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[Rocket Babe]

Back around early May a noticeable drop began across the rocketry boards. YORF seldom has a full page and the once crowded TRF that routinely had 4 and part of a fifth page most of the time is this morning 2 full pages and 2 posts of a third. Their traffic is declining and I'd estimate about half of what it routinely used to be.

Of course they all fluctuate including the Cantina but 50% loss over 4-5 months is a lot. Maybe tomorrow their numbers will be twice what they are today and YORF will have a couple of pages active but there's no missing a steady decline in thread volume since late spring on all forums.

You could blame it on a long list of things like school was out, vacations, school is back in session, football starting or anything else you can think of but the decline is there.

My concern is that hobby rocketry is in general decline numbers wise.

What do y'all think?

[bernomatic]

I initially thought it was just a falling off here and was due to the political nature of a lot of the postings, but I did also notice a falling of in YORF's stuff and attributed that to the summer months. However, if what you have reported is true about TRF (I don't visit there enough, nor have I delved deeply into their post counts sufficiently to make an informed opinion) and with what Luke posted about Rocketry Spot and Rocketry Center having only a handful of posts in the past few days, then we have a major Lose of traffic on these sites.

I do believe I have seen a larger number of postings to the NAR's Facebook pages, and this could be the way of the future. Facebook while lacking in a lot of beneficial qualities (eg. the inability to retrieve information and/or posts easily for one), does have other abilities to more than compensate (eg. reaching out to more than just your rocketry pals about what you have been doing in your workshop the past few months). Also, because of it's ever changing "wall", you are not really encouraged to check back on past topics, just move forward. This has the affect of squelching that off-putting response to new people of "did you do a search for that?"

One other possibility may be that with the election season heating up, individuals may be staying off line more do to the spamming and ads from politicians.

[luke strawwalker]

Well, Rocketry Center did have a new member-- I just checked there before I came here (simply because of the way my bookmarks are aligned, not a preference thing) but they just posted a bunch of links to sex stuff... I reported it...

Cest les vis...

Oh well...

As for FB... you can keep it.

Later! OL J R

[Rocket Babe]

I only go to TRF now to check my email, I seldom read anything and can't remember the last time I posted. I used to get quite a few private emails from others who came there, asking me for help with clustering or building, etc., so I still check it about once per week now. It's easy to see the number of active pages and thread count and the reason it caught my eye several months ago is one day while checking the mail I noticed there were barely 2 pages of threads. When I first began going there and before the place became, AD City, I routinely scanned 4+ or 5 pages of active threads, i.e. the last 24 hrs but that's not the case these days.

I haven't been keeping a regular count of their thread numbers but having been there for several years the drop was obvious to me. I do participate in forums other than rocketry from time to time, but haven't noticed a decline in their numbers, which caused me to wonder about a general decline in rocketry forums and the hobby in general.

I know 99% of flyers probably don't ever join a forum, so the hobby might be doing fine even if the forums are down.

[bernomatic]

Well, Rocketry Center did have a new member-- I just checked there before I came here (simply because of the way my bookmarks are aligned, not a preference thing) but they just posted a bunch of links to sex stuff... I reported it...

Cest les vis...

Oh well...

As for FB... you can keep it.

Later! OL J R

You reported it? Oh man, better not let Ted find out

[tmacklin]

Well, Rocketry Center did have a new member-- I just checked there before I came here (simply because of the way my bookmarks are aligned, not a preference thing) but they just posted a bunch of links to sex stuff... I reported it...

Cest les vis...

Oh well...

As for FB... you can keep it.

Later! OL J R

You reported it? Oh man, better not let Ted find out

Thanks for sounding the alarm Luke. We must protect the children from their reptilian impulses and Gassaway can't be everywhere!

[luke strawwalker]

Well, Rocketry Center did have a new member-- I just checked there before I came here (simply because of the way my bookmarks are aligned, not a preference thing) but they just posted a bunch of links to sex stuff... I reported it...

Cest les vis...

Oh well...

As for FB... you can keep it.

Later! OL J R

You reported it? Oh man, better not let Ted find out

Thanks for sounding the alarm Luke. We must protect the children from their reptilian impulses and Gassaway can't be everywhere!

Ted, you crotchety old fart... you MUST be feeling better... Ya know if I weren't a friendly guy I'd give you a big

EFF UUU

for the Boy George Assbag comment...

Honestly I don't understand these friggin assclowns that sign up for a forum just to post *oops you said word #1 about pills they're selling to give you a boner, lengthen your shlong, or that sort of thing... Maybe you're specifically looking for that kind of spam while you're surfing a rocketry site there Ted?? Maybe one-stop shopping?? LOL:)

Anyway, I think reporting ABSOLUTE SPAM is the duty of every forum member, if we're not to end up neck deep in *oops you said word #1 of tennis shoe seller posts, fvck pill seller posts, and various/sundry other non-rocketry related horse *oops you said word #1 NOBODY gives a flying fvck about in the first place and wouldn't buy from the sorry b@stards if they were the last seller on Earth anyway (if they had a bit of sense, which nowdays and some people's children, well, don't inspire much hope!)

Just kidding with you Ted, all in good fun. Ya go looking for the bull, though, ya get the horns! LOL:)

Take it easy! Later! OL J R

[tmacklin]

Oh hell Luke, I was just rattling your cage and trying to stimulate activity here on the Cantina! As for GG and the TRF, he's been somewhat subdued lately ever since he and I both received a "time out". TRF has a new nutcase to deal with from Bulgaria who calls himself "SaturnV". The mods had been bending over backwards to not appear heavy handed about free speech and the guy went off on tangents like "what country has the most beautiful women", stated he did not like "racially mixed marriages", then topped it off with "different races emit different smells". Poor guy thinks "freedom of speech" still exists in America!

http://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread ... Japan-2016

The thread was "locked" but left posted and the Bulgarian was given a "time out". LOL!

[Rocket Babe]

Ok, I scanned a few of those posts and found it all... strange, weird, WTHeck? Not the worst I've seen but it seems the lack of rhyme & reason of the moderation is operating within normal parameters.

Early on I almost suspected GH was posting under another name but with no mention of his favorite subject matter, I no longer consider him a suspect.

[tmacklin]

Ok, I scanned a few of those posts and found it all... strange, weird, WTHeck? Not the worst I've seen but it seems the lack of rhyme & reason of the moderation is operating within normal parameters.

Early on I almost suspected GH was posting under another name but with no mention of his favorite subject matter, I no longer consider him a suspect.

No, this character is definitely an Eastern European former Soviet Blockhead type and has posted YouTube videos to prove it. God truly blessed America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNrCWEhuagk

Love the music, don't you?