE said:

I'm glad that automated system went fishing for old members, and seemed to want me to vote for tank of the year so passionately!

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Fishmanic said:

We also have the best contests!!

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this person is to blame for you coming back