Seems like the forum is showing less traffic/involvement these days??

[Grendel]

This forum has always been more "Dead" than the others I belong to.

170 posts a day (average)

12 new member applications a day (average)

242 online every day (average), 301 online so far today.

51000 + members

'Dead'? For a forum dealing with a pretty 'niche' firearm?

You must belong to some really active forums elsewhere.

For people interested in stats, they're available on the front page. They show that to this month (August), the forum is about 24k new posts down on the whole of 2020. 23000 to 47000.

I would posit there were a lot more people with time on their hands last year than there are this year, although forum traffic shows a 'slowdown',  year on year from 2013 (75800 new posts) to 2020 (47000).

[CZ_FANATIC]

Fair enough, but you come across as a real grump.

[Grendel]

Fair enough, but you come across as a real grump.

You have no idea.




Just ask my grandkids.

FWIW, the stats (and I) agree with the contention made that post traffic is slowing down, but it has been doing so for a number of years, and I would not be surprised to discover that many forums have seen the same trend. The age of gun enthusiasts overwhelmingly skews to the older generation and none of us is getting any younger. The younger generations are simply not as interested in guns as we were and have a lot of distractions in their lives that we did not have. They have no need to go outside and spend hours learning to shoot when they can obtain instant gratification online without having to deal with noise, weather, other people, and the maintenance of a firearm. I know this is a generalization, but anecdotally, I have seen this myself at my gun club, LGS, and so on.

We need to get more youngsters into the shooting sports, but it's a tough ask against all the online propaganda and the MSM touting the belief that 'guns are intrinsically bad, and the source of all our woes'.

I still don't agree that the forum is 'dead', if that makes me 'a grump' for disagreeing with people on this point, so be it. Life goes on.

[Earl Keese]

"The age of gun enthusiasts overwhelmingly skews to the older generation and none of us is getting any younger."
I recently joined a new(to me) shooting club. . . the orientation meeting looked like an audition for the shingles vaccine. I'm "only" 50yrs old, but if I'm being honest I didn't exactly stand out from the crowd. A large percentage of newcomers here are seemingly on the north side of 50 as well, if not older. If we're talking about matches, Steel Challenge in my area is mostly 40-60yr olds with some young kids thrown in. I shot an IDPA BUG match last month and that was mostly guys with white/gray hair as well. With a little patience, the gun control folks will win soon enough. They're just too hard headed to realize it.

[Tok36]

Tinkering with CZs makes you older and younger at the same time, so it evens out. 

Not that i can be certain about this, but it seams the older age of the average forum member here contributes to the tone and feel of this forum. I like the tone and feel of this forum.

[armoredman]

Grendel, I wanna see you WEARING that shirt...
Two big differences between this forum and the one HUGELY active forum is, 1), we are brand specific, mostly, and 2), we have rule about conduct/posting/etc., and try to keep it a family friendly board at all times. There are other places with more traffic and more trolls, and much more spam. We're more laid back/hillbilly on the front porch with th' jug and a stalk of wheat in the teeth type...

[Gunnerdad80]

I am glad this is a family friendly forum for the most part. Wow, say that three times fast. Even though sometimes I wanna cuss.

[Joe L]

I usually save my cussin' for when I'm changing targets.  Doesn't help then, either.

[GRU7_Mike]

Sometimes in a gun forum less is good.  Many times people join because of a malfunction or re occurring problem with the firearm.  Some come in after the problems is fixed and some just leave till another problem arises.  Being retired and time on my hands, I enjoy reading the post about all subjects, not only the particular brand of firearm forum I am in. I enjoy this one because although there are rules and it is for CZ firearms, the mods do not send out a hit man after you because you post about another type of gun.  Most of the disagreements are civil in nature and not an all out smack down of character.  In other words....a good forum!!!

[K-Dog]

Facebook. Easier to comment and get faster responses via discussions. That would be my guess....

[Gunnerdad80]

I'm 41 years old and I'd say 95% of the people I know in my same age group are on social media, most of them are on several. This is my only social media outlet.

[Wideload]

Facebook. Easier to comment and get faster responses via discussions. That would be my guess....

I suspect that is a major contributor.  It's also the place where you see lot of the same questions by those that do not know how to research.

[Tinker Black]

Facebook. Easier to comment and get faster responses via discussions. That would be my guess....

I suspect that is a major contributor.  It's also the place where you see lot of the same questions by those that do not know how to research.

There are a bunch of CZ owners groups on FB. I used to frequent one, and it got a lot of traffic.

[CCWLearner]

I deleted my Facebook account around a decade ago and don't ever plan on recreating it.

There's a CZFirearms subreddit on Reddit, which is sometimes okay, but it's also kind of a cesspit of trolling and misinformation, much like the rest of Reddit, although not nearly as bad as the worst of it.

This forum is by far the best information resource I have found for owning, shooting, maintaining, and modifying the CZ pistols I own.  To me it's fine if it seems a bit slow sometimes.  I'd rather a few knowledgeable people be active than a large number of people who often post wrong information or get in petty arguments over nonsense.

Yeah, the average age obviously skews older on this forum and that's also okay by me.  I don't consider myself an "old timer" but I'm turning 50 this year.

It isn't that I don't like computers, technology, online communications or whatever... I was on dial-up BBSes with 300 and 1200 bps modems when I was in my teens, have a CS degree, and have done quite a lot of tech work as an adult.  I'm not a fan of the current set of social media platforms which I see as a type of monopolistic plutocracy conspiring with the government on many common agenda items they have. 

This forum isn't really the place for some Gen Z person to come and make a one-time post "HEY I JUST GOT MY FIRST PISTOL A P10-S AND I LOVE IT" type of posts that you see on Reddit, and that's fine by me.  People come here with issues and questions, and some experienced people usually make a genuine effort to answer their questions.  I prefer that over all of the extra noise.

[rdcinhou]

I agree that the Forum is showing less traffic/involvement in the past few months.

While the myriad "new guy" posts and "welcome" responses help to build the "community" that we are, the lack of "meat" (substantial technical posts) is of some concern at the moment.

I'm sure that the reasons for the drop in apparent traffic are manifold.
Among them:

• Current events draws away attention (the attraction of "fear porn" over "gun porn")
• Gun shows being well nigh eliminated over the past year
• Scarcity of guns, ammunition at LGS's
• Gen-Xers tendency to have very short attention spans and are averse to reading
• Those who are turned off by others complaining/ranting/etc.

This Forum will survive and get through these slow times.

I too was active in the days of acoustic couplers and then modems.  I was a co-SYSOP on two boards covering specialty areas of interest at that time (computer-related).  I've seen all sorts on the BBS's in those days.

Some come for information.
Some come for social interaction.
Some come for validation.
Some come to virtue signal.
Some come to vent.
Others come to stir things up (trolls, provocateurs, sociopaths, etc.)

Good moderation is key to "keeping between the ditches" in having a quality functioning Forum.
Ours are to be commended.