Forum Utilization Down

It seems to me utilization of Drummerworld Forums is way down. Unless Bo is posting about his latest acquisition or change of style or whatever his latest investment is (lol), there's really not much content here anymore. I remember when I joined just a few years ago the usage seemed much higher and frequent with many active topics. Now, some sub-forums may only have one active thread, and that thread may only have one post for the day.

Just an observation.

All the forums I visit (Cars, Drums etc) are all suffering now. Faceache seems to have taken everyone away. I find forums to be much better as searching on Faceache is a nightmare.

It is 0820 here in Florida, and at the current time, 245 members are viewing threads currently posted. I have seen other forums that could only dream of having that many visits at one time. Your observation may be true, but I'm only showing what is current.

I started as a drummer in the 70’s then switched to bass guitar full time in the 80’s then came back to drums in 2016.

I am also a member ( not too active now) on Talkbass, and that is a thriving forum.

That may be because bass players are even more anal and geeky about their craft than drummers.

When I started playing drums again I searched through all the drum forums, and found this one to by far have the most content and activity.

GruntersDad said:

It is 0820 here in Florida, and at the current time, 245 members are viewing threads currently posted. I have seen other forums that could only dream of having that many visits at one time. Your observation may be true, but I'm only showing what is current.

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Those guest numbers are bots or other types of non-human users, correct? That's part of why there were over 300 new users added on 9/24, although none of them have made a post, the majority don't have usernames related to drumming, and many of them include links in their profile to various phishing sites.


I mean, between August 27 and today there have been 3,991 new members added and they've made a total of 62 posts.

Like Frosticles said, every forum I'm a member of has seen a drastic reduction in participation over the years and all are currently at their lowest point.

As of the time of this post:

DrumForum.org: 83 members, 642 guests; 11.5% human users
Pearl Drummers Forum: 99 members, 7,129 guests; 1.4% human users
Vintage Drum Forum: 15 members, 405 guests; 3.6% human users
Drummerworld: 27 members, 382 guests; 6.6% human users

Jbravo said:

I started as a drummer in the 70’s then switched to bass guitar full time in the 80’s then came back to drums in 2016.

I am also a member ( not too active now) on Talkbass, and that is a thriving forum.

That may be because bass players are even more anal and geeky about their craft than drummers.

When I started playing drums again I searched through all the drum forums, and found this one to by far have the most content and activity.

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This is EXACTLY my story, if you replace 70s and 80s to 80s and 90s.

Also frequent talkbass (but not as much anymore).

Also back to drums in 2016.

On TB I used to end with: :T$ now I just use T.


T.

Jbravo said:

I am also a member ( not too active now) on Talkbass, and that is a thriving forum.

That may be because bass players are even more anal and geeky about their craft than drummers.

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I also noodle around on bass and visit the Talkbass forum regularly and the amount of daily posts over there surprised me from the start until today.
Start a thead on P vs J, what flats do you prefer, today's Which tuning frequency should I set on my tuner? or start any kind of poll and you end up with dozens or even hundreds of posts in half a day (or so).
I had no idea before that bass players were that kind of chatterboxes.

The downside is that good replies get buried down by a lot of crap talk. I usually only read the first replies of an interesting topic, don't want to waste my time on the rest, usually not worth the time.

On this forum there are much less active members, thread starters and replies but most posts seem to be more serious, educational and/or helpful instead of 'carrot posts' with not much more usefulness than to push up the posts and likes count.
And people who have been around longer might get tired to reply again to Should I buy 5A or 7A sticks? or whatever common topic appears again.

BTW: not a judgement, just an observation, different people have different reasons for visiting forums.

I think there are busy and not-so-busy times with many of these types of sites.

I used to be more active here but things in my life have changed since I first joined and used to post a lot more. As time went on rehashing the same ideas and concepts over and over and over became less appealing to me. That doesn’t mean they aren’t important from an original poster stand point, but on the other end, it became redundant to keep tying the same info.

Life has become MUCH busier for me so there’s MUCH less time for me to check in.

I have other non-drumming musical instrument pursuits now and visit those related forums occasionally – but still not often. Those forums have much less activity and history than this one does. This is still the best forum on the planet for drum related conversations.

Will end by saying over the years I’ve spent here, I’ve “met” a handful of incredible people who have inspired me – taught me so much - and have made me laugh more times than one can imagine. We may have even shared differences of opinion but at the end of the day we have/had even more in common. I hope these few know who they are (hint: Anthony and 8Mile + a few others I’m failing to remember the user names).

There will always be new users joining (maybe less so than 5 years ago) and people always seeking information. There is SO much info that someone can learn here just from conducting a search that would last a lifetime.

Music and gear are always evolving so those questions that lead to ideas/concepts and assistance with gear will continue as well - assuming the platform doesn’t disappear or become extinct.

Bike Forums and also Steve Hoffman Music Forums, two other I frequent, literally buzz with postings threads and responses. Sometimes on Steve Hoffman I'll post a comment about a turntable or speakers and there will be 10 or more responses within the hour, and new threads pop up all the time almost by the minute on equipment.

Seems this forum is dying a slow death. Bo can always get it stirred up with his latest look at me look at what I'm doing threads he starts, but then they die out quickly.

I see the slo-down of Drummerworld Forums as a recent phenomena within last 6 months.

If there were 245 real human members viewing, I'd expect more postings this morning than what are actually here, and from a variety of users. It's gotten down to a handful of regular users posting and not much more.I can post a question about a snare drum now and get 1 or 2 responses, and over a few weeks maybe 10-20. Last year I'd get 20 or more in 24 hours.

Besides just my observation and lamenting the slow down, it also is harder now to find out good information from a variety and volume of users on equipment. With only a handful of users participating, the perspective you get on equipment is very limited.

It's slowwwwwwww around here. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Don't know how much is seasonal, summer, back to school or whatever. But it ebbs and flows.

I read almost every post, in the general discussion area of this forum, and enjoy it. Oh, and this is the only forum, I have ever kept up with. So, I think it's doing a great job. If there were tons and tons of posts, and they all seemed, just random, I'd probably loose interest.

Posts on this forum, are more about quality, over quantity.

I also think more people access the internet, via smart phone over laptop, as most did in the past. While, I have yet to buy a smartphone. And I don't ever want to buy a smartphone.

I read most of the new threads daily. I don't post much. I used to frequent several forums, but many have devolved into cliques that inadvertently drive others away, especially if politics are allowed.

I used to frequent 2-3 golf forums, 5-6 guitar forums, and another 3-4 drum forums. Now, just a couple of drum forums.

We think we're anal about woods , heads, and tones? We ain't got nothin on acoustic guitar players.

Interesting how many of you also frequent TalkBass/dabble in bass...

I used to go to that site years ago but ran away. But I did get out of the experience that Chris Squire is apparently the greatest bassist ever.

I try to check in at least once a day. Other days, I'll have it up on my computer at work ALL DAY! :-D

As it's been frowned upon to take a thread from long ago and "resurrect" it, many new topics run their course pretty quick.
Maybe we could change how this is perceived and that might generate more topics of interest?

Just a thought.

I noticed the same phenomena dmacc mentioned. I've seen so many threads on the same subjects that I'm like...been there done that.

I could see how a cycle is involved here. People discover DW, are very active for a few (or more) years, then it becomes old hat to them.

So we need a new crop of people discovering DW to replace the ones who fade away.

For me, the golden age of DW was when I joined in 2008 to about 2014 or so.

We had a lot of characters that just aren't around anymore.

Still, I like it here. It's the only place in my world where my opinion might actually mean something to someone else.

larryace said:

For me, the golden age of DW was when I joined in 2008 to about 2014 or so.

We had a lot of characters that just aren't around anymore.

Still, I like it here. It's the only place in my world where my opinion might actually mean something to someone else.

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This is exactly what I was thinking. The forum then was almost less about drums and more of a social media platform. I feel like I knew those people and we all interacted with each other on a personal level. Alas, the only constant is change.

eclipseownzu said:

This is exactly what I was thinking. The forum then was almost less about drums and more of a social media platform. I feel like I knew those people and we all interacted with each other on a personal level. Alas, the only constant is change.

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Right? I know I went beyond the topic of drumming with some of the "old" regulars here. It was more like spending time with friends than discussing drums and drumming.

I do appreciate the long standing (suffering?) members who have not faded away.

Well, that fact that this forum hasn't been updated in over 10 years probably has something to do with it.

From what I can see, usage and participation across all the forums I've been involved with is down. I'm not altogether sure why.

I used to frequent the Pearl Drummers Forum, but I took an unplanned hiatus for a bit, and apparently while I was gone, they brought the hammer down on certain types of posts and posting. The ban hammer was being liberally used, and when the smoke cleared, it went from a forum that was so busy I sometimes couldn't keep up with the new threads listing to a forum that is so slow, I can go for days without seeing it without really missing anything.

Both of the trumpet player forums are the same too.

Part of it might be me. There are only so many times I can respond to the same, "which horn should I get," or "which mouthpiece should I move to," before I get tired of seeing the same old tired questions that have already been asked and answered dozens of times.

In any case, I joined up here because I figured it would be more active than the PDF, and it is, but not by much. I think that the forum has mostly fallen out of fashion.

DrumEatDrum said:

Well, that fact that this forum hasn't been updated in over 10 years probably has something to do with it.

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This I think may also goes hand-in-hand with how people now access the internet these days. Many use their phones via and app which reduces the desire to access from a browser.

Though it was done in 2008 when I joined - it wasn't as prevalent as it is now??

I don't think there is a DW mobile app - is there? Heck - this isn't even a secure site (https which many take exception to these days (and rightfully so).

Then again, it's all free in cost so the owner(s) of the site make the decisions.


Just thoughts.