Is forum participation changing?

[Plynkes]

Don't tell me there's a super secret thread for the LAF Illuminati!? 

As far as I know there are some nationality-based private boards. I believe the Swedes have or had one where they can hang out and talk about raw fish and solving grisly murders in their own tongue. Don't know how active or how many others there are, as I don't have access to them myself.

The moderators have a forum where we can bitch about you lot ask each other advice and try to iron out consistent site-wide policies. There was also a forum for planning GLAM, which was a small meet-up in Germany of LAFers, which because of venue size and such was invite-only. The last post on that board is from 2013, mind.

[Lowtardog]

There is a BLAM one too where we reminisce about the days of empire and plan the resurgence ....mostly used for planning the event , games etc. I believe the secret stuff is intertwined in threads using codes developed at Bletchley Park 

[Norm]

I think I will continue to write long articles on the blog .... as one day, it is bound to become fashionable and cool again.

I have noticed as I get older that T.V. adverts no longer relate to me or have people in them that look like me ..... unless they are advertising comfy slippers, inflammation creams or chair risers!

I was therefore somewhat amused to see an advert the other day that bestowed the virtues of a Parker Pen. It was being wielded by a very young person and shown as something desirable. So there we are, the pen has been invented again and once more I am fashionable and cool with my spiders scrawl.

The point being nothing stays the same, but it does re-cycle, hopefully a time will come when information saturation stops and we seek something a little deeper and with greater substance than the limitations that Twitter and FB allow for. But of course we have to want it in the first place and we need some space in our private lives where we can slow down and have some quality time to appreciate fuller content.

[Doug ex-em4]

I think I will continue to write long articles on the blog .... as one day, it is bound to become fashionable and cool again.

I was therefore somewhat amused to see an advert the other day that bestowed the virtues of a Parker Pen. It was being wielded by a very young person and shown as something desirable. So there we are, the pen has been invented again and once more I am fashionable and cool with my spiders scrawl.

And I read somewhere on the internet (so it must be true) that all the cool kids are now using disposable cameras that use real film because it's exciting having to wait until the film is developed before you see your pictures....!

Doug

[sukhe_bator]

I'm still here, though the Photo Bucket ransom thing has certainly affected the level of my posts, but I do try and check in once a day during weekdays. I have little modelling time atm, and little to no time at home, so my activity level is low and in the background. Beyond appending images to posts I haven't yet sorted out a means of sharing pics, so I haven't taken any progress shots in a while - if that makes any sense.

[eilif]

I haven't noticed forum participation here changing much, but I mostly post in a few specific sub-forums so my view isn't very wide.

I will say that as far as specific number of responses to things I post on my own topics, Lead adventure is in the middle of the pack as far as the 3 main forums I visit.  I get the most replies and comments at TMP, second most posts at Lead Adventure and the least replies (though most views) at Dakka.

There are outliers when a particular post get's alot of attention at a certain forum but I post my work (usually a few pics, some explanation and a link to our club's blog) at all three sites and the general trend is quite clear.

[JamesValentine]

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.
What do you think?

too much negativity in wargaming for me.
I used to be frequent on allot of 40k groups and forums. but they are just filled with some of the most cancerous people ever...
bolt action groups on facebook are full of rivet counting elitist scum who insist you play the way they demand or else the mods ban you...
and generally discussions are just boring and the same stuff over and over again.

[Hammers]

As far as I know there are some nationality-based private boards. I believe the Swedes have or had one where they can hang out and talk about raw fish and solving grisly murders in their own tongue. Don't know how active or how many others there are, as I don't have access to them myself.

The moderators have a forum where we can bitch about you lot ask each other advice and try to iron out consistent site-wide policies. There was also a forum for planning GLAM, which was a small meet-up in Germany of LAFers, which because of venue size and such was invite-only. The last post on that board is from 2013, mind.

The Swedish natural mode of communication is a brief muttering followed by an extended period of utter silence. This is refelcted well in the Swedish sub-board.

[Nord]

The Swedish natural mode of communication is a brief muttering followed by an extended period of utter silence. This is refelcted well in the Swedish sub-board.

This partly explains why I never understand those Scandi detective series. As an English man I am familiar with reserve, but you Nordic types dial that up to 11, or is it down to -11. Many a time in Wallander there is a complete emotional devastation on screen and the guys just stand around muttering or staring, as though the coffee machine has just broken down. It's a complete mystery to me what's going on inside those heads. 

One of the few times I saw an outbreak of emotion was in Oslo when I was waiting for a tram. A local was at the stop too, checking his watch. After a few minutes he checked the timetable on the stop, checked his watch, tutted and walked off. I checked the timetable too and, shock horror, it was one minute late. Sure enough, it then arrived. He's obviously never been to England, where "on time" is defined as "within 10 minutes of the advertised time". And only about 80% of trains manage that in my area, while the buses seem to run on a whim. 

[Pijlie]

too much negativity in wargaming for me.
I used to be frequent on allot of 40k groups and forums. but they are just filled with some of the most cancerous people ever...
bolt action groups on facebook are full of rivet counting elitist scum who insist you play the way they demand or else the mods ban you...
and generally discussions are just boring and the same stuff over and over again.

I recommend healthy doses of non-GW/non-Warlord Pulp and SciFi skirmish with some It Came From Beyond The Still and zombies thrown in. That'll get you back on your feet in no time 

[Arlequín]

and generally discussions are just boring and the same stuff over and over again.

Well yeah that's history for you... a conflict that lasted just under six years has spawned over seventy years of discussion and argument, you'd imagine the well is running pretty dry by now. It's not like they can introduce a new codex every couple of years and shake the period up... wait, actually 'Armies of Germany' is on its 2nd Edition and FoW has been regurgitating its books for a few years now; clearly history ain't what it used to be for them.

      

[Cubs]

Well yeah that's history for you... a conflict that lasted just under six years has spawned over seventy years of discussion and argument, you'd imagine the well is running pretty dry by now.

I used to post on the Rorke's Drift site many moons ago. You think six years has limited discussion potential, try a battle that lasted just a few hours! Don't get me wrong, there were some seriously heavy weight historians in there (Mike Snook, Ian Knight, David Rattray, etc..) and it was a pleasure to watch them debate back and forth over things that completely passed me by as a purely amateur fan of the subject matter. But after a while, there's only so much that can be discussed. Whenever a new member turned up with a question, the older heads just answered with a link to the thread where it had been already been discussed!

[Arlequín]

I suppose the one facet from that and the endless WWII debates, is that the wargamers' ability to 'wing-it' or just plain make stuff up, is being increasingly limited as time progresses. What units, what vehicles and how many, is increasingly being tied down as research proceeds and more sources become freely available via t'internet.

The research needed to 'get it right' and not have the 'experts' point out all your errors, probably puts a lot of people off. Certainly it does also result in the phenomenon of 'rivet-counting elitist scum' as James described them. The rise of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, VBCW, Imagi-nations and spoon-fed WWII, may well be a reaction to that, although those too sometimes produce their fair share of experts of one kind or another.

Whatever it is you do there always seems to be no shortage of people happy to say you're doing it wrong somehow.

[LeadAsbestos]

Whatever it is you do there always seems to be no shortage of people happy to say you're doing it wrong somehow.

This.

[FramFramson]

I suppose the one facet from that and the endless WWII debates, is that the wargamers' ability to 'wing-it' or just plain make stuff up, is being increasingly limited as time progresses. What units, what vehicles and how many, is increasingly being tied down as research proceeds and more sources become freely available via t'internet.

The research needed to 'get it right' and not have the 'experts' point out all your errors, probably puts a lot of people off. Certainly it does also result in the phenomenon of 'rivet-counting elitist scum' as James described them. The rise of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, VBCW, Imagi-nations and spoon-fed WWII, may well be a reaction to that, although those too sometimes produce their fair share of experts of one kind or another.

Whatever it is you do there always seems to be no shortage of people happy to say you're doing it wrong somehow.

If you'll allow me, I'd like to point out all the issues with your post...