Board not as active anymore?

[Coonhound]

I joined years ago, maybe 2012-13 can’t recall exactly. I recently returned and notice this place doesn’t seem to be hopping the way it used to be. Used to be a thread was on page two in a matter of hours. Have a lot of people joined someplace else or are people just busier these days? Life is quite a bit LESS busy for me these days so I have more time to spare, and upon return was disappointed to see the boards without the energy they had back in the day!

 

[LuvOrlando]

Can't talk about things that are interesting so there is only so much time to spend in the shallow end, which is a shame since it draws a solid group IMO

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

when there was a debate board it was really rocking!

 

[LuvOrlando]

That would be interesting, I like to hear things from far flung places

 

[tvguy]

I joined years ago, maybe 2012-13 can’t recall exactly. I recently returned and notice this place doesn’t seem to be hopping the way it used to be. Used to be a thread was on page two in a matter of hours. Have a lot of people joined someplace else or are people just busier these days? Life is quite a bit LESS busy for me these days so I have more time to spare, and upon return was disappointed to see the boards without the energy they had back in the day!

Right below your name it says you joined September 2, 2012, LOL.

Yes Facebook and other forums have sharply cut into traffic here, I joined in 2003 after lurking for a year, mid-2005 there would be a couple of pages of new posts every few hours.

 

[Suger Mag]

It used to be that only serious politics/religion were off limits... now it seems that a lot more 'current event' topics are off limits (covid, gas, reedy creek, mass shootings etc) .... so i think that is a big part of why the board is not as busy. Having big topics off limit is a bit of a 'drag'.... especially when those topics are a big part of our lives at the moment...

 

[AnnaS]

I joined years ago, maybe 2012-13 can’t recall exactly. I recently returned and notice this place doesn’t seem to be hopping the way it used to be. Used to be a thread was on page two in a matter of hours. Have a lot of people joined someplace else or are people just busier these days? Life is quite a bit LESS busy for me these days so I have more time to spare, and upon return was disappointed to see the boards without the energy they had back in the day!

Definitely agree with this.

Various reasons........for sure. FB, other boards, posters/comments, a little restricted, topics off limits etc. etc.

 

[PalmettoPath]

Say hello to social media. In some ways, it's a testament to this board that it still has the audience it does, because boards like this in many other cases have disappeared entirely.

 

[mom2rtk]

It used to be that only serious politics/religion were off limits... now it seems that a lot more 'current event' topics are off limits (covid, gas, reedy creek, mass shootings etc) .... so i think that is a big part of why the board is not as busy. Having big topics off limit is a bit of a 'drag'.... especially when those topics are a big part of our lives at the moment...

Probably because so many things have become hyperpoliticized.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I agree social media seems to have cut into the activity here. But I will say things seem less hyper-dramatic here than they do on the various Disney-related Facebook groups. I'd rather talk to people here than there, you all are a lot nicer.

Another thing. I've been posted a little less lately because I'm kind of mad at Disney right now. My trip back in April stunk and other things about the company are irking me. Won't go into that though. I don't have any future Disney trips planned and it's going to be awhile before I'm ready to go back.

I wonder if other posters are also souring on the company.

So maybe if I do get chatty again it will be because I'm talking about going to Universal in November or Gatorland/Discovery Cove/Seaworld/Busch Gardens/Legoland/Dali Museum/DeLeon Springs/Ybor City/airboat touring in April 2023...

 

[LuvOrlando]

Probably because so many things have become hyperpoliticized.

I was thinking about this, I think we are all in a weird place where trolls are running things. Most people on here are fine, even those who swing deep into one side or the other out of passion for a belief are still perfectly normal, too me at least. Like I enjoy hearing an impassioned response because I totally recognize my own bias and can't evolve if I never let other points of view into my world, even if I don't change a thing it's good to be mindful. However, some thoughts draw in seething trolls who are bent on closing down a topic so they go out of their way to bait others into saying things completely out of character to that end. We are in 2022 and have all been enduring this behavior for nearly 2 decades it seems, so this sort of baiting of troll brigades are always so very obvious. It might be a pain but no offense, I'd much rather the mods spend their time cutting off the trolls than shutting down an entire subject because of the trolls it brings. I can only imagine interesting topics draw lots of views and that rakes in the dollars for the site so this way of doing things can't possibly be in the business models best interests. Not that my observation matters but there does seem to be a pattern.

 

[xdan0920]

Compared to Magic, this place is much busier, and much more pleasant. So I will take it. Sure, more posts get deleted here regarding Covid, or politics. But it beats what goes on there, which is the 2 mods force their views onto the forum. Delete anything they don't agree with, and leave up anything they do agree with.

 

[pigletto]

I feel like the pandemic fast tracked a growing problem. People just don’t know when to stop bickering and have barely any civility anymore. We are rage baited by media on a regular basis and we take it out on each other. Everyone is so polarized.

It’s exhausting. We can’t talk about what is actually meaningful and happening in our lives because of board rules.. but when we do the mods end up having to babysit the thread and deal with the same arguments day in and day out.

That’s my cranky opinion for the day

 

[_19disnA]

I joined back in 2018 when we were planning a trip to Disney after not being there for a number of years. Mostly wanted to learn about those Disney things that were new/different that we hadn't experienced. As with any forum I belong to, there is a wide variety of participants. I don't care for many of the topics and just focus on the ones I am interested in. Mods here do a good job of keeping topics on track and it helps keep things from spinning out of control.

I belong to some other non-Disney forums and they are about the same. If a forum is poorly moderated, the looney tune crowd takes over and then the sane/adult/rational people just move on to somewhere else. The number of posts/participants/topics isn't a metric that matters to me. What matters is the fact there are topics of value to me.

Likely during covid many people were working from home and had more time on their PC for sites like these. Some topics are also seasonal and you can find multiple threads on similar subjects that reappear each year. I don't hesitate to put people on ignore who are consistently argumentative, spout nonsense or just try to 'stir the pot'. I have better things to do with my time then engage in pointless arguments in cyberspace with people I will never meet. My life doesn't revolve around constantly posting here and I don't measure the value of any forum based on how many daily new posts others are adding.

 

[Bethislucy]

I do miss the good trip reports

 

[evilmommie]

On the community board, my observation has been it’s the same players talking about the same controversial subjects over and over again. I’m not interested in jumping into that pool. There are so many other topics in the world to discuss that aren’t hyper political but I don’t see too many of those topics posted to discuss.

 

[RangerPooh]

Like others have said, there are other ways to receive and share information these days compared to a decade ago. I joined in 2005 (was previously on a different board), and the boards were hopping. These days some sit and stagnate. While there are posts on the Community board and others, not all topics are of interest. If you want to generate new threads please do so, you never know what might be of interest to others.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

On the community board, my observation has been it’s the same players talking about the same controversial subjects over and over again. I’m not interested in jumping into that pool. There are so many other topics in the world to discuss that aren’t hyper political but I don’t see too many of those topics posted to discuss.

So why don’t you start some of the ones you’d like to see

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Do you mean the entire forum, or the Community board, specifically?

I don't hang out on the Theme Parks and Strategies board anymore because I go to WDW much less frequently (haven't been since 2017). Not sure how true that is for others.

 

[Sanchez]

On the community board, my observation has been it’s the same players talking about the same controversial subjects over and over again. I’m not interested in jumping into that pool. There are so many other topics in the world to discuss that aren’t hyper political but I don’t see too many of those topics posted to discuss.

Exactly. When you can predict who is going to say what before opening a thread it gets tedious.

Nevertheless, I think the CB is cyclical and currently the content is not interesting due to many factors. The other day I noted that most of the threads relate to five or six areas: random guy/bot generated questions; soccer or alternative movie storylines; polls related to dishwasher soap or vacuum cleaner bags; songs starting with the letter q; and random musings from . . . well, I'm afraid to ask.

I shouldn't complain because I don't create content and at least these folks are trying.

But I also think that starting a topic about anything interesting brings out the hyper political types and the reasonable people just get overwhelmed by those who have the time to post all day. So then we get force fed the world views of recent graduate students, professional dog walkers and a few angry Canadians. Reasonable discussions just aren't possible.

The good news is that at some point the tide will change because we all have the ability to make that happen.