New Member Joining Rate ?
- Thread starter Lees65GTO
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It was actually a different search engine than Google that brought me to this forum. I was using Google as an overall term. Anyway, yes, I saw and read a number of pages of prose and watched some very good videos and some very boring ones ... I am fascinated watching people make pipes ... and I learned a lot about briar from videos ...
Me too, but it would not work if there were lots of similar posters on here. He was funny since he was an outlier.
i feel the dullness but for other reasons. Mainly threads about inane bullshit. It’s bad enough that people are not embarrassed to post them. It’s worse that the mods, out of a sense of trying to be welcoming I guess do not delete them, and worse yet the post will get numerous replies. And then someone “likes” the reply. All the while I have no idea what is being discussed. I’ve been closing a lot of threads over this lately
I'm fairly new here, so I can't really say with any authority what this forum was like a few years ago. But I can say having been on other forums during my college years, that many forums deal with this kind of thing. Random influxes of people due to a search engine algorithm sending them their way here, or a thread having some sort of viral content, or maybe people coming in during down time while dealing with winter weather or some other boredom-inducing circumstance. Some introduce themselves, most lurk, others post and lose interest a few months in and dip. But a few stay and become valuable members. But all that isn't unique to this place; it is something most forums go through.
I will say, however, that I think a lot of folks here underestimate how younger folks (Gen Zers and younger Millennials) don't really understand forums. Most have never bothered with one. The closest thing they have dealt with would be a reddit subgroup or a discord server, and those aren't really the same thing. Forums are kind of considered pretty old-school these days, and what few forums do thrive on the web these days are usually ones devoted to niche topics that have managed to cultivate a culture and expertise all its own. This forum fits that mold.
So, yea. Sometimes old ground gets covered a lot and there are dead periods. But this forum has been a wealth of information for me, and I've been here long enough to develop an appreciation for some of the people here. And sometimes, even common questions can yield new insights. I tend to be stuck in my pipe smoking habits at this point, but it's always good to see what others do, to challenge my perspective. And sometimes, that newbie you help with his or her mundane question sticks around and becomes a valuable member. And that is pretty cool.
I will say, however, that I think a lot of folks here underestimate how younger folks (Gen Zers and younger Millennials) don't really understand forums. Most have never bothered with one. The closest thing they have dealt with would be a reddit subgroup or a discord server, and those aren't really the same thing. Forums are kind of considered pretty old-school these days, and what few forums do thrive on the web these days are usually ones devoted to niche topics that have managed to cultivate a culture and expertise all its own. This forum fits that mold.
So, yea. Sometimes old ground gets covered a lot and there are dead periods. But this forum has been a wealth of information for me, and I've been here long enough to develop an appreciation for some of the people here. And sometimes, even common questions can yield new insights. I tend to be stuck in my pipe smoking habits at this point, but it's always good to see what others do, to challenge my perspective. And sometimes, that newbie you help with his or her mundane question sticks around and becomes a valuable member. And that is pretty cool.
George Dibos was talking about this a couple of years back, that forums would give way to newer formats, like reddit, or other sub groups. I've glanced at reddit pages and some others and I see the layout differences in how a thread gets presented, with replies added with an indentation, that sort of thing, but am not aware of what major differences there are in functionality of any of these formats, other than style of presentation. If anything, some of these pages remind me of a slightly slicker Usenet, but with more ability to interact fairly spontaneously.
Unfortunately yes.
after sifting out the new member introductions and the same old Are Dunhills worth it type questions there is not too much new going on.
I guess there is only a finite amount of things to talk about.
I preffered the posts by the likes of Ken Barnes where you could gain knowledge,that for me is what a forum is about
And as much as there are repeat new questions from new members, there’s equally the same old answers by experienced members.
Here, like any field or industry, once someone hits a certain experience level any other thoughts and ideas are regularly dismissed. “Tried that 20 years ago” or “Iv been doing this for 30 years” which is a poor response to alternate thinking.
Somewhere in the middle is where my best interest is in discussions. It just often takes a lot to get there and other times it never gets there but when it does I find it engaging.
Here, like any field or industry, once someone hits a certain experience level any other thoughts and ideas are regularly dismissed. “Tried that 20 years ago” or “Iv been doing this for 30 years” which is a poor response to alternate thinking.
Somewhere in the middle is where my best interest is in discussions. It just often takes a lot to get there and other times it never gets there but when it does I find it engaging.
I think that’s the norm nowadays, in so much as people tend to expect an immediate opinion/answer on anything without putting in the work to find info and formulate their own opinion on just about any subject matter. It’s just the dumbing down of society.
