Very Few New Posts?

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recDNA

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Jun 2, 2009
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Am I missing something or do we have way fewer posts than normal per unit time throughout the forum. It is very fast now so where is everyone?
 

Vesper

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803
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Dying on the vine. So sad to watch. This site should either close for good or be handed off to someone who cares. Ban me, I don't care.
 
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bykfixer

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Woah! That was....

Folks say the forum platform as a whole is losing ground to other insta-chat sources. And largely they are correct.

As the lighting industry evolved from light bulbs to LED, and now that battery tech has been going the rechargeable path for a while... the interest to the hobbyists like those at CPF is likely waining some too. Geeks need to tweak stuff.

Lumen wars has taken its toll on those wanting to build their own battery powered sunshine with one click settings at Amazon.

CPF is doing ok.
 

scout24

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Penn's Woods
The insta-chat platform is great for those instant gratification, what's shiny right now folks... it's all surface, today's stuff, no substance. A candy bar, where the forum platform is a full sit-down dinner. I peruse occasionally, but you can keep it.
 

Bdm82

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Illinois
I'd love to see the actual traffic statistics. I think posting count is down but I am betting visitor activity is still quite high.

Here are my thoughts:

  • Trends reducing activity-
    • A lot of the banter is now in facebook groups though those are fragmented. (I hate the "Hi group xxx, come check out my group yyy" cross-promoting.) CPF has a fb group but few people post on the fb group and in the forum; it tends to be either/or.
    • There's a competing forum which will go unnamed; there was once just CPF to turn to but posters are now split between two forums and facebook. Each has their own rules and style; some people are more compatible with one than the others.
    • Some of the biggest contributors from early on have expired/moved along. (Consider the "where have all the old-timers gone" thread.)
    • Google and general information online (especially thanks to vaping) has reduced the number of posts/questions, especially of "unnecessary" basic around things like batteries.
  • Current events reducing activity- temporarily/seasonally-
    • Server slowness (I believe now resolved) caused frustration with some users.
    • In the US, flashlight use is much heavier in the warmer months. We're just coming out of winter now.
    • I don't recall any new/exciting LED announcements in the last few months. XHP70 is the last one that comes to mind. Newly released lights are incremental improvements, no big jumps or revolutionary changes very recently.
  • But it's still going strong!-
    • I post the reviews I do in both forums. Reviews on CPF by far get more views. This tells me that lurker presence is much higher on CPF.
    • Google seems to favor CPF; top search results quite often link to CPF above other places.
    • FB's mess of posts and threads, not organized in any way, will never replace well-structured forums. Good luck finding a discussion on fb about a certain light or topic a week or year later... very frustrating.
 

KITROBASKIN

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When clicking on "Forum" and scrolling to the bottom you can see "What's Going On" right below the handy "Mark Forums Read". There you can find "Currently Active Users" which shows how many members and guests are online. It would be interesting to get confirmation regarding how those numbers are determined; wondering if it is an average spread out over a certain block of time. Typically in the past the total was over twelve hundred with occasional about eighteen hundred. There has been a question if that number included 'bots' or other machine-generated views. Post server transfer, the number hovers in the eight hundreds most times I look, with members in the eighties when members were usually around a hundred or a little above in the past.

Although posting frequency and thread-making numbers are not evident, just by regularly visiting our beloved forum, it is clear those numbers are down but not drastically so, considering the overall climate of flashlight interest. Nitecore continues their new releases, and there are some others, but not a whole lot of new stuff from Oveready, Skylumen, Zebralight, HDS, Surefire, Okluma, Prometheus, Foursevens, McGizmo, Data, Peak, Lumintop, Eagtac, Fenix, going on right now. Spring should pick up, but thinking some users are not looking to CPF presently because the downtime server switch got them off the habit of visiting.

Other than some very useful links offered by members here, going to the 'other forum' has been a lackluster and/or trivial-downer experience for me. It would be interesting to hear from an informed member regarding what is going on over there (realizing that is technically against this forum's rules and certainly not interested in starting a bicker-fest)
 

quinlag

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 21, 2017
Messages
42
I'm a member of both forums for one reason; to learn.
What's going on at the other forum is a lot of crybabying because someone got their little feelies hurt.

I can understand this because I was in the military and got my *** kicked verbally many times.
It's a mind thing.
 

bykfixer

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Dust in the Wind
It's Earth Day. Everyone is conserving energy by not posting.

Lol.

I watched the numbers drop at my favorite car forum for a while. As long time members faded away the newcomers became less than the folks leaving. I say leaving but it wasn't that they left, they just didn't post much anymore then eventually due to lack of inovation they just stopped coming back.

Watching the numbers at the bottom of the forum page here I see the same thing happening. Less members and less visitors.

Like my favorite car forum, there was a viable competitor that shared some members time and had some members who preferred the style of that other one. Yet that one also had a steep decline in participation. Now they are centered around a model of car no longer made but was once very popular. In comparison it would be like a Maglite forum.... perhaps a SureFire 6P forum where in our case inovations for the P60 platform is waning.

I see the amount of interest in flashlight technology decreasing in general. Now CPF has sections for camping, knives, other lighting technologies and general discussions. To me CPF is a well run place with interesting topics galore. Yet the trend in general is falling away from forums.

Also it's like what them great is what also helps the decline. The climate of discussions on facebook etc has turned into free-for-all Jerry Springer episodes so keeping things orderly is like watching a NASCAR race for the crashes only thanks to technology they don't crash anymore.... and viewership/ticket sales reflect that. Those who used to enjoy the rush of heated discussions get their fix somewhere else now. To me that is a good thing. I stayed with this forum because of the order... because threads stay on topic (in general).

I think the numbers will decline over time, but not because CPF is doing anything wrong. To me it's social trends and the industry leading to the numbers drop. CPF will be around for a long time provided the staff and owner don't lose interest. When the staff and owner lost interest in my favorite car forum, it soon fell into a spam fest and the remaining members soon stopped hanging around.

Some blame it on the photobucket heist too. That certainly didn't help things.
 
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peter yetman

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If, like me, you are using the "What's New" button to see what's happening you have apotted that it hasn't been functioning properly since the server swap.
It only shows the new threads that have been posted, whereas before it updated with every new post. This does give the impression that things are a bit lackluster here.
Interesting that flashlight usage in the States goes up in the warmer months.
Is that'cos of hunting? I tend to mothball a few lights in the Summer. There's nothing quite so frustrating as getting a new light when there's very little darkness to play in.
Also, I wanted to endorse the fact that this place is so well run. As for as Forums and stuff, this is all I do, and I have to say I really don't like the look of the other stuff out there, thanks.
P
 
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bykfixer

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PK once told me Pete, that after Easter flashlight sales at SureFire went flat until Labor Day. I see that at Milepost as well.
Yet... flashlight use would seem to go up during the warmer months. So I figured sales would go up too.

Good point about the "whatz new" button. But when I first arrived useage was 1500 users at any given time with 110-150 members and the rest guests... (some would say a large number of guests are actually bots). When all of those "slow" threads began it was down to about 1000 at any given time with 95-125 members.
This morning when I saw this thread it was less than 700 using it and 80-something members (currently 850 users, 95 members)
Btw the record was in 2016 when over 5000 users were using CPF.
 
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vadimax

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Vilnius, Lithuania
I may say about myself. There is no new posts and search function any more, so, when I cannot watch immediate activity or search I say: "Whatever..." and switch to another activity.
 

StarHalo

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Dec 4, 2007
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California Republic
Don't forget that Google is still there for specific thread searches; when I went to post about Art Bell's death, I had no idea when the last post was in the relevant thread or what section it was even in - I typed "candlepowerforums art bell" in Google, boom, the first result was the thread.
 

LEDAdd1ct

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Jul 4, 2007
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3,557
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Hudson Valley
I may not post often but my interest in flashlights and this forum is amortized over more than a decade with varying interests, hobbies, and wallet thicknesses all coming into play. I hope the "Virtual Bulletin Board"/"Forum" format never dies, and I prize the structure and massive wealth of knowledge this forum is renown for.

I think part of the decline we are seeing is that the "Amazon-ifi-cation" of lights has made anybody's dollar go further in pure lumens, but Amazon and e-Bay will never replace the talents of skilled modders and the very particular type of knowledge they bring to the table.

Sometimes I begin a project and then come back to it six months or a year or three years later, and this site and those threads are still here waiting for me.

There is information here nowhere else to be found on the Internet, and the order and general "cleanliness" of things makes it a great place to learn, or even, like today, to pay a visit and then go about other things in one's life. :)
 
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