Is forum participation changing?

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have a feeling that fewer people are taking an active part in the forum discussions both here and on TMP.

I have noticed it, particularly on The Miniatures Page, but also here too. I wonder if this is really the case or just an illusion.

I have also noticed that a lot of manufacturers are using Facebook to show their new launches and product development. It may be that this is the reason behind reducing traffic on the forums.  

What do you think?
Are there fewer active participants in discussions?

Thanks


Mick

[fred]

I'd not noticed.

I left TMP a good few years ago. Perhaps others have done like wise. But this was due to the nonsense of TMP not for wanting to move to Facebook (which I still don't have an account on).

But here on LAF there is a lot happening - sometimes too much, its hard to keep on top of all the threads, which perhaps means that some new threads disappear rather quickly. And this might make discussion harder.

[Tactalvanic]

I have found the LAF a comfortable forum, with plenty going on, with a lot of skilled hobbyists posting here as well as other places.

I have no interest in Facebook, primarily due to profession, but its of little interest to me.

Add to that simply work, work and sleep etc, not a great amount of time is left for hobby and forums. I dare say a lot of others have that issue to. Work before pleasure or whatever.

Would like to comment more, but as Fred already mentioned, and correctly to my mind, lots going and not enough time to read, think and comment/reply coherently/incoherently.

[Daeothar]

Well, the way I see it, most forum discussions are cyclic, meaning that a lot of topics will surface at almost regular intervals. And depending on the forum, there is a changing/shifting membership, or it is somewhat stagnant.

Most younger players wil shift from platform to platform, and usually frequent several (or a lot), maintaining a (shifting) audience for those topics. But older players often tend to narrow their platforms down to only several or even one (in my case), after their preferences crystalize.

And since those topics that come around every six months or so on one's regular forum have been seen and participated in before, at some point, seasoned forum members will choose to not post anymore in those topics (seen it, done that). Which eventually results in less traffic and participation, especially when there is less influx of new members.

On top of that, the most active, younger potential members, have indeed shifted to other (social) media, such as Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter, foregoing the 'slow' medium of online forums. And manufacturers naturally will follow the herd, lest they lose the chance to reach their customer base.

Now, all of the above is not withstanding those daring individuals who are seasoned forum members, but also do Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (or even MyPage ). I'm just basing this on my own experiences and what I see and hear from others. (Kudo's to all who have moved along with all of them newfangled, youngster mumbo jumbo! )

On the other hand; even though I'm a one-forum man myself (to limit my time at the keyboard ), I find that real life is often keeping me from posting all of my painting, converting and sculpting work, simply because what little time I have, I'd rather be spending on actual hobby work, instead of setting up for photoshoots, photoshopping the pics, then uploading them and writing my (usually lengthy) accompanying texts and finally posting all of it on LAF.

I don't know how it is for others, but that is the situation I find myself in most of the time these days. And this was significantly different ten years ago, when there was no family life to upkeep, and less draining jobs and responsibilities left me with a lot of time to surf the forums, post all of my work and be active on lots of platforms.

So maybe, with the aging demographic of LAF, TMP and other forums, many other posters are experiencing the same challenges?

Again; all of this is based on my own experiences and what I see and hear from others, so my bias might be way off from the actual facts, but I can't escape the notion that there's a core of truth to the above...

[Cubs]

If I'm honest, I'm more of a lurker, unless I see the chance of annoying people with a weak pun. I don't have much to say on stuff most of the time and my threads are usually just about displaying the last thing painted. But I enjoy flitting about looking at what others have said and done.

[westwaller]

I think that it is a good point about miniature companies focusing on facebook and other social media promotion rather than forums, but I think that it is a mistake to only focus on such platforms. I'm increasingly finding I have to be active in finding out about forthcoming releases from companies rather than finding posts about new shiny things upon the forums. I think this is a bit of a mistake- I really wouldn't have known about the forthcoming Viking and Norman releases from Footsore, for example if I hadn't stumbled across them when looking at the Footsore pages after seeing Captain Bloods Romano British stuff. Its a similar story with the forthcoming Conquest Medievals. I was checking out their Robin Hood stuff... The other thing is that I used to get a lot of my miniature news from the now dead Steve Dean painting forum.

I wonder if companies are preferring to avoid posting previews on forums to avoid the criticism Tha inevitably follows every preview. I think that's a mistake. I don't always make up my mind based on the opinions of armchair experts after all!! (There are many people who really do know their stuff of course )

[westwaller]

@Cubs, there's nothing wrong with a weak pun...

[Silent Invader]

I used to post a lot of stuff, especially WIP, though I’m less inclined to now. I’m still making as much, still have the same time and enthusiasm for my hobby, but I share less of it through LAF. I do belong to quite a few other forums etc but I very, very rarely post on them (ditto Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Nowadays if I want to record a project’s progress (for later replication, etc) it tends to go onto my own website (it’s not a blog, no one else gets to comment, etc). So why do I now miss out the LAF stage? Basically, it was a lot of effort to post here for, seemingly increasingly, little reaction. Just to clarify, in posting on LAF I wasn’t looking for plaudits but the reality is that there’s little point duplicating effort for diminishing effect.

Nowadays, I tend to start a LAF ‘project thread’ if I’m looking for advice and info and then as long as others remain engaged I continue posting. If I sense there’s insufficient interest to justify the effort of double posting here, then I stop.  

Edited for clarity

[westwaller]

That's a fair point Silent Invader, In response to a posting on another forum I have done a couple of hours research on the subject, only to receive no response whatsoever...

I think more people look and enjoy, but don't comment...

[Pijlie]

I vist Facebook as well as LAF a lot for the hobby. Both have a format I like, which is important to me. It is a reason I rarely visit TWWS for example. I find it hard to follow trends and threads there for some reason. And I left TMP years ago for reasons specific to that forum, but not to fora in general.

My Facebook circle tends to be more local, while LAF tends to be more international. They are quite complementary actually.

[Lovejoy]

I think that it is a good point about miniature companies focusing on facebook and other social media promotion rather than forums, but I think that it is a mistake to only focus on such platforms.....
I wonder if companies are preferring to avoid posting previews on forums to avoid the criticism Tha inevitably follows every preview....

It might just be a time issue. With minis businesses being mostly very small concerns, with usually only one or two people running them, dedicating enough time to internet promotion can be tough.
When we run a Kickstarter, I make sure I update about a dozen forums, and Facebook and Twitter, every day during the project's run. But it takes at least two hours per day to do that, more if there is significant interaction.

Companies aside, I think there is a lessening of active discussion... one of the problems I've found is the overall quality of people's stuff. Basically, the standard has gone up, to the point where you can say little more than 'Excellent job!', and when five other posters have already said that, it seems unnecessary. Plus, there's a lot more posts of finished stuff, rather than ongoing projects, which gives limited options for discussion.

[westwaller]

I hear what you say about the time spent on promotion- I seem to spend as much time trying to promote my small business on the internet and social media platforms as actually doing the work for it!!

[Hammers]

Nowadays if I want to record a project’s progress (for later replication, etc) it tends to go onto my own website (it’s not a blog, no one else gets to comment, etc).

Basically, it was a lot of effort to post here for, seemingly increasingly, little reaction.

Out of curiosity, do you get more reaction on your own website?

[Belisarius]

I love this forum and try to visit every day .  What stops me posting more is that my photos often appear upside down , a problem which does not occur with other forums . I note that some other members have encountered this problem. 

[Silent Invader]

Out of curiosity, do you get more reaction on your own website?

This might seem a little odd but it’s actually set-up to discourage reaction. It’s very much a place for me to record what I’m doing for later reference (as I bounce between projects). I get the occasional email but comments aren’t solicited by me. I do sometimes get a bit irritated where I find content copied to other places (without asking and/or crediting) so the Website  is now coded to prevent hot-linking of images etc. Visits from links placed at some other pages are also automatically barred.

To summarise: Website is almost exclusively for my later reference rather than a tool of engagement.