Is this forum slowly fading away? Especially the FS/TRADE forum?

[ghost recon88]

A lot of talk about PC and console games, but don't you realize those are only 2 sub-forums out of a much larger list?

 

[SMOGZINN]

A lot of talk about PC and console games, but don't you realize those are only 2 sub-forums out of a much larger list?

Yes, but the other forums are mostly just for telling everyone that company A is better than company B, and then flaming until everyone gets tired of it, then wait a week and repeat. Because every market is now ruled by just two competitors and everyone has to take sides. It is almost like it is a strategy.

 

[ultimatebob]

I wasn't thinking that the forum was going down hill until I posted a Kentucky Derby thread this year and only got a few nef posts.

We used to have lively discussions about betting strategies and Mint Julep recipes around here. Now... nothing

General topic forums like Reddit are killing this place.

 

[TwiceOver]

FSFT is nothing like when I started coming here. Today I can put up a post and 4 hours later when it is time to bump I'll still be on the first page.

Other forums FSFT are thriving that's for sure. HardForum I can be bumped off the first page within 20 minutes.

 

[BurnItDwn]

computers are much less volatile than they were before. They are much more stable. people can buy a $200 CPU once every 5-10 years and wont feel "behind". In the old days, people were buying $100-200 CPU every year to keep up.

Theres just not the same enthusiasm as a whole since the market is so much more matured and stable.

 

[natto fire]

Funny, I was just thinking the same thing the other day, when I noticed the oldest thread on the first page of OT was 4 days old.

PC games are dying. People play consoles now. The PC build market was dominated by gamers wanting higher fps. Now people play candy crush on their phone and CoD on their PS4. PC Games are dead.

I agree that people might not be spending as much time playing PC games, but if you would go to the gaming section of any PC forum, the largest running joke would be the backlog on Steam. LOL@ at picking up a game at Target or any B&M store. Of course the selection is bad there because, unlike Blockbuster, they see the writing on the wall and realize they can't compete with digital distribution. The head honchos at B&M chains that want to try to survive probably acknowledge GMG, Origin, GOG, and Steam are making it pointless to dedicate shelf space for PC games because the consumers have made it very clear they prefer buying games online.

I just don't see PC games being dead, but you are entitled to your opinion.

The garage has been dying off for a couple of years now. It's sad.

Now the garage I am mostly happy about, and it usually has more viewing than P&N. There are good build threads from you, fuzzydunlop, JCH, and Black2na. Yeah, ZV doesn't post as much, but Kaido has some good threads, Fleabag is gone, and Trident barely posts there anymore. I usually check out the garage before OT, as it is the main forum that keeps me around. Especially since OT has so much P&N content anyways.

 

[Geekbabe]

I remember the days when you couldn't keep a for sale thread on the first page. Now, it just sits and sits. Is the forum falling apart or is the used PC market drying up? I hope neither as I get my upgrades from here and would hate to have to pay retail.

I haven't built a desktop in a long time,,I haven't even owned a desktop in several years, laptop, tablet and smart phone are my weapons. I browse FS/FT only for those things and accessories.

 

[Geekbabe]

OP we still have some epic arguments on the Mobile Devices forum. Android vs IOS is this decade's Intel vs AMD.

Yes this! Mobile Devices forum is the place to be

 

[OverVolt]

..

 

[finglobes]

The phones do a lot of damage. I was just reading last week that most Google searches are now from phones and not PCs. People on phones don't like to read or post more than a few sentences. They even like to watch tv/movies on their phones which to me is very retarded. Phones have dumbed everything down and skewed things towards the superfical. "Google reveals more searches are made from mobile devices than PCs for the first time" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...reveals-searches-mobile-devices-PCs-time.html

 

[Skel]

Do you think that a ban list reset would bring back a lot of traffic to this forum?

Considering most of them were bitter when they left I doubt they'd come back even if asked. I would say if they somehow were able to come back it'd bring back traffic, if nothing else that was a lot of members banned.

 

[norseamd]

Considering most of them were bitter when they left I doubt they'd come back even if asked. I would say if they somehow were able to come back it'd bring back traffic, if nothing else that was a lot of members banned.

Not sure how many bans there are total but the other forum has gradually gone downhill since about 2011 or 2012 which was way earlier than even when I went there or even Anandtech. There was a graph of activity put up over there and it was a rolling decline since the high in like mid 2011 or mid 2012. Basically it goes 2 steps down and then 1 step up and then 2 steps down and then repeats year after year. From what I understand Neffers has even less activity. Not sure what ever happened to Olds forum that was made not that long ago. So overall on every forum there is a loss of total members and daily activity.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The phones do a lot of damage. I was just reading last week that most Google searches are now from phones and not PCs. People on phones don't like to read or post more than a few sentences. They even like to watch tv/movies on their phones which to me is very retarded. Phones have dumbed everything down and skewed things towards the superfical. "Google reveals more searches are made from mobile devices than PCs for the first time" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...reveals-searches-mobile-devices-PCs-time.html

It hasn't "dumbed everything down," it has liberated most of the population to enjoy the benefits of modern technology. A Windows XP desktop running as root (for app compatibility) is worse compute solution for 98% of society than a sandboxed mobile device. Something like an iPad gives a normal the power to do compute tasks by themselves without needing the geek squad to setup the printer or clean off the malware.

Plus you add in the fact that thanks to the cost of phones compute/the internet is accessible by more humans period and you see that phones are a huge benefit to the tech world.

We just want to pretend otherwise because back in the Windows days we were gods simply because we could use a computer to its max without compromising it.

 

[TheVrolok]

For many years, yea.

 

[purbeast0]

this forum has been on the decline since they split out the off topic forum into a billion "off topic sub forums" which was completely retarded and to this day think it was still a terrible idea. the best part about off topic back in the day was you could come to this place and you would find every type of thread unrelated to pc gear in this forum. now you have to go through like 10 different forums to get all of those. it's dumb.

 

[SunnyD]

The problem with FS/FT (on all forums) has become that just about everybody expects that their 3 year old used and abused pieces of shit that they're trying to hawk is still worth full retail (or more), and the buyers want everything for free or less.

No. Seriously. Explain to me why I should be paying as much for a 4 generation old CPU as a current generation CPU... retail pricing. That has likely been overclocked to hell and back under god knows what conditions? Oh, because you took the time to "bin" it? Guess what, congratz, it does 80-bajillion petahurtz on your setup under LN2, but on my setup it probably won't even post.

Okay, that was an extreme example. But still, saving $10 off retail pricing for used & abused hardware makes it not worth the hassle to deal with the intricacies of the FS/FT communities these days. God forbid anything go wrong and you have to deal with the drama of paypal claims and whatnot. Doubly true if you're trying to sell stuff, especially with paypal's newest policies.

As for the rest of the subs, yeah, the only subs I "regularly" even visit anymore is PCG, OT and L&R (the latter just for laughs). And even that's a stretch. I usually log in, search FS/FT for something I'm looking for (usually a waste of time to look through the 5 bumped threads and maybe 1 new thread a day that's here), then head off to greener pastures.

 

[CPA]

I used to be able to crack jokes about stuff I've read here. Now its just a place to practice arguing with people.

This.

Or showing how much of elitist A-hole you can be: "You do know...?" No, I don't. If I did, then I wouldn't have said what I said. Why don't you grow up and add your thoughts without coming off as a condescending jerk. I came to this forum years ago because I found a lot of helpful folks. Hard to find anymore. There are few, but the above happens way too frequently and is not helpful. One of the main reasons I post less and less here.

 

[Zeze]

I remember 13 years ago, this forum had massive traffic. You press F5 once, and your thread that was created 30 seconds ago would be bumped off of front page.

 

[videogames101]

When I joined OT would have new top threads with every F5, now it's way dead.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I haven't met anyone in RL that games on PC in a long time. Consoles are just easier for a quick gaming session.

The growth in PC gaming I have observed is the 12-18 age group. When my son started middle school/7th grade, he and his friends migrated from console to PC. Many of the games they play are not on console. Or were simply superior on PC, because of prices, mods, eye candy, etc.

The new generation has the enthusiasm and energy for PC gaming. And having grown up on consoles, they are acutely aware of the advantages it offers.

 

[Markbnj]

It hasn't "dumbed everything down," it has liberated most of the population to enjoy the benefits of modern technology. A Windows XP desktop running as root (for app compatibility) is worse compute solution for 98% of society than a sandboxed mobile device. Something like an iPad gives a normal the power to do compute tasks by themselves without needing the geek squad to setup the printer or clean off the malware.

Plus you add in the fact that thanks to the cost of phones compute/the internet is accessible by more humans period and you see that phones are a huge benefit to the tech world.

We just want to pretend otherwise because back in the Windows days we were gods simply because we could use a computer to its max without compromising it.

100% this.

 

[Humpy]

When I joined OT would have new top threads with every F5, now it's way dead.

But that quantity has been replaced with quality threads such as "How do you pee?" and "Guess how tall I am!" so it's more better now.

 

[Gillbot]

Do you think that a ban list reset would bring back a lot of traffic to this forum?

No, that would be a bandaid if it even did anything at all. Forums themselves are just dying off.

The problem with FS/FT (on all forums) has become that just about everybody expects that their 3 year old used and abused pieces of shit that they're trying to hawk is still worth full retail (or more), and the buyers want everything for free or less.

No. Seriously. Explain to me why I should be paying as much for a 4 generation old CPU as a current generation CPU... retail pricing. That has likely been overclocked to hell and back under god knows what conditions? Oh, because you took the time to "bin" it? Guess what, congratz, it does 80-bajillion petahurtz on your setup under LN2, but on my setup it probably won't even post.

Okay, that was an extreme example. But still, saving $10 off retail pricing for used & abused hardware makes it not worth the hassle to deal with the intricacies of the FS/FT communities these days. God forbid anything go wrong and you have to deal with the drama of paypal claims and whatnot. Doubly true if you're trying to sell stuff, especially with paypal's newest policies.

As for the rest of the subs, yeah, the only subs I "regularly" even visit anymore is PCG, OT and L&R (the latter just for laughs). And even that's a stretch. I usually log in, search FS/FT for something I'm looking for (usually a waste of time to look through the 5 bumped threads and maybe 1 new thread a day that's here), then head off to greener pastures.

This ^ 1000000000%

Many people came here purely for the FS/FT and the deals, they would stay for the other areas and have fun, help and provide input. Now most threads in ATOT are just garbage and most other threads are people just trolling for reactions. There are no deals, there are no good threads and people just post for "shock effect" any more.

 

[Vdubchaos]

PC hardware is mostly bunch of marketing at this point, thus the decline.

People are realizing that constant upgrading is just a dead end game.

Developers are not putting out anything new, just recycling the same old shit over and over. On top of it now they sell you 1/4 of the game, limit you to EVERYTHING and then sell you rest of the game at a premium (read: DLC).

Game progression has completely stopped. From gameplay and graphics perspective.

It almost seems like developers and hardware are in bed together, forcing people to still buy new hardware......but with 0 benefits. Just because you need it to "play latest games".

Just thinking about games and hardware gives me sour taste...entire gaming/hardware industry has become money sucking endeavor.

When I do play (which I don't very often) it's mostly old school games I always loved.

 

[OverVolt]

PC hardware is mostly bunch of marketing at this point, thus the decline.

People are realizing that constant upgrading is just a dead end game.

Developers are not putting out anything new, just recycling the same old shit over and over. On top of it now they sell you 1/4 of the game, limit you to EVERYTHING and then sell you rest of the game at a premium (read: DLC).

Game progression has completely stopped. From gameplay and graphics perspective.

It almost seems like developers and hardware are in bed together, forcing people to still buy new hardware......but with 0 benefits. Just because you need it to "play latest games".

Just thinking about games and hardware gives me sour taste...entire gaming/hardware industry has become money sucking endeavor.

When I do play (which I don't very often) it's mostly old school games I always loved.

Me too, you aren't the only one like that. I think it explains the success of free to play games. If you have to pay for more content at least the original game is free, because face it, the original game is basically worthless.

I've had zero interest in any other big releases and I'm basically just doing my own thing. The gaming community is completely fragmented. People buying the new COD or Destiny, or BF Hardline or whatever in an attempt to keep up with the Jones' are getting ripped off.

Indie games & freemium games are where its at. War Thunder has like 100k simultaneous active users, like old Starcraft days or something. And its a freemium game. I'd rather throw $5 a month at that game than $100 something on the next EA same shit as the last game but no one plays the old one because we made a new one scheme. Playing warthunder I've realized plane combat is a terribly frustrating game design though. Next freemium shooter of warthunder quality is going to be the next big thing with like 200k active in deathmatch games I reckon. It definitely won't be EA. I seriously do not buy EA games anymore out of principle. They are fleecing people down.