Save Home of Poi

wtf richee.

the day i fully understand you is the day the world ends!

Err ok, just to play devils advocate here:

Yoyo's.
Myspace.
Leg Warmers.

What do they all have in common?

They are fads. Poi/fire spinning to a certain degree, and this web forum, is a fad. It has amazing roots throughout history and a rich and beautiful culture all over the world that existed for a period of time...

but... People. Move. On.

Im sorry if it feels like this is a tragedy, but I see it as a natural progression? You will always have your 'die hards', your 'new enthusiasts', your 'post whores', your 'time wasters'... but the majority of 'new enthusiasts' from five years ago will have found other things to do. And the years where poi and fire staff were the popular things to do, have past. Now its electronic past times and Wii's and PS3's and stuff.

This isnt to say that Home of Poi or the wonderful arts community we have will die off completely, but it WILL go through tough (or quiet) times. And that is just natural human progression.

How do we fix something that occurs throughout all phases of human interest?

This website will be here as a reference point and meeting place for people for many years to come. Common Ground Australia is a glowing testament to people meeting to learn and communicate with spinning arts, and started BECAUSE of HoP.

I don't think anything is 'broken' with HoP or poi at the moment, and I don't think there is any 'fix'. I think this is just what happens when something hits the public eye for a time and then drops off again.

/end rant.

xoxox

This for me is the main reason that activity will have dropped off. Outside of the social forums how many new posts are given replies telling people to do a search? Which is fair enough, but unless those members who are really out there exploring new techniques etc are going to post about that then how can you expect newbies to do that? Most of the time if I have a question I can find a post to answer it. I know theres enough stuff in the staff antispin weaves thread to keep me going for a good while yet.

I notice that if a new interesting post is begun, people do respond - see 'whats wrong with poi', ''what makes poi beautiful', this thread, and going a bit further back many of mcp's posts on staff manipulation.

Perhaps it would be worth looking at hits next to new posts Malcom? If the hits have stayed similar and posts have dropped off it would suggest people are still using the site but that they have found what they want without having to post, meaning the 'do a search' stuff is doing its job.

I do think that the new facebook age is having an effect. I know that the regular Leeds spinners organise all their stuff on there and are not members of this site, as its one more thing to go check regularly, unfortunately that is inevitable. I personally like having this community seperate, but thats me...

Having only been here a couple of years, I still feel that I get a lot out of the site, but to begin with it definately had a feeling of 'everyone here knows each other really well and I'm kinda an outsider', little things like people using real names to refer to each other - stupid things that should not make you nervous about interacting but still can do.

I don't really have a solution, just a few ramblings while I eat my lunch, but there it is.

and this being posted in a section where many can't see. i even noticed in that thread members who can't see that section referred to as "plebs". (note some of us "not oldie" members do have access to that section)

i don't ever go in social chat, so i can't comment about that, but recently there's been some good threads on social discussion. the big one about google (although the new one about google is very quiet) and the whats wrong with poi thread has been cool.

personally i'd rather one or two good threads in social discussion than lots of crap in social chat, but that's just me.

hmm.....I got sucked into WOW....nothing in my life has been the same lol


Though we have a new local board that is lacking traffic atm as well.

Look Doc, I'm SORRRY I missed the BM meetup....



But really i've kinda noticed the same. Last person to post is still going strong but there really isn't a whole lot going on.

/shrug

I'm a work hopper too, outside of work i dont really have net access...

It seems I'm always the rebel. People on this board are less active than ever or so I hear, and I become more active and join it .



My advice. Stop playing that game. i've played it for quite a long time, and in the end I noticed that my playing has steadily increased over time. That game is one of the best brainwashing tools ever invented. Looking back I felt a little empty when I was playing it.

i think internet time is sucked into other things.

I log on, instantly check my uni webmail, hotmail and LJ friends page.
My webmail has links to facebook via people posting pictures of me or whatever...
Hotmail has links to "so and so commented on your post/comment"
LJ friends page has a page or two of what my friends are up to and comics and other things I like reading...

Then I move to the Perth Fire boards... then HOP.

and after spending so much time online, I often read things but can't be bothered posting unless I feel passionate about things. I don't need to waste time online anymore because there is a billion things I could be doing.

I blame London.

They carried this community for many years.

Tribe is still alive and well, so San Fransisco must be doing it's part.

The Burningman Regionals are stronger and more technical than ever.

The Youtube Jedi are Youtubing it up.

So, yup. I blame London. They fell off. Simple as that.

Specifically Coleman. He broke up the Princess Palace and the rest fell from there.

I'm sure I could trace it back to his Mom if I tried.


[Sort of kidding, sort of not, you do the math.]

sorry maybe it's just me but isn't this whole discussion absolutely pointless?

Personally I feel like ElectricBlue - I've never been as active as I am right now on the HOP boards. And honestly - I feel that it has become a lot easier for new people to get into the world of HOP. "Back then" which is several years ago I didn't even bother to post at all for I felt overwhelmed by the amount of messages and people popping up every day. Right now I really like HOP, more than I ever did before for I feel like there isn't as much "chatty" stuff distracting my peanut brain from what people actually talked about as there used to be before - and I am just the type of person that likes simple plain talk about the facts without the girlish stuff (holy smoke this must be the worst written English phrase ever - Lord, forgive me)

I have HoP as my homepage yet moment I open Mozilla and it loads up I instantly click on something else. I don't know why I'm not around here much anymore. Things just feel different.

Obama said tehre was going to be change....you didn't think he meant America did you?

That's hysterical!

Okay, Mal is planning updates and changes. I worked on them with him. I don't know all of what's planned but I do know it's a huge overhaul that won't be up until next year.


I think it's a culmination of alot of reasons. I'm on several other groups as well, one for magicians, one for buskers, one for dancers, one for jugglers...and they are all slow, and have been. I agree with Flynt and the fad shift. I've noticed more interested from way younger (as it 8 or 9 yo) over teens and adults over this past selling season for us. If that is reflective of more wide spread trends, then of course they'll not be on here or at meets, or posting so much in social.
And I 8th what other people said about being busy.

The "fogies forum" isn't any more busy than the social discussion.
Tech, I believe, is actually seeing the most traffic, which I think is awesome. (note: I'm not saying it's alot, but def more than chat or disc.)

In the end if you really think there is a problem, then wouldn't the best solution be to put up more interesting posts that inspire discussion or joking or..whatever the forum calls for? Seems the best way to bring up action is to take action yourself.

Someday somebody's gonna have to explain why my name keeps coming up in association with the recent vibe, given that I have been here minimally or not at all during the time frame in question. (Mike brought it up elsewhere as well..)

If HoP had gotten better in my absence, then I could see how it might have been related.

Granted, this is the third time that there has been a denial that I single handedly destroyed HoP but I don't even know why it would need to be denied if I had a very valid alibi for the timeframe in question: I wasn't here.

If HoP sucked three years ago, then it was at least partially my fault.

[I really wonder what the heck happened while I was gone...]

In serious, on topic conversation, I do think the lull in certain communities that were very influential on HoP has led to a decline in posting.

I also think that there is a diminishing returns thing going on in the Technical Aspect as well which is causing some of the "Jedi Trickle Down" excitement to wane.

Well said..I wrote a big ol' post of suggestions last night then ixnayed it figuring it was nothing more than useless gibberish

So...are these arts in general experiencing a general slowdown ? I'd say so, based on what I've seen in the local scene.

Maybe, but I use a couple of other forums that show no signs of slowing down. Well, one other forum actually because the second one keeps banning me and I've run out of email addresses

Do you figure that adding all that Myspace bs that people keep complaining about would increase traffic. I dunno, I don't Myspace, or Facebook I just use teh internets for forums.... and my ongoing research into college hotties.



What ? really ? you figure they'd die of boredom just frequenting this section.



Yea, I know what you mean. I made a conscious decision to avoid all that stuff, preferring instead to devote my time to deciphering threads in the moves section. It wasn't until I was here a year or so that I figured out the secret was to read Coleman first, he was like the rosetta stome of poi moves.

I'd second the comments about the weather impact in the UK, and possibly round Europe- there do seem to be less newbies around, both online and round the place- and the rubbish weather has got to have an impact on that..

A lot of people seem to be making comments I think are pretty telling- dividing the forums between 'Old Members' and 'Newbies'.. and thinking of what makes people join, and what makes old members drift away.. but there's quite a few people who don't really fall in either camp- I've been here around three years, but I doubt anyone's counting me as an old member..

I do think the gap here is pretty big, and that is part of the problem. New people start (though there don't seem to be so many around this year) but not so many hang around.. There seems to be a bit of a 'status' thing going on with some people, which really doesn't encourage anyone to join in.

just an fyi...I merged the two threads, so if they read a bit...oddly, that would be why.

Hey look mate i don't really know what you are going on about but basicaly what i was trying to say was that it is stupid that people bring those things up and that as sombody who was not directly involved in the drama i didn't even notice.

Basicly who cares, it was nothing most people had no idea any thing even happend, so why keep and attacking and calling some big conspiracy card to keep youself in the spot light?.... nobody cares.