Is DF Slowly Dying?

[TJB]

I've always felt that there was a certain clique within the forums and if you didn't agree with their politics / religious beliefs / whatever, then you were either ignored or ostracised. Having said that, I have learned a hell of a lot over the years and it's still my first port of call whenever I can't get something to work.

[beansontoast]

What I would say about myself is in the past it I had the time and flexibility and inclination to break open perfectly good stuff to tinker with it. Made an atmel programmer and so on, also killed a PS2 but did the old swap-me-do at Argos and had another go, made an early DVD player (£400!) multi region, etc. etc.

However, nowadays I've moved along in life a bit and after work every day I just want to enjoy the fruits of my labours. I no longer have a full PC as such and my days of flashing by serial cable are over. I come to read mainly and chip in from time to time. But I do come here daily and many times a day. I can't really discuss my work, I could post in the football section I suppose or the TV shows. I'll make an effort.

[DejaVu]

I think simplifying sections as per Mystical's suggestion is a great idea for DF!

Facebook is murdering a lot of places on the Internet.
Pre Facebook, the internet was a maze of fantastic websites Nowadays people just get the internet to sign up to Facebook to whinge, bitch, troll and put photos of last nights dinner.
Because the place has expanded and starting things like groups, selling pages and business pages. It's threatening not just forums.

Yes, I use Facebook, mainly because it's been forced upon me. I'd much rather stick with buying my bargains from eBay, chatting tech on DF and displaying all my dirty laundry on Mumsnet.
Is there a solution or has Mark Zuckerberg nailed it and cornered the internet market?!

[Mickey]

Never used Facebook or twitter. DF is the only forum I roam and tinker with.
I have a busy work and holiday time and the bits in-between are set to chill and pkay online games.

[piggzy]

I would love FB to completely die a death tomorrow. Fucked up a lot of things and made cunts into bigger cunts. Hate it. Use it ONLY to keep in touch with certain people and that is it.

As others have mentioned. I dont need or want to know if you have taken a shit, baked a cake, had an interview, fucked your mum or just woken up.

[beansontoast]

I would love FB to completely die a death tomorrow. Fucked up a lot of things and made cunts into bigger cunts. Hate it. Use it ONLY to keep in touch with certain people and that is it.

As others have mentioned. I dont need or want to know if you have taken a shit, baked a cake, had an interview, fucked your mum or just woken up.

Also where at first you might have thought an old mates missus was fit you now know why he wants to chop the fucker up due to being a complete nutter.

[JonEp]

When forum posts became Google search friendly which I guess was to counter the then (The topic of this thread has surfaced at least once a year, every year since I have been a member. ) perceived decline and attract new interest and members I for one think twice about the content of my posts and the long memory of Goggle.

Closing the door to Google might encourage new blood and a revival.

[EvilBoB]

I think this article says it all regarding FB : http://afkinsider.com/94916/is-faceb...ians-think-so/

A recent survey by mobile surveying company Geopoll and World Wide Worx showed that 65 percent of Nigerians think “Facebook is the internet”, while 9 percent of the social media site users in the west African country said they had “never used the internet”.

[EvilBoB]

Can't quite see all of the names but this was back in the hey day


Nearly all techie type forums

[Ganty]

This thread again?!

Admittedly, a lot of truths in here.

My biggest gripe was with newbie bashing. I didn't and still don't like the way new members are regularly hounded and fuck off without the chance of making a decent contribution. It's almost as if some people expect a new member to make an intro and then go straight in posting the latest sky q exploit before they're welcomed.

Whilst I understand that leeches need weeding, nowadays there isn't a huge amount to be leeched. With the advent of kodi xbmx and the popularity of them, with numerous dedicated groups to these, we are no longer the forerunner in l33t exploits. This was probably to be expected. Everything is getting easier, and easier to find.

I remember when the original Wii hack surfaced, I wrote detailed guides and provided the required disc to member to get the ball rolling. Now you can hack a Wii via a web url ffs.

I like the idea of a simplification - but will it solve anything? Instead of 100 we'll just have 20 sub forums with no new posts.

I'm all up for other ideas, and propose an amnesty so anything you say is on limits and discussed, providing admin roll with it.

[Mystical_2K]

This thread again?!

Admittedly, a lot of truths in here.

My biggest gripe was with newbie bashing. I didn't and still don't like the way new members are regularly hounded and fuck off without the chance of making a decent contribution. It's almost as if some people expect a new member to make an intro and then go straight in posting the latest sky q exploit before they're welcomed.

Whilst I understand that leeches need weeding, nowadays there isn't a huge amount to be leeched. With the advent of kodi xbmx and the popularity of them, with numerous dedicated groups to these, we are no longer the forerunner in l33t exploits. This was probably to be expected. Everything is getting easier, and easier to find.

I remember when the original Wii hack surfaced, I wrote detailed guides and provided the required disc to member to get the ball rolling. Now you can hack a Wii via a web url ffs.

I like the idea of a simplification - but will it solve anything? Instead of 100 we'll just have 20 sub forums with no new posts.

I'm all up for other ideas, and propose an amnesty so anything you say is on limits and discussed, providing admin roll with it.

maybe its time to take stock and work out what kind of forum we want to be nowadays?
As you said we are no longer giving out guides and hacks or even really directing people to where they can find the info.

As others have said, we are all older now and don't have the spare time to dedicate to these things, I imagine most of us find interesting articles and news but are so used to then moving on to something else we don't post them here to get others opinions, obviously we do sometimes but nowhere near the amount we used to.

My mortgage, car and generally living takes up most of my cash these days so dont have the spare income (or time) to buy new gadgets and then rip them apart to see what makes them tick, even if we did you can pretty much guarantee someone else out there has done similar or better and will make any work you do redundant.

Lets just keep the whine cellar so that all us miserable old twats have somewhere to moan on a daily basis!

But please for fucks sake dont take this forum anywhere near facebook, i fucking hate the fucking site with a passion!

[DavidF]

I know some forums that are still active and in fact have a decent traffic....But with a few exceptions I do get the feeling that most members here are just not "that" interested in the subject matter. What is this subject that still attracts users in numbers ? Politics - Yep love it or hate it politics is always topical AND current. So maybe a politics section or a broader current/world affairs section, the subject matter is the same..ish. Anyway that's my contribution. I await the collective horror in the replies with cries of "But we are a techy forum" lol. We are indeed a techy forum - albeit not at the forefront of much tech at the moment. But if you want numbers and discussion them politics "could" generate that and may even peek interest in other sections....tisall about the footfall.
We just saw recently the demise/rebirth of modshack....Still a work in progress by a long chalk. Shame as H has tried pushing topics, appealing for members to step up to do some tuts ect. It just proves how "tough" it really is to engage people in anything that we would consider techy. The most active posts on here and over there are current affairs/politics.....But neither forum is dedicated any section....The is no raptor bot style thing where we get a daily current news worthy story that people can chew over. Not that I am asking for raptor bot to come back ...there are a few of us on here quite capable of feeding current political stories.
Home automation interests me. But again maybe that's the electrician in me....I have worked with a bit of this home automation stuff over the years....The yanks and China ect are much further forward than our own efforts. The main problem is the way most UK lighting systems are wired...No neutral at the switch plays havoc with most HA stuff available on the import market(stuff that can be adapted/tinkered with ect).
I think maybe another thread asking members interests/hobbies NOT what sections they want might be a good guide of what may be a decent direction to go in. I am surprised considering the obvious skill of some members that the Photography section is not much busier....It used to be quite busy there...and most of the contributors are still around.

[I Black Belt]

I'd like to see Rap's take on it. After all, he's no slouch in terms of trends etc.

[pratman]

i initially joined because tbops was on here and there was shit loads of stuff to read about and loads of topics to get involved in, and after seeing DF through his account for 6 months i created my own account while at uni and loved it, although not much input on most areas, the footy section was by far the best section for me, the banter the abuse and the debates that went on were great, but it seems with social media and less people logging on to computers to sit down and browse the habit of getting on DF has gone, everyone wants information there and then, whereas when i used to see this forum full we would start up a topic/poll to get other peoples opinions and some topics would draw people in to partake and give an opinion or join int he banter, but this has all fizzled out. Also i think a lot of the vocal members that are not here went because they were banned or didnt agree with the way things were being done, but thats their business.

For now, i dunno what would work, but retention of the old school members is always a must but maybe a reformat of some sections, there are certain areas that have had little or no input in a long while, maybe some bits need to now go and something fresher bought in, maybe enhancing the job side so people can network similar to linkedin and maybe we can utilise the skills within the forum a bit more possibly, direct links to our social media such as twitter/facebook. I am sure there are some better ideas out there from other members but just a thought that maybe a revamp would be good.

[doughboy]

but it seems with social media and less people logging on to computers to sit down and browse .

Tapatalk leaves no excuses for people who can't be arsed to turn on their pc. Either that or get an ssd. My pc is on quicker than my virgin box lol

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[pratman]

Tapatalk leaves no excuses for people who can't be arsed to turn on their pc. Either that or get an ssd. My pc is on quicker than my virgin box lol

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

i am not saying whats right or wrong, i am just stating facts people are on here less because less people are sitting behind a pc. i used to have DF running 24/7 back in the day in the background when i used to be downloading and would see whats new, I used to get a lot of my news from here as we would share topics but people are sing things like reddit/newsnow and with notifications popping through on their devices they dont feel the need to log in here unfortunately.

[doughboy]

You're right. I was the same. DF is still the first and last place I visit day and night though.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[piggzy]

Thinking about it I've only been on here 2-3 years.. I would say it has declined in how active it is about 75% just in that time frame.

I have always been a forum user though since the 90's and always will be imho. I get banned from one forum for calling someone a cunt and move onto the next lol

We are a dying breed.

[BigBrand]

Thinking about it I've only been on here 2-3 years.. I would say it has declined in how active it is about 75% just in that time frame.

I have always been a forum user though since the 90's and always will be imho. I get banned from one forum for calling someone a cunt and move onto the next lol

We are a dying breed.

Over sensitive wankers.

Can't call anyone a fucking name these days, cunts.

[MajorFU]

At least DF respects everyones right to call someone a cunt over the internet

I think tech, hax, ways to cheat the system are just a little less techy and 1 youtube vid = 50 stupid posts

Saying that I have recently become a retropie expert thanks to this forum and only just started using kodi too so on a personal note I still learn great stuff here and bought my ps4 and ps3 of guys here

Also remember buying some multiregion dvd player from recommendation here about 14 years ago, fooker still works too!