I will be honest with you all: Traffic on the Forum is down and it's been a trend for a while. The reasons are a mixed bag including other social media sites, functionality challenges, and not promoting it like we used to.
Interactivity has waned, but the Forum is far from "dead," though it may seem that way on the surface. It still generates a lot of traffic, down though it may be. But most of that traffic is from lurkers or people visiting for specific info.
In 2023, it's one of my goals to revive the Forum and get more people sharing their modeling stories, experiences, and knowledge again. FSM staff will be participate on the Forum in more than a moderating capacity. We will continue to work to rectify function challenges, and you'll see more references to "hot topics" on the Forum in newsletters.
As mentioned in another post above, FB, Twitter, and other places just don't work well for sharing modeling knowledge the Forum does. I and the FSM staff strongly believe in growing the Forum's active participation again. That's gonna take some work, but we're dedicated to seeing it happen.
Before anyone asks, I cannot promise broad overall changes to the Forum. Yes, it is creaky in spots. However, switching the FSM Forum to a new platform would require engaging a new enterprise solution for all of Kalmbach's brands, of which we are only one and cannot dictate moves of that magnitude. There are other FSM projects in the works that need to get finished before a Forum overhaul would even be contemplated. Traffic and activity up first, then further plans can be engaged.
Needless to say, the FSM Forum has a rich history, and many of you have been here from the early days. And new members continue to add to the knowledge base and discussions. We want to build on that going forward. Thanks for being here.
(Written on my phone. Typos happne.)