Where has everyone gone? Any why aren't people posting?

[Kingy]

My take on it...

Bottom line: Forums like this one rely on regular posters.
I think of forums like chatting with mates in the pub. You shift conversation (jump topics) and sometimes some of it doesn't make sense or will get heated, but everyone gets a say and you usually end up laughing about it.

Here on TM we don't have a big enough nucleus of regular posters. We could have with the people that look in, but sadly not enough of those post and many (despite their best intentions) post a couple of times, then maybe look in a few times, then forget about the forum for weeks/ months before popping in again. I'm not having a 'go' at anyone here, just making an observation on what I see happening.

A busy forum generates interest.

We are not busy due to a lack of threads/ posts - so we are not generating any interest. Just enough to keep the search engines crawling over us on a daily basis, but not enough to make people stay and join in. This makes it impossible to move forward.

I agree with Fraser that Social Media has killed many forums off. I've seen several die when members have posted - "I've started a Facebook Group for the site - Have a look". This has been followed by a mass exodus leaving a forum with no posters. Quite sad as the FB Group has then been dominated by those who 'shout loudest from behind their keyboards' or post irellevant drivel as FB isn't moderated so no need to worry about offending anyone. I've seen this attitude on my timeline from gobshites I should really unfriend rather than just clicking 'I dont want to see this' as I normally do.

Personally I much prefer forums. I like the way you can build relationships with fellow posters/ members and like the feeling of community. Sadly I appear to be in the minority nowadays. Maybe I'm just an old fart holding onto a piece of the past!

At the minute I can't see a way forward for TM. Like 'Citroen' () said - It will be a shame if TM dies - But unless we get more people posting it's hard to see how it can carry on as it is. Believe it or not, we probably have more posts in the mod section than we do on the main boards.