... All of the time in 2016 and on through the spring of this year, participation here seemed to be very good, lots of action! However, during this past summer and continuing onto today, participation seems to be very slow and lack luster!...Participation here seems to come in waves! O.K. I can accept that the Christmas season going on now, might effect participation. However, I don't recall it slowing down last year, like it has this year. Is the use of this forum subject to highs and lows as I perceive them?
I think there are both short and long cycles of forum participation. I also have several theories as to
why this is and could probably write a book here that no one wants to read. So briefly.
1. There are several
classes of posters. The prolific posters that will add new topics and also comment on just about any topic/thread every day. This is even if the comment is just "good job". All forums need a few of these types of members. Then there are the regular but less "every thread" type people who only post when they have what they consider something worth while to contribute. The forum needs bunches of these sorts of people. Then there are the regular readers but only post when they are serious or keenly interested about the topic (I would put Bob Fugate in this category). You know he is there but won't post unless it is something needed or special about photography. Then there are the flash in the pan type that are usually newbies that are prolific for a short period of time and then disappear. The board needs a good pool of all of these types to be healthy & sustainable. The other unnecessary classes have already been mentioned: the one time question people, the lurkers, the marketers, the trolls, the frivolous posters, etc. I've been trying to move myself more toward a prolific poster as JazzDad says "do what we can to keep the site alive". I've commented on lots of stuff I would have just read a couple years ago.
2.
Seasonal and Life Situation variations. Stuff happens. Next five days I'm going to be so busy with the Christmas Forest I doubt I'll read let alone post. The board has a real struggle when all of the prolific posters have personal issues that keep them from posting at the same time period. Without at least a few prolific posters the board will die really quickly.
2a.
Train burn out some people just tire of trains for a while and leave for a while and then come back for a while, or not. e.g. Space Mouse. I think he did three cycles over about 4 years.
3.
Hobby Cycles Already mentioned in other posts. A long cycle thing. Participation will wax and wane with the eb and flow of the hobby itself.
4.
Quality of Posts Almost hate to mention this one. If the posts are hard to read, hard to understand, or argumentative, the forum will loose participation. This is actually how I came to this forum. The MR forum for a while became very hostile toward anything that wasn't what a group (of about 30 members) considered the "right way" do to things. Everything to them became an argument. Heaven forbid someone should mention they were doing a 4x8! It was such that a new person could not ask a simple question without being told they were doing it wrong. So despite being one of the 10K posters over there, I bailed and came here. I've seen it here too. I consider the great Exodus of 2007 due to this issue. We lost many good people in that.
5.
dynamicity of the board the forum board itself needs to be able to adjust and adapt to the long cycles. When it doesn't it can seem dead even though it is not chasing people away and not attracting new members.
These opinions are already longer than I wanted them to be... But did anyone notice a long cycle of decline starting June 2012 and accelerating in Nov 2014?