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Originally Posted by Bryan X
Actually, there was a major silica spill on the forums recently. And it's a well known fact that silica absorbs threads (and salsa).
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| LOL, going old school on us huh? |
Where are all the good theads?
(like this one !)
Heh
I used to love coming to After Hours Lounge every day. There used to be great discussion here. Now it's a virtual ghost town. Maybe a couple posts a day, if that. I really miss it. There have been ebbs and flows in posting activity at AHL before, but nothing anywhere near this kind of drop in activity and for such a long period of time. Whether it was the forum change or coincidence, that's when it all started going downhill here.
Hopefully the other sections of HTF don't follow the trend of After Hours Lounge.
Whether it was the forum change or coincidence, that's when it all started going downhill here.
No, it started long before that. If you don't believe me, believe yourself. In March 2008 -- more than a year before the change -- you wrote the following in this thread:
This thread itself dates from Feb. 2008.
An excellent description of reasons for slowing activity was provided just above -- ironically by someone who, as soon as the forum changed platforms, forgot all of this and began blaming everything on the new platform:
It's Sunday and I believe there have been 3 posts in After Hours in the last 11 hours.
Michael will correct me if I am in error.
It's a holiday weekend. Everything online slows down on a holiday weekend. Even FaceBook. :)
Problem is that over years, I'm assuming many of us have found a lot of different boards that answer different things that would normally be "After Hours". A lot of us follow our NFL teams on those boards; MLB, College.. etc.. a lot of people participate in a lot of different forums. So, the concept of "After Hours" forums kind of blend away as really big after hours targets have entire boards devoted to them.
Quote:
No, it started long before that. If you don't believe me, believe yourself. In March 2008 -- more than a year before the change -- you wrote the following in this thread:
This thread itself dates from Feb. 2008.
Michael, no where in my post today did I say there have never been slow downs before. In fact I clearly stated today that there have been slow downs in the past. What I said today was that I have never seen as much of a slow down for as long a period of time.
I used to love coming to After Hours Lounge every day. There used to be great discussion here. Now it's a virtual ghost town. Maybe a couple posts a day, if that. I really miss it. There have been ebbs and flows in posting activity at AHL before, but nothing anywhere near this kind of drop in activity and for such a long period of time. Whether it was the forum change or coincidence, that's when it all started going downhill here.
Hopefully the other sections of HTF don't follow the trend of After Hours Lounge.
And I'm not sure where you were going with the quote from Mylan either, as I never claimed that the slowdown absolutely was caused by the forum change. I said it may have just been coincidence. I noticed the steady drop off after the forum change. But since I can't know for sure what caused the behavior of others, I qualified that sentence. For the record, I don't think there was one cause. I do think the forum change had a part in it, but I also think other factors have too. It may have been a virtual "perfect storm".
It's a holiday weekend. Everything online slows down on a holiday weekend. Even FaceBook. :)
You're right Dave, things do tend to slow down over holidays. But this isn't something that just started this weekend. I only wish it were just a weekend slowdown.
Problem is that over years, I'm assuming many of us have found a lot of different boards that answer different things that would normally be "After Hours".
I have never found a replacement for "After Hours", and that's probably why I miss it so much. I've always belonged to other forums for specific areas of interest, but when I wanted to just kick back and enjoy well mannered, fun discussion, THIS is the place I would come to.
Michael, no where in my post today did I say there have never been slow downs before. In fact I clearly stated today that there have been slow downs in the past. What I said today was that I have never seen as much of a slow down for as long a period of time.
That's part of what you said, but you're ignoring another part:
Whether it was the forum change or coincidence, that's when it all started going downhill here.
To borrow your locution, nowhere in your riposte have you denied that you see the forum switch as the start of a decline that has continued ever since, even if there are other factors. Indeed, the reference to a "perfect storm" confirms that point. But if one is being intellectually honest, then the fact that these factors were being discussed in such detail more than a year before the switch indicates that "it all started going downhill" long before any change in platform. And since the change, traffic has gone up and down, for a variety of factors.
Attributing any current slowdown to the forum change (in whole or in part) is a well-worn theme, but repetition hasn't made it any more valid. Here you are just over a year ago in a thread entitled "Forum activity/traffic since the big switch?", at a time when hard numbers indicated that traffic and posting were generally up:
It's always dangerous to project one's own experience as the norm, which is why the forum's owners rely on hard data for making decisions. But here's an anecdotal example: AHL may be down in the last year, but the volume of software reviews is up considerably -- and those too generate traffic.
And I'm not sure where you were going with the quote from Mylan either . . .
I'm "going" exactly where I said: It's a good description of the kinds of factors that have affected participation on HTF (and other HT sites) in recent years, regardless of platform issues. The fact that the author subsequently decided to blame everything on the platform is just an ironic postscript.
For whatever it's worth, I've owned several forums over the years. Competition for people's time on the web is more fierce than ever. Facebook more than anything else, YouTube, Twitter to a lesser but still significant extent, Tumblr and a few other sites have gobbled up people's time and changed the way people use the internet. There are very few traditional internet forums that have maintained the level of activity they had 2 years ago, and the overwhelming majority have experienced steep declines.
The last site that I owned prior to selling it suffered a huge drop due mostly to Facebook. I was still getting a very similar number of visits to the site when I first noticed this change initially, but the number of posts declined a lot, and quickly. I found out almost as fast that many of my most active members were busy creating their own FB pages, and posting discussions and comments there. Personally, I find FB to be completely uncomfortable and there is no better way to maintain a community than using the type of software that is used here, but a few hundred million people worldwide seem to like FB and times have indeed changed.
I think what you're seeing here in the After Hours Lounge is that more people are simply having their off topic, non HT related discussions either elsewhere, or their time is simply being used for other things on the web.
Where are all the good theads?
(like this one !)
Heh
Here's one of the best HTF threads of all-time...
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/85481/let-s-talk-beer
You know, I think a resurrection is in order.
I too used to visit HTF and AHL many times a day. Couldn't wait to see what been posted as there was always something going on. I still visit many times a week and check out the "Most recent posts". Nothing really interesting going on and I can't think of anything interesting to post.
I think it was kind of like one of those "special moments" at a summer camp where the friendship and activity was the best ever. The reason was a random mixture of personalities, events at the time, and the excitement of doing new activities. This was never planned in the first place, the chemistry just happened. These moments come and go in life and can not be recreated. That is why some years at camp were great and other years sucked even though it was the same place and same events scheduled.
Many people on this forum i would be friends with on facebook. If i could figure out a way, to find some of you guys.
I still come here to read, and so it seems do a lot of people. Last time i looked, we had 200 or so "Guests", and 10 or 15 "Members" online. Thats quite a lopsided number. If everyone is reading, and few are posting, before long, very little will be NEW to read!
I agree with Dave, this forum needs an iPhone friendly version!
On my lunch break at work i read my iPhone. Usually Wikipeadia, facebook, or some other iPhone friendly site. HTF is not one of them. But they are far from alone in that regard!
I have to say, the new forum has gotten better. Much thanks to Adam, and the Huddler guys for asking us, and implementing the changes that make it better! Also thanks to Google Chrome for its great ad blocking add-on. How did i live without it. Sites run faster than ever, even this one. Flash really does suck!
Well, thats about all i can think of...if i have something to say, i do, and i will! 90% of my posting is here. I post here more than i do on facebook. Never been one to tell everyone how my trip to the bathroom went. Just a select few! :)
I agree with Dave, this forum needs an iPhone friendly version!
On my lunch break at work i read my iPhone. Usually Wikipeadia, facebook, or some other iPhone friendly site. HTF is not one of them. But they are far from alone in that regard!
I have to say, the new forum has gotten better. Much thanks to Adam, and the Huddler guys for asking us, and implementing the changes that make it better! Also thanks to Google Chrome for its great ad blocking add-on. How did i live without it. Sites run faster than ever, even this one. Flash really does suck!
I should add they're working on mobile-optimized version and are incrementally testing out mobile-specific tweaks. They're testing mobile-specific thread-views in the Mac section, it seems. But as happens, I think they underestimated the importance and rapid increase of mobile users. They've noted that the stats don't show a large amount of mobile users -- hence the continued priority on desktop usability. But I suspect there's a chicken-and-egg problem: no one uses HTF on mobile devices because it's so hard to use.
It's maybe late in coming, but Huddler is responsive I think, which is great. :)
I have been on rampage with Huddler about the necessity for a mobile app, mobile css or something that will allow us to be used via our cellphones. It is not a fad but a necessity for this forum to continue to grow in posting and readership.
I have given them suggestions like Tapa Talk or just building a different css for the mobile community. I am told they are working on it. Believe me when it is done I will be making sure that members old and new know about it.
I should add they're working on mobile-optimized version and are incrementally testing out mobile-specific tweaks. They're testing mobile-specific thread-views in the Mac section, it seems. But as happens, I think they underestimated the importance and rapid increase of mobile users. They've noted that the stats don't show a large amount of mobile users -- hence the continued priority on desktop usability. But I suspect there's a chicken-and-egg problem: no one uses HTF on mobile devices because it's so hard to use.
It's maybe late in coming, but Huddler is responsive I think, which is great. :)
Lets talk about those stats for a second. I've been a little wary of taking many of them at face value. Personally I don't believe that there aren't more mobile users and I also think it's a chicken and the egg thing. The mobile experience here is lacking so there is small incentive for mobile users to keep coming back. But what always interests me is that there's always a very consistent stream of guest users here. This constant flow of unregistered guests always seemed pretty odd to me. A lot of the forums I go to have a large section of unregistered lurkers of course, but NONE of them approach the ratio that HTF does...
If those numbers are accurate I'd expect that many of them are simply people looking for information on a specific purchase, ie most of them looking to buy their first new flat panel for the home. How do you grab a reader like that and convert them from a hit and run into someone who likes what they see and wants to come back? As mobile grows that question will be even more and more important as a place like HTF serves as an authoritative and impartial resource. 'That other forum' that shan't be named seems to have a lot more technical input into specific buying advice, how could HTF compete with that or should it even try to do so?
I know I try to say hello when new members post, but I don't make the new members forum as big a part of my HTF life as I would like. Want to know why I think that is? Take a look at the threads in newbie forum:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/list/31
so many of them are simple 'I'm here to get this answer and probably won't ever stop here again once I get it' kind of posts. I think we'd all be a lot more welcoming if our past experience wasn't filled with doing so only to see the vast majority never really stick around....
I really like that so many new members are posting in this thread for example:
That's a great incentive and a way to welcome folks who might be more longer term oriented.
But I'm going to take this as a kick to get me posting more into ol' 31 tho, we all need to do our part to welcome those who look like they have potential.
Sam
PS sorry for wandering a bit thinking about this one...
I didn't realize we had so many lurkers here.
Sam, I think you're right about the hit-and-runners. And I relate because I'm a hit-and-runner on some other forums. I registered at a Honda Accord forum to ask some questions about my car. It's great to pop in for some technical issue. But I have no interest in regular discussion about Honda Accord fandom; I won't be converted to a regular at that forum. Likewise, many people simply want to find out what the best TV is and how to hook it up and then never think or talk about it again. They can't be moved from pop-ins to regular members.
But there are certainly some on the fence that might be drawn in.
As for AVS (even Harry Potter knew that to not speak Voldemort's name was nonsense :) ): they are an amazing technical resource. In my last four purchases (TV, receiver, Blu Ray, speakers), I did most of my research there. They have a technical depth and current-technology threads HTF doesn't. But conversely, the threads are so large and ranging that it's a lousy place for "community". (I've had an industry insider comment the same to me.) And they are technology-centric. I don't know that they have anything like HTF's discussions on movies and TV shows.
Were I an HTF owner, I would consider removing the hardware forums and putting all efforts into the content sections. In all things, I look to Apple: cut out what doesn't work and refine, refine, refine where you excel. In HTF, that's presently discussion and critique of movies and TV. (Not that I want to see my awesome speaker-shopping thread excised. :) but that's not the current strength of HTF.)
No, it started long before that. If you don't believe me, believe yourself. In March 2008 -- more than a year before the change -- you wrote the following in this thread:
This thread itself dates from Feb. 2008.
An excellent description of reasons for slowing activity was provided just above -- ironically by someone who, as soon as the forum changed platforms, forgot all of this and began blaming everything on the new platform:
Now Normally I like being quoted in posts because it means that something i've said was relevant to the conversation but this time is an exeption. To use something I said about why I thought the forums were slowing a full year before the forums changed is just a cheap shot and literally grasping at straws for justification. Times change rapidly and the reasons I listed: no internet at work, slow economy, and nothing much to buzz about no longer apply. I can read at work, the economy has shown signs of life and there is much to talk about in the world of consumer electronics but you won't read about them here, 3D TV and tivo premeire come to mind just to name two noteworthy products no one seems to care about around here.
It seems as of late there is more talk about the iphone or Android based smartphones than there is about home theater but even then the forum I requested Parker create concerning the Samsung Galaxy line of phones has maybe 17 posts in it and then I felt like it was me and another member talking back and forth. Is there really only a handful of us out there with Galaxy S phones across the four carriers that carry it?
HTF's traffic varies with many factors being the reason and members come and go as well but I will still stand by my later postings blaming the forum change as the NUMBER ONE reason, I know it, you know it, and the 188 active members currently on this board know it too.
I wish whoever resurrected this thread had really let it die because there can be no good come of bringing up any of this again, its happened, its over, and its not going back.
I want to thank Bryan X for having my back on this, yep even he knows what a cheap shot that was. Damn it Micheal, I still cannot believe you pulled that crap, that was low and you know it.
