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Is A2K Losing Some of its Luster?

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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 02:05 pm
blueveinedthrobber wrote:
Veni, Veni, Veni, Veni... you get the idea...


I saw, I conquered, I came...................... Laughing Nor bad for an old broad! Laughing
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flushd
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 02:06 pm
I have noticed some of the same things. I'm not sure if it is just because I have grown stale myself, or what exactly. Combination of things.

A have noticed a few things though that somewhat turn me off of certain places here now.
Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I used to feel like there was great tolerance and openness to new ideas here.
Lately, it feels like a great idea will be presented, and quickly killed off. Repetition. Less listening and going back and forth. It almost feels like there are less people who want to learn; more who want to teach/lecture.
The balance is off (?).
I like hearing different views or being made to think. I like talking too. Sometimes though, I get the feeling that some of us are being treated like retards.

I like the people here that I have come to recognize. I find more social chats going on lately - again, could be wrong or just what I am seeing now. It's all good, but it's the balance thing again.

I'm an info. junkie. A2K used to be my fix for that. I find myself using it less as a source of information or expertise now. <shrug> could just be the natural cycle of things.
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 02:09 pm
Flushd- Exactly. I think that some people have their ideas "set in stone", and are not the least bit interested in considering alternate ideas.
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timberlandko
 
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Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 02:13 pm
Aside to nimh - could be just the US English versions of the pages, dunno, didn't really look for that. I picked those 2, Google and MSN, after determining they were the most-accessed pages on the web; note their combined "reach" is over 500K per Million - more than half the page visits daily, across the entire internet, are to at least one of those 2 sites. I haven't done it, but I imagine if you toss in Yahoo and Microsoft, #'s 3 and 4 by overall page visits by the ranking I saw, the pattern would be quite similar, and the total percentage of daily page visits to the group as a whole, their "reach", or "viewer impressions per million views", would be even more striking.
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nimh
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 02:21 pm
timberlandko wrote:
I picked those 2, Google and MSN, after determining they were the most-accessed pages on the web; note their combined "reach" is over 500K per Million - more than half the page visits daily, across the entire internet

Shocked Holy moly. I gotta read up on this stuff, this is some weird ****! So the number of visits to Google/MSN outnumbers the number of visits to any sites found through Google or MSN? How's that work?
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Sturgis
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 03:12 pm
Re: Is A2K Losing Some of its Luster?
Phoenix32890 wrote:


Recently though, I have found that except for a few of the diehard regulars, that A2K does not seem to be bringing in new members of the intellectual quality of past times.

Oddly I never knew it was the regulars responsibility to bring in new members...either of the intaleckshual kwalitee you dezire or otherwise.





Phoenix32890 wrote:
In addition, I am perceiving an attrition of many of the regulars, who have either left, of are posting on a less regular basis.

Have you had a similar perception? If so, why do you think that this is happening? What do you think can be done to bring in some new "blood" of the high calibre of which we have become accustomed?
I have been here less lately for known reasons related to the health; and, adding to this is a strange pall of boredom which seems to wash over me when I look at many of the new topics. (of course that is happening to me in a lot of other situations too so I doubt that it's the fault of A2K).

My best suggestion here would be that you yourself toss out a few stimulating topics to get the ball rolling.
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Tico
 
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Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 04:17 pm
There are definitely cliques here. I believe that's a natural trait of a maturing site with this population. But it's difficult for someone like me to break in.

I've made comments which were ignored, only to see a veteran A2Ker say essentially the same thing and be lauded. I've started a thread that went nowhere -- either because there is no genuine interest or because a veteran said it was of no concern (alpha member redirects herd). I've made sincere posts only to find out that the thread was a joke -- and felt like an idiot. I've learned from other BBs that commenting on the ubiqitous American politics or religion threads will only invite derision and scorn. These are all hallmarks of online cliques.

But maybe I just don't have the proper "intellectual quality" required.

On the other hand, I've also benefitted from some great advice and links here, learned new things, and enjoyed some debates (if I ignore the posts by the cut'n'paste monsters and the single-issue belligerent ones).

Somedays, it's just easier to play a few games, or enjoy the humour of the regulars.
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 05:07 pm
Quote:
There are definitely cliques here. I believe that's a natural trait of a maturing site with this population. But it's difficult for someone like me to break in.


Tico- I think that some of us, who have been around since the "flood" don't always realize the effect that they are having on relative newbies.

I will make it my business to respond to any insights of yours. I have found you to have some very valuable ideas.
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nimh
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 05:34 pm
Re: Is A2K Losing Some of its Luster?
timberlandko wrote:
nimh wrote:
... Admittedly though, a healthy site would have traffic growing all the time, rather than coming to remain stable - if only because overall traffic is growing all the time.

I believe you procede from a false premise there - seemingly intuitive, perhaps, but not supported by the evidencce, witness this:

http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/6203/reach4vz.jpg

Both of those look to be relatively stable over time - spikes aside - and those two amount to about the "healthiest" sites imaginable.

OK, that was interesting, so I looked up some more of these (just to totally derail this thread).

These days' number 1 and 2 sites are Yahoo.com and Google.com, and this is how they've developed over the past two years:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5392/yahoovsgoogle2cx.png

This is the graph for number 3 and 4, Msn.com and Baidu.com, a Chinese-language site:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2798/msnvsbaidu8is.png

For 5 and 6, Myspace and the Japanese Yahoo:

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/8335/myspacevsyahoojp4qm.png

And for 7 and 8, both Chinese-language sites:

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/7364/cinacomcnvsqqcom7fb.png

(Yes, I realise that the graph seems to indicate that #7 and 8 actually have a higher traffic than # 5 and 6, but I swear, Alexa ranks Myspace as 5, and qq.com as #8)

<looks up>

Yeah, trippy. No, no evidence of the Internet ever growing ...

Odd?
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Tico
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 05:53 pm
I came back to this thread to erase my post. Just my luck that the one time I want to be ignored, I'm not!

Phoenix, thank you very much, but please don't single me out. My post wasn't a cry for attention, but a simple statement of my experiences here and how I, as a relative newcomer, viewed them. On the other hand, maybe your post and my whine will do some small thing to change the direction of the site.
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sunlover
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:07 pm
I just received a PM from "administrator" welcoming me to the forum. Since I've been posting on this forum for about 3,4 years that's a little odd. My number of postings has been whacked to 249 and have been told I haven't been posting long enough to answer that PM.

I did just purchase a new computer but was accepted my first try under same name, Sunlover. Actually I've been on this forum and Abuzz, before but under another name, for over 5 years. What goes?

I have no interest in hanging around playing games to get my posts up but, 249?
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Letty
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:11 pm
I have never, EVER ignored anyone in my life, either on this forum or anywhere else.

Yes, there are cliques, Tico, but simply because we know who we can trust and who we cannot.

It's not exactly lackluster; it's a bit of wonderment at who is who and why?

That is one thing that is nice about the gatherings.

Setanta is having some problems getting in here.
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ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:14 pm
Set's trouble is that I'm using the computer to play Scrabble right now Cool
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Letty
 
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Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:17 pm
Why did you say that, ehBeth. It took all the fun out of the mystery.
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sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:46 pm
Hee hee... I'm staying far far away from Scrabble, doing OK so far, it's calling me though...

Tico, that's a really common experience. I'd bet that if you did a search on people who you consider to be in the "in" group who have joined in the last couple of years, you'll see posts from them saying the same thing. (That there are cliques, that they're being ignored, etc., etc.) I have always tried to be welcoming to newbies (not necessarily for any altruistic reasons, but because I personally enjoy new faces, new voices, new perspectives) and the first several times I saw someone I thought I'd been welcoming to complain about getting the cold shoulder I took it as a personal affront. But after a few thousand times (heh, OK slight overstatement maybe), I realized it's the nature of the beast. (Not least because I had the very same reaction when I first started posting on an online forum.)

Anyway, my observation is that especially on a forum this big it plain takes a while to get noticed. It probably takes less time for the more outrageous people -- the drama queens and the clowns -- and more time for the thoughtful, low-key people. I like thoughtful people, though. :-)
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sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:47 pm
...OK, I like clowns, too.

Drama queens, though...
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Gargamel
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:48 pm
I must be a total loser--okay, I'm sure that I am--because wherever I go, it seems nothing is as cool as it once was.

At every restaurant I've worked, apparently I should've been there when ________(enter nickname, something along the lines of "Moose" or "Goober") worked there: "Man, it was the best. I remember when Moose chased this bitch into the street with a meat cleaver, then we went out back and got totally baked, and the cops showed up, and we were all stoned and..."

Yeah, those were the days.

I used to hang out in Wicker Park, Chicago, and of course "The yuppies [were] displacing all the artists, bro. This place ain't what it used to be."

And here at school, it was so awesome when Barry Hannah was an assistant prof, but now the writing program blows, blah blah blah.



I understand the inclination, though. The past has such a luster when it's not now. Seriously.
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sozobe
 
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Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 06:49 pm
...and thoughtful clowns are, like, the best.

(Nailed it, Garg.)
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nimh
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 07:02 pm
Thoughtful clown ... drama queen. See thats my yin and yang right there, and they be battlin', always. I just hope the thoughtful clown wins often enough. Cause I like thoughtful clowns. And I don't like drama queens, no sirree.
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nimh
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jun, 2006 07:05 pm
(What I also dont like is these people who've kinda, over years of posting on board type things, developed this fictitious type of made-up colloquial English thats nothing like anyone actually speaks..)
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