Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainHowdy
708 views is pretty good  . . . people are mostly in the shadows around here. |
Fair point, 708 views is solid engagement by 2026 standards, and lurkers have always outnumbered posters.
But you're right that the scale has changed dramatically. Twenty years ago, a new AVN thread wouldn't last an hour on page one. The forums were absolutely flooded with posts, trip reports, and real-time updates because this was THE central communication hub for the industry. If you weren't actively participating in GFY discussions, you were missing critical information and connections.
Now the engagement is more fragmented; people consume content in the shadows like you said, but the conversations that matter happen in private Discord servers, Telegram groups, and direct DMs.
GFY serves a different purpose than it used to.
I think the lurker-to-poster ratio has always been high, but the overall volume of active participants has definitely shrunk. Not because people care less about the industry, but because the industry itself has decentralized. There's no single watering hole anymore, there are dozens of smaller, more specialized communities where the real business discussions happen.
Still, I appreciate anyone taking the time to read these posts. If even a handful of people get value from the observations or make a connection based on something I shared, that's a win in the current landscape.