Since WP changed there has been fewer posters?

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I have noticed that since WP was updated there has been fewer posters. When I log on to WP the next day, there are only about one or two new threads since the day before, and sometimes none. And when a new thread comes up it takes longer to even get a first reply. And in the women's discussion it looks like there hasn't been many posters at all since WP was updated.

Because of that, WP isn't as fun to be on any more because it's all the same stuff and not much new stuff happening. Is the new layout that bad to drive so many members away?

I was feeling the same. Some people seem to have left. I think it's understandable. I don't like the new WP in some ways although there are some nice new features. The mobile version is definitely very bad. It's become much harder to use. The ads have become intrusive, too. There are quite a few factors that can drive members away.

I only come to WP because there's no other autism forum I am familiar with. When I find something else I will hopefully not come back to WP. Does anyone know any good autism forums?

Its not an exact measure, but for what it is worth: When I first arrived 2 1/2 years ago it was averaging about 30-35 new posts a day. By this past summer it was at 15-20 new posts a day. That was before the switch over. It does seem that it has gone down more since the swop over but that 'Posts a day' count is gone now so one would have to manually count to get a comparison. But a significant portion of those are spammers now so the comparison would not probably be valid anymore. There is a gob of new spammer posts today.

It does seem to me also that we have lost an unusual number of people since the moderator exodus and switch over. There has always been a rotation of people in and out, but over the last several months the number leaving seems greater then arriving. There are many people who once were regulars MIA.

You'll know its really bad when spammer threads start to outnumber member threads.

I am totally terrified by that statement!

I haven't noticed that there are fewer posters than immediately before the change. However, the number of posters were slowly decreasing over the years on the old site. I thought that was because of the old site's growing problems though and the reason for updating the site. Since the change to the new version, I'm sure that the community will grow again though.

While I have not noticed any decline in the overall quantity of posts, it does seem that there is a distinct decline in the quality of each post. Not just the usual errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling, but it is as if most of the better-educated members have gone on indefinite holiday.

It's like WP has "dumbed down" overall, and for no particular reason.

I have most definitely noticed a difference and had planned to post about it.

I have no idea why moderators would leave.

I think one possible reason is that the home page no longer shows recent posts. In the past, it was quite clear that folks would jump right on a new post and comment. Now it is laborious to find new posts as you have to visit each forum and it's unlikely you'll visit a forum in which you don't normally hang out.

It also doesn't help that age and gender are no longer displayed. I think it better to have some idea of the demographics of the person posting. Of course anyone who wished could choose to hide their age so it wasn't a particular burden on anyone.

The home page shows recent posts for me. They are at the bottom of the page.

View posts since last visit shows hundreds of posts per day. Keep in mind this is in spite of the fact that traffic decreases ev Ty year during the holidays. So I think you must be view inc the wrong site of you think there's a decrease.

I have noticed that it has been a little quieter around recently
Hopefully we return to past activity and the loss isn't permanent.
I have seen a disasterous site redesign cause a site to lose half of their activity. Afterward they slowly lost even more activity afterward with complete desertion of their forum occuring (it's definitly not WP).

Do you mean "Active Discussions"? They are sort of near the bottom of the mobile site, closer to the top on desktop.

Not the same thing as recent posts. I happen to think both are really needed. Each plays its own role in keeping threads alive (and encouraging participation).

This, from a man who's made "cannot" into TWO words, in his signature!!

You DO know that there are people on this site to whom English is not their first language, right?

"Can't" can be either 'cannot' or 'can not,' it's okay.
Don't be too defensive, he stated clearly that he was not referring to the usual errors.

Second language English demonstrates pretty clearly and very differently than people with poor first language English. I think most people will notice the difference, though I may be wrong in thinking that.
Nonetheless, Fnord's not stupid, I imagine he can tell the difference easily.

Brilliant second language people will often say brilliant things even if they are clumsy with the language. People looking for brilliance will be excited about the concepts communicated regardless of the "smoothness" of the delivery.


in my opinion

Last edited by 1401b on 27 Dec 2014, 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Recent Posts, meaning New Threads is something I cannot find anymore.
I thought it was awesome.

Threads that are simply "Busy" annoy me because sometimes I post something then notice the thread was started years ago and the OP probably isn't paying attn to it by now. It makes me look like an idiot. More idiot I guess.

I post much less now.

A thread may stay busy because, perhaps, people other than me also mistake the currentness of the Original Post.

We may miss, not notice, or not even find the new ones and sometimes they're urgent, especially The Haven, minutes count there.

I feel that responding to the OP is often more important than responding to a responder of a responder.

Correction: make 'posts' 'threads'

These "counting" threads kinda piss me off too.