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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why some forums sort of ... grind to a halt?

214 replies

mytartanscarf · 30/12/2014 20:47

I used to be a member of a very busy forum. It was pretty nice as although it was busy there was a sense of community as well.

It isn't dead Grin but dying.

Then about 10 years ago when I did a PGCE I was a member of the TES forums and they used to be so busy; I've had a look for the first time in ages and ages and it's really quiet.

Will Mumsnet ever die? And what causes a forum death?

OP posts:
McSqueezy · 31/12/2014 09:35

Oh yes I joined DigitalSpy in 07/08. Was very busy back then, but seems very quiet these days compared to what it was.

CrispyFern · 31/12/2014 09:35

Everything dies off in the end. I used to use icq chat, then msn messenger, I know they're not forums but at the time they seemed as perfectly ordinary and everyday as an email, but nobody uses them now!

I don't ever send social emails any more come to think of it.

deadduck · 31/12/2014 09:38

Nobody else here been on Delphi? I spent 10 years on that (still read, but don't post much anymore).

MothershipG · 31/12/2014 09:40

Waves at the UKMums/UkParents from around 14 years ago, I was there!

Then 8 years ago I got my first dog and moved onto Dogsey, learnt a lot on there but eventually it just felt massively repetitive so I stopped using it so much.

When I first heard of MN I got mixed up and found NM and wondered what all the fuss was about Confused. Eventually got it right, found this place and settled in.

ReeseWithoutHerSpoon · 31/12/2014 09:40

Yep, I was a former TESSER, remember bauble's bar. I had seen a few usernames I remember from there on here and wondered if they were the same people. Some of us went over to another forum but that is very slow moving.

Opinion on TES was a lot like AIBU on here.

usualsuspect333 · 31/12/2014 09:43

I used to post a lot on DS.Especially the Big Brother board.There used to be some very funny posters on there.

kungfupannda · 31/12/2014 09:44

"They always used to have a pop about how mean and scary mumsnet was. It died a death and then I came over to Mumsnet to see for myself and got sucked in! "

That happened to me too. I was on another parenting forum - very pink and hun-y - and they kept moaning about AIBU so I came and had a look and never returned.

kungfupannda · 31/12/2014 09:45

I'm also on a couple of writing forums that seem to be almost dead these days. There's another very active one but it's very US-heavy.

ohmyactualgiddyaunt · 31/12/2014 09:49

Bounty lost a lot of members after they got fed up of being trolled all the time. Loads moved over here. Now they've done an 'up-grade' and deleted a lot of the better, more entertaining and useful boards. It's almost completely unusable now.

gamerchick · 31/12/2014 10:00

I miss handbag man. Seen the state of the place now? Gits! Angry

It was the changing the whole thing that killed it off. No bugger could use it because it was so slow to load pages and post anything. The baby board is still alive and kicking I think and so is the private splinter board.

Still times change and this place will be fine if they don't make it unusable.

cherubimandseraphim · 31/12/2014 10:00

BGH = Babygreenhouse

FrancesHB · 31/12/2014 10:02

Yes it was I want my mum. I paid for forum access for a few years then had a break and when I went back it was gone.

CrumpleHornedSnorkack · 31/12/2014 10:21

Off shoot forums often struggle to recruit new members so fall foul to people fighting amongst themselves with no new blood to keep things fresh. MN does get new members all the time so should keep going for a while, plus the mods aren't posters which can often cause problems with smaller forums.

FoxSticks · 31/12/2014 10:35

Grin welshmaenad I can guess who you are! Maybe I will try and find the Facebook group. I'd forgotten about the ability to block people!

CalleighDoodle · 31/12/2014 10:47

Ah
Ilovesooty! I couldn't place the user name before. now i can! I remember a very heated debate entitled something like 'fat salad-eaters' back in the day.

MrsPnut · 31/12/2014 11:03

I'm another ex BMCer.

MrsKringle · 31/12/2014 11:06

I started off as a teenager posting on a forum for a rock band. It was very basic and really busy. They updated it and made it all fancy when a new album came out. Unfortunately the album was a bit shit so the forum died off. Two members made their own forum which became really popular but shut down one day for no reason. Another forum popped up but it didn't stay busy for long.

I joined Digital Spy years ago and lurked more than I posted. I liked reading the comments on the TV forums and some of the threads on the General Discussion board were interesting. I rarely look on there now. I find the place quite hostile. Arguments seem to start over nothing and there seems to be a lot of troll users on there.

I joined BabyCentre when I became pregnant with DS. I joined my birth club board but I didn't post much but lurked for advice. Then I had DS prematurely and didn't relate to anything on my board anymore, so I tried posting on the prem board but at that stage I wasn't up to posting much. And it wasn't very busy on there.

Found MN about two years ago and I love it! Grin

BiscuitsAreMyDownfall · 31/12/2014 11:12

I started off on the BBC boards back in 2004 when I was PG with DS. At work, the internet was heavily restricted and the BBC was one website we were allowed on so I went on there a bit. I often think of one poster from that time wondering how she is now. It then got heavily moderated and if you dared discuss something that wasn't parent/child related it was moved. Was such a shame because there was a great community spirit on there. Finally gave up on it around 2008.

I use MSE, but that's only really to find the competitions I enter. I dont post much, but Im not a big fan due to the fairly heavy moderation of that. I also think that there is a lot of non spoken rules that you have to abide by or the prolific posters get a bit upset. You are also not allowed to argue debate.

I just use MN now which I do like, but I do feel like its too big for much a community feel unless you have a special interest or are on a particular type of thread (bootcamp, 5:2, flylady type ones)

Theorientcalf · 31/12/2014 11:17

When I was getting married I did lurk on a certain wedding forum which has a bit of a reputation for being honest with no 'that's lovely hun xxx'.

SilentBob · 31/12/2014 11:26

I joined a wedding forum with the starting letter c then moved into the one starting with h...I can still remember when the swearing filters were "got round" by one poster and we all went insane with cunts here and there. Then D got mad so we shifted elsewhere, beginning with DW. I am still a DW-er but am on here more often than there. I flirted with a couple of private forums on my journey but they died as no newbies were allowed to join.

CharlesRyder · 31/12/2014 11:28

I think they killed the TES forum on purpose too hesterton. Otherwise why wouldn't they have changed it back to a more useable format when everybody left.

Quitethewoodsman · 31/12/2014 11:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

skylark2 · 31/12/2014 11:39

I got myself banned from Yahoo Answers for asking once too often why the mods do nothing about the endless fetish spam, much of which is aimed at minors.

I've been on the forum I use most for over a decade now, and it's busier than ever.

I honestly can't see this one lasting forever. It's technically way too far behind and lacks basic facilities which have been standard for a decade or more everywhere else. Outside of a very few forums, it's already really very quiet.

Frostyyspecs · 31/12/2014 11:40

I joined the yellow wedding one around 12 years ago, planned my wedding. Dipped in and out over the years when I was pregnant with the kids.

After the youngest was born, it seemed to lose a lit of the key members that i remembered from the smaller more intimate days. I gave up for good after the rollicking from the owners. I lurked over on dw, if wasn't for me.

Lweji · 31/12/2014 11:42

I used to be on the BBC Parenting boards until they were closed off.
They were heavily moderated, with 3 min waits to post between posts, and no swearing at all. Met some great people there, though.