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Your statistical analysis can't overcome the fact this forum disappeared and many people did not know about the Loamhedge forum. I happened to find it by pure luck. How many others either couldn't find it, and just assumed it was done? This forum is healthy comparatively to others.
Just to add, some people here put a TON of work to get this place up and running again. Speaking of death knells days after everything is up and running again is in poor taste.
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Stop digging that hole you're standing in.
I'm trying to be as nice as I can. Sierra and James put a ton of work in, and I can't stand people trying to degrade their hard work with stuff like this.
You need to look at the humanistic emotional side of things, not just numbers.
We have multiple posts every day, whereas I've been on forums that can go WEEKS without any activity whatsoever.
They may be smaller, but people still do eventually return.
I have no intention of leaving this place during the next few years. Somebeast'd have to force me.
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But how is this even an issue? The forum isn't going anywhere.
Unfortunately, a decline is bound to happen due to people leaving for various reasons (you yourself were planning on leaving, Wylder), as well as no new content from the creator to keep our interest. If Redwall was a more popular series, like Lord of the Rings, the fandom would still be growing.
The question is, though, what can WE do to keep this community alive and/or grow it?
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Wylder,
Personally I don't deny your statistics. I'm sure there is a decline in there. However, there are times and places to bring up concerns like this. You picked a lousy time to bring it up when we're all celebrating the fact that the forum is around again.
Does that make sense?
I gotta admit that the thread did land on my bad side, but please do share what you have got. I won't complain about it if there's improvement to be made.
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Personally, I'm rather interested in this. I feel like it's good to be informed to prevent this downfall from occurring.
Quote from: Ashleg on April 22, 2017, 02:33:39 AM
But how is this even an issue? The forum isn't going anywhere.
Correction on my part.
You never even said how this was a relevant concern besides that
it's happening.
Activity spikes and falls.
People get older and change interests. These changes in activity do not spell doom for the forum or the "fandom" in general, no--they're just statistics.
This place may not be insanely crowded, but quality and quantity are not the same thing.
Why does the staff, or the rest of us, for that matter, have to take care of this? The only thing we can do is not leave.
Wait a month before continuing your analysis. After we have had a chance to stabilize, we can reexamine this topic, but for now, let's leave it be. I do appreciate your efforts though.
Also, if you look at the recent topics, there's a section on the first page that shows a post every minute. That's it, Ashleg out.
Games shouldn't count, Ash. :P
If you're talking about the forum in general, games do count because they are activity on the forum.
If games are a reason people are logging in here, that's great.
It may be a Redwall forum but in the end it's a place for Redwall fans to gather. You don't need to be talking about Redwall the entire time for it to be considered activity.
I'm guessing you are assuming it is a linear curve, more than likely, to make such a prediction. It is far more likely that it is a decaying exponential curve. This means it will likely level out at some point, and stop decaying. Like this:
Notice that the line eventually levels off and stops going down?
(http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/figures/1471-2105-8-444-1-l.jpg)
This is further helped by the fact that, although at some point yes we may lose members, in the worst case scenario we will hit a threshold where a dozen people like-minded to Ashleg are the only ones around. Obviously they aren't going anywhere, so the post and member count will remain the same for quite some time. I'll bet the forum has a lot more life than you may be considering.
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It's not for the data, Wylder, but for the mood of the community. If it was data I wanted you to wait for, we'd be revisiting this in a year, rather than a month.
Interesting data and analysis,
@Wylder Treejumper I see the concern that this info could be rain on our parade, but it's still food for thought. I appreciate your sharing.
To be honest, I think it's fruitless to focus so much on stats. They're interesting; they're helpful. But maybe we're getting too wrapped up in details. When I step back to look at the bigger picture, I don't see a dying forum. Many are online every day, and posts are still springing in abundance. Maybe I'm ignorant, but I'm actually shocked that activity is on a decline. To me it's seemed stable, maybe even increasing. Experience tells me that this forum's thriving, and take a look at our excited members - we can have enough faith in them to keep it that way.
NOTE: I hope this post isn't a problem; I want to state my opinion. Please correct me if needed.
@Matthias720: Ah, I misunderstood your use of "stabilization".
@Skyblade: The job of statisticians is to look at trends in data, even when they may be invisible on a day-to-day basis, such as this one. I don't deny the vitality of the forum, but question whether it has remained
unchanged.
I apologize if I have hurt anyone's feelings or caused offense. My only intention was to help preserve the forum community, but is seems I have instead caused discord. That would be a result of the highly dominant T of my INTP personality :P
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It looks like I missed the fun. ;)
All I'll say at this point is that the staff have done a statistical analysis of the forum before, and that I'm not worried about where we are at this minute.