Forum Participation

[Dwight Bremer]

I am administrator on another forum ( Pond boss Forum ) that is all about pond management.

We have found that there is a group of hard core members that check in daily and are very active. Some of these become forum moderators. Many just seem to enjoy , assisting others, answering questions, and discussing/documenting either their own projects or offering input to others projects. All the rest seem to be active for a short time and disappear.

I once was the most active of the active and have slowly pulled back into the shadows. My excuse is "too busy".

Why does a person "lose interest" is a question the forum owners, administrators and moderators are asking? Does it happen here too?

 

[Henro]

I am administrator on another forum ( Pond boss Forum ) that is all about pond management.

We have found that there is a group of hard core members that check in daily and are very active. Some of these become forum moderators. Many just seem to enjoy , assisting others, answering questions, and discussing/documenting either their own projects or offering input to others projects. All the rest seem to be active for a short time and disappear.

I once was the most active of the active and have slowly pulled back into the shadows. My excuse is "too busy".

Why does a person "lose interest" is a question the forum owners, administrators and moderators are asking? Does it happen here too?

People lose interest in all kinds of things. The why is a difficult question to answer...

No doubt it happens here too. Fact of life I think.

"Out with the old, in with the new" probably maintains a given forum average participant size.

However, it may be a natural fact that Kubota owners are a different breed than pond owners (I have a pond also) so all bets might be off when trying to do a comparison.

Plus, tractors are tools while ponds are objects of pleasure (or actually something that adds to ones workload) so that might be a difference as well.

That being said my pond is more like a farm pond...only work involved is cutting the grass around it and fixing a leak every few years...

My tractors are the hardest workers on the homestead. I appreciate them for all the help they give me. Hard for me to lose interest in them. They are really my best buddies!

My pond...well, I like it too...but that is about the end of it...

 

[PaulR]

I am administrator on another forum ( Pond boss Forum ) that is all about pond management.

We have found that there is a group of hard core members that check in daily and are very active. Some of these become forum moderators. Many just seem to enjoy , assisting others, answering questions, and discussing/documenting either their own projects or offering input to others projects. All the rest seem to be active for a short time and disappear.

I once was the most active of the active and have slowly pulled back into the shadows. My excuse is "too busy".

Why does a person "lose interest" is a question the forum owners, administrators and moderators are asking? Does it happen here too?

Too busy, other interests.
My tractor is new, so I'll be here for a while learning. Cannot contribute a lot since I'm only an accountant/shadetree mechanic.

 

[Ikc1990]

With Equipment it is always a learning curve for everyone we all can learn on echothers knowledge

 

[Dwight Bremer]

However, it may be a natural fact that Kubota owners are a different breed than pond owners (I have a pond also) so all bets might be off when trying to do a comparison.

Plus, tractors are tools while ponds are objects of pleasure (or actually something that adds to ones workload) so that might be a difference as well.

That being said my pond is more like a farm pond...only work involved is cutting the grass around it and fixing a leak every few years...

My tractors are the hardest workers on the homestead. I appreciate them for all the help they give me. Hard for me to lose interest in them. They are really my best buddies!

My pond...well, I like it too...but that is about the end of it...

Insightful! In a nutshell, work doers vs work makers.

 

[skeets]

Bike sites hot rod site cooking sites all have an ebb and flow,, some stay some figure its not their cup of tea. Someone said something they disagree with, or maybe a joke about something. People are people and no site can be all things to all its members. And trust me if you figure it out please let me know, so I can keep the young Brothers interested and involved

 

[Toyboy]

Upgrade to sites also have an effect on users. Some don't like change, and some just wont change. Some upgrades change the site from simple to complex.

Also people tend to get bored with the same users constantly giving their two bits on every/any subject the comes up, even if it's wrong.

Then you have the moral, spelling and grammar moniters lurking in the shadows waiting for the opportunity to pounce and set the user straight.
So as you see, the answer to your question can be quite complicated.

 

[B737]

I think activity here is probably based a lot on climbing the learning curve and gathering input from experienced operators. Tractors are kind of lifetime tools. Less activity in the community is likely related to becoming more comfortable, or maybe a lifestyle change like moving to suburbia (heaven forbid!)

 

[jkrez]

I read a Self Storage forum almost daily since 2012. One of the members that would help everyone had over 14,000 posts. Last month he was banned for saying china virus. I made a last post saying we are censored enough by our government and I will not stand for it here. I asked if it was Ok to say German measles or Spanish flu? No one answered me. This was their loss. As the knowledge of the banned member was many times extremely valuable.
Hope I don’t get banned for saying CV!

 

[WFM]

I'm in another forum and have learned alot there as I have here. When my Kubota was new or my Polaris was I certinly followed the forums closer. I stop check in but there now and then but are some who live in the forums and must spend 10 hrs a day there. But I just don't have that time or want to live on my laptop. And of course there is knowledgeable folks on the forums and there are "know it all's"on every forum always looking to down you if they can. But thats part of life I guess. Another reason I don't have facebook its just a big waste of life.
So don't feel bad for living life Dwight, less computer time and more face time with family and friends is good.

 

[jimh406]

Why does a person "lose interest" is a question the forum owners, administrators and moderators are asking? Does it happen here too?

Usually, it’s heavy handed moderators who don’t treat opinions equal. If you don’t like how a thread is going, delete the thread instead of deciding who gets to talk and editing like crazy. Unfair censorship is the sure way to kill a site. One site I visit makes it completely clear what is offtopic. Nobody is surprised when the threads are locked/deleted. On the other hand, other sites have lost most of the users by picking a political side.

Not that I know of. Sure, sometimes people are banned, but from what I’ve read they usually have a lot of chances.

 

[NCL4701]

I don’t recall exactly when I joined this forum; probably around a year ago. The tractor and implements were a significant investment for me and I need them to work without inordinate quantities of downtime or avoidable repair costs. Originally joined solely to learn about this new machine that bore very little semblance to the antique gassers I was used to.

I’m also a member of a Kawasaki forum due to my Mule ownership. Much more active here both reading and posting. A good bit of the reason is this forum includes a wide variety of people with similar machines and quite a few with MUCH more knowledge than I have who don’t mind sharing that knowledge in a respectful manner, particularly when it comes to repair and technical issues. I couldn’t even start to list all the things I’ve learned here, and if a problem had me stumped I’m quite confident in the expertise of a reasonably long list of contributors.

I do have about 45 years experience as an operator performing a pretty wide variety of tasks with farm/utility type tractors so once in a while there’s something I might be able to help someone else with. Being able to contribute as opposed to just reading helps with staying engaged.

After a while you sort of get to know some of the contributors. At least with this forum, it isn’t the same six guys all the time and I don’t see a lot of people blathering on with condescending expertise they don’t really have. What’s going on with them is sometimes as interesting as the technicalities of equipment maintenance and operating. It almost feels like sort of a loose community.

The Kawasaki forum: very little about my specific machine and not enough crossover between machines for threads on other machines to be engaging. Lots of questions but very few true expert contributors. More like a bunch of rednecks like me bouncing half baked ideas off each other.

I’m technically on TBN as well. Nothing against it but there seem to be a lot more “experts” there who clearly don’t know their head from their butt. I don’t much care for all the filtering required. If it’s a topic where I’m completely ignorant to the point I can’t tell fact from fiction, I don’t trust it much. Here, if Lugbolt or White Tiger or Dave-eng or a handful of others say it, I’d pretty much run with it. (Not to offend anyone but it’s a long list and I’d probably forget some.)

Last thing here, if the moderators are heavy handed I haven’t seen it. Personally, I’ve gotten wound up and popped off a post or two in the past I mildly regretted the tone of later when I read back over them. If a moderator slapped my hand, I couldn’t have blamed them but I’ve never had anything deleted, no warnings, etc. For the most part we’re all adults here and are treated as such.

I have a pond. No clue there was a forum although I don’t know why I’m surprised. We put some grass carp in it 30 years ago to clear out the overgrowth and we mow the dam once a year. Never really thought any more about it.

 

[chim]

I participate in just a few forums. This, and another tractor forum are the ones I'm most active on. There's a rimfire forum that I love, but haven't been as active in recent years as I once was. On all of these and a few other forums I've been on, there are a limited number of subject areas that I frequently check. I have little interest in Hydraulics, gray market and tires on the tractor forums for example.

On the rimfire forum, I seldom look at anything except the Browning Pistols. One of the forums I enjoyed the most was Shooterstalk and it went away several years ago. A few other gun sites were interesting for a little while, but the participation was so low that I got tired going back and not finding anything new.

 

[twomany]

Learning is fun, but once you "know enough" about your interest, (pond ., tractor, motorcycle , garden' etc.) dealing with the idiots on the internet gets annoying.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

;-)

eta

Many interest forums seem to be consumed by "not invented here" closed mindedness.

I've quit a bunch on that front.

 

[Mr. K]

Thanks to everyone who comes by and drops a message onto the forums now and then (or just stops by to lurk, you lurkers are welcome too!).

 

[Lil Foot]

I used to collect toy robots, and anything robot or space related. Still have the collection, but haven't added anything for years. Anything classic is nearly impossible to find & acquire unless you are full time, rich, or both. I still have one of the largest & most complete collections around. I was one of the most prolific contributors on the top robot forum, but always felt the forum was dominated by a rather cliquish group.
I think that stemmed from a fundamental attitude difference between myself and many others.
There are collectors who will not own a piece unless it is museum quality, in perfect condition, in a perfect box, with all paperwork, preferably with a traceable provenance. They have fabulous, but small, limited collections.
Because I love robots, I have always taken the attitude that while acquiring the perfect pieces is always preferable, I would rather have a less-than-perfect example of a piece rather than no example at all.
I believe that is where the rift started, and it became less & less enjoyable to contribute to the forum.
And, as pieces got harder & harder to collect, that became less & less fun also.
The final straw was becoming caregivers, as that squashed any hope of moving on to a different home with enough space to display my collection. (it is 95% boxed up)
Anyway, that is my situation/explanation when it comes to no longer participating on a forum, after many years of nearly daily contributions.
The only other forum I was heavily invested in, (I moderated) was closed down when the owning company was sold and the new owner shut the forum down.

 

[orange crusher]

People lose interest in all kinds of things. The why is a difficult question to answer...

No doubt it happens here too. Fact of life I think.

"Out with the old, in with the new" probably maintains a given forum average participant size.

However, it may be a natural fact that Kubota owners are a different breed than pond owners (I have a pond also) so all bets might be off when trying to do a comparison.

Plus, tractors are tools while ponds are objects of pleasure (or actually something that adds to ones workload) so that might be a difference as well.

That being said my pond is more like a farm pond...only work involved is cutting the grass around it and fixing a leak every few years...

My tractors are the hardest workers on the homestead. I appreciate them for all the help they give me. Hard for me to lose interest in them. They are really my best buddies!

My pond...well, I like it too...but that is about the end of it...

It's like watching reality T.V.........................it gets repetitive and boring quickly.

 

[NHSleddog]

I read a Self Storage forum almost daily since 2012. One of the members that would help everyone had over 14,000 posts. Last month he was banned for saying china virus. I made a last post saying we are censored enough by our government and I will not stand for it here. I asked if it was Ok to say German measles or Spanish flu? No one answered me. This was their loss. As the knowledge of the banned member was many times extremely valuable.
Hope I don’t get banned for saying CV!

This is the main reason I have changed my activity here. Censorship, editing posts, deleting posts. Not a two way arrangement though, only one side tends to get dinged.

One moderator that won't tolerate a specific view but will let the other side rail away. The handful on his side all agree censorship is great. I will never agree with censorship. I am not talking about being vulgar or anything ANYONE would expect to be censored for, but simply having a different view. I think this mod was trained by Twitter.

 

[lugbolt]

I am administrator on another forum ( Pond boss Forum ) that is all about pond management.

We have found that there is a group of hard core members that check in daily and are very active. Some of these become forum moderators. Many just seem to enjoy , assisting others, answering questions, and discussing/documenting either their own projects or offering input to others projects. All the rest seem to be active for a short time and disappear.

I once was the most active of the active and have slowly pulled back into the shadows. My excuse is "too busy".

Why does a person "lose interest" is a question the forum owners, administrators and moderators are asking? Does it happen here too?

it happens on all forums
sometimes others will join the forum and make the regulars stop using
sometimes a regular user will be "overthrown"
sometimes a regular user gets disgruntled
sometimes regular users legitimiately have life events that prevent them from using the forum
Sometimes they really don't have the time, or forum participation was a pain to begin with and they finally said I ain't doing this no more

I have been involved in all of those situations so I speak from experience. I'm sure there's more reasons.

 

[Yooper]

FWIW I belong to several other forums and have lost interest over time. Usually I get disgusted with the ‘regulars’ treating a newbie with disrespect for a question or a comment they don’t agree with. I’ve stuck with this forum because you see very little of that. Yes, there has been a few instances but nothing like other forums where it seems to be a daily occurrence. (One particular machining forum that I won’t name for example)

I don’t participate a lot because tractors are not my area of expertise. But I sure learn a lot from other peoples experiences and participate when I have something that will help other members.