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Where did everyone go?

Started by Майор Хаткевич, January 06, 2025, 08:28:40 PM

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Майор Хаткевич

Seems activity is all but zero. Where did everyone go? I noticed the slide during COVID (you'd think MORE would come, not less), but the forum is dead. Is it all forums? Am I just old now and all the kids are on Tiktok/Reddit?

ColonelJack

You ask the same question I do every morning when I check the site.

Where is everybody?

Why do I sometimes feel like visiting this site is like being in a Twilight Zone episode?

Jack
Jack Bagley, Ed. D.
Lt. Col., CAP (now inactive)
Gill Robb Wilson Award No. 1366, 29 Nov 1991
Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska
Honorary Admiral, Navy of the Republic of Molossia

Paul Creed III

Facebook groups and Reddit.
Lt Col Paul Creed III, CAP

THRAWN

Seems like this medium is going the way of the telegram and newspaper. Socials have taken over. Darn kids and their fancy doodads...
Strup-"Belligerent....at times...."
AFRCC SMC 10-97
NSS ISC 05-00
USAF SOS 2000
USAF ACSC 2011
US NWC 2016
USMC CSCDEP 2023

jeders

I think CAPTalk has been going down in activity since about '07 when we were all talking about Steve Fosset and HWSRN. Whether because of toxic membership (who are now active on Reddit instead of here), changing demographics, or new technology, CAPTalk has been less and less relevant every year. Right now it seems that r/CivilAirPatrol is the place for cadets and younger seniors and Facebook is the place for older seniors and parents.
If you are confident in you abilities and experience, whether someone else is impressed is irrelevant. - Eclipse

jeders

Also, apparently people are trying to sign up but are having issues with the email confirmation or something-or-other. I don't know, that's a NIN issue.
If you are confident in you abilities and experience, whether someone else is impressed is irrelevant. - Eclipse

MisterCD

Add in every thread devolves into a discussion about uniforms and one or two people here dominating the conversation resulting in no discussion.

Майор Хаткевич

So for the Admins, I'm sure it's been a discussion point, is there an end in sight? I'm sure the cost isn't trivial, not in this economy, and I don't think I've ever seen a solicitation as a member to contribute to server costs either. 

ProdigalJim

Personally, I'm sad to see the Facebook group overtake Captalk. FB really is unsuited to the kinds of long, detailed conversations I've enjoyed over the years on this board. But maybe that makes me a geezer (even though technically I'm not really old enough to *be* a geezer)...

FB is just so insipid.
Jim Mathews, Lt. Col., CAP
VAWG/CV
My Mitchell Has Four Digits...

JacobAnn

Many of us are still here and enjoy the forum. We just remain in "quiet" mode if we have nothing to offer. I hope it continues forever.

NIN

Just an aside: Web based forums have really tailed off in the last 10 years or so with the rise of Facebook groups and other forums like Reddit.

CAP-Talk may not survive much longer, if I'm being fair. We survive on the grace of a former member who hosts the site alongside another forum, and he's substantially incommunicado.
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
Wing Dude, National Bubba
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Майор Хаткевич

Quote from: JacobAnn on January 10, 2025, 12:14:53 PMMany of us are still here and enjoy the forum. We just remain in "quiet" mode if we have nothing to offer. I hope it continues forever.
But what is there to enjoy? I think we've had stretches of a week or so with no posts, except to the literall graveyard of rememberance posts. 

All of us being "quiet" is partially to blame for this being on the brink. 

RiverAux

Personally, I've been a patron member for 5? years now.  As far as I can tell my Wing doesn't do any ES anymore -- at least I haven't seen a Wing-wide email about it in many years, so I've no incentive to get back or really much incentive to pay much attention to what CAP is up to.  Not much of interest comes from National either (though I suspect that I'm not on email lists for much active communication).  So, not a lot of posts coming from me like in the old days. 

CAP9907

Quote from: RiverAux on January 19, 2025, 11:30:59 PMPersonally, I've been a patron member for 5? years now.  As far as I can tell my Wing doesn't do any ES anymore -- at least I haven't seen a Wing-wide email about it in many years, so I've no incentive to get back or really much incentive to pay much attention to what CAP is up to.  Not much of interest comes from National either (though I suspect that I'm not on email lists for much active communication).  So, not a lot of posts coming from me like in the old days. 

As a former Sq ESO, Wing DOS and current Region DOS, it pains me to agree here. ES is not what it was 10-20 or even 30+ years ago. ELT's that can be located within a meter, hex info beamed via satellite, cell and radar tracking data (done by a half dozen people remotely) coupled with our long callout and alerting time and the lack of sustainment in the "field" all make a local VFD with members, a pickup, and a drone a much more local, available, and responsive SAR force.
21 yrs of service

Our Members Code of Conduct can be found here:   http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=13.0

TheSkyHornet

I still browse the forum, probably once a week. But it's a little bit of a "dead zone" for relevant conversations. How many discussions are we going to have about new uniforms?

NIN

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on January 21, 2025, 07:41:09 PMI still browse the forum, probably once a week. But it's a little bit of a "dead zone" for relevant conversations. How many discussions are we going to have about new uniforms?

And there we go. CAP-Talk Rule #1: "All threads become uniform threads." >:D

Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
Wing Dude, National Bubba
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Fubar

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on January 21, 2025, 07:41:09 PMI still browse the forum, probably once a week. But it's a little bit of a "dead zone" for relevant conversations. How many discussions are we going to have about new uniforms?

Yeah, but given how often those discussions are occurring on other online platforms, that's not just a CAPTalk thing.

Trend analysis seems to be that Facebook is where parents ask other parents questions and everyone answers authoritatively based on local customs instead of the regulations. Reddit is where cadets ask each other questions about job responsibilities and ask for funny encampment stories while complaining how horrible senior members are. Discord is mostly cadets acting like how all kids act when they think adults aren't watching.

Holding Pattern

Well there was that one time the admins here temp banned an IP address rather than a user for a squadron meeting location with a message that we used as a character development conversation for the membership.

Because the admins didn't like the words being said about COVID.

Censorship causes people to move elsewhere. It's a different form of "quiet quitting."

There is very little value-add here.

Oh, that and since captalk has refused for years to engage in basic security practices, it's SEO is deprioritized. Install the ssl certificate already.

Facebook and reddit have the active CAP groups now.

NIN

Quote from: Holding Pattern on January 25, 2025, 06:38:07 PMWell there was that one time the admins here temp banned an IP address rather than a user for a squadron meeting location with a message that we used as a character development conversation for the membership.

Because the admins didn't like the words being said about COVID.

Censorship causes people to move elsewhere. It's a different form of "quiet quitting."

There is very little value-add here.

Oh, that and since captalk has refused for years to engage in basic security practices, it's SEO is deprioritized. Install the ssl certificate already.

Facebook and reddit have the active CAP groups now.

Can you point me to this temp IP ban during COVID? Like specifics, not just "I heard this from a guy who said this IP got banned.." but the message that was being discussed?

Because even though I was the "Administrator Emeritus" during my time as Wing Commander, you can bet I was still helping out with admin tasks and giving the mod team some guidance.

And IP banning, while we can do it, is usually something we do to combat spammers, not suppress CAP-Talk availability at a unit.

I don't recall any request by anybody to temp ban an IP for any purpose other than suppressing phishing/spam accounts.  Now, that was during COVID, which seems like it was the "before times over 10 years ago," so my memory might be fuzzy, but I kind of doubt that.
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
Wing Dude, National Bubba
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

Holding Pattern

Gosh, I meant to keep records, but after getting that rather pointed message my care for this site went to almost zero. Safe to say it was in 2021-2022. I was banned at one location with a message meant for another member, switched to my phone, not banned.

Other CAP members noted this. The one member who was meant to be banned was also banned at the user level.