This forum seems to be dying. If I toss out a new topic I'm considered a "Troll" yet, I don't see a whole lot coming from anybody else. WTF? Hate to see this place go by the wayside. Start talking folks.
You should be able to speak freely about whatever you want. But just like any community, we need to keep the drunk town under control.
My online time is increasingly spent on the Bike Forums. My offline time is crowding out my online time, now that I'm zipping all over Madison County on my bicycle, every chance I get. Even if nothing is happening, I'll still come here to just chill...
We "should" , but that's not the case. It's hard to want to post, let alone start new threads when all a certain person will do is argue and complain. Let's face it, since Ryan and Wes stopped posting, there's no entertainment here. If I want to ward off constant bullshit and attacks, I'll go sort some wildcats.
So, do we need to put Torx's face on milk cartons or what? I think if we make more threads about our personal lives, we can revitalize the forum. We all enjoy technology to a degree, but our main interests are all very different.
Yeah, and those guys on your bike forum aren't your friends. WE ARE. Now stop cheating on us and make some more bike threads. We should make threads that educate. For example, I used to enjoy Fiddy's threads on tree climbing/tree removal because that's something I would never DREAM of doing, but he made it look so much fun and made it even somewhat educational. Let's share our passions. I'm on my third year of organic backyard gardening, but I don't think I mentioned it once here. Oops, I suck.
I gave up due to a seeming lack of interest . I really like passing down what I've learned on the way to old age. 350 views and two posts do not make it a good investment in time and effort. Constantly having to resurrect what used to be a sticky pissed me off to the point that I just let it fall.
FIGURITIVELY! Alao, I could rant on about homebrew, but we have a real brewer here so I would just sound dumb.
I haven't been around much either, mostly just because I'm busy though. Tac, you should try posting on Reddit if you want a more active forum. I think you'd get along well with the population there.
One big thing I've noticed over the years, that may have a bearing on the decline of our members, is that opinions and attitudes have polarized a great deal compared to early on. Kids are growing up and tolerance is growing down. All a natural process I guess. The symptom is widespread throughout the whole planet. As we develop, we change without regard to the old slogan: "live and let live". It's too bad too. A lot of good conversation gets shit canned in favor of not making waves or going against popular opinion.
Combine that with other emerging technologies - forums are kind of a relic in a way. We all sort of grew up together, and you're right wiskas, we're starting to go our own ways. I've been increasingly more and more busy as a sysadmin. I got a girl, a job, my friends.. I try not to spend that much free time online, anymore.
I have been like that for years now. I use to be able to spend about 5 hours straight online and now I barely spend on hour online at time at most. I check about 4 different forums within an hour every couple days and go on with my life. I hope this happens to most of society. What I mean by that is that i hope the internet becomes a tool again and not an escape from reality that it is now with the farcebooks and tweeter sites. I hope people stop spending time online and spend more time outdoors.
Since my two oldest have found the enjoyment of riding their bikes around, they've been outside every hour they can. My daughter is unbelievably tanned already! Unfortunately, I'm trying to break the youngest of video games. The little bugger is addicted and it's annoying. I try not to spend too much time online, but 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I'm online in some way, shape, or form. Although I have started jogging at work for 3 miles, 3 days a week. And now, the little rugrats are walking to school now, I'll bike to and from work 3 to 4 days a week. Yay.
I check in once every week or so. Dan banning me turned out to be a pretty good thing, because it broke me of some bad habits. I spend a lot less time being aggravated by strangers now.
You are missed Ryan. It's just not the same without your wit and intellectual jousting. How are the home brewskies doing?
