It's interesting to read this thread. I've never been an FB fan or user, and my business pages weren't really used all that much - with the exception of an automatic hook-up with my twitter accounts. I'm much more of a twitter person. I actually don't have an FB profile that people can find, it's just there so I can login to my pages and do whatever I need there.

So in future I'm going to do a little experiment. I'm not doing an FB page at all, but I will have twitter. I don't know why as a business you end up feeling forced to have one account on every site, just because "that's where some of your audience might be". People are getting a bit lazy I think. If they're really your fans then they can keep up with you on whatever place you happen to be. No one is expecting us to have TV ads just because other companies do; no one is expecting mail-outs just because it's easier to send to your home than have you come visit us. Why is it different for social networking?

I know one marketeer mentioned to me that businesses are now having Pinterest pages... because that's the hot new thing. Personally I'd rather have a pin page than FB, because for puppets Pinterest makes more sense as a place to be seen.

Anyway, back to the main topic... I don't think this place has quieted down. I think like most communities there are highs and lows. Let's not forget we're into the Easter time of year and most people will be focused on getting their work done and/or getting ready for the holidays.

I've noticed that the forums haven't been as active.  Since I am mostly on youtube and now facebook.  I have found many puppet"people".  I should probably try to promote this site more.   

I think that social media is a big contributing factor. When a lot of the forums like MuppetCentral and P&S began no one really knew where to go for a lot information and people really relied on them for help. Now you can just Google it. There is so much available thanks to Pinterest, Instructables, YouTube, etc. that it's kind of mind-boggling.

I think another factor is that a lot of the people who started helpful sites almost a decade ago in their 20s like Sean & Patrick Johnson (Swazzle) or Tom Stewart (Puppeteers Unite) are now busier career-wise, married and/or have families, so they don't necessarily have as much time to devote to sites like that.

I know for me personally, after several years I had to scale my blog back from daily posts to an average of 3 per week because of work commitments. I also began noticing a few years ago that fewer and fewer people actually visiting the blog, although ironically traffic is higher than ever thanks to sharing via social media, which is a bit odd.

The same thing is happening in TV or music. There are more channels than ever, more shows than ever, and more albums of good music than ever. Even though the audience is bigger than it's ever been, it's also much, much more fragmented.

I agree with Andrew. For me it's a time issue.  We are a small company and I wear most of the hats. I'm thankful we have lots of business, but it does make it harder to post on various sites. If I could post on one site and it would update everything that would be awesome. It also seems less folks are asking questions. Not sure if they don't need help, aren't curious or there is so much info. Out there they can figure things out for themselves.

From the sales of fabrics and puppet supplies I'd say newbies and regulars are still building, maybe just not dropping by to show the progress. I have to admit most of my posts are not on our Facebook page. I do most of my online posting from my IPad and it's harder to get photos posted here, so for time sake I have to choose fast.

PS when I say it's harder to post photos..it might be an internet thing. When I open the Gallery to choose a photo it takes a long time for every photo to appear. So if I want to post more than one photo it can be a long process.

Julie

PS when I say it's harder to post photos..it might be an internet thing. When I open the Gallery to choose a photo it takes a long time for every photo to appear. So if I want to post more than one photo it can be a long process.

Yes that is something I want to work on.  I find it very irritating that if I want to post more then one picture I have to do it one at a time. 

Its been the same for me. Layoff and looming layoffs for the last couple years has me scrambling to find work. I have missed this forum its always been a nurturing place with great people.  Ive found the "tap to talk" app Shawn showed me to be great and I've been more active because of it. I think weve become so app minded. 

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I've been pretty swamped lately. I try to post when I can, but work/life just gets in the way sometimes. (Honestly, I should be working right now. D'oh)

When I do my workshops and classes, I always promote the board, but I don't know if people actually come here or not. They may be reading and not posting? I also know several people who have a negative view of forums, so that may be a factor as well.

Honestly, this is the only forum I've ever recommended because there isn't any bullying allowed, and it's generally a really constructive, helpful site. I know Shawn is a large part of that, so if I haven't said it before, thank you, for all the hard work.

Yes, thank you Shawn!

Yes, Thank you Shawn! I send everyone here as well.

Julie

I agree I send people here as iften as I can.

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