Kite Life Slowed Down

[JohnC]

I hate to post anything negative about a forum, but I am wondering what happened to the traffic here on KiteLife.  Looks like everything stopped about 2017.  I ask because I got into historical table top board war gaming about 5 or 6 years ago and I shocked to have one of the members there tell me that, that hobby had just about completely died at one point.  However, it is going very strong with the euro game explosion.  Has kiting done the same?

[mebeatee]

Not negative at all.....just the way it is.

I'll keep it to online stuff....as the quasi "waning" of kiting is another topic altogether, keeping in mind the culture of kiting and our "western" style of kites/kite flying is but a small portion of the kiting world....which is pretty big considering where one resides. 

The Grandaddy of all online kite forums was the old Gone With The Wind forum which ran for many many years and was a hive of activity and information...of course dropping off a bit this time of year...weather/season in our hemisphere....but would pick up when flying season started up. This also when there was lots more kiting activity/events etc. 

There were/are of course others....this fine site, fractured axle, local and manufacturers sites, etc. There is a manufactures forum that is so "dead" you'd think their kites don't exist anymore...but the kites are quite popular. Lately Blue Moon Kites has (again) started up their forum and I have "reacquainted" with some of the old GWTW folks. Some others went on Facebook and whatever other antisocial media thingies there are... Personally I don't know about that stuff and have no interest. Maybe that's a small problem right there....sorry fellow kitesters, but I ain't going on FB...for Kite's sake.... I'll stay here thanks.

Yup things change....and then there's Covid....I have a friend who, as a sponsored flier, has been a wonderful kite ambassador for many years....not this year though.

Like the Frank Zappa quote....substitute kiting for jazz....

Jazz isn't dead it just smells funny.

bt

 

 

[Zuul]

All things ebb and flow.  That’s just how things go. 

If you’d be willing to learn German, Drachenforum is still pretty active.  So is the French one. (Au fil du vent)

[jaydub200]

Chrome or extensions in Firefox and other browsers will auto translate for you.  Helps you read the forums, if not post in their native language.

[Bunduki Vlieger]

7 hours ago, Zuul said:

If you’d be willing to learn German, Drachenforum is still pretty active.  So is the French one. (Au fil du vent)

the german drachenforum.net is awesome. Many active kiters and lots of daily posts on all kinds of topics (one, two, four line, a lot of new developments and and and ...)

[frob]

On 12/6/2020 at 8:28 PM, JohnC said:

I am wondering what happened to the traffic here on KiteLife.  Looks like everything stopped about 2017.  I ask because I got into historical table top board war gaming about 5 or 6 years ago and I shocked to have one of the members there tell me that, that hobby had just about completely died at one point.

It appears the common factor is you.  So it must be your fault!  

More seriously, I agree with the ebb-and-flow thing. Many northern popular kite-flying places are taking a break for winter.

If you are talking about kiting in general across decades, there has been a decline in most outdoor activities that is easy to see over the past 40+ years. Parks, beaches, and outdoor venues that were once filled to capacity every day are often sparse or empty.  Outdoor activities of all kinds have been on the decline. 

Also consider the nature of this type of discussion board. Mostly it is beginners and intermediate skilled people asking questions until they become self-sufficient. It is easy to watch as people have progressed -- even for me -- looking at posting history. People stop asking questions and instead start answering them. This is great for the individual and the community, but it does slow down discussion boards. 

This isn't unique to kites or this forum. I'm in several forums related to my day job, and we get a flood of beginners and questions when school starts up, then it settles down. You can also watch as people transition from beginner questions to intermediate questions, then start answering questions and slowly transition to industry professionals, and eventually stop posting questions at all. Students eventually become the master or leave.

 

 

The easiest approach to re-invigorate discussion sites is to ask questions, like you did here. 

Plenty of people still visit the site, plenty of people fly every week, some nearly every day.  Rather than preaching to the choir, we wait for new folks to ask questions and then pounce.

[Andy55]

Personally I think Facebook has a fair bit to do with the reduction of traffic on various forums, in our local model boat club meeting before COVID I asked how do you find out about that meeting, and the answer was we posted it on Facebook. Not all of us do Facebook, but I think that’s where some forum traffic ends up unfortunately.

Glad for the heads up on the German and French forums, will have a look at those.

 

[JohnC]

Face Book was how I found our local board gaming club after countless hours of searching the internet and store bulletin boards.  However, I don't really use FB. 

While looking for kite patterns, I noticed that a lot of patterns are in German and French.  Suspected that kiting might be more popular there.  Will look at the German kite forum listed above.  Thanks for the tip.  Thanks for the kind replies. 

[Bunduki Vlieger]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

Will look at the German kite forum listed above. 

If you need help or have questions, you can always post in english 

[DonFibonacci]

I worked for SAP for a number of years. Now I can finally use the German I picked up for something fun.