Reply To: Some tips for forum usage

I am curious (and saddened) why this forum has effectively died.

Of course people go through phases of posting/contributing enthusiastically and lurking or losing interest in a subject but it’s hard to believe that the sorry state of the forum for the last few years can be blamed on the normal ebb and flow of individual interest. Nor do I believe the property bust can be blamed as many topics had little to do with new building projects and I recall the forum remaining quite active for a few years after 2008. It’s sad, considering what a vibrant source of news and interesting debate this place was a few years ago.

I don’t like to be critical – as I don’t spend time or money maintaining the forum even if I did post regularly – but I believe that the multiple changes of forum software have been a significant factor in the decline. Any UI change imposes a significant re-learning cost on users – particularly regular users who are more likely to be contributors. This is on top of the inevitable teething issues any new software deployment will experience. Also older links to posts and threads from 3rd party websites are now broken cutting off a source of potential new members. (Even links within older forum posts are broken damaging the forum’s utility.)