Where did all the BTers go? (Page 2)

I thought the arguments that some people had with Bryan were some of the most ridiculous posts I'd ever read here.  As you said, the guy is battle tested in triathlon and was a wealth of information.  That being said, most of the folks who were arguing with him aren't around anymore anyway, so there's that. 

I don't do facebook, twitter, snapchat, or any other social media for a variety of reasons.  This board is fine with me as it is, or with more people, or less people....whatever....I don't much care who comes or goes. There are still plenty of  folks here who are knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, even if I don't always agree with their premises with regard to training and racing....if it makes me think,  I enjoy hearing what they have to say.  The triathlon cat can be skinned in a lot of ways.

I made a request to be able to edit workout entries with a single click (rather than go through drop down menus).  Ron basically said good idea but it took 8 months to implement and I had pretty much given up on the logs by then.  

Can't remember why he left but Tom Demerly is sorely missed too.  I still get to see his cats on facebook every day though.  lol

The growth of other outlets has gotten a lot more.  There's a local Tri group on on Facebook that has exploded over the years, so most of the beginner type questions that would have normally come to a place like BT are being answered by local people who you can go hang out and train with.

Tom left because he got a new job that didn't require him to be active in the forums...he was great to have around, but his motives were definitely for himself/his work

^^^This^^^  IMO, Tom didn't always provide the best advice.  Frequently it was biased based on what he was selling at the time.

STONE HIM!!!! 

Ha!  

Here's why I think the groups hurt.  Someone posted a link to a video of them swimming asking for help.  A few people chimined in and that was it.  The OP never asked any questions regarding what was said.  I thought it was odd so I looked at the OP's profile to see if they had been back on BT and saw a recent post.  Clicked on it and they were talking about it in a mentor group.  I mention this example because I feel like it happens a lot lately.  Question asked and then one or two posts.  I realize the same question being answered over and over isn't going to draw a discussion but here's an example of a question that could've drawn a conversation for the OP.

I've been here since 2004, and things have definitely changed over the years. In the early days, I met a lot of great BTers at races and meetups. Most of the people I met back then aren't doing triathlons anymore, I keep up with some of them on Facebook or elsewhere. 

I don't do tris anymore, but I'm still here because I have over 10 years worth of logged workouts and race reports on BT, and I like to be able to have all that in one place. It's great to be able to go back a few years and see what I was doing, and unlike Training Peaks or Strava, I appreciate that the logs here allow me to log all of my workouts along with a journal of sorts. The words that go along with my training give it context when I look back, and I like having all of that.

I used to post quite a bit in the forums, but stopped about 3 or 4 years ago. There were a number of users at the time who seemed to make every thread about them, or derail it quickly into being nothing about the original post. I lost interest when that happened - it ceased to feel like a place for intelligent conversation. Most of those users aren't around anymore, but I still find myself feeling like it's not really worth the time.

I also think the site redesign (too many sub-forums, making it too difficult to inspire people) and splitting up COJ contributed a bit to the slowness of the forums, and removing some of the community feel. I also suspect that the growth of the site is somewhat to blame. When it was smaller, it was easy to know everyone from your state/city on BT and follow them, so getting together at races was a natural extension of those relationships. Now, there are so many people from each area that I think it's a bit harder to build those relationships.

But really, I see forums and blogs as somewhat old technology at this point. A lot of the forums I used to frequent are slower now. It is what it is. 

I figured she drowned. 

Well played sir, very well played !!! 

If I could add a golf clap audio to this I would

I signed up very early on, Jan 28, 2004.  I am still around but not active.  I have watched many people whom I enjoyed talking to leave.  If fact, of all the people on my friends list, only one is still an active poster and her posts are confined to a mentor group.  I miss the fun posts and the humor.  Some posters were funny at a near professional level.  I miss the sharpness of wit.

Why did people leave?  I think the answer is that it really doesn't take much to drive people away.  Saying something snarky, making a joke that someone takes personally, or even well-meaning but thoughtless statement can send someone else off never to be seen again.   Policing of the above behavior by the monitors had the same effect.  It only takes one reprimand to send some people off.  Bit by bit we lost the magic.

It is hard to remember at this point but BT existed before Twitter, Facebook, OkCupid and Snapchat.  BT was one of the early places to put pictures on the internet.  It was one of the places you could show off your personality to a wider audience than your real life acquaintances.  Now Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr have taken over the marketing of self.  Along this line, flirtation was another element that drove the early BT years.  I was out of the market but I enjoyed seeing the game played out.  Now, all that kind of activity has gone, presumably to all the sites that make social interaction their main business.   BT lost some energy with that shift internet dynamics.  

BT still serves a purpose but it does so with much less energy than at its peak.  If we wish, we can bring back that energy by putting more effort into the things that we want to exist in BT.  The main draw is the forums.  We, in effect, produce the content that we seek.  Spending a moment to compose something, thinking about the way it might be read, fixing it, then hitting the Submit button is the way we can raise the level of the forums again.  Put into BT what you want to get out.  The machine is still there to get the answers and entertainment that we value.  

TW

I think you're one of the few people around still who has a lower member number than me!

Tech_geezer's got me by two days and I've got you by four.  

Mark

You want to know what killed the BT forums.  It was this single line...that got posted OVER and OVER and OVER again...

"this is beginner triathlete..."

I don't know how it started...but the forum took on a persona that everyone needs to play nice or you will get ganged up on and told to leave.  Expert advice is okay, but you have to be extra careful in how you give expert advice to a beginner as not to be labeled an elitist...or that you belong in ST.  I'm all for being civil, but a little bit of keyboard tough guy banter is what drives forums in general.  The most popular threads in BT history have all been hot button topics where people are strongly opinionated.  But over time...the quote above became too prevalent and it was generally accepted that you couldn't put on your keyboard boxing gloves on anymore...so a lot of traffic went elsewhere.  

Is it a bad thing that the BT forums plays a lot nicer than most other forums?  Well...maybe not.  But just don't be surprised if most of your forum traffic also leaves because they seek those threads that get heated and opinionated.

This is a great point. That line is why I have pretty much stopped participating in the main forum.

like going #2 on the bike... hahahaha

I think the site redesign was ok... for computer users.  But what gets overlooked is that in the past 5 or 6 years, people shifted to mostly using mobile devices.  And, nicely put, this site's mobile format is ... lacking.

Not to say ST is much better on mobile, but their discussion traffic is condensed into about 2 forums.

I just noticed that TAN hasn't even had a post in 2 weeks.  This is serious.  o.0

Well, technically all lives are endangered - it's just a matter of when.  So keep on posting