Community activity...

Re: Community activity at an all-time low

This subject has been beat to death and many people have many opinions about why CF isn't more active. I'll throw mine in here too I guess.

I think it's just that....activity....New members come in and see a forum that isn't very active so when they get their help, they just leave. I've been back here for 2 1/2 days and I've only seen a handful of people posting regularly. I think we need to figure out some way to get CF more active. Look at the other "booming" forums and see what they are doing that we aren't. If we can't find a way to make the members we do have more active, then we will have a problem keeping new members around.

Another thing.....Where is the admin on this subject? I've been here through 3 different admins and it seems like still nothing changes with a new admin. The admin should be the biggest part of trying to keep a good forum and keeping it active IMHO.

Just my .02 and I'm sure it won't be taken kindly since I've been gone so long and come back and start throwing opinions around right away.
 
Re: Community activity at an all-time low

Another thing.....Where is the admin on this subject? I've been here through 3 different admins and it seems like still nothing changes with a new admin. The admin should be the biggest part of trying to keep a good forum and keeping it active IMHO.
Interesting comment from you, what do you think Admin should do to keep this forum active? no use saying this unless you have suggestions for them.
 
Whilst I'm not criticising the admin there have been three completely different styles.

Current admin, very hands off, let the community find it's own way.

JCB as admin, reasonably hands on, implement lots of stuff, add new sections add new features.

David as admin, at the start, really enthusiastic posting loads, listening to the community. then he grew up, got a job, got less time. and stopped being able to dedicate time to this forum.

This forum has clearly been the most active when there was a regularly seen admin figure who was relate-able and engaged in discussion.

As I said I'm not criticising the current admin/owners at all. they have their style and it is working well enough, new people are joining -the question is, would they or could they join faster or in larger numbers if this place was different.


That said, I think that the biggest drain on membership that this place has seen has been to do with factions, little tribes of friends who decide it is their hangout or clubhouse.

Sadly most people really seem to grow up and get on with life, and just have less and less time for helping people out on a forum.

The only real way that the forum will be re-vitalised IMO is by offering more and better content.
more (for me) means take the guides out of the forum format and publish them as proper articles.
get the boot disk thing back up, and updated.
get some decent guides up and going.

Better means threads get quality answers etc...

There was a time when this place was literally buzzing with activity, -I don't see that it can't be again.
It used to take about three hours for threads to fall off the main page. -that's why computer problems was split into hardware and software.
now there are threads three weeks old on the first page in both sections.
 
What root said I'd to agree with, also try going to statistics and having a look back in 2004-2005, it was epic... gotta remember CF was back booming when the internet took off, it was a big thing.. I think this maybe is why CF was very popular.

I rarely come on to, work around 60hours a week, don't even own a gaming system of any type :( such a workaholic
 
IMHO the biggest impacts have been the changes in computer hardware and the changing face of tech. I am the admin of another large computer/tech forum we have see the same as what is happening here.

Changes in computer hardware - Gone are the days where overclocking was the holy grail of computer performance. Entire communities sprung up around the concept of eking out that little extra "umph" from the available hardware. Today's hardware is faster than any of us ever considered possible back then and it does it at stock speeds and on stock cooling. The software of today cannot even take advantage of this hardware yet.

Changes to the face of Tech
- Desktops are no longer the main computer, and laptops are even struggling anymore. Smartphones are becoming the main with tablets being the stepchild of them. Because of this most hardware-centric are struggling with decreased traffic.

None of that is to say that what exists should be scrapped, but we need to adapt in order to survive.
 
IMHO the biggest impacts have been the changes in computer hardware and the changing face of tech. I am the admin of another large computer/tech forum we have see the same as what is happening here.

Changes in computer hardware - Gone are the days where overclocking was the holy grail of computer performance. Entire communities sprung up around the concept of eking out that little extra "umph" from the available hardware. Today's hardware is faster than any of us ever considered possible back then and it does it at stock speeds and on stock cooling. The software of today cannot even take advantage of this hardware yet.

Changes to the face of Tech
- Desktops are no longer the main computer, and laptops are even struggling anymore. Smartphones are becoming the main with tablets being the stepchild of them. Because of this most hardware-centric are struggling with decreased traffic.

None of that is to say that what exists should be scrapped, but we need to adapt in order to survive.

Well said, you will see this has happened with PC Tech mags as they have changed considerably with the inclusion of smart phones & tabs.
DIY PC builds has died off in my opinion.
Out of the regulars here how many would admit their enthusiasm has waned.
 
Well said, you will see this has happened with PC Tech mags as they have changed considerably with the inclusion of smart phones & tabs.
DIY PC builds has died off in my opinion.
Out of the regulars here how many would admit their enthusiasm has waned.

It's not so much that my enthusiasm has waned.

to be honest I never got involved in the over-clocking threads. And I never saw over clocking as a way to get a cheaper fast computer. for me over clocking was always about getting "the best" computer.

For my budget at the time when OC'ing was big I never had the money to buy high end components, and never was able to setup a large cooling rig because of the expense that entailed. sure there are a few people who changed what they could to eeek a few more MHz out of what they had.
but the true goal of overclocking was to get the absolute best you could out of the latest and greatest, to take the best chip on the market and make it better, it was possible to have the best consumer system in the world, and that was worth talking about. the former (making your 1.8Ghz PC run at 2Ghz, was not really noteworthy).

Last year I gave away my nice case to a kid who wanted to start building computers, it was a big case plenty of bays, made of aluminium magnesium alloy with 9-fans, basically perfect for a guy who it looking for parts to build something/anything with...

what I think has really killed over clocking is laptops, cheap and convenient, ubiquitous, and not upgradeable in any meaningful sense. - why have a box in the corner that I need to get up and use when I can sit wherever I like?

I think more than a waning of interest, I'm actually more interested than ever in IT.
We had our companies annual meeting yesterday, and as I was leaving I saw a convention for redgate SQL products, I thought about skipping work to see what it was all about. (my interest in computers is great enough to consider skipping out of work)
And that's the problem, my interests are far and varied but relate to more specialist activities,
Ask me about exchange, SQL or Citrix, active directory, programming embedded devices, setting up managed switches and routers, ect even setting up secure server environments (such as PCI-DSS compliant or ISO 27001 etc) and I'll be really enthused -I've got bunches of opinions since this is the stuff that we do where I work.

But often the topic of conversations tend to be more desktop based, I suppose my knowledge of desktops is just less than it used to be since I'm using servers everyday, and my desktop is just a tool to get stuff done.

trouble is not many people come here to get server questions answered.
 
I think the other big change is that we are a throw away society especially in the states. We buy a computer, use it till it's junk, throw it away and buy a new one. No one wants to waste time fixing or upgrading.

And everyone has smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Now to upgrade means to buy a new product, not improve the one you have.
 
I also think a lot of computer time that people used to spend posting on forums are now being devoted towards social media.
 
I also think a lot of computer time that people used to spend posting on forums are now being devoted towards social media.

And candy crushing, jewel swapping, jetpack riding, and bird flicking. (In other words, mobile casual gaming)
 
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