I've been surfing for the past few days and it feels like every comment I've made is the last one made and every post I make has no replies. There doesn't even really seem to be conversation going on, just a "_____ the _____ above" posts. I want to be more active socially but the forums just... don't seem like the way to do it? I'm struggling to even get the 100 comments for the Blue Building. What gives?

I think part of the reason right now is that it is between two holidays. A lot of people are spending this time with their families. Not that the forums have been super active these days. I just think that may be why they are even quieter this month. A lot of the people who are on are just hanging around the Event forum. Have you tried finding a chat group in Small Talk?

I know I take less time to chat during December, and I often take a break from the site in January after all the effort to log on every day of the month for Melody’s Cottage. It’s a slow time of year for a forum that is unhurried at the best of times. :’(

Nah, they've been dying for years. I'unno if people have just migrated to their own forum groups, or gone offsite altogether, but it's definitely gotten quieter around here.

Two holidays and the forums were weird for a couple days with bugs.

The forums have been dead ever since they got revamped a few years ago or whenever it was. I don't know if tons users left or what exactly happened following that. It sucks and makes the site feel very lonely.

It doesn't help when topics don't load a lot of the time. I've been waiting 20 minutes for this one to load.

I feel like a lot of discussion migrates off site because of how laggy forums are.

For just a little while, they had a messenger in game, a Subeta Instant Messenger. That was pretty awesome, i wish that hadn't been scrapped, or vanished or whatever it was as I used the heck out of that. .....and yeah, the forums lately have been laggy, you can't search them or load them, it gets to be obnoxious. ....I know I hang with Subbie friends outside of Subeta so i can, you know, actually chat effectively.

Yeah tbh, I lurk a lot on my phone and the lag is a lot worse on mobile. many threads just DON'T load...lol so I don't bother.

I didn't consider that because I get so bored over the holidays as I do no travelling and keep celebration to my immediate family pfbbbt

I guess I've been insanely lucky because I haven't had to deal with lag too much, so I didn't realize people were having issues that were that bad. That sucks though, and having so many different areas within the forums probably doesn't help with lag or with the feeling of community :/

I feel like that's kind of what the shoutbox is, but it's a lot less personable and you don't really get to choose the people you talk to. If they brought the IM back it probably wouldn't help the lag though lol.

I just came back to the site after a hiatus of 6 years and it feels really lonely tbh (also all my friends left), didn't know this was really getting a thing... such a bummer!

The forums are definitely quiet. I think people are choosing to chat elsewhere, either in private groups or offsite.

Personally I lurk mostly around the questions and suggestions forums. My chatting/conversation posts are nearly all within private group forums.

I miss the Debate forum. I can't remember why it was scrapped.

Ever since forum groups came along, I feel like most conversations have moved in there. The main forums are definitely much more quiet than they used to be and it's only been getting worse :(

This site isn't as active as it used to be, and it ain't gonna get better

Because it was turning into a volatile part of the site and was decided that it didn't fit with the new community guidelines.

Thanks for the information.

The downside, though, is that people who want to discuss politics etc have to go to other sites.

Part of me wants to say that the community guidelines are partially at fault for killing the forums, but they've been dying for years. That, and the rules page that hasn't been updated even though new rules were put in place. There's still no single, clear place for all the rules being listed. 😒

I'm more comfortable talking offsite than onsite, but I do lurk occasionally. Probably doesn't help that the forums are buggy af right now. Buthey, a new wardrobe is supposedly in the works?

I think another reason might be that the forum rules are outdated. 'No posting in threads older than 3 months' might have made sense back when the forums were booming, but now there can be 3 month old threads still on the front page of a forum. Imo there's no reason that we shouldn't be able to post in those.