Occasionally someone will resurrect an old thread, and if it looks interesting, I'll read through the posts. Unlike the current threads, it is usually full of names I haven't seen before, sometimes people with several hundred or even thousands of posts. So, I wondered, if they were once so active on WB, why aren't they posting anymore?
Having nothing better to do (not really), I methodically tallied info from seven pages of user accounts, 4 pages chosen at random, and 3 not, for a total of 700 (no, it didn't take hours, just some scrollin'). I found 592 who had post counts in the single digits, 80 in double digits, 20 in triple digits, and 8 in quadruple or more. For the 28 accounts with 100+ posts (surely these are the hardcore WB fans, right?), I looked to see when their latest post was:2013 - 11Calculating, I determined that a little less than 40% of the hardcore crowd have posted in the past 6 months, but more than 46% have been silent for 18 months or longer, effectively dropping out entirely.
2012 - 4
2011 - 7
2010 - 2
2009 or earlier - 4
What happened to them?
- Did they just get too busy for WB?
- Did they finish (or abort) their hike, and they don't care anymore?
- Were they bored with the same-old-same-old WB discussions?
- Did they find a better hiking forum?
- Was someone mean to them, so they went home?
- Were they mean to someone else, and got booted off the site?
- Are they dead? If so, do they haunt WB, and can they ghost-post?
What happens to us that are still here?
- Are we going to find that our interest in hiking has an expiration date?
- Are some of the people who post regularly going to abruptly stop?
- Or will they gradually fade like an old thread?