BirraImperial
Pura Vida!
I've notice a worrying trend in which fewer and fewer new threads are made...I don't know if it's because of the new board format or what, but I think the boards are slowly dying...
Could be worse, it could look like Apolyton.....
IMO all the American political specific threads are driving people away. You might as well rename "Off-topic" to "American Politics & friends"
Not very appealing to an international audience and those who don't care to discuss politics
On the first forum I ever joined (a tabletop RPG forum) it wasn't unusual for some members (including me) to make 30 posts/day. I had a lot to say there, and that forum didn't even allow politics and religion unless it was in-game fantasy/SF stuff. That forum had some activities that I tried to bring here, but one was shot down because it was considered "elitist." Iron Pen was somewhat more successful, but it's still sporadic because there just aren't enough people here interested in friendly writing competitions. The folks who do take part have done well, I think, since it takes a leap of faith and/or confidence to do competitive storytelling and have it critiqued.Dying compared to what? There are hundreds of posts made per day. OT in particular gets at least 30/day, sometimes more in the neighbourhood of 200-300 if there's a heated thread. That seems active to me.
I'd be willing to start a Handmaid's Tale thread in OT rather than in A&E due to the broader scope for discussing politics, religion, and the dreaded "f-word" (feminism)... if it was Red Diamond and strictly moderated. If TrekBBS can have TWO threads dedicated to that (one in the regular TV forum and the other in the forum where the majority of the political and religion-themed topics get discussed), we should be able to manage just one.OT talks about the things with the greatest implications and nuance. For the past few years that's been fairly US-centric. It's not like the membership refuses to talk about other things; Russia and Turkey are big topics here as well.
And as always, be the change you want to see. If you don't want to see political threads you can start making threads that aren't political.
CFC now has to compete against Reddit communities for Civilization.