Maybe I'm losing it in my old age, but I miss the old ATOT

[gaidensensei]

Yeah, it's half our own fault too - we're not as open to making new connections as we did with each other. It's a strange phenomenon that I don't really know how to deal with.

For making new connections, I'm venturing towards a theory that the epitome of the forum's good times was in catching people with their pants down, remember all yearly ownage nomination threads?

But lately this steer has went towards the newcomers since they're more easily exposible. Might be universal as in this happens on all of the internet though, not just here. I remember being an avid reader of the comments on cnet since the late 90's, they were nearly always genuine. If you go there today it's the other way around, it's flooded with negativity.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Uhh, the lack of moderation and playing of favorites is what has driven people away.

Correct. When banned people are allowed to come back and proceed to do what they did to get originally banned but now get a free pass, it demonstrates that quantity is more important than quality here now.

Favs are allowed to break the rules while other's aren't allowed to get away with anything. Folks need to email Anand and ask for a change, if they want things to improve.

 

[guyver01]

Folks need to email Anand and ask for a change, if they want things to improve.

Been There
Done That

Anand doesn't care one bit about the forums..

All he cares about is that the main site keeps getting him free products, and keeps making him millions in Ad revenue, so he can keep up the lifestyle he's used to.

 

[HeXen]

Correct. When banned people are allowed to come back and proceed to do what they did to get originally banned but now get a free pass, it demonstrates that quantity is more important than quality here now.

Favs are allowed to break the rules while other's aren't allowed to get away with anything. Folks need to email Anand and ask for a change, if they want things to improve.

quality and less quantity drives away lurkers and many others who won't find it as entertaining. Just go to some forums where quality is enforced...theres like 5-12 posts a day, most of them are questions and not much fun reads.
iow, it gets boring for many and they stop comming very often. then you got a mostly dead forum

 

[Rastus]

quality and less quantity drives away lurkers and many others who won't find it as entertaining. Just go to some forums where quality is enforced...theres like 5-12 posts a day, most of them are questions and not much fun reads.
iow, it gets boring for many and they stop comming very often. then you got a mostly dead forum

Exactly. That's why all the news channels on cable are all tabloid all the time, even though they deny it. It's the same here. Provacative posters and bungling moderators keeps this place hopping.

 

[Capt Caveman]

quality and less quantity drives away lurkers and many others who won't find it as entertaining. Just go to some forums where quality is enforced...theres like 5-12 posts a day, most of them are questions and not much fun reads.
iow, it gets boring for many and they stop comming very often. then you got a mostly dead forum

It wasn't like that before.

 

[BeauJangles]

I remember when I joined, you could refresh ATOT and the entire page would change. It was overwhelming to me at first. Now I miss it.

This. Honestly, YAGTs were so much better when they were in OT rather than in their own sub-forum. Now people actually get advice whereas before they just got ridiculed.

 

[MovingTarget]

I've only been in OT since 2009, but I'm fairly pleased with the traffic. I don't like when things move too fast. When you have to keep a thread in it's own tab so you can keep track of it, it's too much. I would like to see more traffic in the technical forums though.

I don't mind a brisk pace in posting, so long as it isn't too extreme. The technical forums could use a little less segmentation though. We should merge a few.

 

[Red Dawn]

Fear and loathing in Anandtech

 

[MovingTarget]

This. Honestly, YAGTs were so much better when they were in OT rather than in their own sub-forum. Now people actually get advice whereas before they just got ridiculed.

Meh, back in the day the YAGTs were great fun in OT. If someone wanted actual advice, we had conjur running yagt.org. I don't mind having a L&R forum here (lets face it, overall we need a lot of help in that department), those threads should be allowed in OT again.

 

[edro]

You are hip. You were here before it was cool.

 

[BoomerD]

Meh, back in the day the YAGTs were great fun in OT. If someone wanted actual advice, we had conjur running yagt.org. I don't mind having a L&R forum here (lets face it, overall we need a lot of help in that department), those threads should be allowed in OT again.

Nah, I prefer having the angst in its own separate forum.

Many of us don't want to hear the gnashing of teeth, wailing, and lamentations of those who can't get a woman...

 

[nick1985]

Yeah its def not what it used to be

 

[pyonir]

The feel of the forum has changed quite a bit. People here now are less friendly than they used to be, and more antagonistic.

Exactly why I rarely come to ATOT anymore. I check out some of the other subforums quite often, but only glance at the movies thread in OT most of the time.

It's less about having fun now, and more about how many people you can insult and get away with. And obvious trolls are allowed to continue posting constantly. It got old.

Anand doesn't care one bit about the forums..

All he cares about is that the main site keeps getting him free products, and keeps making him millions in Ad revenue, so he can keep up the lifestyle he's used to.

Which is exactly why I have zero guilt using noscript and adblock so his ads don't show for me. And to think, I used to be a subscriber back in the day.

 

[MovingTarget]

Exactly why I rarely come to ATOT anymore. I check out some of the other subforums quite often, but only glance at the movies thread in OT most of the time.

It's less about having fun now, and more about how many people you can insult and get away with. And obvious trolls are allowed to continue posting constantly. It got old.


Which is exactly why I have zero guilt using noscript and adblock so his ads don't show for me. And to think, I used to be a subscriber back in the day.

Same. I was a little late to the party for the subscriber server.

 

[xcript]

There used to be more pancakes.

 

[lxskllr]

I think there aren't as many people because there's more online distractions now. Shit changes,, and people get different interests, both as individuals, and as a group. Technology doesn't seem to be as popular as it used to be. Hackers, have turned into users, and there's only so much you can say about an iPhone. Time moves on, and the old days are old. No point in worrying about it.

 

[BoomerD]

I think there aren't as many people because there's more online distractions now. Shit changes,, and people get different interests, both as individuals, and as a group. Technology doesn't seem to be as popular as it used to be. Hackers, have turned into users, and there's only so much you can say about an iPhone. Time moves on, and the old days are old. No point in worrying about it.

The "Social Networking" sites have drawn many people away from the various forum sites.

 

[pyonir]

There used to be more pancakes.

I'm almost about to PANIC! :sneaky:

 

[shortylickens]

The "Social Networking" sites have drawn many people away from the various forum sites.

Pretty much.
Which scares the shit out of me because I've seen Facebook and its basically just the same thing people do in real life when they are killing time: Gabbing.
I dont see the purpose of signing up for a site, logging in, and checking it every 5 minutes when you literally have a world of information sitting right in front of you.
Gabbing is what we did before we had computers and smart phones. Why does it continue?

 

[GrumpyMan]

It's kind of how music taste changes: Disco to Punk Rock to Alternative Rock to Rap to Lady Gaga.....time moves on, tastes change.

 

[Red Dawn]

Been There
Done That

Anand doesn't care one bit about the forums..

All he cares about is that the main site keeps getting him free products, and keeps making him millions in Ad revenue, so he can keep up the lifestyle he's used to.

That's not true, if enough of you email him he'll take notice.

 

[moshquerade]

Yeah its def not what it used to be

:thumbsup:

 

[CZroe]

The pace of ATOT kept me out back in the better days. My suggestion is to bump one older interesting thread from a month or two ago per day to keep the churn going (not endorsing necro-bumps).

 

[Red Dawn]

:thumbsup:

YHPM