What's happening here? (Post frequency decline)

[MarcR]

When I joined PBS last October, the lists were very active-with several entries on most days.
Since the Forum opened, traffic on the lists has declined dramatically while traffic on the forum has not increased much at all! I joined primarily because the information being exchanged was really valuable. I'm sure other users of the lists found it valuable as well. The change of format certainly does NOT decrease its value; and has great potential to enhance it.  Let's not give up the value of the information exchange because of a change of format!

[Robin Hansen]

Marc,

I've noticed the same issue with forum/list traffic and the upcoming edition of the Bulb Garden will have an article about the change encouraging people to join. I'm hoping this encourages and informs members and others about how much better it is in many ways. That is not, however, to say that I'll ignore any and all emails directed to me. I've already done some redirecting and will continue to do that.

Robin

[Martin Bohnet]

Dear Marc,

there seems to be a discrepancy between data and perception. I've plotted the number of posts to the list for years 2017-2021 against the current situation and the average for each month: old list data in blues, getting paler with age, average in black, 2022 in orange: Forum dotted line, List dashed line.



Well, the Forum numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt as I couldn't find  a way to exclude the teamtalk hidden from users, but even if I assumed 50% of forum posts as teamtalk, we'd still be at about the level of the 5 year average.

Another thing we can see from history data: the PBS profited from the pandemic, with 2020 &  2021 being far more active than the 3 years before.

[Robin Hansen]

Martin makes a good point about data vs. perception. We've all been locked away for two years and not always able even to be in our gardens due to restrictions like weather and others. I've noticed as your graph points out that there are always ups and downs depending on time of year and weather, never mind other factors. Right now I'm spending much more time outside and mostly ignoring computers... As in a very windy, not warm walk on the beach yesterday for well over an hour in fog so dense, we could barely see a couple hundred feet. But, Andy the dog and his new best bud Kora ran circles around us, chased sticks and birds and played with one another. Better than any computer. But yes, I was COLD at the end and grateful for a warm car. So today it's gloomy with rain coming and I'll focus on making an announcement with the link for the BG...

Guess I haven't mastered the behind the scenes stuff, i.e. conversations privately...

[MarcR]

Dear Marc,

there seems to be a discrepancy between data and perception. I've plotted the number of posts to the list for years 2017-2021 against the current situation and the average for each month: old list data in blues, getting paler with age, average in black, 2022 in orange: Forum dotted line, List dashed line.



Well, the Forum numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt as I couldn't find  a way to exclude the teamtalk hidden from users, but even if I assumed 50% of forum posts as teamtalk, we'd still be at about the level of the 5 year average.

Another thing we can see from history data: the PBS profited from the pandemic, with 2020 &  2021 being far more active than the 3 years before.

In my opinion, the data  affirms perception!

Considering that my perception begins with Oct 2021.  Traffic on the lists was consistently at or above 200 until April then fell off dramatically.  Traffic on the forum seems to be [exclusive of team talk] about 80% the result of 7 or 8 people making an effort to stimulate discussion.