IT IS SAD

[nctarheel]

It is sad that there has been no responses to either my post or the Community Manager's post on the travel discussion board for 3 full days.

With AARP having 38,000,000 members, you would figure a few responses but alas, not a one.

AARP unilaterally removed the POLITICAL Discussion Board but at least that forum had input, albeit confrontational at times.

AARP needs to get out of the Discussion Board business altogether.

It is of no interest to their supposed 38,000,000 members as evidenced by it lack of use.

Heck, I just accessed a NEXTDOOR discussion board about a noisy plane flying overhead and it had 195 posts in two days.

Now that's what I call responsive users.

[Frozenoem]

@nctarheel 

Not so much ignoring but, have been busy

traveling where no cell phone coverage exists, without shifting from one leg to another or climbing a tree for 2 bars of signal.

Until overnights drop to 30* it’s camping weather or at least until October 31.

Wait until colder weather sets in, for people to return.Vacations end🤣

This has been the first time in a week that I’ve been able to see more than one forum.

I still miss politics even though I only occasionally posted.Reddit, Apple etc doesn’t always fill the void of conversation with fellow classic people.

And if AARP left forums what the heck would they become, just another advertising , coupon-riddled platform, heck I get enough of that for free.🤣

*My fly rod seems to be calling🤔

Froze

[MaVolta]

We used to have a lot of people posting on Rock n Roll board, but most of them have left. Maybe the name-a-song games got a little boring after a while. We went through a zillion different topics over the years when we had a more robust community.

Some of us tried to make it interesting by posting comments, or topics for discussion, but we wouldn’t get many replies. Or folks would sometimes write a brief comment and leave the conversation. It is a bit frustrating. It seems as though no one is really interested in discussing anything, though I do think there are a few readers only who won’t jump in for whatever reason. One gentleman who was new once PM’d me wondering why he couldn’t get anyone to discuss anything. He gave up and went elsewhere.

If you want to go where there are very active discussion boards sign up at Quora.com. You will find discussion groups on every topic one can imagine. People use their real names, and have serious conversations. It is also global, so input from around the world makes it very interesting. The ground rules are different and content is moderated by the creators, i.e. those who create topics and those who provide direct responses. It’s not that hard to figure out how it works.

As to why people don’t use these boards more, I don’t know. Just seems like a lack of interest. 

[Vexed]

It would be sad though to not have these boards. But you are both @nctarheel  and @Anonymous  right about lack of activity. It may be that some people are afraid that they will say the wrong thing or that no one will care. It also may be that since others don't reply to things they post, that they don't bother to say anything anymore. I also think that moderators (and users) should kudo more posts to encourage appreciation. Not all of course, but there are a lot of caring and well thought out posts that never get a kudo or a reply. There is also the point that some people don't have a thing to say/add to any discussion, but they do read them and may derive some benefit. There are a lot of people that also post things, they get replies and never answer back to any of the replies they received. 

Another thing, AARP doesn't really promote the community for participation. Those millions of members may not even know these are here. I found the community by accident and then decided to become a member. As they say, it takes a community (I know, bad pun) and we as members, moderators and AARP can do a little more to help and connect. That is my 4 cents (inflation ya know).

[nctarheel]

Well @Vexed, I respectfully disagree with your assessment.

The personal items that you blame such as "people are afraid that they will say the wrong thing" or "no one will care" don't exist as evidenced by other boards where discussion is vigorous.

The value of kudos from Moderators and users is minimal at best. A kudo is like a "LIKE" and if no one is responding in the first place, then there will be few "LIKES".

It just seems that the list of excuses you have listed for the lack of use of these discussion boards just DON'T EXIST elsewhere.

The problem lies with AARP.