Should we organize an attempt together to enliven the forum?

Hi,

I'm back. It's slightly awkward, having come to the level of realization that I'm probably a channel or some sort of medium/walk-in/meshy thing and not a demon, myself (at least, to put things simply). I had given some attempts at trying to enliven the forum, but realized that there wasn't really anyone else viewing or responding (depending on how long I'd left the post up). A couple of times, I've done this and ended up taking down what I'd written because there's no point in my opening up, as regards my own sense of privacy, for no response.

I don't know if anyone else has done this. I know that I myself stopped checking this forum for a while because nothing was happening.

I also, though, realize that I'm likely one of the older members here, and so I'm thinking that maybe other members don't realize that if we want this place to survive, contributions from more than one (to four) participants will be necessary. With that in mind, I'm wondering if we could or should all set some week aside to devote time to reinvigorating the forum -- like generating topics, posting, trying to (respectfully) start conversations or (respectfully) respond or ask questions of others. It probably wouldn't work out well if it's too soon, because people who only check occasionally (say once a week to once every few weeks) wouldn't get the notice.

It's just that it's kind of hard to try and put effort into getting some activity going and not seeing much else happening (the Welcome and Tumblr threads notwithstanding), and not even knowing if anyone's been here. The latest post by Obsydian was really my first confirmation after the Tumblr thread that other members are actually checking here. The Tumblr thread for myself is basically inapplicable (I've grown to avoid spaces like that) and I'm not the greatest person at engaging those I don't know...

Anyhow! My idea was to set aside, say, a week, (maybe at the end of March and beginning of April?) where we could at least make sure we checked here and maybe posted a little? I know that my own schedule makes this difficult (I'm about 3/4 time in school and almost 1/2 time at work), but it seems some bit of organization would help! (I have history in community organizing, not to say that I'm good at it, but at least it's a start...)

I check it, but usually all there is to do is remove spam bots and approve the rare post from a new member. I think the main issue is that older members don't have much to add and newer folk don't stick around to do so because it's so quiet.

I check the forum daily, several times a day too.

Older members have basically run out of topics to discuss because they've generally either answered their own questions or moved onto life-outside-of-the-internet. And all the new members discuss are things like 'what am I?' and 'how to figure this out?' posts which get tiresome for the older members who have seeing them for 10+ years.

While good for the newer members, because they do need to discuss these things and figure stuff out, social media like forums is also simply going the way of the dodo. The main modicum of communication now is in quick, posts via Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and focuses much less on in-depth, thought provoking discussions as seen on forums. I have no idea how to reverse this trend as the main problem is in that everything is accessible RIGHT NOW (ie. smartphones).

And believe me, we've tried, several times, to revive this forum. It's hard because 1. we need more new or simply more active posters and 2. new topics, which frankly, I have no clue what else to discuss.

I wonder if ideas as to "what kind of post is appropriate for OKP" is a self-limiting factor, here?

It's what Eli said, really.

I know I certainly never know what to post. All the old topics have been talked to death, and, well...the things I /do/ want to discuss aren't exactly things that I feel entirely comfortable discussed on a public site at all. Personal stuff, y'know.

OKC seems to be doing better, activity-wise, than here, but...I don't much care for the general lack of "substance" in the posts there, so I can't exactly say they have some kind of edge over us. All the action seems to be on personal blogs and groups nowadays.

I've gotten trapped in the never-ended wall of reddit.

But then I managed to find some nifty places because of it.

And I've gone and linked this place to those places.

Mayhaps that'll do something. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

Whatever works Sim.

I'm personally just glad that this forum still exists. It may be a relic, but it is a testament to what we have done and learned together. So many others have disappeared, and so much fluff exists now unchecked... but this forum still has all the history and learning we accomplished.