Have BBSs passed?

[Ancalagon]

So I'm on a couple of different forums, on a variety of different subjects.

On every board it seems that the population has aged at about the same pace as I have. There are of course exceptions, but the general trend is of an aging population. Not even just talking about ages here. As a whole it seems very few 'new' people join the BBS system, they're just posters from a different board.


So is it just my circle of boards, or is this a internetwide phenomenon? What are the reasons for it?

 

[Ramen]

Of the boards that I am a member of, I have found them all to become increasingly tiresome.

The exceptions are two motorcycle boards. But that's because I'm new to them.

 

[Ancalagon]

Of the boards that I am a member of, I have found them all to become increasingly tiresome.

It's not just the content, I'm talking about the population. I used to be on a couple boards where there were young teenagers... enough that I would have to be careful about what I said. Now these people are all 18+, with no new youngsters taking their place.

The exceptions are two motorcycle boards. But that's because I'm new to them.

Just wait until you tell them you actually only have a scooter...

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

BBSs are indeed for the olds. Blogs & comments are the current generation's mode of communication. That and constant texting/Facebook status setting/Twittering.

It's funny, I have a bunch of friends who have inhabited the same internet mailing list for about a dozen years, and they don't even want to move up to a message board format. They actually prefer going through 50 emails a day in order to discuss Elvis Costello. I've been in digest mode for years and I amost never reply anymore. But if I unsubbed from it, I feel like all these people would disappear like Brigadoon.

 

[ctmelvital]

What Eggs Mayonnaise said. Not entirely sure whether the Facebook population is exactly the same as the former BBS population (seeing how I wasn't really around "back then") but the blog stuff definitely holds true. The Facebook/MySpace/generic social network stuff probably as well but most of the people on there probably would have never posted on a BBS anyway.

 

[Ancalagon]

I don't get Blogs though. Seems to be a pretty one way discussion. More like soap box.


What does it say about the younger generation that personal blogs/social networking/twitter have overtaken discussion as the main means of communication?

 

[ctmelvital]

I don't get Blogs though. Seems to be a pretty one way discussion. More like soap box.


What does it say about the younger generation that personal blogs/social networking/twitter have overtaken discussion as the main means of communication?

The main means of communication? I'd argue that's still face-to-face. And after that instant messengers and then text messages and then maybe Facebook. Blogs are a lot more geeky than Facebook and that's why I'd argue they appeal to the kind of person that would have posted on a BBS in earlier times. Most of the other youngsters would never have touched a BBS anyway.

What it says, though? I consider it good news. Young people growing up around technology, feeling natural using it. Don't see how that can be a bad thing (except for some kind of Terminator-esque mishap, that is).

 

[Miniborg]

The only reason I started to post on WF was to piss off Borgs.

If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have found it.

He only joined because back in the day, when the internet was new, a star trek fan had little other way of meeting other fans, which is what led him to trek bbs.

Facebook is sort of like a bbs, for people that you mostly (i know some people add people they've never met or talked to) know, that doesn't have one overruling aim or topic. For instance, I never would have joined a trek board. And I joined a philosophy board, but got bored there as well.

Blogs versus facebook seems to be the difference between those who want to shout first, then talk, and those who want to see whats going on, and then discuss. BBSs are somewhere in between.

Although for me, the only thing I really use facebook for now, rather than events, is a narcolepsy board, because it's the most active one I've come across so far. So yeah, my main facebook use is still almost a bbs.

Oh, and of course there's stigma to talking online. If you dont know someone, then you're a weirdo. Spending 2 hours a night on a bbs is considered weirder than spending 4 hours a night talking to rl people on msn, regardless of what conversations you're having in either.