Are there fewer members in here than there were a few years back?

I want to say yes, but we have had a few newer people joining who are active. I’ve been here since Jan 2017 and it seems a lot of people I knew are gone, but there are also some new people too.

do I know you?? who were you before, if you want to share?

No Problem Ms. Queen. I have been a member several times before. Used to be NoMoreYahoo or something or other, left due some sort of an altercation (between a pal of mine who was a member) and some female members, long story. Then came back again under a user name I can’t recall, but locked myself out accidentally because I never could remember my password. Not the sharpest tool in the drawer, I admit. I remember you though. Any way, that’s my sad secret. Funny you’re the second person who has asked me about that.

I remember you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I missed You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I messaged you on that other site that another user created, “the tide pool” on tapatalk. I am so glad you are back!!! :)

Well I thank you kindly young lady, you are too kind. Thank you! Just not that bright, I’m not : )

Yes

I am wondering how an Answerbager turned out. We can’t name names so someone please PM me?

Back in topic I was TallJasperMan back then and earlier in Answerbag. I’m still here.

Some Jellys died and some moved on or were banned.

When I originally joined in 2007, there were not a lot of people but it was active and growing. Then it grew to a lot of people – when I look at old threads, it’s like a walk down memory lane. I remember a lot of fun times with them. There also used to be a lot of debates about religion, I remember. Lots of Christianity bashing, many, many paragraphs written by some former Jellies making fun of Christianity. I tried to avoid the debates about Christianity because it went nowhere, it seemed, and nobody’s beliefs were changed in either direction.

Some I’m in touch with on FB, and some I was in touch with and they passed away.

Some left for their own reasons and I don’t hear from them or know them in real life. They probably are in touch with other Jellies.

Some come back under different names and we may or may not find out who they used to be.

Its been a long couple years with Trump in office and it would be odd if that wasn’t the same here. Some chose to leave instead of dealing with negativity. I really loved having scholars here and learning more through the debates. But alas, diversity in skin is much more acceptable here than diversity of thought.
Enjoy.

@KNOWITALL Thank you ma’am. I’m hoping I don’t have another uh, “senior moment” like the last time. To put it mildly. As my old pappy used to say, Golden Years my ass!

@jca2 Well…I’m just here for fun. I hope to be unobtrusive and I don’t care to challenge anyone’s belief system. As my old pappy used to say, if we all had the same views, it would be a pretty dull world.

@KNOWITALL: “Some chose to leave instead of dealing with negativity. I really loved having scholars here and learning more through the debates. But alas, diversity in skin is much more acceptable here than diversity of thought.”

Seems like it was the people who left that felt it was unacceptable to have “diversity of thought”.

@hmmmmmm Sure, and you’re entitled to your opinion.

Were you actually friends with anyone who chose to leave?
Maybe it’s a little different for those of us who built friendships over many years here, met, or were in closer contact.

(See how it SHOULD work with no name-calling or mocking or making you feel lesser than for thinking differently? I’m not saying horrible things about your deity, your religion, your culture or your geographic location on a map, or even your political views.)

@KNOWITALL: “Sure, and you’re entitled to your opinion.”

I’m not expressing my opinion. I’m just restating what you said: people chose to leave because they weren’t comfortable with the “diversity of thought”.

@hmmmmmm “Seems like…” is not a fact, it’s an opinion.

And that’s not what I said.
’...But alas, diversity in skin is much more acceptable here than diversity of thought.
Enjoy.’

Those people chose to leave because they felt that whatever level of “diversity of thought” existed here was too much for them. To make them into victims by insinuating that they were booted because “diversity in skin is much more acceptable” here is absurd.

@hmmmmmm Sure, you can be right.

^ I could be wrong. Maybe a mod can confirm if Fluther kicked off users because they didn’t like their thought.

@hmmmmmm Sigh. That’s not what happened and that’s not what I said.

Getting back to the question at hand, I think some people have left and some new people have come. I don’t think there are many less than a couple of years ago, but there certainly are fewer than several years ago.

Happens with every forum in my experience. There’s a period of growth, a certain levelling off and then a gradual decline in numbers.

@Darth_Algar But not Reddit: https://foundationinc.co/lab/reddit-statistics/

Reddit is a slightly different beast altogether, though. It’s more than just a forum. It’s kind of borderline social media.

Most other forums I used to post on are either gone or have dramatically lower membership. One is so dead that I logged in after a three month absence and one user didn’t even notice I hadn’t been there. Forums are a dying medium. This site is definitely not as active as it was “back in the day” but it refuses to die. lol

I’ve been posting on forums since I was 14. The only others I post on now are specialty forums for things like computers, audiophilia, and linguistics. On all three political and religious discussion is completely banned. That’s probably part of the reason they’re still around.

Yeah. I use to be active a few band’s forums. All were fairly large and active at one point. Now all of them are gone, as everyone’s gravitated to Twitter and Facebook.

I thought you knew your way around rather quickly for a new jelly, now it makes sense. You are not new. :)

Yes, some people who were very active are gone now. Some passed away. Some left on their own. Some were banned. Some left when a particular jelly was banned. Even I was offline for a while after it happened. It’s still upsetting, and I still think it was wrong.