Activity here has gone way down

[wolfen69]

I remember 2-3 years ago when I chatted here, it was almost real time responses. Now it's 2 or 3 days. Am i the only one that has noticed a decline in activity?

[David D.]

I too have noticed that activity has slowed. A few years ago when you logged onto the forums and it had been a hour or two, you could not get all the posts when selecting "New Posts". Now it is much longer.

[cariboo]

Our user base is changing, we now have more community members looking for answers to questions, that aren't aware the Cafe even exists. In some ways I like it, and in others it's sad to see, but things change, and there isn't much we can do to keep the status quo.

[ELD]

Nowadays we also have that Ubuntu Answers QA site that a lot of people prefer to use for direct questions.

Mint has gained a load more popularity and no doubt there is a % of users who now user their forums too.

Then there is people like me started his own site, that got more popular and just hasn't had much time to come back...but hellloooo!

[lancest]

My theory is that there may be less interest in the PC desktop in general.

Android for instance.

There are doubtless other possible explanations.

That said- 12.04 is pretty exciting and has pulled me away from my ASUS Transformer.

[AMCjavelin74]

My theory is that there may be less interest in the PC desktop in general.

Android for instance.

There are doubtless other possible explanations.

That said- 12.04 is pretty exciting and has pulled me away from my ASUS Transformer.

He has a point. Some say that Ubuntu seems to have been a 'beta test' for a touch interface (think mobile/tablet) and it makes sense that they're going after the said market.

However-- you can't really build and upgrade hardware with a tablet/cell phone like you can an actual desktop. If you use it for a couple years just to throw it away, it's an appliance. If you use it, upgrade, use it, upgrade some more, then it's something a little more significant.

[sdowney717]

IMO, the reason is this entire subforum was shut down for awhile a couple or a year ago due to too much raucous behavior, political posts, religious posts, attack posts etc... was not percieved as a nice forum anymore and the monitors wanted it to cool off. They even debated getting rid of it entirely.
It also went thru several bizarre name changes like " pretty pink ponies ", etc...
So when you dont have a totally free exchange of thoughts flowing, people just wont post and go elsewhere.

[CharlesA]

IMO, the reason is this entire subforum was shut down for awhile a couple or a year ago due to too much raucous behavior, political posts, religious posts, attack posts etc... was not percieved as a nice forum anymore and the monitors wanted it to cool off. They even debated getting rid of it entirely.
It also went thru several bizarre name changes like " pretty pink ponies ", etc...
So when you dont have a totally free exchange of thoughts flowing, people just wont post and go elsewhere.

The Cafe and other non-support areas were closed down in order to make the forum usable for support requests due to server hardware issues a while back. Is this what you are referring to?

As for the "freedom of speech" thing, keep in mind that this is a moderated forum.

[sdowney717]

no, I remember that shutdown also.
The one I mentioned people ought to remember if they have been here a few years.

here is a reference to this going back to 2008

http://www.mikesplanet.net/2008/04/o...-here-to-stay/

The Backyard is now called “OMG pInK pOnIeS” in honor of the famous Slashdot.org April Fool’s Day prank of 2006 (Google it), and the default text color is now pink, because it has had such a positive impact on posting styles and caused a drastic decrease in the number of reported posts from this forum.

[CharlesA]

Ah, before my time then.

Thanks.