I certainly do more on FaceBook now than I used to, the visual attraction of images definitely has something to do with that but also the fact that there is a greater diversity of people on FB. I post there and get responses from friends, family, acquaintances and even old school friends.
When I joined BcUK a good post garnered responses from a wide number of people, all be it with a common interest. Now, sadly, the response is much lower, usually a handful of people and most probably the same handful most of the time.
As a result, I try to post in both places but inevitably I post more where I am more likely to get some feedback. There is an immediacy about FB and similar social media that is very attractive.
Having said that, I actually prefer the way a forum works, I think it is much easier to find information on this format although I do find it frustrating when people post threads that need pictures and then allow the pictures to expire. Many fantastic posts made in the past have suffered that way and it is a great shame.
There are many reasons for that, changes made to picture hosting sites, the shifting nature of image address's and the like. I host my pictures on my own web space and always tried to update my image links if they changed, but the new forum post editing restrictions make that difficult or impossible to do now, so many of my old threads are dying
the same slow death as a result. I must confess, that makes me reluctant to put in the effort to create threads like I used to because I know they have a more limited life.
I came across an old thread talking about people's favourite threads the other day. It was very gratifying to find
a post started by myself mentioned on there but when I visited, I discovered it too had suffered the same fate.
Because it was in the Sub Zero forum, where I have some limited "mod powers" I was able to do some remedial editing but due to the changed forum software it is now a pale shadow of the thread it once was.
I understand the sentiment behind the post that started this thread. I too miss the way this forum used to be. It used to be my first and last stop when turning my internet browser on, now I might visit every few days to see if there is anything new. I browse a few threads that are not just about knives and often leave without commenting. I know that makes me part of the problem but the atmosphere is very different and many others have drifted away as well for similar reasons.
I wish I knew how to fix it, but the thing with nostalgia is that you can rarely go back, you just have to move forward. I owe this forum a huge debt, it changed my life in many ways and I am grateful for that. I will try and post more, I may even try to reconstruct some of my posts that have lost their pictures where I can.
