The Decline in forum communities...

[Patrick]

Oh no, I'm not doing it because I feel pressure to, its something I want to do for myself. The members on here have great knowledge and experience and it's interesting reading what they have to say.

I'm glad!

This way if you make a post but life gets in a way, you get a reminder that someone responded to your post and it returns to your attention, In old school forum I have occasionally experienced asking a question and forgetting about it until months later I revisited the forum to realize I got a response long ago, Some folks never check back unless they get a reminder.

Good point! Totally agreed.

Patrick

[Miick 11]

I agree with the above and lament it . Facebook and the like suck , I have nothing to do with them .

I have even missed out on some indigenous activities as they started having them without telling me about them . When I asked they said ' Oh no, its on facebook now ."

What , I have to be on facebook to take part in cultural events with a 60,000 year old root now ?

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I have to say I am disappointed with the lack of traffic and response here - so far .

[hunter_02]

The conversations are more of a "right now" thing

I got a kick out of the "right now thing". I'm older than the average bear, and I remember back in my yute, playing CHESS BY MAIL. How's that for NOT right now.

I have two grandsons that are just about brainiacs. BigBangTheory stuff. I make sure I take them shooting, hunting, fishing and canoeing just as often as I can. I must be doing something right. They bug me to go as often as I ask them if they want to go.

[SLK59]

Sounds like you are teaching your grandkids a good, balanced approach to life, hunter_02. And welcome to KF!.

[RW]

I don't understand why social media is taking the place of online communities such as message boards.

Message boards give you a sense of privacy and delay (as opposed to immediacy) that social media doesn't give you.

I love martial arts, but I don't want to be known as "karate John" to people, if you know what I mean. Plus sometimes I like to read a bunch of messages, think about them for a while, reply and expect an answer in a couple minutes/days/weeks, and not a chat-like immediacy.

[LionsDen]

I don't understand why social media is taking the place of online communities such as message boards.

Message boards give you a sense of privacy and delay (as opposed to immediacy) that social media doesn't give you.

I love martial arts, but I don't want to be known as "karate John" to people, if you know what I mean. Plus sometimes I like to read a bunch of messages, think about them for a while, reply and expect an answer in a couple minutes/days/weeks, and not a chat-like immediacy.

most people don’t care about the delay and want immediacy, and that was the appeal of message boards before social media…they were the most immediate way to converse with large numbers of people on a specific topic at the time

A thriving message board is roughly as quick as a thriving social media site.

The difference is on FB, I can quickly go between karate, and warhammer, and gun groups, or just mindlessly scroll through new info, while waiting for replies to my posts and have notifications for all those replies in one place.

[LionsDen]

And this is why forums are largely dead.

I made my last post in the topic at 10am and 10 hours later no replies.

[DarthPenguin]

And this is why forums are largely dead.

I made my last post in the topic at 10am and 10 hours later no replies.

Thats a fair point! I also agreed with your point above about the variety of topics you can easily access on a platform such as facebook.

Strikes me as a little like the chicken and the egg scenario: the more posts / active posters then the more people will be interested in participating and the more frequently people will post. This will then lead to more people becoming active and posting more etc.

I have noticed though that a lot more posts get views than replies. As a simple example i had posted a message in the gear section with a question i had on Isami gi's and it has been viewed 70+ times but not a single reply

[LionsDen]

And this is why forums are largely dead.

I made my last post in the topic at 10am and 10 hours later no replies.

Thats a fair point! I also agreed with your point above about the variety of topics you can easily access on a platform such as facebook.

Strikes me as a little like the chicken and the egg scenario: the more posts / active posters then the more people will be interested in participating and the more frequently people will post. This will then lead to more people becoming active and posting more etc.

I have noticed though that a lot more posts get views than replies. As a simple example i had posted a message in the gear section with a question i had on Isami gi's and it has been viewed 70+ times but not a single reply

The view to reply ratio will likely depend on familiarity, I’ve never heard of isami, and I posted about 3d printers yesterday, no clue right now how many views but no replies since it’s kind of a niche topic.

[LionsDen]

And this is why forums are largely dead.

I made my last post in the topic at 10am and 10 hours later no replies.

Thats a fair point! I also agreed with your point above about the variety of topics you can easily access on a platform such as facebook.

Strikes me as a little like the chicken and the egg scenario: the more posts / active posters then the more people will be interested in participating and the more frequently people will post. This will then lead to more people becoming active and posting more etc.

I have noticed though that a lot more posts get views than replies. As a simple example i had posted a message in the gear section with a question i had on Isami gi's and it has been viewed 70+ times but not a single reply

Also there’s a forum I normally frequent that doesn’t seem to have a lot of active members, but those members themselves are very active.

Part of the issue here is, with karate there isn’t often much new to talk about and discuss.

Maybe a new karate youtube channel like karate culture or karate combat now and then, and regular content from established karate content creators, but I’m sure depending on the age of this website, ‘movement X from Y kata should be interpreted as Z application in the real world’ has been talked to death for just about any movement of any common kata, so up to a certain point what is there new to say on a forum like this?

The view to reply ratio will likely depend on familiarity, I’ve never heard of isami, and I posted about 3d printers yesterday, no clue right now how many views but no replies since it’s kind of a niche topic.