Forum activity/traffic since the big switch?

I don't know about the number of new users and guests viewing the forum, but the posting activity in the sub-forums I frequent seems to have dropped considerably.  I know I visit less often and when I do pop back in, there aren't very many new posts.  Anyone else noticed any changes in the posting frequency?

I don't keep up with the statistics, but the way I read the forum gives me a good sense of the volume of new members, and the upsurge since we moved to this platform has been dramatic.

Last I had heard a week or two ago, numbers were up across the board.

Is that new members/visitors or actual posts?  Just *seems* that there is less posting activity, but I don't know, that's just my unscientific perception. Hopefully postings are up.

That's my perception in at least some sections anyway, eg. HD Software.  But maybe some other sections (I don't frequent) are making up for the slack in the ones I do frequent.  OR maybe the overall statistics are including the forum help/feedback and test sections too -- I know I for one never bothered to drop by here before the switch.

_Man_

I hate to say it but I frequent the forum pages less than I did before the switch.

I think someones got their rose colored glasses on, if anything, there are fewer old members posting less and more guests not joining. The handy counter below reads 120active members and 2074 guests. Its been like that since the changeover. Those are NOT good numbers for a website of this caliber.

What's odd is there is a constant stream of 500+ people viewing After Hours and usually under 100 in any of the 'Core' HTF forums....  Something very peculiar about that.

And even in the After Hours, with those high numbers, there is not much actual posting going on at all.

Yeah, that steady stream of new members I see posting -- and I see all the new member posts as they pass through the spam detection grid -- that's just a figment of my imagination. 

I'm not an owner, I didn't choose this platform, and I don't have any dog in this fight. But I know what I see, and some people seem awfully eager to pronounce this thing a failure when it's still early days.
Edited by Michael Reuben - 8/30/09 at 8:22pm

I'm basically neutral on the site changes. They have neither increased nor decreased my interest on the site. A site like this IMO is driven by the technology and new products. When new technology is driving new products there's an interest in what early adopters think. What are the changes or improvements, is it worth the cost, etc. HDTV has basically gone through its early flux and has arrived at either plasma or LCD. There's really not a lot to talk about.

Most of us now have HDTV and surround sound systems. Back when I joined the site I had neither and was extremely interested in what others had to say. I spent a ton of time reading about hardware.

I read the After hours frequently, because in the absence of any new significant thing to learn about home theater, I find discussions about the current economic environment and how people are responding and what cars they are or are not buying interesting. I also have started to spend more time in the photography forum because I have tired of digital point and shoot and am interested in digital SLR.

The analytics numbers are black text on a white page ?!?   The question was asked (and answered) if traffic was up. 

Over time I have noticed that the activity in certain forums is cyclic.  There aren't really any new TV shows out to talk about, not that many big home video releases, no earth-shattering HW products that we all have to upgrade to, so those areas of the forum are tending to have less activity at the moment than other areas...that's the way it was on vB too.  As we get closer to a lot of tent-pole releases in Q4 traffic in those areas will pick back up.
 

When I first joined in 2004, I was building my first theater and I remember the Infocus 4805 was the big thing. Next my house was flooded and I had to rebuild the theater. Then 2.5 years ago I built a new house and the third theater. During these times I was active in the Basics and Building HT forums as well as the equipment forums. I also spent time in the AHL for some interesting discussions.

Now however, my theater is finished. This year is our year to get our financial house in order so new equipment and upgrading is not in the picture. We still like our theater just fine the way it is. In my opinion there have been very few "got to watch" movies in the past few years. If you remember last summer there was a thread in the AHL about how it has turned into a ghost town with fewer posts.

I don't think the new software has lessened my posting habits as much as I don't have much to talk about. Theater finished, not upgrading, lackluster new movie selection, not much thought provoking going on in AHL. I still visit HTF a few times a day, but my posting is a few times a week. I hated the new look when it first came out, but after all the improvements, I think it is as easy as any other forum to use. I once read here on HTF that "Nobody notices a good properly calibrated sound system for your theater, but they sure will notice a poorly set up system. If it is doing is job correctly, it will not draw attention to its self." The same is true about forum software. Lately I don't notice it, so it must be doing it's job.

I agree that the whole place seems dead, and blu ray discussion in particular seems utterly tepid compared to competing forums, when it should be the most active forum here.  I can't see a single improvement over vBulletin, and much important functionality was lost.  Sorry folks, this was not a change for the better.

And yet you've posted more since the switch than in the six months preceding it.

If you think "the whole place" is dead, that just proves there are large parts of the forum that you don't visit.

We just came back from Cedia and noticed something rather
disturbing:  Attendance is way down. 

The Home Theater industry has taken a big hit these past 
two years.  In this economy, nobody is buying equipment.
Interest has shifted from buying displays, receivers and even
movies to taking care of one's own personal self and family.

Even the advertisers we deal with are all complaining that
their revenue is sharply down.

With no format war and nothing really new and exciting to
talk about, discussion on forums has been lighter than usual.
It's also Summer which is the slowest time of year for us.  If
we look at last year's analytics, its pretty comparable with this
year's numbers.