participation way down?

[BubblingBrooks]

I took a long break from here, and since coming back, I have noticed that participation is WAY down!
What happened?

[woodchick]

Check out the "The Troll" thread in TAO. That will fill you in to some extent.  (hit the bathroom, get some tea and get cozy first!)

[Sfcmama]

Originally Posted by woodchick 

Check out the "The Troll" thread in TAO. That will fill you in to some extent.  (hit the bathroom, get some tea and get cozy first!)

You may need more than tea to gt through that one!

Are you saying people have jumped ship?

[BubblingBrooks]

Yikes! Hmmm, I guess its just as well that we are cutting our internet usage down to next to nothing to save money.
I have already peaked into a different site the slams and reports conservative Christians parents, so I think I will just toddle off and wean myself from all this mess.
SO not cool!

[Linda on the move]

The new format is very demanding of a PC''s resources, and runs very slowly with a slow Internet connection. Some long time users really can't be here any more without upgrading their hard wear, and/or getting a more expensive connection.

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by Linda on the move 

The new format is very demanding of a PC''s resources, and runs very slowly with a slow Internet connection. Some long time users really can't be here any more without upgrading their hard wear, and/or getting a more expensive connection.

Ah, so that explains why it loads so slowly for me.  It is annoying and I noticed I check in less often before of that.
 

[4evermom]

Sometimes, I think the page is fully loaded and I type a long reply only to lose it because the "Reply" section wasn't fully up.  I've learned to look for the bar of options on the reply window.  If they aren't there when I type, I lose my response.  But it makes me think twice about bothering to post if I'm going to have to refresh the page first and hope it finishes loading the second time.

[Arduinna]

It's been down for quite awhile. I left and came back and noticed the same thing. It isn't the software change, it was already significantly down before that. 

[limabean]

Yep, this forum used to be tough to keep up with, but now it's just boring. 

[PuppyFluffer]

I've noticed a big drop in participation as well.  I think people are really adverse to change.

[Adaline'sMama]

I pretty much started noticing it about two days after MDC switched to the new format and there were threads on the first page of TAO that had been there for 4 or 5 days. I remember asking in questions and suggestions and I think I just thought that my browser wasnt refreshing the page. Nope. Id really like for it to have more traffic again.

[Arduinna]

There was a huge drop in TAO posts back when they implemented the strict warnings and locking threads that they considered to be OT. At that point lots of people just quit posting threads in TAO because they didn't want to chance getting a warning. It never really recovered after that. Before this happened you could easily have 4-5 pages of new posts a day. 

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by Arduinna 

There was a huge drop in TAO posts back when they implemented the strict warnings and locking threads that they considered to be OT. At that point lots of people just quit posting threads in TAO because they didn't want to chance getting a warning. It never really recovered after that. Before this happened you could easily have 4-5 pages of new posts a day. 

  Yup, that learned me.  I almost never start a thread, anyway, but I wrote out a whole thing and then it didn't get past the whoever determined these things.  I still don't know what other forum it should have gone into. 

[hibana]

For me, it's mostly because the forum is big and clunky now. (main page is 11 pages long now, didn't it used to be about 3 pages?) A lot of the interesting people seem to have left, and I feel like this place has lost its unique character.

[Arduinna]

You can collapse sections that you never post in, or subscribe to the ones you want and just read on your activity feed. 

[Cascadian]

I think a private, secure, paid site (like the one I used when I was pregnant) might alleviate privacy issues. I radically cut down on posting anything vaguely identifiable or personal.

[limette]

I think it's a combo of the new format and the whole mess with letting people buy subs to the magazine when they planned on shutting it down. i think a lot of people were just pissed off and left. i guess it just amounts bad business decisions combined with aversion to change.

[vegemamato]

I stopped coming here pretty soon after the mods shut down the kitchen sink, which was followed by subscribers getting screwed..  I'm back on occasion now mostly because I'm pregnant and bored

even though the board is slow, maybe we can pick it up a bit with the forums not being so heavely moderated

[A&A]

Originally Posted by limette 

I think it's a combo of the new format and the whole mess with letting people buy subs to the magazine when they planned on shutting it down. i think a lot of people were just pissed off and left. i guess it just amounts bad business decisions combined with aversion to change.

Plus, without new people picking up the magazine, it's harder for people to find us. 

[Arduinna]

Except that only a small minority of people posting here had even seen the magazine, as was evidenced by a few polls in the past.