jackhammer

Whether you are aware or not, there has been another couple of mod resignations over the past week or so namely Urban and Loathsome Pete which has continued the trend over the last 12 months or so with big names and genuine contributing regulars such as Right Track, PMO, Bulldog, Big 3, myself and Seltzer all stepping down.

I am really wondering whether MB is beginning to run it's course. The journal section is probably the most quite I have known it to be since I have been here and the lack of really juicy threads that encourage in depth discussion have certainly made me post in a lot fewer threads over the past year.

I know that there was real hope that this forum could actually become something very special and rise above it's mere forum status due to many members with fantastic knowledge and writing skills but that has failed to materialise for whatever reason.

Are social networking sites hampering the need to write and be heard unless it's only a sentence for the attention deficit or is it the lack of good music around or is it the lack of a certain age demographic which means we feel surplus to requirements?

Everyone gets bored at some point with visiting the same site over and over again that is a given but for this many mods to hang up their blue cloaks over the past year? It's not mere coincidence.

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Dirty

They are just stepping down from their mod positions to make room for me.

I've watched forums die before. I don't think this one is even that close. There's still a solid group of regulars around here.

To be fair though I haven't used the journals or blogs or anything like that. And I don't post or read many reviews. So I can't really comment on the state of that.

jackhammer

What you mean that every forum you have joined has died not long after?

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Dirty

They call me Reaper. Grim Reaper.

But seriously, no that's not what I am saying at all. I only have ever posted on one other forum. And the first 5 years there was active and lots of good discussion. Then the next 4 years was a gradual decline of regulars leaving and no new member sticking around. Then I left and started posting here and that forum is basically a ghost town with a group of like 10 people talking about random stuff.

I can't speak on the forum pre-October. But it seems like there is still a lot of regulars on this site, and just in the past few months there's been new people signing up and sticking around.

Paedantic Basterd

Every forum I have ever joined has been "in decline" according to the members who have been a part of it longest. Even in leaving those forums and returning years later, an entirely new group of people is "missing the days when" and lamenting the passing of the forum's "prime".

All of these types of complaints lead me to think that the forum itself is never the problem, more that those who are using it are changing as people, moving in and out of the forum and of phases in their lives.

jackhammer

That usually is the case and I can see where you are coming from but for this many mods to say goodbye leads me to conclude that it is not what it used to be. MB is one of the very best non profit music forums out there (and I have checked site hits, popularity, site worth monetary) so for many of it's contributing members to leave must mean something and I have seen very few people to replace them personally.

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Dirty

Maybe it's just changes in their personal lives? As people get older I'm guessing the forum falls more and more down the ladder of importance in their lives. At some point it just becomes not worth it to mod anymore. Do mods even have to do that much? Clean up some spam, ban people for sexually inappropriate posts?

I agree with Pedestrian though. Forums are always getting worse if you ask long time members. Cause things change and old members start to post less and eventually leave.

Paedantic Basterd

Well, I can't comment on why they stepped down from their responsibilities, but they have definitely not abandoned the website. Perhaps they aren't as active as they once were, but surely you'd admit that it isn't as if the quality posters start and stop with those who have been modded.

jackhammer

What you have said is spot on and I do hope that is the case but I have this feeling that MB will never be what it was and will never be.

I have always thought that this is a truly exceptional music forum. Not overly clicky and full of great posts with erudite responses and knowledgeable people and a reason for many to come back again and again and I can say that virtually all the mods that have resigned have not had major lifestyle changes in order for them to quit.

I genuinely hope that in a years time this site is full of hustle and bustle but I have my doubts and I am only expressing how I feel and know many feel the same way.

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Paedantic Basterd

Of course it won't be what it was, because the population is ever changing, but what says that different can't be just as good? There will not be another Right Track or Big3, nor would you want one if you got one, because the reason users like these are meaningful to you is because they are one of a kind. The ticket is to acknowledge this, and then be open to all the different kinds of irreplaceable users that are certain to come through here.

I found it difficult for a long time not to take it personally that every forum I ever joined was "dying". It's hard not to be disappointed by the fact that the community you're trying to be a part of is too busy missing other people to recognize the value in new contributors, but I have come to realize that this is a constant, and not a result of my joining at a bad time, or worse: causing the problem.