I click on random upcoming Birthdays just to see how long some people have been inactive.
Some people post numerous times over a week or even months. And then Poof… they vanish.
Some folks just sign up, make one post and then move on…
Today I clicked on Sicko. He made one post back in May 2009. Not surprising that many people just pass through.
The ones that always seem more interesting are the ones that sound real pumped up about Yoyos. They talk about their yoyos and learning tricks and are looking for information, etc.
And then they never post again.
I just basically: smile, shake my head and like to think that they just ran into something more fun that just suited them better.
… Or maybe in some instances as a few of the guys have mentioned; some folks just move to other various media outlets and just pass on direct yoyo forums…
I find this on pretty much all forums, not just hobby forums, especially as the internet has been moving away from the forum structure altogether. I do like to go back and peruse old threads, there were a lot of passionate, knowledgeable posters that seem to have since disappeared. I hope some of them are still in the hobby in some capacity.
I had joined back in 2010 and posted for a short while and kind of vanished for a few years as well. While I still yoyo’d periodically it wasn’t until mid 2015 that I picked back up on it after needing something to do and keep my mind off of things when my dad had an emergency visit at the hospital (had congestive heart failure)…Shortly after I had my anticipated trip to Disney and had picked up a Duncan Strix at their yoyo kiosk. With having a new throw on hand, I felt like I needed to find a new trick and reboot my journey with yoyoing. I think I started posting again a couple months into my 2015 yoyo reboot when I decided to pick up Spirit Bomb.
Kind of crazy how random things can pull you back into a hobby.
I sure hope that activity on the message boards isn’t the true indicator of how much people are still throwing. I’ve posted quite a bit less since I first started in 2011. But, for me personally, I got bored of the boards, not throwing. I still throw everyday, but if it wasn’t for the BST board, I probably wouldn’t be checking out the other boards or posting much at all.
I feel like I read the forums more than I post (maybe the old saying “you have two ears and one mouth for a reason” finally stuck). I do try to throw every day, still try to learn new tricks, but, need to up my game. Today one of the teachers at yoyo school called me out (in a nice way) pointing out I have a couple of “go to” tricks that I seem to do all the time.
I know of several people that got burned out on “forum drama” but still yoyo. Many of them have commented that they are currently more involved in promoting yo-yoing in their local communities, now that they spend little to no time on the forums.
I don’t know about people that used to be on this forum but there are a TON of people that still throw and actually avoid the forum because of old forum drama. Pretty sad tbh. Most people just use the Facebook BST and Instagram
Some might point out that yo-yo sales are a greater indicator of general interest in the hobby than forum statistics.
On another note,
When well known artists (I do believe yo-yoing is an art form) post more often, I’ll hypothesize there is a surge in forum statistics. Excitement and enthusiasm is contagious in school, at work, and in our hobbies.
I used to be someone who was super active on the forums, but I don’t post nearly as much as I used to, for a variety of reasons.
Life gets busy - I have so many activities that I’m involved in as I’m nearing the end of high school that I simply don’t have as much time to peruse the forums as I used to.
There’s simply less to talk about. For a beginner, the forums contain a plethora of wonderful, useful information. But as I’ve been here a bit longer it kind of just seems like people are repeating the same old topics and not a whole lot of new things are coming to the online community. In a way, I think that the yoyo market has become a bit over-saturated - all the new designs just seem so similar and not that exciting to me. There’s only so many times one can talk about the latest yoyo release or new special string before it all just sort of blends together.
Overall, I’d much rather just yoyo, instead of talk about yoyoing.