Is Lockergnome still relevant?

tbernstein · Joined: May 16, 2003 Posts: 1676 Location: London

OK .I go back quite a long way.
But even so the rate of new posting among all the forums, subforums and sections is really rather low. It used to be dozens a day. Now it looks more like a handful a week.
IMO opinion it's because LG isn't the techie club it used to be, with lots of people sharing and taking advice from each other.
Most of it now is divided into very narrow sections with very specific areas of interest.And they overlap with the sub-froums in the General section anyway.
So you'd probably only visit to ask for help with your own problem.
Which means that a post is unlikley to be seen by someone who can actually provide useful information, unless there is also someone out there who happens to have that very specific interest and knowledge in that particular field and kindly chooses to visit that sub-forum to regularly look and see if there's anyone they can help.

Or to put it another way, it's not the social place that people visit to share anymore.

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12quidkidinnit

tbernstein wrote:

OK .I go back quite a long way.

Or to put it another way, it's not the social place that people visit to share anymore.

Same here. I don't know where everyone's gone. There's another forum I'm on that's gone really quiet as well (goldie lookin chain fan forum). Late last summer the owner posted up to say he was thinking of switching off the server due to lack of interest, but enough people said no, don't do it, so it's still going.

I know things like facebook are supposedly 'the way forward' but they'll never replace forums. I guess with forums, people eventually move on and get interested in other things, and unless they are replaced by enough new arrivals, they eventually fizzle out. Hope it doesn't happen to this place though.

lockergnome

Fair question posed, but... the answer isn't as cut-and-dry as you make it out to be.

Certainly, with the increased proliferation of community services, every user's attention is fragmented - including those who used to be active in these forums.

But in terms of LockerGnome's relevance? I've pushed to maintain and grow its reach - far beyond what these forums might provide...

* http://youtube.com/lockergnome - 145,000 Subscribers
* http://twitter.com/chrispirillo - 87,000 Followers
* http://facebook.com/chrispirillo - 18,000 Fans
* http://chris.pirillo.com/ - 40,000 Readers
* http://geeks.pirillo.com/ - 29,000 Users
* http://live.pirillo.com/ - 35,500,000 Viewer Hours
* http://www.lockergnome.com/ - 100,000 Members
* http://go.tagjag.com/podcast - 30,000 iTunes Subs
* http://friendfeed.com/l0ckergn0me - 17,000 Friends
* http://ustre.am/8V - 6,500 Devotees

Are those numbers irrelevant? No. Are the numbers slightly outdated? Yes. Smile

It's always been my hope that "Help" could thrive with the direction of outstanding members who would help me grow it from point A to point B - sharing links, building a knowledge base, and beyond. Indeed, there are quite a few of you who are still very much a part of our treasured community - but a community lives in the ether, not on one particular site or another.

So, be careful about tossing around the "relevant" word; we're doing our best, but can't do it without help.

tbernstein · Joined: May 16, 2003 Posts: 1676 Location: London

A fair comment. But my key point;

"Most of it now is divided into very narrow sections with very specific areas of interest.And they overlap with the sub-froums in the General section anyway.
So you'd probably only visit to ask for help with your own problem.
Which means that a post is unlikley to be seen by someone who can actually provide useful information".

Or to put it another way, there used to be a sea of knowledge. people could swim around in it swapping advice.
Now it's more like there's just a lot of little ponds.
At the very least maybe it needs to be simplified down.
e.g. Windows Vista & 7 / Older Windows/ Linux/Office suites/software generally/hardware/gaming and maybe 1 or two more

Just my 2 Euros worth

lockergnome