JRT
Retired account, feel I've gotten too hostile
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
- Messages
- 424
- Reaction score
- 859
Hi all,
I've noticed a significant change that I'm not sure could be just my own perceptions, but I am starting to wonder if we're starting to see a bit of decline in the traditional web based message boards for RPGs.
To give background, I took a break for about a year and stayed off of partaking in message boards -- pretty much this was my primary haunt, and I just wasn't active for 9-10 months. However, I still read boards, but I have started to notice a drop off in the amount of participation that seemed to span the RPG sphere.
And it wasn't just this board. I feel like there's been a little drop of participation here, but it seems apparent everywhere. (For example, I used to love the media discussion board here but there's less interesting activity there these past few years). Some old school D&D boards lost a lot of traffic, but even larger communities like ENWorld seems down -- threads and subjects that used to be hotbeds of activity have sort of dried up, I've seen a lot of known pseudonyms on several boards just stop making regular posts, and it just seems like this has suddenly happened. I feel like sometime between 2021 and 2022, this decline seemed to start becoming noticeable.
I remember a similar inflection point in the late 1990s / Early 2000s when the web based message forum took off and the use of email lists and Usenet/Newsgroups declined. I know that regular message boards provided by companies, especially video game companies, declined as media companies thought the money wasn't a good use of time and communication, but it's only in the past two years I see that the existing ones in tabletop RPGs seem to be noticable.
Does anybody else have this feeling? And if so, where do you think conversations are moving? I know of Reddit, and I think Discord might also be rising, or even the old social media groups like Facebook have gotten larger. Is this your experience? Or do you think people in general are moving away from posting online in this hobby and "retiring" from posting. I'm wondering if there was some effect the Pandemic's end might have had on things.
I've noticed a significant change that I'm not sure could be just my own perceptions, but I am starting to wonder if we're starting to see a bit of decline in the traditional web based message boards for RPGs.
To give background, I took a break for about a year and stayed off of partaking in message boards -- pretty much this was my primary haunt, and I just wasn't active for 9-10 months. However, I still read boards, but I have started to notice a drop off in the amount of participation that seemed to span the RPG sphere.
And it wasn't just this board. I feel like there's been a little drop of participation here, but it seems apparent everywhere. (For example, I used to love the media discussion board here but there's less interesting activity there these past few years). Some old school D&D boards lost a lot of traffic, but even larger communities like ENWorld seems down -- threads and subjects that used to be hotbeds of activity have sort of dried up, I've seen a lot of known pseudonyms on several boards just stop making regular posts, and it just seems like this has suddenly happened. I feel like sometime between 2021 and 2022, this decline seemed to start becoming noticeable.
I remember a similar inflection point in the late 1990s / Early 2000s when the web based message forum took off and the use of email lists and Usenet/Newsgroups declined. I know that regular message boards provided by companies, especially video game companies, declined as media companies thought the money wasn't a good use of time and communication, but it's only in the past two years I see that the existing ones in tabletop RPGs seem to be noticable.
Does anybody else have this feeling? And if so, where do you think conversations are moving? I know of Reddit, and I think Discord might also be rising, or even the old social media groups like Facebook have gotten larger. Is this your experience? Or do you think people in general are moving away from posting online in this hobby and "retiring" from posting. I'm wondering if there was some effect the Pandemic's end might have had on things.