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?
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
Facebook groups and Reddit.
Seems like this medium is going the way of the telegram and newspaper. Socials have taken over. Darn kids and their fancy doodads...
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.
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.
Add in every thread devolves into a discussion about uniforms and one or two people here dominating the conversation resulting in no discussion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: Holding Pattern on January 26, 2025, 10:02:20 AMGosh, 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.
This is news to me as well, I don't recall any discussions or actions like that.
Well, it doesn't appear to be you unless you were a user named Custer, RVT, Yosemite 101, VNY, KJ6SSV, N6RVT, Dwight Dutton or Schrödinger's hat, which were all banned by name for violating the member code of conduct, creating multiple accounts, and troll posting around March 2022 Or if you were Johnny D, also banned for multiple warnings and suspensions around January 2022.
I believe the N6RVT account was also IP banned.
Custer, RVT, Yosemite 101, VNY, KJ6SSV, N6RVT, Dwight Dutton, and Schrödinger's hat are all the same guy, a.k.a. Super Troll.
Quote from: NIN on February 01, 2025, 07:08:23 PMWell, it doesn't appear to be you unless you were a user named Custer, RVT, Yosemite 101, VNY, KJ6SSV, N6RVT, Dwight Dutton or Schrödinger's hat, which were all banned by name for violating the member code of conduct, creating multiple accounts, and troll posting around March 2022 Or if you were Johnny D, also banned for multiple warnings and suspensions around January 2022.
I believe the N6RVT account was also IP banned.
Let me re-iterate this:
You banned someone in my squadron. That ban included his IP. That IP was for the squadron. Now no one from that squadron could access captalk until the ban expired.
Does that make more sense?
Now get that SSL cert installed. It's 2025.
...Why does someone need to be on CAPTalk during a squadron meeting?
When more than one person checked on it but couldn't access it, then more people do and it morphs from there into a discussion.
When did this become a "need" discussion?
Obviously captalk isn't needed anymore, as evidenced by the activity levels here.
It's final use at this point is as a historical artifact.