Hi everyone,
I've been mulling over this for a couple of weeks but now seems like a decent time to post it, since E+I is wrapping up shortly. Not technically relevant for this forum, but I'd rather post it here than one of the completely dead ones.
With E+I coming to an end, I am wondering what's next for Interference. I've spent not far from half of my life as a member of this board, and activity has clearly fallen a ton over that time. I think that was especially the case after 360 wrapped up. There are peaks and troughs - album releases have a lot more traffic still, and the dead time after tours have left. Some areas have more discussion than others. There's a bit here, a good bit in FYM (but with a pretty set group), and some other pockets. But other areas have basically died entirely. PLEBA is a good example.
It's not surprising that this is the case, with U2 not being as popular as they used to be, and the same being true for forums. We've been blessed with a really active album/tour cycle for the last four years, but setlists for JT30 and E+I were mostly really stagnant, which drove setlist parties to the grave. Not surprising that Interference suffered, but disappointing. This was (and still is in many ways) a cool community with interesting and smart people I've enjoyed talking to over the last eleven (!) years.
We're heading into a dead period from a U2 standpoint, and I wouldn't be surprised if that lasts until a good bit into the 2020s. That isn't the best of news for Interference, honestly. I'm wondering if there's anything that can be done to help this community stick around over what could easily be ~3 boring years in the U2 universe. It's hard to help the structural decline totally, but I imagine at least a few things could help from an administrative standpoint:
- Consolidating around forums with activity (EYKIW and its subforums; tour forum when there's a tour; FYM; and an off-topic forum, maybe with music and/or TV subforums), while archiving the rest
- Moving away from the generic-looking portal covering up this forum, which almost never gets posted to. Maybe link a blog to the forum if anyone wants to post the occasional essay but we shouldn't pretend its the main feature of the site, nor dress it up with silly SEO tricks like putting the word "U2" everywhere
- Upgrading to a modern version of vBulletin with a cleaner look
Of course, this would take action from the ownership of this board. I can't remember who has that, but I do remember it changing hands some years ago. This community can't exactly be a cash cow at the moment, and doesn't get a bunch of attention from whoever owns it. It could be worth reaching out to and engaging the ownership/leadership through whoever has connections, or, if they read this, comments would be welcome. I believe we have exactly one active moderator who might have more connections. I can imagine the world in which it could make sense to try to transition to some sort of nonprofit/community-based ownership to help the site get a bit more attention, since I highly doubt it can be operated very profitably anyway.
Setting that aside, I also wonder if there are things that the community can do too:
- More deliberate content during the off times (the many derivatives of "rate the song" were my favorite like half a decade ago, and I believe we tried something similar within the last year)
- Considerably more welcome to new people than we are used to (also known as "when anyone below the age of 35 walks into a Mainline Protestant church")
I don't know how savable this community is with the structural issues at hand, but I'd like to try. I'm curious to hear thoughts from anyone else.
Thanks, everyone.
Will
I've been mulling over this for a couple of weeks but now seems like a decent time to post it, since E+I is wrapping up shortly. Not technically relevant for this forum, but I'd rather post it here than one of the completely dead ones.
With E+I coming to an end, I am wondering what's next for Interference. I've spent not far from half of my life as a member of this board, and activity has clearly fallen a ton over that time. I think that was especially the case after 360 wrapped up. There are peaks and troughs - album releases have a lot more traffic still, and the dead time after tours have left. Some areas have more discussion than others. There's a bit here, a good bit in FYM (but with a pretty set group), and some other pockets. But other areas have basically died entirely. PLEBA is a good example.
It's not surprising that this is the case, with U2 not being as popular as they used to be, and the same being true for forums. We've been blessed with a really active album/tour cycle for the last four years, but setlists for JT30 and E+I were mostly really stagnant, which drove setlist parties to the grave. Not surprising that Interference suffered, but disappointing. This was (and still is in many ways) a cool community with interesting and smart people I've enjoyed talking to over the last eleven (!) years.
We're heading into a dead period from a U2 standpoint, and I wouldn't be surprised if that lasts until a good bit into the 2020s. That isn't the best of news for Interference, honestly. I'm wondering if there's anything that can be done to help this community stick around over what could easily be ~3 boring years in the U2 universe. It's hard to help the structural decline totally, but I imagine at least a few things could help from an administrative standpoint:
- Consolidating around forums with activity (EYKIW and its subforums; tour forum when there's a tour; FYM; and an off-topic forum, maybe with music and/or TV subforums), while archiving the rest
- Moving away from the generic-looking portal covering up this forum, which almost never gets posted to. Maybe link a blog to the forum if anyone wants to post the occasional essay but we shouldn't pretend its the main feature of the site, nor dress it up with silly SEO tricks like putting the word "U2" everywhere
- Upgrading to a modern version of vBulletin with a cleaner look
Of course, this would take action from the ownership of this board. I can't remember who has that, but I do remember it changing hands some years ago. This community can't exactly be a cash cow at the moment, and doesn't get a bunch of attention from whoever owns it. It could be worth reaching out to and engaging the ownership/leadership through whoever has connections, or, if they read this, comments would be welcome. I believe we have exactly one active moderator who might have more connections. I can imagine the world in which it could make sense to try to transition to some sort of nonprofit/community-based ownership to help the site get a bit more attention, since I highly doubt it can be operated very profitably anyway.
Setting that aside, I also wonder if there are things that the community can do too:
- More deliberate content during the off times (the many derivatives of "rate the song" were my favorite like half a decade ago, and I believe we tried something similar within the last year)
- Considerably more welcome to new people than we are used to (also known as "when anyone below the age of 35 walks into a Mainline Protestant church")
I don't know how savable this community is with the structural issues at hand, but I'd like to try. I'm curious to hear thoughts from anyone else.
Thanks, everyone.
Will