There is a lot of discussion over the last 10 years about how discussion forums are dying off, while Facebook and new social media sites like Instagram..., are growing.
I love this post, https://xenforo.com/community/threads/the-future-of-forums-vs-social-media.114387/page-11#post-1134508
I find that the "ethos" about commenting which takes over people on FB is practically a psychosis or mental illness. If you violate the "rules" by trying to engage in real discussion instead of super terse, and often super vapid spurts or fluff, it's like that scene in "Midnight Express" when the guy started going the other way in the walking around in a circle scene. And it spills over into "real life" too.
Check this out - apparently people were already talking about this at least several years ago:
Google search, "the discussion forum is dead" - Q=the+discussion+forum+is+dead">https://www.google.com/Q=the+discussion+forum+is+dead
Q=the+discussion+forum+is+dead">https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=XC-pWIP2E6zP8ge807KgDQQ=the+discussion+forum+is+dead
Contrary to what's happening to a lot of forums over the last few years, and although we see very little new postings (shorter posts are increasing as well which are quite possibly to do with mobile and our busy lives.), the page views and guest stats reading through this site is pretty impressive. We are growing at a rate I've not seen since 2002.
I don't know what that means yet but it is interesting.
recording.org April 2016 to Feb 2017
What's also fact, the generation that started here is now vintage and put off with digital. The products I was so fascinated by, rarely get discussed today. I want to keep talking about gear but over and over plugins and the affordable breaks into a conversation that leads us into the new generation of recording. So there is a clash as well.
The old school members have been facing slow down, lack of business forcing them to have stopped recording. Others are completely put off with today's music and where its all going, and many have also died since I started this recording site 19 years ago.
I have friends in this business, whom I learned so much from, are now gone or simply done with it all.
I remember trying to stream audio around 2002 and the server and internet could barely load an image. I would get emails telling me to stop using images because members couldn't load the forum lol!
A lot has changed but I am still excited to be working and learning more and more about music.
A new crop of recording readers is starting up again. Old school is moving on the new new gen is coming.
I like the idea of discussing audio in the videos. Good move on that today, pcrecord
I am excited about microphones, acoustic music and the virtual world coming but it also has me thinking about life a lot more too.
Artificial intelligence is coming. Google is indexing and gathering forum content to come up with its own fast answers to search queries with our content ripped (advertising right beside it as well) . It won't be long before we don't even ask a person across the table how to do something. We will grab our mobile device and google it before believing in a friend.
Cheers!
Comments
I think RO is a fantastic place. I have a hard time to not visit
I think RO is a fantastic place. I have a hard time to not visite at least once a day.
I'm guilty of prefering shorter posts and right to the point questions.
Like on facebook or youtube, I sometime feel I don't want to invest that much of my life on 90min video or 2000 words posts.. But, when the subject mathers to me, it doesn't stop me to go through.
I like that the active members have a diverticity of knowledge and interests. If we would all say the same it would be boring.
I know that together we know more than wikipedia !! :ROFLMAO:
Well not only in term of knowledge but combine with experience.
I think that most studio and artists are bound to adapt to the social media madness and the trend goes to audio/video content.
I invested slowly to offer video services and it starts to payoff.
We need to get attention faster and with fuller experiences.
I'm sure RO is here to stay, even at slower paces. In fact, it's better this way than having 80 trolls joining everyday....
The quality and honesty of the members makes the value of any forum and RO is in my top ones ..
Ok enough publicity lines !
Have a nice day guys (and girls)
I also think this is a great place. When I was having a hum in
I also think this is a great place. When I was having a hum in my monitors, a few experts here immediately jumped on it with the correct solution. Also, the feedback I got on one of my mixes when I was moving/adjusting to a new control room was spot on...and helped both with helping me improve my room and the mix.
I also enjoy some of the technical discussions on different mix techniques, and discussions on analyzing some of the pro mixes. Although I'm guilty of being more a reader than a poster.
audiokid, post: 447608, member: 1 wrote: It won't be long before
I think that we've already passed that particular mile marker, Chris.
When's the last time anyone here has had to stop and ask someone for directions?
With few exceptions, Google maps has pretty made that a thing of the past.
It's a double edged sword, I think.
On one hand, I mourn the loss of human contact, and we've discussed how this has affected music as well. Home recordists using DAWs are far more apt to do a song with all overdubs - often with just themselves doing them - than they are to record a band doing a song. All-at-once tracking isn't completely dead, but it's certainly not nearly as popular as it once was.
Audio editing has grown to allow us to seamlessly edit out what we don't want to hear in the final mix, which is good... (it's much better than having to use a razor blade and a grease pencil, and, it has an "undo" button, too LOL) but this technology is also being used to edit out everything - down to the softest breath of the vocalist - which to me is editing out the human element of music. Music isn't supposed to be "perfect", it's supposed to be passionate.
This technology also affects us socially. I've told the story here, a few years back, about walking into my sister's house, and her three daughters and a few of their friends were in the family room, and all listening to music - except they weren't all listening to the same music. They were all listening through earbuds to their own music.
I lamented the loss of the days when a friend would pick up a new release, and bring it over, and another friend would show up, and the record would be put on the TT, and everyone would listen - together.
Now...it has it's positive side, too. Speaking more logistically, this past winter, our furnace started acting funny, (and we've had more than a few sub zero days here with the wind off the Lake); and it would only heat the house up to around 48 degrees ( F) and then shut off.
There were some REALLY cold nights in the house.
Three weeks ago, I came home from a late session, and I noticed that the house was warm... and my girl Alicia was smiling at me - she had watched a YouTube vid, one she had found after typing in the symptoms using key words in the search window, and she had watched a vid that showed her what to look for, and what to do. It turned out to be a sensor wire that needed cleaning and re-attachment. She fixed it, and she was able to do that because of that video. I don't know exactly how much she saved us because we ended up not having to call an HVAC guy, but I'm betting it was at least $75. ( Maybe more than that this time of year, and there would have been no guarantee that we wouldn't have also had to wait a few weeks, to get an appointment too.)
Another example - when I switched over to Samplitude from Sonar, I was pretty much lost because of Samp's depth and learning curve. I'd say that 90% of what I ended up learning, I learned from Kraznet's YouTube Samplitude instructional vids.
I was smack dab in the middle of an album project, too, ( one with an actual deadline) so I couldn't really afford much downtime. Those vids really saved my ass - in more ways and more times than I could count.
As far as Forums declining, I can't say. RO is an awesome place, both for "noob" and veteran alike... I've personally learned so much here - about all kinds of things; mics, computers, summing, both analog and digital methods, plugs, editing...
There are experts here in nearly every single facet of audio. If I want to know about converters, I'm talking to you or to Boswell ( Boswell ). If I want to know about word clocking and jitter, I'll dig up MrEase's ( MrEase) posts. If I want to know about DIY mic building, Marco ( pcrecord ) has actually done it, and written about it. If I want to find out something about acoustics, I can ask Brien ( @Brien Holcombe )... and so many more audio cats here with so much knowledge to share.
I dunno... Pro's and Cons, every subject has them. I think we need to find what works for us personally, and use it the best and most responsible ways that we can, that can benefit us without it taking over our lives completely.
I know one thing for sure... for as much as technology can do... it still can't go hiking through the mountains on a picture perfect October day, searching through the woods for an unknown, unmarked, crystal clear stream, and it can't tie on a fly and go trout fishing for me. ;)
-d.