AWF Slowing Down

[Deleted Bruce 182381]

For some time I have seen the same handful of members posting in AWF. What ideas do you have for increasing membership and participation?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

When the UA site folded due to criminal charges against its owner, we got a few new members who crossed over (and welcome to them all!) The problem with increasing membership and participation is clearly seen in the questions we get about how to web-enable Access when it doesn't adapt extremely well to web activity. Or questions about when Access is going away.

Access was NEVER designed as a web tool. They tried to retrofit it with ADP extensions but those turned out to not work very well. We have Office help, not just Access help here - but this decline probably reflects the slow decline of Office popularity vs. more modern tools. A lot of the members who post most frequently (see "Members" dropdown to see who is still posting) are up in years. I'll be 78 at my next birthday and have been retired for 10 years now. I can feel myself slowing down and I've seen comments among other members with that same idea. Now, if MS were to do something to revitalize Office in general and Access in particular, I expect our traffic levels would go up.

KitaYama showed us an article about how the great Google Brain has stop showing the top 100 hits according to their algorithm, and now only shows the top 10. If we are #11, we lose out on searches. That is because Google is flexing its corporate muscles. To the detriment of everyone else who relies on web hits.

 

[CJ_London]

At this point in time, according to the site stats, there are 900 viewers looking at the site. Of these, 12 are registered members, the rest are ‘visitors’. Of these there are many robots, including Google.

 

[Edgar_]

For some time I have seen the same handful of members posting in AWF. What ideas do you have for increasing membership and participation?

1. Hosting competitions regularly
2. Rotating mods regularly
3. Welcoming new technologies
4. Community projects

Things like 1 and 3 or 1 and 4 could be combined. These don't even require the site owner to be involved, but that would make things easier.

 

[GPGeorge]

I cast a suspicious eye on Chatty and Claude and their LLM siblings.

 

[AccessBlaster]

What's the evidence of a AWF slow down?

 

[CJ_London]

What makes sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, and X achieve high volume traffic?

Those are networking/social sites, not a technical forum. You need to compare with other technical forums. Perhaps stackoverflow?

Agree the comments that AI is starting to attract users over technical forums - but where does AI get its information (aside from online manuals). The way AI is used for technical stuff is basically a more focused search engine

If technical forums cease to exist the AI knowledge base will atrophy

 

[NauticalGent]

If technical forums cease to exist the AI knowledge base will atrophy

 

[AccessBlaster]

It's obvious the same small peanut gallery are the only ones regularly posting.

So views and visits don't count?

 

[CJ_London]

We have plenty rhetoric debate going on in forums like Watercooler.

And how many members is that? Perhaps 20? How many (currently) active threads? 4 or 5?. And most of the threads are about US politics. Not about what your dog got up to last night.

Depends on what you want the site to be about - I think the URL says it all

There are other forums here for things like sql server, web - perhaps that should be split out into html, python, css etc - I perceive there is an interest in making more use of the edge control to display data.

A simple statistic - there is the introduce yourself forum. Since 2010 there have been 10500 introductions - around 700/year, 2 a day. And not every new user introduces themselves. I don’t have the breakdown to see if that represents an increase or decrease over time. And I don’t see any stats on uses closing their membership. I do know that as a moderator I accept one or more new members most days - and reject 2 or more most days as potential spammers. And I’m not the only moderator so the numbers are likely to be higher.

Those stats don’t match up to LinkedIn etc of course - there are many more people looking to expand their network than seeking technical advice.

 

[CJ_London]

You should be able to see for yourself

Access World Forums

Microsoft Access discussion forum

www.access-programmers.co.uk

 

[Edgar_]

@BlueSpruce
Do you wanna turn this Access forum into something else? perhaps an AI "enhanced" forum? for what purpose?

 

[CJ_London]

Views are not a reliable metric,

I see number of threads and posts, not views

 

[CJ_London]

so become a jack of all trades and master of none?

 

[CJ_London]

What other non Access forums and social sites do you frequent. What sports and hobbies are we into? What's trending in the world?

I go to sites that have that in depth knowledge of the subject with members who have strong and relevant experience. Most of the time I'm looking for expertise rather than opinions. If I have a watch to be repaired, I take it to a watchmaker, not the local supermarket.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Me:
would you say this is a healthy site or in decline? https://www.access-programmers.co.uk/

ChatGPT:

 

[AccessBlaster]

Do you truly believe that?

Yes

 

[GPGeorge]

I'm not saying to totally do away with Access, I'm saying to rebrand this site to offer and promote more diverse forums, e.g. healthcare, accounting, stocks, cryptocurrency, movie trivia, games (bridge, chess, hearts), topics that are trending. We don't have strictly stay within the IT realm.

Like, oh, say, Google.com and ChatGPT?

 

[CJ_London]

How many other Access forums have we seen bite the dust?

I can think of one, and that had nothing to do with the popularity (or otherwise) of Access. How many do you know?

Most of your posts are on the water cooler, very few on technical issues. So suspect you need a different forum. But at least here you can be a big fish in a small pond. Yes the number of technical questions have reduced since the emergence of AI but I fail to see how introducing subjects on healthcare, accounting etc helps the main purpose of the forum. I don't believe Jon is in it for the money

If you are bothered by the adverts, become a private supporter.

 

[GPGeorge]

Whatever accomplishes the goal. I just feel that if AWF stays "as is" it's not going to grow. How many other Access forums have we seen bite the dust?

Sorry, sometimes I can be too subtle.

I was implying that the market for broad searches is pretty well saturated by the big players in search, e.g. Google, and by the AI LLMs, e.g. ChatGPT.

A site like this one trying to transition into a "Me Too" site is not a guarantee of relevance.

With regard to "being in it for the money", I don't believe there's ever been any significant profit in most technically oriented forums. On the other hand, people who do sponsor them have expenses to cover, so if they can recoup some part of those expenses, I say more power to them. If people like Jon can also earn a little coffee and bagel money in the process, all the better.