Where Is Everyone?

[AdriTan]

Has anyone else noticed the skin for the site is still Christmas themed?
Where did everyone go?
To those of you who still are around: I beg you not to leave!
Wasn't on for a while due to lack of internet, stuff going on, and lack of technological devices.
I feel like I came back to a ghost town.

[Rusty Claymore]

O_O you're right! I came back a few days ago and noticed the age on lots of "most recent" posts were... celebrating birthdays. I didn't think twice about the Christmas theme though. Just rolled with it for some reason. o_0

[anlptgtsg]

Mith is busy. See what Midori said about it on early this year viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28454&start=1920.
For me I just lurk here probably will stay that way. I wasn't really watching anime anymore when I joined here XD. I guess people just have other things to prioritize.

[Rusty Claymore]

Ah, thanks anlptqtsq. I was scrounging the forums looking for evidence of some catastrophe that had to have happened around Nov. 2014. I hope everything pans out for him.

[Okami]

Hm...well for me, I mostly lurk while logged off these days. Between newlywed married life, studying Biblical Greek, my poor mental health only now making another stabilization, and other various things, life's pretty busy! . Plus Ryosuke and I don't have wifi, and I don't really like posting from my phone... XD I'm still here, though, even if I do only mostly post in my prayer room Report!

[Rusty Claymore]

Long time no see, Okami!

I'll admit my take on people's absences is a bit off, being absent for... 3 years(?) myself. Oops, time flies.

[ADXC]

Yeah it's certainly a far cry from what it was years ago, but people are still here I think...

[ClaecElric4God]

I'm still here. Been busy and frazzled, I guess life happened and stuff. I'm still trying to be around as much as I can. It's good to see that someone's concerned about the decline in activity around here.

[Wolfsong]

^what Claec said.
I lurk around, though typically while logged off. With Life being busy with qork and classes and stuff its been harder to get on actively.
I promise I'm still here though, and it'll stay that way.

[Cianter]

I'm so happy to finally see some familiar faces here! I've been busy with college, youtube, and just life in general. I've missed everyone and certainly have noticed the decline in activity. It makes me sad, but I hope eventually it will get busy here again. I'm just glad everyone here isn't a complete stranger, but then again there's some new friends to be had and that's always good.

[AdriTan]

It's so good to see all these familiar faces! I am glad to see that you are all still around.
If anyone has anymore updates on Mith or on any of the other mods lemme know.
How have you all been?

[Midori]

See, there's actually plenty of people still here. We're just slow. This isn't Twitter after all. As the resident modlurk, I don't post much but I do read every single post. I've been a bit behind recently because of travel stress, but I'm caught up now.

I have a few theories on why CAA is less populous than it used to be. The most obvious is the whole theological discussions experiment that happened a while back; some people left at that time because they found that the site wasn't what they wanted it to be. But that was only a small part of a long trend. People were gradually leaving before and after that too. In large part, it's just the natural process of people coming and going, and the new generation of people aren't as committed as the old generation.

I think perhaps the biggest factor is just that new-fangled "social media" like Twitter and Facebook and tumblr have reduced people's needs for web forums in general. Personally I'm not sure what to think about that. The new generation of social websites is a lot faster paced and more public, which makes it more engaging and less rewarding, in my opinion. But, times are what they are. The fact is, a lot of people don't really want that deep of social interactions. In this time period where we have easy videoconferencing, more people use plain text to communicate than ever. But, I'm hoping that there will always remain a small cadre of people who are tired of the fast fire-and-forget attitude of Web 2.0, who want something a little more thought-out like a traditional BBS like this.

If this is the case, that means that if we want CAA to be helpful to people, we should let it be what it is, and not try to compete with the social networking sites. I'm particular, we don't need things to be fast If several days or even weeks go between posts in a particular thread, there's nothing wrong with that. The other thing is we don't need to be hyper-public like the social networking sites (that is, we don't need lots of members for the sake of having lots of members). Social networking sites work because of the exhilarating feeling of having your posts read (theoretically) by a bunch of people real quickly. We can't compete with that kind of emotional bait, so we shouldn't try. If just one of you reads this post front to back and gets some good out of it, I will be satisfied.

My other theory is more specific to our domain of discourse: anime. It used to be in the bad old days that the only way to watch anime in English was through tapes and DVDs (and laserdiscs, if anybody remembers those), either fansubbed or licensed. Then came high-speed internet and in particular fansubs that would release their episodes as quickly as possible as they were aired in Japan. I think that this may have caused a bit of a cultural gap between the people who watched fansubs of shows as they came out, and the people who couldn't watch fansubs (for either technical or ethical reasons) who still watched shows through DVDs at whatever time they bought them. The former people were much more into whatever was new at the time, and the latter were more into older stuff, naturally. The rise of crunchyroll and other legal simulcasting sites has helped this problem a bit, but it's still the case that people who pay for a subscription generally see the episodes a week ahead of those that don't, which is enough to put some tension into Lets Watch threads and the like.

So yeah, all those things together form my take on what's been going on. It's a long-term view of things. On the short-term, our beloved admin Mithrandir is still having s lot of problems at his workplace. I think he's actually looking for another job nearby at this point; that's how bad it's gotten. Unfortunately he hasn't had the leisure to update the site's creaky software from an old beta to the latest vb version. But more importantly, I think, it makes a big difference in atmosphere when the owner of a website is around to talk to people.

So those of us here right now are those who are in for the long haul. It kind of bothers me when I hear people say things like "CAA is dying" or "CAA is dead". There's a meme going on in the modern tech culture that that which is not growing is dead. But this is just not true. There's no logic behind it. There are some kinds of plants for which it is true, sure, but it's not true for humans and animals and many other things. Most importantly, it is not true for communities. A community is dead when it has zero members. Okay, maybe less than three might do it, but you get the point. We are much smaller than we used to be, yes. We are slower than we used to be, yes. But we are far from dead, and God help me if I'm going to passively let the modern world's obsession with newness starve yet another perfectly good thing.

[Rusty Claymore]

I like what you have to say, Midori! I guess this is more along the lines of a marco polo game than a vitals check. Kinda like realizing you lost track of time in a large library and don't see any of your friends. They're still there, just nestled down in their own sections. >_<

[mechana2015]

I'm also still around, and I do read nearly everything as well. I'm going through a particularly busy season at work though so I've been less vocal, unless I've needed to respond or been particularly interested by a topic.

[Mave]

I come back to check regularly although I tend to gravitate to the member manga/creative project section, which is not as lively as others. To be fair, I haven't been active myself in creation for at least 4-5 years so I'm chillaz with it.

I don't know too many of you as well so hi, everyone. *waves*

[Psycho Molos]

I'm here too. Just another lurker

[Furen]

I'm here as well. Chat's almost always empty, and the times I go in hoping that even one other person, I run into a whole lot of nothing and nobody, so it's been an infrequently visited tab now.

As much as people blamed it on the TD section (and I by no means have any argument, other than the fact I loved that section) I blame it myself on the summer of the upgrade. When it was dead for a week, right after TD was taken down, people went through a "Now what" phase. When I didn't have the option of going on CAA for almost two weeks, I got busy at my college doing other things, and so since then, I've had a hard time getting back, as much as I love it here.

I believe others had a similar feeling, two weeks of something that was a daily venture tends to make you fill it with other important things, and when you come back to a stagnant forum, no one wants to talk to themselves.

[Okami]

Long time no see, Okami!

Hey Rusty! It's good to see you back!

How have you all been?

Hey Adri! Good to see you back as well!

I'm getting better overall mentally...things were rough for a while! (I'm currently sick with bronchitis though ) Like I said in my previous post, I'm a newlywed - going on seven months! My husband (Ryosuke) hasn't been around on CAA since November though, the brat.

[Nate]

It's fine that this site still has a Christmas theme considering our Christmas tree is still up.

[TheAlbinoMoose]

I've been absent but I have returned. Glad to see everyone else is still lurking... xD

[Sheenar]

I'm still around. Been somewhat scarce, though I do check a few times a week, usually, for new posts.

Been going through medical stuff, another surgery, a new ministry, and just generally trying to stay afloat. Gaming and anime watching have fallen by the wayside as I just have so much other stuff going on (though I *will* finish Ocarina of Time before I go back to work in a few weeks).

I really liked your post, Midori. I agree. We're slower than we used to be, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's part of the normal ebb and flow of life with people, I think.

[Mouse2010]

I think perhaps the biggest factor is just that new-fangled "social media" like Twitter and Facebook and tumblr have reduced people's needs for web forums in general. Personally I'm not sure what to think about that. The new generation of social websites is a lot faster paced and more public, which makes it more engaging and less rewarding, in my opinion. But, times are what they are. The fact is, a lot of people don't really want that deep of social interactions. In this time period where we have easy videoconferencing, more people use plain text to communicate than ever. But, I'm hoping that there will always remain a small cadre of people who are tired of the fast fire-and-forget attitude of Web 2.0, who want something a little more thought-out like a traditional BBS like this.

Yes, this. I'm active on a message board at Delphi that has been talking about the same problem. It used to be a huge board with tons of young people. Now the posters are aging (30s-40s, not ancient! My age, actually) and the board doesn't attract new members. There has been much discussion about why, and most people think that the rise of social media has replaced message boards for a younger generation. I've been thinking for a while that the same thing has happened to CAA. As posters move on for whatever reason (college, jobs, marriage, kids, no longer watching anime, whatever), they are not being replaced by a new generation of active posters. But I don't think it's anything that CAA did wrong that caused this. I think it is just a shift in internet communication. I personally love the old message board format that allows for long, in-depth discussions, but I think that we have to acknowledge that right now, these kinds of boards are on the way out.

If I'm right, the good news is that there is no need for people to beat themselves up about what CAA did wrong or whether there is more we could do to attract new members. But the bad news is that there might not be a way to "fix" the problem. We might just have to accept a less active board.

As for me, I've never been a super active poster, but I joined the board before I had children. Now I have two children. I still watch anime, but not nearly as much as I used to, and I don't have as much time to post. I've been posting more recently because I was on a long leave from work -- but I go back to work in August, and will probably disappear for awhile. I have no plans on permanently leaving the site, though; this is one of my go-to places for info on new anime!

[Xeno]

Facebook ruined the internet and it's MySpace's fault it even had the chance to.

Don't believe me? Look up Internet.org.

[Mullet Death]

Mullet Death no longer exists. I am a bot infused with part of the soul of the late Mullet Death. Do not attempt to engage me in conversation.

[Mave]

I agree with the shifting social media trends and how it is impacting discussion boards like CAA. Say whatever you have to say but I've made more long-lasting friendships via CAA than anywhere else online. I've remained in contact with some of you for almost 10 years now!

I've long entered the 30s range but looking back, I realize that some super awesome bits of my 20s was due to CAA (e.g. online comic drawing, theological debates, anime & manga reviews). There were times I took matters a little too seriously but it was also a great safe place to destress, debate and create.

So yea, I'm not back at CAA for the popularity or activity level but rather, dabble around some nostalgia. See ya around, ciao ciao!

[Lynna]

*returns from the depths of lurkiness*

I think the off season decorations are kind of funny. Maybe, years into the future, it'll become a joke we tell the CAA-younglings. "Once, on CAA, we rebelled against the restrictions of the time and human tradition to celebrate Christmas for seven months!" (Or however long this lasts.)

I think this is actually my first post since January. I contemplated making a goodbye-for-now post, but I'm not sure how many people even noticed that I was gone, due to my overall absence these past (Two? Three?) years. I mostly became less active because some of my favourite people left, and I wasn't so good at making friends with the new ones. The other thing is that I've been really busy, both with work, school, and the fact that I (gasp!) have a more active social life than before. There have actually been some threads posted that I've been interested in, but I've resisted the temptation to post in them because I need to focus on other things right now. Still, I want to come back eventually, especially as my love for anime hasn't wavered at all.

CAA was here for me when I was lonely in high school, so I hope it never dies, especially not because of silly internet trends.

[MomentOfInertia]

I continue to actively lurk (is that a contradiction?).

[Wolfsong]

Yes MOI but we forgive you.

Its funny watching all the lurkers come out to post here, its actually quite nice.
Also, I agree, I hope CAA never dies. Ever.

[MomentOfInertia]

Maybe we should post a 'lurker roll call' thread every couple of months. 8P

[AdriTan]

LONG LIVE CAA!
I am so glad I posted this. It's soo soooo soooooo good to see everybody posting! I'm so enjoying watching lurkers reappear here haha.
I have to agree with everyone on the whole Facebook thing. It makes a lot of sense as to why our younger generation of CAAers is so small.
I miss how active the forums were and how humming we were, but I don't think at all that we are dying. Clearly there are enough lurkers to prove that