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Undertoad · 01-18-2019, 11:00 AM

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dwellars and Lurkers, the state of The Cellar is strong.

This is my first address in three years, and hardly necessary, but here it is.

In recent times, we have suffered the death of several of our most notable and active posters. Following each loss, there was a big drop in activity.

We are now sort of at the level where we were in the early 2000s, but with less "churn" of the user base. It's comfortable to have "just us" -- and we should expect this to be the case from here on out, as web forums have dropped off as a way for people to be social online.

In the last address, I suggested that maybe we would transfer to new forum software. We can still do that, if we choose to.

But many people hate new software. This is something that "just is" -- even if the new software is "better", people do not like change as it confuses their routine.

Losing 20% of us now would be sad. Therefore, I made the executive decision not to make any changes.

But at some point, the current software will not even run on newer operating systems and infrastructure; when that happens, it will be necessary to change. This will not be required for a while; at least until the end of next year.

~

I watch the statistics for The Cellar from time to time. In 2018, we enjoyed an increase in the number of posts per month. This was a slow increase; it went from a low point of 1410 posts in October 2017, to 2242 posts in December 2018.

This is far off the numbers we enjoyed in our true heyday, which ended with the popularization of Facebook and other platforms. Our record month was March 2009, in which we had 12131 posts. But over eight years later, we are in a comfortable place, now.

What I have noticed is that people are becoming skeptical of the major social media platforms, and that there is still a role for the web forum. In fact, sometimes old users email me to help reactivate their old accounts. Two such requests this year came from people who were HUGE posters back in the day, but they have not decided to post anything new, at least not yet. It is hard to re-integrate into an old community, just like in real life.

01-18-2019, 11:00 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	State of The Cellar Address 2019 Ladies and Gentlemen, Dwellars and Lurkers, the state of The Cellar is strong. This is my first address in three years, and hardly necessary, but here it is. In recent times, we have suffered the death of several of our most notable and active posters. Following each loss, there was a big drop in activity. We are now sort of at the level where we were in the early 2000s, but with less "churn" of the user base. It's comfortable to have "just us" -- and we should expect this to be the case from here on out, as web forums have dropped off as a way for people to be social online. In the last address, I suggested that maybe we would transfer to new forum software. We can still do that, if we choose to. But many people hate new software. This is something that "just is" -- even if the new software is "better", people do not like change as it confuses their routine. Losing 20% of us now would be sad. Therefore, I made the executive decision not to make any changes. But at some point, the current software will not even run on newer operating systems and infrastructure; when that happens, it will be necessary to change. This will not be required for a while; at least until the end of next year. ~ I watch the statistics for The Cellar from time to time. In 2018, we enjoyed an increase in the number of posts per month. This was a slow increase; it went from a low point of 1410 posts in October 2017, to 2242 posts in December 2018. This is far off the numbers we enjoyed in our true heyday, which ended with the popularization of Facebook and other platforms. Our record month was March 2009, in which we had 12131 posts. But over eight years later, we are in a comfortable place, now. What I have noticed is that people are becoming skeptical of the major social media platforms, and that there is still a role for the web forum. In fact, sometimes old users email me to help reactivate their old accounts. Two such requests this year came from people who were HUGE posters back in the day, but they have not decided to post anything new, at least not yet. It is hard to re-integrate into an old community, just like in real life.