100 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

[SYUTEO]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

Maybe having more posts about the community will help? (kinda like the meme thread and the countless threads about what your favourite ant species are) We have one in the ACAF about posting a picture of an ant and have everyone guess what species it is. It's kinda like a more interesting identification thread and to me, it's testing my id skills (which I'm very bad at at the moment). It's quite fun, until no one posts. Not sure if it will help though.

[ANTdrew]

Go for it!

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

Just say'n on this.

I'd point out that a pile of stale/out of date/unused/defunct pages left lingering in a site does do harm to that site.

How many times do we turn up useless results to pages like that before the reputation of the site becomes that?

 

Whatever is served up commonly will be the standing reputation, and search results can get poor quick if there is a pile of defunct results left linger around in the pool to be returning.

I do believe site maintenance of removing no longer useful/used pages is an important site infrastructure effort to keep up.

[Flu1d]

I made a rather aggressive post on this a while back which probably wasn't the best approach. But I've been around since 2016, which is over 6 years ago now. For the first two or three years on the forum I was extremely active. I even had chat up on my computer 24 hours a day. But like others said their is an obvious decline in quality of content and activity. It actually bothered me for a while since the forum and hobby was nostalgic to me. And within the past few months it has gotten even worse which I didn't see coming. I think the forum software is fine and even people not being as active as they where is fine.

I might get a lot of ridicule for this, but there should be a age limit to join. Stupid posts should be deleted. And the biggest thing, I would suggest removing kids under the age of 13. I know they are in here, because the content I see couldn't come from anyone older than that. If posts are of low quality they should be removed. I mean journals that are $hit, topics that are irrelevant, etc. The issue can be resolved if it was dealt with. However I think it all would take time and maybe even upset some people. If drew is like me, then time isn't something he has a lot of.


Edit: And to add, Id suggest removing all ant company websites from the face of the forum. Even mine. Remove subforums about termites and bees too. The forum was at it's best before all that. 95% of people keeping ants don't have interest or as much interest in such things.

I'd say get rid of the unnecessary stuff like bees and that. But leave the companies but any company not active within 6 months should be removed. People need good places to get supplies, and this is an ant forum after all. But there's so many dead companies on here that need to be removed.

I don't agree that bees, termites and off topic are unnecessary. I do, however, agree that as few times as most businesses seem to put out updates and posts that they could actually all share one marketplace.

[ANTdrew]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

Just say'n on this.
I'd point out that a pile of stale/out of date/unused/defunct pages left lingering in a site does do harm to that site.
How many times do we turn up useless results to pages like that before the reputation of the site becomes that?

Whatever is served up commonly will be the standing reputation, and search results can get poor quick if there is a pile of defunct results left linger around in the pool to be returning.
I do believe site maintenance of removing no longer useful/used pages is an important site infrastructure effort to keep up.

Good points. I, for one, love the bee and termite sections. The only reason they are dormant right now is that we are in the dead of winter. The same is true for everything else about the forum at the moment except Californians and Australians with their desert ants.

[UtahAnts]

The lack of Australians is indeed unusual for this time of year.

[dspdrew]

 

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

Just say'n on this.

I'd point out that a pile of stale/out of date/unused/defunct pages left lingering in a site does do harm to that site.

How many times do we turn up useless results to pages like that before the reputation of the site becomes that?

 

Whatever is served up commonly will be the standing reputation, and search results can get poor quick if there is a pile of defunct results left linger around in the pool to be returning.

I do believe site maintenance of removing no longer useful/used pages is an important site infrastructure effort to keep up.

 

 

I don't remove posts unless there is a really good reason. What is being proposed is removing the subforums, not the posts. All removed subforums' posts will just be moved into the general market place subforum.

[SYUTEO]

 

 

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

Just say'n on this.
I'd point out that a pile of stale/out of date/unused/defunct pages left lingering in a site does do harm to that site.
How many times do we turn up useless results to pages like that before the reputation of the site becomes that?

Whatever is served up commonly will be the standing reputation, and search results can get poor quick if there is a pile of defunct results left linger around in the pool to be returning.
I do believe site maintenance of removing no longer useful/used pages is an important site infrastructure effort to keep up.

Good points. I, for one, love the bee and termite sections. The only reason they are dormant right now is that we are in the dead of winter. The same is true for everything else about the forum at the moment except Californians and Australians with their desert ants.

 

And also me from the tropics. And that reminds me, I'll update my journal as soon as I can.

[ANTdrew]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

Just say'n on this.
I'd point out that a pile of stale/out of date/unused/defunct pages left lingering in a site does do harm to that site.
How many times do we turn up useless results to pages like that before the reputation of the site becomes that?

Whatever is served up commonly will be the standing reputation, and search results can get poor quick if there is a pile of defunct results left linger around in the pool to be returning.
I do believe site maintenance of removing no longer useful/used pages is an important site infrastructure effort to keep up.

Good points. I, for one, love the bee and termite sections. The only reason they are dormant right now is that we are in the dead of winter. The same is true for everything else about the forum at the moment except Californians and Australians with their desert ants.

And also me from the tropics. And that reminds me, I'll update my journal as soon as I can.

Get to work!

[antsriondel]

I will try to post stuff that will contribute to the forum, not just cause irrelevant posts, that lead to unnecessary discussions. 

[T.C.]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

 

So we leave up subforums for sites that have been offline since 2018-19? 

[Serafine]

Removing subforums will do nothing to make the forum more interesting nor elevate the content.

No, it won't - but having complete subforums for companies that ceased to exist 3+ years ago gives a new user the impression that the forum is poorly curated and out of date.

And if moderation has given up/can't be bothered to curate the forum the only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that the forum is effectively dead.

[ANTdrew]

I was referring to the bee and termite subforums. Old companies should go.

[Hothkinstroy]

I've read all the comments here, and first, thank you all for being supportive and helpful on giving insight. I honestly thought people would blame it on me or other people and reprimand me. Instead, everyone was helpful and I'm glad for the insight you guys gave. Now I'd like to give my two cents on this topic.

 

 

I think its just because discord is so much better to use

First of all, If that's what you think that's fine. Second of all, it depends on the Discord server. Some servers are dead and inactive, but others like AKE and things, although toxic at times, can be quite helpful.

 

 

I sure do remember when I started the hobby and and I first logged onto formiculture. It was thrilling being able to refresh after reading anything and new posts would be up. The great thing is every single post would be insightful and educational. It was sad that when I joined I was able to enjoy the forum from around 2018 to 2020. Then the influx of new people joining who ignored rules and posted about previously debated topics made formiculture less fun. It made it boring and people started to leave. Then all the posts began to be hateful and ignorant. I still love formiculture and I adore it in every way however, I too have begun to left it behind as there is barely anything left. 
 

Now this is just my 2 cents. Also take what I say in no spiteful light, I think the hobby is simply going through a growth spurt. The hobby is going through a time where there are simply more newbies than veterans. It will just take some time for everyone to re-align to the nature of this great hobby.

 

I have not seen a post I don't agree more on. I think the hobby is going through a stage aswell, and as the veterans teach the newbies about ant keeping, things will also start to balance out. 

 

 

This forum is not dead, but it has been on a downward trajectory for the past four years. The quality of members has starkly decreased, and the old timers don’t come on and contribute anymore. The people I respected the most have disappeared. Too many journals are poor quality with no photos, punctuation, or purpose. People repeat questions or debate things pointlessly. It honestly saddens me to see where the forum is now, but I’m past lamenting something I can’t change. FC is still more active than just about any other comparable forum.

 

I also agree with this post. I've seen multiple topics being recycled over and over again and maybe in the future when you create a post, if a post is similar to it or even the same, it will not post or just redirect you to the topic or something.

[Manitobant]

I say delete antsylvania, antz for all and ant topia and leave the rest as those businesses are still active. Also potentially get rid of the Australia section as we don't have many aussies here and plus there are no other international subforums (one could argue there are more active southeast asian and european members than aussies)


Also I’d make the bees section a bees and wasps section as there are already a ton of wasp posts on there plus they are eusocial

Edited by Manitobant, January 17 2023 - 8:42 AM.

[dspdrew]

I say delete antsylvania, antz for all and ant topia and leave the rest as those businesses are still active. Also potentially get rid of the Australia section as we dont have many aussies here and plus there are no other international subforums (one could argue there are more active southeast asian and european members than aussies)


Also I’d make the bees section a bees and wasps section as there are already a ton of wasp posts on there plus they are eusocial

 

Good ideas. All done.

[NicholasP]

 

 

I made a rather aggressive post on this a while back which probably wasn't the best approach. But I've been around since 2016, which is over 6 years ago now. For the first two or three years on the forum I was extremely active. I even had chat up on my computer 24 hours a day. But like others said their is an obvious decline in quality of content and activity. It actually bothered me for a while since the forum and hobby was nostalgic to me. And within the past few months it has gotten even worse which I didn't see coming. I think the forum software is fine and even people not being as active as they where is fine.

I might get a lot of ridicule for this, but there should be a age limit to join. Stupid posts should be deleted. And the biggest thing, I would suggest removing kids under the age of 13. I know they are in here, because the content I see couldn't come from anyone older than that. If posts are of low quality they should be removed. I mean journals that are $hit, topics that are irrelevant, etc. The issue can be resolved if it was dealt with. However I think it all would take time and maybe even upset some people. If drew is like me, then time isn't something he has a lot of.


Edit: And to add, Id suggest removing all ant company websites from the face of the forum. Even mine. Remove subforums about termites and bees too. The forum was at it's best before all that. 95% of people keeping ants don't have interest or as much interest in such things.

I'd say get rid of the unnecessary stuff like bees and that. But leave the companies but any company not active within 6 months should be removed. People need good places to get supplies, and this is an ant forum after all. But there's so many dead companies on here that need to be removed.

I don't agree that bees, termites and off topic are unnecessary. I do, however, agree that as few times as most businesses seem to put out updates and posts that they could actually all share one marketplace.

 

This is Formiculture. It's geared towards ants. If it was Hymenopteraculture I'd understand but bees in an ant forum that is starting to wane wouldn't help a lot. By the way. This is just my opinion on the matter from having arrived near Formiculture's peak.

Edited by NicholasP, January 17 2023 - 9:57 PM.

[NicholasP]

Oh, one more thing. I'd recommend removing ants emporium. Garret has officially left the ant keeping community from what I've heard. His website is no longer functional either.

[T.C.]

 

I say delete antsylvania, antz for all and ant topia and leave the rest as those businesses are still active. Also potentially get rid of the Australia section as we don't have many aussies here and plus there are no other international subforums (one could argue there are more active southeast asian and european members than aussies)


Also I’d make the bees section a bees and wasps section as there are already a ton of wasp posts on there plus they are eusocial

 

Good ideas. All done.

 

 

Thank you drew. Looks considerably better already in my opinion.

Edited by T.C., January 17 2023 - 10:52 PM.