Where Has Everyone Gone???

[DeusExMachina]

When the gaming world called and I was it's slave (and a diligent slave at that!), this forum had a good amount of people posting daily.

Come back, and I feel it's a brand new forum again, and not just because I've been away.

Been around the other hardware forums, but what I liked about ABX is that it has been about computing + community. Had to leave a couple of forums of late because the noise to signal ratio was so out of whack, that the reason the forum existed became transformed into Myspace, instead (complete with rude and crude kiddies).

ABX is at the other end of the spectrum -- it needs a signal boost!

!! BOOSTING SIGNAL !!

So guys, how about a checkin and fill me in on what I missed!

[rjs735]

I hear you. I am also sadden by the lack of activity. I believe for the most part the tenure and tone of ABX has change dramatically although it has been a slow decline ever since CrowdGather has taken over since the buy out.

There is less technical issues, less community, less everything. The headlines sit there the same for a week. The old ABX they some times only sat for a hour before some new news was posted. The mods don't run the show any more. There are just mods with no link to the owners of the forum.

Yes sadly ABX has just degenerated to any other forum a bit more technical but just another forum.

[PeterT]

I think the culture and sense of community has remained intact, its just the volume of posters ans posts that has gradually declined over the past few years.... I do miss the busy days, when you could refresh the front page every few seconds and see new posts.

[DeusExMachina]

Originally Posted by rjs735

I hear you. I am also sadden by the lack of activity. I believe for the most part the tenure and tone of ABX has change dramatically although it has been a slow decline ever since CrowdGather has taken over since the buy out.

There is less technical issues, less community, less everything. The headlines sit there the same for a week. The old ABX they some times only sat for a hour before some new news was posted. The mods don't run the show any more. There are just mods with no link to the owners of the forum.

Yes sadly ABX has just degenerated to any other forum a bit more technical but just another forum.

I just came off a computing forum jumping with activity, but mostly it's the "off-topic" variety (the other extreme). It got so bad, while logged in I was posting at Yahoo Answers helping, instead (that's seriously bad!). Reading the TOS for the [H] forum kept me from registering. Ars Technica I resigned from there as they're crazy, and I mean c-r-a-z-y. Anandtech forum, I had a stalker who's been banned from eBay and other hardware sites for ripping folks off -- and he remains at Anandtech and even protected! Another forum, until it's TOS has changed, prevented anyone from being on another computing forum or you'd be banned (and now claims in their TOS don't believe what is said online about it).

Crazy, simply crazy this forum membership stuff has become.

Just want to come to a computing site to talk about computing. Not to be harassed. Not to be lamblasted as a "know-it-all". Not to be blinded by 5" high 300KB forum sigs that flash. Not to have moderators who love to protect their favorites (and bend over backwards to even let everyone know it, despite it being a TOS violation anyway).

When I first came here it was another board completely, and delt with Asus motherboards mostly. It was THE site to goto for this info, and I spent more time lurking than posting. Then came back to find it's ABXzone. Now back to find it's now something else?

Oh, well, at least this forum isn't filled with 15 year-olds that act like they're 5 years-olds. :/

[fvbounty]

Good to see you back, I too miss the old days, I come by a few times a week to see the regulars and say hi but I guess it will never be the same!

[mr. Charles]

..... ..... . . . . . pretty much agree upon that posting's as well. . . . . . [ Hey thar fv........... ].........


mr. Charles


.

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by mr. Charles

..... ..... . . . . . pretty much agree upon that posting's as well. . . . . . [ Hey thar fv........... ].........


mr. Charles




.

Hey how are you doing Mr Charles? I'm still doing the same old thing, playing on the computer and working on the boat, just a little older and fatter....LOL

[Ozzie]

It saddens me to this this has happened to the old stomping grounds...the lights are on, but nobody is home...
The names I do see now are mostly the old timers, and that's ok too. I like seeing these names still.

[mr. Charles]

Originally Posted by fvbounty

Hey how are you doing Mr Charles? I'm still doing the same old thing, playing on the computer and working on the boat, just a little older and fatter....LOL

. . . . .LOLOLOL......... . . . . . uh, , maybe you should just STOP eating the Salmon, and just stick with the shrimp. . . . . . . . . . .


mr. Charles



.

[fvbounty]

Originally Posted by mr. Charles

. . . . .LOLOLOL......... . . . . . uh, , maybe you should just STOP eating the Salmon, and just stick with the shrimp. . . . . . . . . . .


mr. Charles



.

Maybe lay of the pizza's......

[ctal]

I think that Peter stated it exactly right. The culture has remained essentially the same, but the volume of posts and the number of posters have steadily declined over the last couple of years or so.

It seems to have been a self-reinforcing trend. As fewer posts appeared, more people seem to have lost interest, resulting in still fewer posts, and so on.

It's hard to single out a particular root cause. Perhaps the most basic cause is that although the power of computing hardware has continued to improve by leaps and bounds in recent years, the basic concepts and top-level architecture of a computer has remained little changed in that period. So the people who learned and benefited from the site some years ago perhaps have less need for it now.

There have been some other more specific contributors to the decline, as well. TQ, very sadly, passed away, resulting in our losing one of our leading and most engaging personalities. k0NG0 has much less time available to devote to the site, due to a job change. Tam left due mainly to some unpleasant exchanges with others about political things. A lot of people left when the ownership changed, because they were turned off by the General Mayhem forum (which I believe was at that time the major forum of the new ownership). Several of those people ultimately came back, however, in some cases after they were personally contacted by the new owner.

The key question is what can reverse the trend. I don't know the answer.

Regards,
-- Al

[Sir Skully]

I tend to concur with ctal on most of the above. I know I had a hard time rebounding from the loss of TQ. I felt maybe we should of had a memorial service thread for QT. It may have helped the ABX members, heal sooner from TQ's passing/loss. I at this point in time have no answers to our decline. Only to keep on keeping on, and just hope, I'm not the one to have to turn ABX's lights off.....

[rjs735]

And here with a few exceptions is the core of ABX almost from day to day. At least from what I see.

[Rickwell]

Hi all.It would be nice if all of them came back.But some may have gotten scared when you told them that the sun was going to explode or not to read that Testing thread.Plus Ozzie put a bunch in the penalty box in the basement and forgot about it.



Well things change and it's still better than not seeing some of O'l faces at all.
Come on you peeps that are watching from the side lines.Skully won't bite - very hard.Log in and chat awhile.

[polonyc2]

the passing of TQ had very little to do with ABX's present state as ABX was in sharp decline long before Septmember 2008...the lack of new hardware and/or skill level of members also has zero to do with it as other forums I am registered with are hopping with activity year round regardless of the state of the tech industry and/or any particular members' current state of mind...an active forum will always have something to discuss whether or not there is anything to talk about (make any sense?)

the fact of the matter is that the amount of new active members is what keeps any site going and is where ABX lacks in comparison to other forums...ABX is dull now...I click 'New Posts' and maybe 5-6 posts will show up in a 24 hour period (on a good day)...the members that left ABX are still around you just have to know where to find them

only way to 'fix' ABX is to get more members interested in posting...the folks at ABX may not like it but it's true---ABX median membership age is too old...young(er) people are what drives forums...not retired people...get younger, get active, get good word of mouth...that's what will get ABX back