Graham Marsden
Editor Emeritus
This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Opinion Piece - Is it just me?
I think you should read my post properly SV!
Then you will realise some of us are still here and it's an Opinion Piece!!
No offence taken, even though your opinion was aimed at me, and not generalised, hence my view that my opinion was specific to FM.
I have to say, that I thought that FishingForum's may have passed their sell by date, and at the time of Magicalia's withdrawal and indeed Graham's "retirement". I thought it was perfect timing. Not certain I have changed my views (yet), but with so many other offerings available, such as twitter & facebook and the up and the ever increasingly popular personal blog, there is a lot of distraction for those who think they know it all, and don't want to keep responding to the usual questions.
However, I've thought that of late (and really since the switch over), the forums have lost a lot: there's just not the meat there was before. I can't be specific, but there are fewer posts of interest or value. Somehow we lost momentum with the transition to the new site, and have yet to regain it. I do also now get the feeling that the quality of debate has declined, and that thread hi-jacking - or at least diversion - has become more prevalent: someone asks a question, and gets 3 or 4 responses which don't address the question at all but make some tangential and trivial observation or head off somewhere else altogether. This must be frustrating for all concerned, not least the original poster, and erodes the value of the forum.
This site is different and it's not yet how I would like it (Graham and our Techy man will tell you how many times I complain about the look or feel of something, how it could be more "punchy" and less "judy"), but things will only change in time. As GM said, we don't have the staff to change as quickly as Magicalia did, but look at the list of sites they had - golf, outdoors, woodworking, cycling, even having babies for pete's sake.
I view Thread Hi jackings as nothing more than a normal conversation, a subject is raised, it is debated, this triggers other subjects to be raised, and in the speed and heat of the moment things can diversify, but, i do not believe they cause or mean any naughtiness in it, annoying as it may be to some people, it can actually turn in to a very lively discussion.