Interest

you can't.

chances are good you won't get too many replies.

you are about fifteen years too late.

this place used to really cook...

But, you are still here lol? Surely, there is some hope?

It has only been 15 years, forums just are not what they used to be.

If nothing else I can still try it with an audience of one. This site came up on the first page of my google search.

If nothing else, feel free to tell me about how it use to be, I love a good history lesson.

Back in the early days of the web, the New York Times bought a slick new forum called "Abuzz". It had some nice features and was well-produced. For many of us it was our first experience with dynamic message boards. The dot.com crash in 2000 led to the Times laying off much of the Abuzz staff and the site began to decline steadily. Some new sites (like this one) were formed by various members before the Times completely pulled the plug. You can read more about it here.

I joined A2K at the time but drifted away to another forum, the British-based Debate Unlimited site which ignominiously crashed and burned sometime in the early teens. I didn't return to full participation here until 2016, so I missed the really busy years before other social media sites like FB started draining A2K membership. But I've seen some shrinkage over the past ten years. There used to be more in-depth discussions. I remember working really hard on researching my points and revising my arguments because I knew there were people, some of whom I sadly miss, who would be sure to respond critically with well-expressed points to counter mine. Now I'm content to primarily share articles of mutual interest and simply enjoy online communication with people I've known for many years and think of as friends. And since I still learn things from other members I'm likely to stick around.

This is so interesting to me, it also looks like Y2K did happen just a few months later and not on as grand a schedule and much more gradually, which I think I saw once before but forgot about. It seems like quite a few members made the leap over from Abuzz, and there still being a board for Abuzz is like a living history too.

It is good to hear that there was some worthwhile discussions to be had here once. Shame it sounds like that is no longer the case. I am happy that there are still people sticking around for me to talk to, even if it is not the zenith it once was. I hope maybe we can still have some laughs, even if it is just a few of us.

Glad to have you here.

Glad to be here. I hope that we can discuss a lot and, perhaps selfishly, hope I can find people who get passionate about the same things I am.

Sure, what are you passionate about?

PS since I work in financial services, my first thought was this topic was about bank interest. Please don't say you're passionate about bank interest. Not even bankers are.

I was gonna say wrestling and tv competition shows and Pokemon, but thinking about it that now seems silly because of the way this board is set up.

P.S. I am learning economics if that helps.