Is it just me or do the board not have as much traffic

[jbhodj]

Just another point too. People find this forum or return while planning a trip, find what they need and get advice, take their trip and then move on not visiting until next trip or vacation which maybe a year or more.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I didn’t join until after the ban on politics and religion was in effect, yet even I’ve seen a huge decline in traffic in the time I’ve been here. It was a pretty active board with interesting topics for the first year and a half or so, then there was a sharp change in the moderation and the community board seemed to take on a different tone. A number of people got banned, others made the choice to leave, and those who managed to stick around probably felt like they weren’t sure what was safe to say anymore, so they just didn’t participate as much as they did before. When fewer people post there are fewer topics to discuss, which in turn means even fewer people posting, which means even fewer topics... and here we are. For years, prior to and after joining, I used to read the DIS nightly. Now the interesting threads are so few and far between I sometimes go weeks or months without spending any time here.

 

[Just People]

Also, there are a lot more Disney related fan sites and vloggers now than just a few years ago. YouTube is full of vloggers all giving their own fun perspective of all things Disney. The Disboards is always gonna be ol' reliable, but sometimes its good to support the little fellas.

 

[_19disnA]

Finding that 'ignore' feature works great !!!! There is a BIG difference when I scan the various boards between someone asking a legit question where I have something useful to offer compared to the endless "name a song with......" type topics.

 

[ronandannette]

Sounds like high time we all made a pact to each start one interesting and evocative thread to see if we can get things back on track. And polls, don’t forget the polls!

 

[smiths02]

There does tend to be a kind of debate that ensues on any thread. So either a moderator comes in and stops it or people have bad feelings.

I also see a lot of negativity even if it is not nasty. A lot of topics end up in the "sky is falling" or "get off my lawn...millennials and their demon children" mentality. (entitled and snowflake are buzzwords)

As far as other forums, some of the less traffic is that the information is available in so many places. A lot of people don't bother asking questions because the answer is available very easily online. People who do ask "easy" questions a lot of times get "schooled" that they should use Google or search feature instead or get scolded that they are relying on stranger's advice about where they should eat or stay.

Some of it is also the other YouTubers, vloggers, bloggers, travel agents, etc. I feel like people, maybe rightfully so, want to monetize their work. So I am sure some people who started out spending a lot of time on DISBoards moved on to something else (I think JeniLynn Knopp would be one example of this).

 

[Nayan]

As far as other forums, some of the less traffic is that the information is available in so many places. A lot of people don't bother asking questions because the answer is available very easily online. People who do ask "easy" questions a lot of times get "schooled" that they should use Google or search feature instead or get scolded that they are relying on stranger's advice about where they should eat or stay.

I don't like seeing people 'schooled' or 'scolded' because they ask a question to get opinions, but there are some questions that are much easier answered by either Google or going straight to the source rather than by folks here. Medical conditions (not including disabilities, as they have their own awesome board but more like 'hey, my eye itches...'), taking kids out of school (you're district is vastly different than mine and everyone else's and so are you're child's teachers as it pertains to make-up work), etc.

Getting opinions on where to eat (especially those with allergies/special diets), where to stay, what days are best for what park, how about the parties...those are the questions I would expect to see and although I know they have been hashed and rehashed with the ways things change quickly at Disney I don't think anyone should be chastised for asking.

 

[Prose]

Also, there are a lot more Disney related fan sites and vloggers now than just a few years ago. YouTube is full of vloggers all giving their own fun perspective of all things Disney. The Disboards is always gonna be ol' reliable, but sometimes its good to support the little fellas.

I agree - When the DIS boards started, the internet was a much smaller place - it was mostly competing with places like rec.arts.Disney on usenet and maybe AllEars. Now, Google "Disney Trip Planning" and wdwinfo is at the bottom of page 1 and top of page 2....the Dis isn't in the search results until near the bottom of page 3. Most folks don't go that deeply into the search results.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I agree - When the DIS boards started, the internet was a much smaller place - it was mostly competing with places like rec.arts.Disney on usenet and maybe AllEars. Now, Google "Disney Trip Planning" and wdwinfo is at the bottom of page 1 and top of page 2....the Dis isn't in the search results until near the bottom of page 3. Most folks don't go that deeply into the search results.

I had something funny to write about this comment(at least it gave me a chuckle) but then realized it would probably red flag the thread. That said keeping my stupidity to myself never really bothered me because that means I get more of it to enjoy. I do agree there are many more options now, both on searching and pining bloggers or giant social sights(Facebook Readit).
I think this site has hung in better than others.
The only thing that almost drove me away was speed when they started incorporating videoish adds. that seems better now.
One other thing, IMO all these boards drastically lost there searching abilighty. I often use a similar board (Mrexcel) but can no l;oonger search on it as the searches are to general and not as easy to use as hey use to be.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

The traffic has gone way down over the years. I can remember when there were so many people posting on the CB that the threads would move to page 2, 3 etc so quickly. I would see a thread I was interested in reading but when I went back to look for it - even though it was just in the middle of the first page - it would’ve moved so far so quickly as people posted on other threads.

It seemed to change right after the “purge”.....

And I agree the threads now are so pointless.

 

[PollyannaMom]

cause it's the rule!

I have been thinking the same thing. Maybe it's just because it's a busy time of year with kids getting back to school, sports, dance, etc. I have noticed that the same threads always seem to be on the first page , with not a lot of responses. But that's the way the Community Board goes sometimes, it will pick up again soon, I hope!

This is definitely it for me. I spend a lot of time on here in the summer, but am way busier once school starts!

(The other thing for me is the site no longer works well on my iPad, so I tend to only bother when I'm on the desktop.)

I think that the people who are starting these types of posts are really just attempting to keep the chat board going. I applaud them for their efforts. I cannot even imagine how slowly the board would move if they weren't trying to keep it going by posting some new topics. I rarely join in on those threads either, but I definitely appreciate those posters for trying.

Me too!

Several years ago the boards were hard to keep up with. I would come home from work and what had been the first page in the morning was now page 3 or 4. I miss those days.

I agree, but I don't miss it! I don't have time to catch up on 20 pages when I get home from work - but 2 or 3, I can handle.

I don't see anything wrong with some fluff stuff. I like the "songs with" threads for example. I do agree that threads with substance are way down though. I think that some of that might be due to the inevitable bickering but that is just one of many reasons.

Me too. And the "Have you read..." one is a favorite of mine as well!

My DIS bookmark is set to "New Posts" so I see Community Board, Games Sub-forum, Theme parks...whatever, all together anyway.

I do like the TV discussions that take place here

Definitely! My "This is Us" friends are here.

I don't mind the fluff posts at all- I don't look at ones I don't want to read. Simple.

And isn't the whole purpose of the Community forum kinda "fluff"? I always understood this particular forum to be a catch all for non-Disney planning, just chatting type posts.

Yeah.

Sounds like high time we all made a pact to each start one interesting and evocative thread to see if we can get things back on track. And polls, don’t forget the polls!

A worthy goal...but I can't promise.

People who do ask "easy" questions a lot of times get "schooled" that they should use Google or search feature instead or get scolded that they are relying on stranger's advice about where they should eat or stay.

That bugs me too! I love the DIS when I really want to "crowd source" a decision! And I can ask the weirdest question (I'm probably famous for dumb questions about my phone ) and find it way easier to get an answer than wading through Google (or the non-existent help on the actual product website).

 

[ramee]

My DIS bookmark is set to "New Posts" so I see Community Board, Games Sub-forum, Theme parks...whatever, all together anyway.

Same here.

I originally came to this board in 2016 looking for information to help me plan my first Disney trip in 2017. It’s been a great resource.

I’ve stuck around to keep up to date on all new things Disney in hopes I would have subsequent trips. But with all the positive changes happening at Disney that I’ve learned through here, I’ve learned just as many negative (parking fee, room checks, dogs in select resorts, etc...) that make me feel like there isn’t much value in going back anytime soon.

So I haven’t been reading as much from the attractions forum and just browse the “new posts”. Maybe a couple topics would interest me enough to click on. Really after a couple years I linger out of habit.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

AS a few others have admitted, I too changed my user name ( I really would have over 2000-2500+posts). After getting slammed for a Life Topic post which ended up in a direction I never meant for it to go, I decided it was best to let that go and start over.

 

[Dan Murphy]

It's still WAY more active than other boards I visit.

I find this to be true. Many good Disney fan sites out there, this seems to be the busiest by far. Here I am speaking of the dis boards in total, not just the community board. The community board forum (cb), which I think the OP is referring to, is much slower than it used to be.

Of course a lot of people here don't go to Disney at all, they just found a place to chat.

Very common here on the cb. That was the way for me. Came here in early '99 for information on a family WDW trip, after that, did a couple year stint as a moderator type person on this forum, moved on from that and have hung out here for almost 20 years now. Have made many acquaintances over the years, a good number of personal life-long friends. Many people came to the dis for Disney information, stayed for the camaraderie that has been here in various amounts over the years.

I have gained a lot of good information here, I have saved money as a result and been able to do things at Disney I would have otherwise missed if not for these boards.

I think this is true for many, it sure is true for me and my family. And beyond Disney as well, learned many things here over the years. I have.

So many prolific posters have moved on...

So many.

Great posters chased off here over the years...leaves little fun left..

Many are gone.

Several years ago the boards were hard to keep up with. I would come home from work and what had been the first page in the morning was now page 3 or 4. I miss those days.

I recall those days very well.

I think a small amount of the fewer cb threads is the proliferation of additional forums on the dis. Here is the forum lineup back in 2001. A lot of forums, but still fewer that today.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010604183039/http://www.disboards.com:80/forums/

I agree, this is mostly a forum for adults to discuss things about Disney and all of that other stuff might be of more interest to someone in grade school.

This forum, by definition, is for anything, within board guidelines. All the other forums, all of them, are discussion specific. Join our moderators in a discussion forum for any topic, Disney or otherwise. Swap stories, information, ask questions...just be friendly.

There is a game.board for this reason. Until these threads are stopped or moved, the CB is going to continue to dwindle. Has anyone told this member that or reported one of the posts and asked it to be moved?
It seems like a lot of people just ignore the member

The threads in question should not be moved. The cb is open for anything within board guidelines. Back in 2003, there was, all of a sudden, lots of thread moving off the cb, to forums that might have been more appropriate for the thread, but the OP had posted the thread on the cb to start with. Whatever the reason, whether the OP thought the thread would get more views/replies, or was more comfortable posting the thread on the cb, or whatever, there was no reason to move the threads off the cb to some other forum. At that time, the dis lost a good number of posters, good, prolific posters (my wife Marie--Lady M here among them) because of those actions. Even if there is a game sub forum to the cb forum, if the OP posts the thread on the cb, it should remain, regardless how inane it might be to some other poster. Until the PTB change the cb stated position that anything is permitted to one that some things are not permitted, then that's the way it should be, anything, within guidelines, is permitted. Hope that never happens.

There are transportation questions, Disney dining questions, theme park questions, budget questions, disability questions, LGBTQ questions, game questions, questions of all sorts on the cb. If the OP's wanted to post a topical question on topical forum, fine. If an OP wants to post any of those topical, or of any other topic on the cb, it should be okay also. And not moved. However, if an OP posted a game thread on, let's say, the transportation forum, it should be moved.

I want to participate on sites where the information is of value to me and sticks to the topics for which I joined. They will attract/retain more users if the topics are pertinent to the purpose of this forum. If I want to chat about car repair or how to make a cake, I would go to that type of website. I joined here to get/give information relative to Disney.

See above

I came to this board years ago to plan our trips and learn useful things about Disney.

I would say that is true of close to 100% of the people visiting this cb forum.

I'd like to make a clarification.

The Community Board is NOT just for Disney.

Here is the description the DIS uses: Join our moderators in a discussion forum for any topic, Disney or otherwise. Swap stories, information, ask questions...just be friendly.

The truth is if people are discussing things not related to Disney they aren't in the wrong. It wouldn't be appropriate for someone on the Attraction and Strategies Board to discuss the latest wedding trend or neighbor issue for instance or what they should give their mother-in-law for Christmas.

The GAMES area is a Subforum to the Community Board:

So in all honesty people posting game threads aren't in the wrong either in terms of topics aspect on the DIS.

What is likely the main issue is that instead of someone creating a thread within the GAMES subforum people go to the Community Board mainpage and start a new thread there thus it appears on the main Community Board page instead of someone needing to click on the Games subforum and seeing it only there. So I would agree that the easiest solution is for Mods to move the threads over to the Games forum if possible but honestly I think that depends on if that is a big enough issue to create a priority on that as well as people who like to create those threads might pay closer attention and start it in the Games subforum. It took me a while to even see and understand the subforums and I was actively looking around. Someone who isn't looking around the DIS website may not see it.

Maybe those who are really annoyed with the games and whatnot could send an e-mail requesting more active clean up and moving of threads to their pertinent subforums. IDK just thinking out loud.

Agree with all the above, except the moving of threads off the cb.

I agree. While some parts of this site can be for a wide variety of topics, I joined because of the 'Disney' part. Others can choose to have all of the 'virtual' friends they want and chit/chat about everything from soup to nuts.....just not my cup of tea. Even in the other areas, it gets cluttered with the same topics over and over. People should at least make an effort to 'search' older threads before asking something that has already been discussed multiple times.

Most every question that can be asked about almost anything has been asked somewhere on the dis over the past 21 years. If people did not repeat some questions, there would be no board, Google would suffice, no need for a dis board.

I joined because of the 'Disney' part

Most here did also.

It appears you're new to the site. You may be reading the wrong boards. The CB has a lot of non-Disney related topics. It's unusual to see a thread involving Disney here. The Disney specific boards that are listed first on the main forum page are probably what you're looking for.

Very true

The traffic has gone way down over the years. I can remember when there were so many people posting on the CB that the threads would move to page 2, 3 etc so quickly. I would see a thread I was interested in reading but when I went back to look for it - even though it was just in the middle of the first page - it would’ve moved so far so quickly as people posted on other threads.

Years back, the cb did 7-8 pages a day, sometimes 9 pages. Currently it is about 2 pages.

That bugs me too! I love the DIS when I really want to "crowd source" a decision! And I can ask the weirdest question (I'm probably famous for dumb questions about my phone ) and find it way easier to get an answer than wading through Google (or the non-existent help on the actual product website).

Asking questions of any sort on the cb will get you great answers.


Years back, my dis time was almost exclusively spent on the cb. Today, what time I spend here (way less than years back), is mostly spent on the theme park board, with some time here on the cb.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Agree with all the above, except the moving of threads off the cb.

Oh I wasn't meaning move off the Community Board

I was meaning move them to their appropriate subforum. Meaning someone who posted a thread to the main Community Board page but it was really a game would have their thread shifted to the Game subforum. That way when someone pulls up the main Community Board they don't see "Movies that have X in the name" because that would be in the Games subforum and you would actively have to click Games in order to see those types of threads. I only suggested that because it seemed to be a main complaint regarding those types of threads clogging up the 1st page of the main Community Board page. People who aren't interested in games aren't going to go to the Games subforum on the Community Board.

ETA: I'm hoping I'm making sense here-it's not that the threads don't belong in the Community Board..because they absolutely do..it's just there are several subforums to the Community Board and if someone wants to "count up in negatives" that's a game and thus is more appropriate for the Games subforum. If someone creates a thread by going to the Games subforum it's not going to show up on the main Community Board page. You'll have to click "Games" in order to see it.

It doesn't personally bother me, I just scroll past any thread of no interest to me, but I was providing a suggestion based on a common complaint on the thread.

Also I didn't quote your comments to other people but I do agree with them

 

[GreatLakes]

There are days where more than half of the first page on the community board are fluff threads about songs with a word in them or asinine polls about gender reveals. I find no value in most of them and they aren't worth the time to post in my opinion. Threads of substance can be interesting but some just turn into a small group of people arguing about some nonsense and trying to change minds that will never change. It gets pretty old but it is what it is.

 

[_19disnA]

^^^ I agree !!! The OP was asking why the traffic is down and many of us are offering our opinions of why that might be. When some try to explain to us why our opinions are wrong.....that is just another reason people move on.....LOL.

 

[ronandannette]

^^^ I agree !!! The OP was asking why the traffic is down and many of us are offering our opinions of why that might be. When some try to explain to us why our opinions are wrong.....that is just another reason people move on.....LOL.

To a point though, isn't that the nature of an actual discussion? Now, this isn't likely the way we talk to people IRL, but on message boards that sort of discourse is what keeps conversations going. Personally I feel some people are a bit too touchy about it. So what if somebody doesn't agree with what you said, and they say so? I don't mind the point/counter-point nature of some of the threads although others see that as argumentative. In most threads there's a point at which posters just walk away but that's OK too.

As for the discussion of "points" and posters being censored, I've long held the theory that it happens most when other posters report posts that offend or annoy them. Tattling to the Mods if it's just something that "bugs you" is a pretty lame way to deal, IMO.

 

[amberpi]

As for the discussion of "points" and posters being censored, I've long held the theory that it happens most when other posters report posts that offend or annoy them. Tattling to the Mods if it's just something that "bugs you" is a pretty lame way to deal, IMO.

I could not agree with this more and I've somehow never gotten points - well, once, but the mod didn't know I was referencing a joke from another thread and retracted them. Don't tattle on random internet people!

I'll try to think of a decent thread topic today though. Right now I'm mostly thinking about politics (against the rules), and children's clothing (boring). I woke up in an extremely grateful mood so I may be able to work that feeling of gratitude and humility into a thread. We'll see.

 

[Cubbiecakes]

When some try to explain to us why our opinions are wrong.....that is just another reason people move on.....LOL.

Perhaps if people weren't taught to think that their opinions were fact? Because I see a lot of that here.