Where has everyone gone....?

[merryberry]

This board is so quiet nowadays. So many people seem to have left. What can we do to bring it back to life? I loved this board...... ?

[troop]

I was thinking the same thing

[wills]

A few months ago they were going to shut the board completely and it seems to have gone pretty quiet since then, they did say it was because of Facebook but I don't feel the same posting on FB as I do on here. It's a shame as I really really like/liked this board and miss so many of the regulars. I wonder if the members section is busier?

[nich]

I hardly come on because when I do, there's nothing new...

[merryberry]

Yes Wills & Nich I agree.

[wills]

Maybe Kelly could advertise the board on her fb page?!

[kristine]

Would love to hang out more... work, work, work, work Its a great board though, don't want to see it go.

[Caroline]

Forums are fragile things. When you have critical mass, it is best to not make too many changes. But there was a restructuring and some new rules that got argued about and compromised if memory serves correctly. I think one of the rules was that no-one except RAs could give advice - which was always going to be a deathknoll for discusion. I am not sure if that rule was kept or not. But I think all that drove people away and the membership and activity fell beneath critical mass. When that happens, members find that it isn't worth visiting very often because there isn't much activity to see or people to talk to and it is a bit of a downhill spiral from there.

I also wonder if people are taking a different path with horsemanship now? I have been for a long time, but still continued to come here because the people were nice, interesting and more on my wavelength than the mainstream horsey crowd. I drop in about once a week or two now.

[companymagic]

It is very quiet here now, which is such a big shame as this used to be an amazing board for learning and sharing experience.
I stop by and have a little look, but feel I don't always have much to offer in the way of posting. Will try and be a bit more proactive.

I think the members board is where where everyone might be. X

[Catrin]

I think more goes on in the Members' Forum. I am guilty though. My two horses left me two years ago, so I don't have questions. I focus more on Facebook groups now as sometimes the people there have questions that IH answers.

Since I had an article in the IH Magazine about helping my disabled friend who is an equine herbalist run her on–line shop, I thought I'd better pop in again, in case there were questions.

I'm here today, trying to find a person who posted years ago as I tried to contact her aunt and found she was in hospital.

[antares]

Even the members board is quieter at the moment. Regular posters are missing, everyone busy!! I pop on most days for a few mins but there isn't much discussion going on at present

Some of the Facebook groups have good discussions and links to interesting articles etc and that's where the most traffic is these days.

[mags]

I do think the forums are starting to give way to social media. I still think they are a far better place to have on-topic discussions (plus searchable threads), and I for one really like the anonymity that a forum can provide (as I'm not a fan of spreading my identity all over the web, and I don't feel my professional colleagues should find comments on horse related matters that are years out of date when searching for me on the www).
But you do need a minimum amount of dedicated participants to keep a forum alive, and quite a few of the ones I've loosely followed over the years are dying out. Even H&H is starting to slow down considerably. I, for one, have no patience for FB "discussions". The format makes it hard to follow, and I cannot stand the constant alerts if someone new has posted a comment. And if you disable alerts, the discussion is soon lost on the timeline. I think I'm getting too old!

[Deleted]

Must admit I've been on facebook much more but am beginning to get bored of it, as mags says threads get lost so quickly and can't be searched so that in any group the discussions just go round in circles over and over.

I don't mean this disrespectfully at all, it's because of the format not the people, but I don't think IH feels like a community or membership association on FB, it's more like being a member of Kelly's fan club. The DG is (or was, and still could be) more of a community. I do think there are a number of long term members on here who left and haven't come back when there was talk of closing the DG.

[lizpurlo]

Very true about FB Michelle, it's so frustrating when you want to go back and have another look at something you saw yesterday - never mind something you saw last week! Whereas we have years and years of interesting posts here to trawl back through.

Part of the trouble is the format though, which felt great five or six years ago, but seems a bit awkward to use now. Having to log in every time, and the tiresome Photobucket for posting pics always puts me off putting pics up - it's such a blimmin' hassle! An agricultural forum I frequent has a different format, you can post pics as easily as on FB, and it seems very bright and up to date - and busy! - compared to this one.

I really miss the great DG years, and hearing about Kanga and Fal, and Trouble's lovely Snip, and Laurac's Big Fella and the wonderful Biscuit. Among many others.

[Hannah]

I think fb has taken over to a point which is a real shame as topics can't easily be searched for as they can on a forum. I'm guilty of popping in here, reading and generally not posting. Partly because I spend most of my day with horses but also any questions on the main board by newbies needed a "call an RA" reply because we just can't see what else is going on.