• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Are forums dying?

kangaSue

Senior Member
Messages
1,851
Location
Brisbane, Australia
I should just completely step away from Facebook, but I need it for a couple things.
I would like to do likewise too but also find it an essential necessary evil for some conditions I'm dealing with.
I would also never be comfortable being active in any health related group under full name, particulary on FB and their lacking relationship to privacy.
There's nothing to stop you from using an alias. I'm sure millions do and I wouldn't post there otherwise. I also find it a bit of a dogs breakfast too as far as trying to keep track of thread discussions.
 

valentinelynx

Senior Member
Messages
1,310
Location
Tucson
I visited briefly. Visually: its harder to deal with the fonts, maybe its just different. Not used to it.

I'm just talking about a thread in this forum. I have visited the other forum. But for some reason, I prefer this one right now. :) Maybe it's the fonts; hadn't thought about it in this context, but fonts are very important to reading ease and comfort. And, some think, to how you feel about the information being presented.
 

valentinelynx

Senior Member
Messages
1,310
Location
Tucson
Hi @valentinelynx -- I understand the sentiment that the split in the community was unfortunate, but I myself have not felt that. I think the split has actually made for a kinder and gentler PR forum.

I think you are right about that @Wayne. However, I do miss the voices of some of the people who left. In my quick visits to the "other side" I don't see these folks posting much over there either, so I guess some people gave up on forums. Which is too bad. Looking at @Hip 's graph, I see a peak of postings just before the drop off: I suspect that represents the intense arguments going on before the split.
 

PatJ

Forum Support Assistant
Messages
5,288
Location
Canada
But when you count the entries in New Posts, it is only showing the last post in a thread, isn't it? For instance, the CCI threads right now get about 20 new posts a day, but I think you will only see the last one in New Posts.

Yes, the New Posts page is a list of threads that have new posts. Each thread might have a single new post, or a thousand new posts, but will only be listed once in New Posts.

Another sign of forum activity is the Current Visitors list. As I post this message it lists 198 visitors including 26 members. Only 13 of those visitors are known robots that collect information for search engines so that leaves quite a few people who are mostly reading.

I think a forum like PR, which has over over 62,000 threads and 1.1 million messages, can seem quiet at times because we don't see the many visitors who are reading, searching, and finding answers without posting.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
One thing's for sure: if you compare Phoenix Rising to any other non-ME/CFS health forums, you soon realize how amazingly busy PR actually is!

I sometimes post on the LongeCity forum, which in some ways has a similar mindset to PR, in that people there are constantly searching for and experimenting with new and interesting supplements or drug to help address health issues, or to just optimize their good health, and they will often talk about scientific studies and new research.

But if you post on any LongeCity thread, it's often a week before you get any response. So thread conversations go very slowly, and it actually puts you off spending time there. Whereas on PR there can be 40 new posts in a thread in just 24 hours!
 
Messages
90
forums are being monopolized by Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter threads. It's happening all across the board as I am friends with an owner of Bodybuilding forum who experienced a mass migration of people away from his flowering site to these 3 places instead