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[fisherforever]

Gord, this site is as dead as my sex life!

Now up to 28 active spam ads and nothing being done about it. I guess hiding in the US instead facing problems here is easier.

[cutthroat22]

I have been a member of this (completely free) site forever and have read (almost) every post.  This site is a treasure of information.

Times have changed and internet forums are not what they used to be.  Although, I strongly prefer this style of formatting and archiving vs social media.

I cannot rationalize someone trying to cancel their free membership here because Rodney went fishing in the US and Oregon of all places.  It's actually quite funny.

[RalphH]

Cutthroat22 very true that web based discussion groups have better search capability than social media such as facebook. However for what it's worth the local Facebook groups have seen a big decline in posts in the last year or so.

For many it seems little meaningful can be expressed about fishing in words alone. It has to be video.  We all need to carry Gopro cameras to be taken seriously.

[adriaticum]

I think FWR, as everything else, is suffering from inevitable change.
It was fun for a while, then it got boring, things moved to different platforms.
First we talked in pubs, then on forums, what's next?
Internet is definitely a new thing and we are just figuring it out.
It has done some good and some bad.
I am certainly using it a lot less, using the computer a lot less these days.
Mostly for work.

[clarki]

Notwithstanding what others have observed, I attribute the decline in participation on this forum to a couple of things:

First and foremost, I think Rod's absence from the forum has affected engagement; he hasn't posted in over 8 months. From my experience, engagement/participation in forums, and any other community activity for that matter, tends to thrive when there is an active sponsor. IMHO Rod has an undeniable local fishing "celebrity" status and his participation on the forum, I think, lends a certain cachet. He has his reasons for not participating, and I'm not here to comment on those reasons, but I do think his lack of participation affects overall engagement. Additionally, I recall him writing a couple years that he was going to update the forum software. That hasn't happened, and he has his reasons for that, but I think it speaks to the level of priority that is given to this website. Again, I'm not judging or critiquing. We all make decisions how to allocate our time and resources and his decision is his decision. But I do believe that his absence contributes to lack of forum participation. 

Secondly, forum participation began to lag long before 8 mos ago and I attribute that to the tone of forum participation over the COVID years. I can't empirically back that up but my opinion is that over the  COVID years some members participated in ways that were belligerent. Other members flooded the forum with their non-fishing related posts and other members were generally complainers. COVID was a stressful time for all of us...  Some of those members got banned in the end, but my opinion is that those members created an unwelcoming environment that stifled productive conversation.

All just a matter of my opinion, however!

Having said that, I've been a member of this forum for over 20 years and I'll be here until someone turns the lights out

[RalphH]

true that Rod doesn't post. Neither does he provide links to his videos as in the past. Nor does he clean up stuff such as the spam. The number of online users viewing the website remains high. Seems to me opportunity to increase membership & participation.

[IronNoggin]

The number of online users viewing the website remains high. Seems to me opportunity to increase membership & participation.

This site has become damn near as dead as your reasoning here...

[RalphH]

While most of what has been said above is true there may be a couple of other reasons why discussion boards like this one have either disappeared or become moribund. They do tend to be repeatative. They do also attract trolls. Members also tend to drift off to the new hot venue.

The bigger reason is they don't attract much of a revenue stream for owners and so get neglected. I'd guess the entire associated website doesn't pay for itself.