How Relevant Are Message Boards In The AIO Community?

[darcie]

Topper, Catspaw, and everyone who agrees with this, while Dacie put it well, she is still incorrect.

You think I'm wrong because you incorrectly assume I was talking about the Soda Shop here. Shortly before this topic was made, Bren contacted me on Facebook because he was considering going a different direction with his own site. My reaction here is basically an extension of that conversation and mostly focused on the CC dilemma. So I see that you're concerned because of the later City Hall topic on merging the two. But I don't necessarily think that should happen.

As far as this site vs. Soda Shop, the two serve a different purpose. It's a different audience, with some crossover Venn Diagram style. Apparently more general discussion forums are opening there, somewhat increasing the overlap of the two. Maintaining the two as fully functioning communities may mean limiting the scope of each.

[The Mysterious]

At least this DOES have a AIO relevant place: Right here at Whit's End. What 'bout Campbell County?

[Anna><>]

For me, personally, I very rarely use message boards for anything anymore. I used to spend hours on here (even more time on CBH) and I've found that as the internet has changed if I just want general discussion I post on tumblr. I no longer listen to AIO on the radio (I used to always have AIO playing). I feel like as I've gotten older (and the original demographic of this message board) I've slowly moved away from message boards. And now the current kids don't really use message boards like we used to because the whole internet environment has changed. I don't know if my younger sister has ever even been a part of a forum or message board. I come on here sometimes, just to see how things are, and to me it seems that in general it's just really slowed down for both AIO discussions and general discussions.

[Woody]

You forget that the ToO also has a sister AIO information site. I myself found the AIO forum community through AIOwiki. So really, our situations are quite similar in that each of us have a popular AIO information source with direct links to the forums. So really, the competition argument is quite valid.

[Bren]

At least this DOES have a AIO relevant place: Right here at Whit's End. What 'bout Campbell County?

Our place is Whit's End, Connellsville

[Tea Ess]

As far as this site vs. Soda Shop, the two serve a different purpose. It's a different audience, with some crossover Venn Diagram style.

Agreed with this.

Apparently more general discussion forums are opening there, somewhat increasing the overlap of the two. Maintaining the two as fully functioning communities may mean limiting the scope of each.

Yes, our general discussion has increased. I still think the usergroups and setups of each are quite different, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

You forget that the ToO also has a sister AIO information site. I myself found the AIO forum community through AIOwiki. So really, our situations are quite similar in that each of us have a popular AIO information source with direct links to the forums. So really, the competition argument is quite valid.

Thank you, I forgot about that. However, I don't think that the competition argument entirely works. Sure, a portion of the SS usergroup may have become active in the ToO instead, had the SS never existed, but the SS has also drawn in new members who otherwise would not have joined anything at all.

Also, at least from what I've seen, once people join a board, they tend to stay with that one, or at least favor it over the others. There's very little competition over established members on the boards. Theoretically, the SS may have prevented a few new members from joining the ToO, but given the large difference in usergroups, I think that the percentage is not that large.

[Jeffster]

For me, personally, I very rarely use message boards for anything anymore. I used to spend hours on here (even more time on CBH) and I've found that as the internet has changed if I just want general discussion I post on tumblr. I no longer listen to AIO on the radio (I used to always have AIO playing). I feel like as I've gotten older (and the original demographic of this message board) I've slowly moved away from message boards. And now the current kids don't really use message boards like we used to because the whole internet environment has changed. I don't know if my younger sister has ever even been a part of a forum or message board. I come on here sometimes, just to see how things are, and to me it seems that in general it's just really slowed down for both AIO discussions and general discussions.

What do they use instead?

[SirWhit]

They use social media. Twitter, Failbook, etc.

[Leonard Meltsner]

They use social media. Twitter, Failbook, etc.

And there's a small amount of us who gather on tumblr as well.

[SirWhit]

Ah, Tumblr. Forgot about that.

[Jeffster]

They use social media. Twitter, Failbook, etc.

You can't really have a discussion via Twitter though, can you?

As for Facebook, they at least have discussion groups. Is there an active one for AIO? So far, I have only seen groups with a tiny amount of members when I searched.

[Jonathan]

They use social media. Twitter, Failbook, etc.

This. This is the point that's been missing thus far. Facebook has changed a lot of things about the internet, and one effect is that forums have been rendered somewhat obsolete.

[snubs]

As for Facebook, they at least have discussion groups. Is there an active one for AIO? So far, I have only seen groups with a tiny amount of members when I searched.

Adventures in Odyssey Trivia... That's the only one I know of. It is fairly active. But it focuses more on asking trivia questions, however there is some discussion too.

[Leonard Meltsner]

As for Facebook, they at least have discussion groups. Is there an active one for AIO? So far, I have only seen groups with a tiny amount of members when I searched.

Adventures in Odyssey Trivia... That's the only one I know of. It is fairly active. But it focuses more on asking trivia questions, however there is some discussion too.

Yeah, the trivia page seems to be the most active one. It's weird, because I didn't realize until recently how large it was. I've been admining it almost since it began, but it has almost 300 members now. And yes, there are some discussions occasionally, but it's mostly trivia.

[Jeffster]

As for Facebook, they at least have discussion groups. Is there an active one for AIO? So far, I have only seen groups with a tiny amount of members when I searched.

Adventures in Odyssey Trivia... That's the only one I know of. It is fairly active. But it focuses more on asking trivia questions, however there is some discussion too.

Yeah, the trivia page seems to be the most active one. It's weird, because I didn't realize until recently how large it was. I've been admining it almost since it began, but it has almost 300 members now. And yes, there are some discussions occasionally, but it's mostly trivia.

300 is tiny though. Several FB groups I'm in have over 10,000 members. I know Odyssey has more fans than that, where are they online?

[Woody]

You have to remember that a large percentage of Odyssey fans are children under the age of 12, many of whom don't have Facebook or internet privileges.

[Leonard Meltsner]

There's also the fact that many are conservative Christians, many of whom are less likely to get heavily involved in online communities or fandom activities or sites like tumblr, unfortunately. You're right, of course. As you can see at the bottom of the home page, even the ToO itself only has 1310 members. Compare that to the fact that AIO has over 1 million listeners a day, and over 6 million per week. The age is probably the largest factor, followed by the taste of some people for getting involved in "frivolous internet activities".

[Stop Wooton' Around]

For me, personally, I very rarely use message boards for anything anymore. I used to spend hours on here (even more time on CBH) and I've found that as the internet has changed if I just want general discussion I post on tumblr. I no longer listen to AIO on the radio (I used to always have AIO playing). I feel like as I've gotten older (and the original demographic of this message board) I've slowly moved away from message boards. And now the current kids don't really use message boards like we used to because the whole internet environment has changed. I don't know if my younger sister has ever even been a part of a forum or message board. I come on here sometimes, just to see how things are, and to me it seems that in general it's just really slowed down for both AIO discussions and general discussions.

So much truth here. Now that I am in college and have high-speed internet I am never around. The time in which I was crazy active on both here and AIOWiki was when I first joined back in 2009, which puts me in 7th grade. I really didn't have much going on and my internet wouldn't load a lot of things, so I spend a lot of time editing the wiki and posting here. I also feel as though the Era of wikis and forums in general have passed. After all, even Wikipedia as seen a huge decline in editors. Not entirely sure why, its just one of those trends that seems to be happening.