How come you don't post as much nowadays..

[ame]

Another 2004 alum here, though with a break in service where I did serious lurking.

 

[perry]

The biggest reason is that we used to have such wonderful discussions on many issues - and by and large most people really went out of their way to be respectful of different views - and to even defend posters who had different views. Moderators only had to ban a very select few.

Then, civility seemed to break down - and a lot of people seemed to really take sides (this seemed to really start during a presidential election campain). Moderators banned subjects (instead of banning people who could not seem to be civil - and the list of banned subjects has grown). That killed a lot of really good discussions - and in my mind noticeably dulled the other discussions after that.

I miss the old discussions; but, do not see PS ever getting back to that kind of discussions again.

I do like to follow jewelry, and consider some people here as good friends. So I do follow (and lurk a lot more than I post). Most threads these days have little interest for me.

Have a great day,

Perry

 

[TooPatient]

The biggest reason is that we used to have such wonderful discussions on many issues - and by and large most people really went out of their way to be respectful of different views - and to even defend posters who had different views. Moderators only had to ban a very select few.

Then, civility seemed to break down - and a lot of people seemed to really take sides (this seemed to really start during a presidential election campain). Moderators banned subjects (instead of banning people who could not seem to be civil - and the list of banned subjects has grown). That killed a lot of really good discussions - and in my mind noticeably dulled the other discussions after that.

I miss the old discussions; but, do not see PS ever getting back to that kind of discussions again.

I do like to follow jewelry, and consider some people here as good friends. So I do follow (and lurk a lot more than I post). Most threads these days have little interest for me.

Have a great day,

Perry

I've been thinking a lot about this thread and I think you've got a big part of it here. I don't think the moderators had much choice in how they reacted otherwise things would break down to the point where no one wanted to be here. As it is, I believe a lot of people have drifted off or are very careful not to post anything of substance. Hopefully that will change over time as emotions calm.

Right this minute it does seem like a big challenge. I find myself typing comments/replies and deleting them about half the time without ever bothering to hit submit. Even in subjects that shouldn't be emotional I find myself spending lots of time trying to word stuff just right and pre-apologize in the event I didn't get it to come out quite as intended.

 

[ecf8503]

There's a PS FB group????

A secret society...

Secret?

 

[Niel]

There's a PS FB group????

A secret society...

Secret?

right...

 

[Tuckins1]

I have a 2 year old

 

[packrat]

TooPatient, I do that too, type things and then think eeeeh nevermind and just go to something else. I do it often actually. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself, and other times I feel like I have to spend an hour trying to word everything *just exactly so* b/c someone is going to get their panties in a bunch over the most innocuous sentence or phrasing. Sometimes there is a bit of condescension on certain subjects, that b/c some people feel a certain way, nobody else could *possibly* see it any differently--when everyone's circumstances and experiences shape how they view things.

 

[packrat]

Allowing discussions of politics, religion, and race, would definitely up the traffic, big time.
It would however result in the sensitive posters leaving.

People varying really upsets many folks.
People don't like variations in others; they want others to be just like them.

If we could just accept and allow others to be different there would be peace on earth, and on Pricescope.

yes.

 

[JewelFreak]

I feel like I have to spend an hour trying to word everything *just exactly so* b/c someone is going to get their panties in a bunch over the most innocuous sentence or phrasing. Sometimes there is a bit of condescension on certain subjects, that b/c some people feel a certain way, nobody else could *possibly* see it any differently--when everyone's circumstances and experiences shape how they view things.

Exactly. There are threads I just stay out of now because instead of simply disagreeing, there are those who get personal & unpleasant -- it spoils the fun. So I just go away from that thread. It's disappointing.

On forums like CS, I don't answer posts on subjects where I don't know enough to be accurate or helpful. Or if I'm not interested, or if I really dislike something someone bought or plans -- better then not to say anything.

--- Laurie

 

[TC1987]

When I first found PS, there were a lot of urban professional types of approximately the same age as me buying upgrades and chatting in the Hangout. They gradually disappeared, and some apparently were banned, and the average age decreased to perhaps the 20-somethings and newlyweds and that's not my scene. The overall atmosphere changed with the change of ownership / administration, and also with the younger age group being so prevalent.

Also, when I first started lurking, those discussions that Wink mentioned were still happening and many of the cutters and vendors were active every day. When those "techies" quit participating, I lost interest. Overall, I feel I have less in common with PS participants now vs. back in 2003 - 2006.

Lower participation rates make the forum less interesting. Also, living so far away from the major metro areas and the LasVegas conventions means that I will never meet PS people or attend a PS gathering. I live in a small rural area that has Youngstown and Warren, Ohio as it's nearest cities, and they are ghettos. I don't exactly see hoards of people from either Erie or Pittsburgh, PA on this board, either. So, it's also less interesting to me to participate now vs. back then, because now I know that I am all alone here and that will never change, lol.

 

[Dreamer_D]

I am trying to spend less time on the internet generally. I don't peruse ebay anymore, I am only on FB to keep in touch with real-life friends who live in other cities. And I mostly lurk on PS.

I posted most often on PS when I was on my two maternity leaves and when I moved accross country between my two kids. It was a time when I lacked a lot of connections in my in-person social life and PS really saved my sanity! But now my kids are a little older and I am back to work full time and I am trying to devote more energy to connecting with people in real life rather than online. There is a lot of good to be found in online relationships, but for me there are negatives as well. Miscommunications happen a lot because of the medium of interaction. It's also easy to have inadvertent or unavoidable interactions with posters that leave me feeling bad/mad/sad/frustrated etc. (negative interactions like that are very rare for me in real life). So I developed a rule for myself about the internet: If I find myself thinking about an online interaction in a negative way -- feeling bad about something someone said, feeling hurt or mad or frustrated -- then its time to take a break from posting. So, it all added up to less time posting. I do lurk a fair bit though, and post once in a while -- still likely more than many, but a much lower post-rate for me.

Funny thing, spending less time on PS has made me less interested in diamonds. Go figure. So RT is not as interesting to me anymore either.

 

[TravelingGal]

All the people I want to speak to daily are offline for me

Booooooooooo

No FB group excuse for me either. I was super busy w/work fall/winter/spring ... and then recovering from a herniated disc & a bit depressed spring/summer. Also realized that I'm a touchy, feely person when it comes to jewelry/watches. I need to see/feel/try on the exact thing I'm buying or it probably won't work out. So custom projects, pre-owned, ebay finds -- No Go! Right now I'm bored so it's fun to sniff around & see what folks are up to ... but times I do I also notice the dire lack of "old timers" & compelling threads. **shrug**.

Nice to see some familiar faces here though!

Ha, everyone but ONE.

 

[Polished]

I am not sure I fit in here anymore.

I'm originally from England now residing in Australia. For some reason your posts have made me miss the UK Maisie. I've always enjoyed your contributions.

 

[Maisie]

I am not sure I fit in here anymore.

I'm originally from England now residing in Australia. For some reason your posts have made me miss the UK Maisie. I've always enjoyed your contributions.

Thats very nice of you to say.

 

[Karl_K]

busy
bored
tired of forums
Reading more ebooks instead of being online in what free time I do have.

 

[iheartscience]

Working on my master's (almost done, just have 1 intensive class and my thesis left! ). And at this point I'm more settled in my newish location and have lots of local friends, so I don't really need the interaction of forums. Plus I've connected with pretty much all of my non-local friends on FB, which is more fun and more private than chatting on forums.

I had fun in 2008 but I'm just too lazy to fight about politics these days. I just lack the patience to explain real life to people.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Interesting thread DF.
In terms of diamonds, and posting as a professional:
Speaking as one who had often expressed opinions different than "standard PS think" when it comes to diamonds, I find Yssie's points in another related thread about why people don't respond very salient.
The "Cheat Sheet" HCA, and AGA guides seem "safe" to use as recommendations- yet none of these are a boon to consumers IMO. They have a place, but without context, they can be misleading- and more often than not, I feel they are.
I suppose I have gotten tired of pointing this out- and also realized that it's somewhat disrespectful to others ( who designed these systems), even though that was not my intention after an initial "shock" at how these systems eliminated some of my favorite stones.
It's very difficult to disagree about such things without causing hurt feelings..
After all, the people recommending these systems are giving this advice do so with good intentions- and most people don't like to be contradicted.

In terms of the appeal of PS personally:
The rise of Facebook in general seems to lessen the general interest in forums including PS.
As to political discussions- it seems to me that it's a no win situation for Ella to have to moderate such discussions- although I do find them the most interesting parts of PS over the past few months.
I don't see a way to allow such discussion without it degenerating to personal insults- even though many people are trying to be civil- and some do so in eloquent fashion. Yet it still seems to go to heck once politics or religion are the subject under discussion.

For sure PS will continue to be a popular forum- but maybe in a different way than some of us "old timers" remember.

 

[tammy77]

I never posted all that much, but when I did they were mostly ignored so I don't really bother anymore. There are a couple of threads that I participate in over in the F&H board though. Honestly, hangout is quite cliquish and I've seen too many threads that just spiral into nastiness lately so I tend to read but not respond.

 

[aljdewey]

I almost never post anymore because for me, the tone of the community shifted tremendously in ways that didn't appeal to me.

When I first joined, there was an abundance of self-confident posters who could vigorously debate different viewpoints without taking it personally or feeling slighted that someone else's opinion differed from theirs. Some of my closest friends on this board were people with whom I initially didn't agree, and we became close through the process of talking out diverging viewpoints. While many of us may have disagreed - and hotly at times - many of those discussions led to incredible mutual respect even as we disagreed.

Fast forward a few years, and it was a whole different playground. People literally couldn't share their viewpoints or experiences without someone else getting all bent out of shape or feeling invalidated.......if Mary said she had a bad experience at XYZ vendor and John posted subsequently saying he had a favorable experience with that same vendor, Mary felt slighted or attacked as though John's experience somehow nullified hers or suggested she was merely unknowledgeable. Nonsense, but that's what it evolved into.

That begat the era of everyone tip-toeing around, and PS morphed into a single flavor overnight. You either got onto the vanilla train of popular opinion or you were castigated for not getting it. I lost count of how many people came here and were given advice that was fully unsolicited and nowhere near what they asked for. One guy sticks out in my mind for having come here to ask for a final opinion on a well-cut princess stone, and instead of getting opinions he asked for about the stone's make, he faced 4 pages of people flat out insisting that he would somehow be committing a cardinal sin if he didn't modify his choice to a round brilliant because 'they are more well cut' even though his GF said she wanted a square.

For me, PS went from a place of many flavors to one where only conformity was accepted and non-conformity/individual preferences were harshly judged. Since I"m not a party-line type of person, I found myself spending much less time here. I do lurk, and every now and then, I feel moved to post (like now), but mostly, it just feels not worth the effort.

 

[madelise]

I feel like a lot of people don't like to post on RT anymore because there's been a fluster of newbies that think they know more than anyone else does (faux experts), and start arguments over twists of words. It's frustrating. I think many people don't even care to help anymore because random newbies will come in and give their own dissenting 2 cents, and all your time spent trying to explain something goes down the drain. Why bother giving advice to people who have already made up their mind on buying sight unseen, or insists that cut doesn't matter, or that you don't wear the cert on your hand so who cares? It gets exhausting. And I've never even helped as much as our beloved long-timers. I just help in the middle of the night when I am bored and procrastinating a project. If my sporadic helping gets shut down, I can only imagine how annoyed the long-timers feel. No wonder they don't post as much anymore.

And then there are, what a few of us like to call, "Post Chasers", who start threads for any random thought that pops up on their head.

Also, for someone who writes lengthy posts because I fail at concise… I really hate long posts. I don't read them. TL;DR! LOL. I skip over anything with long entries. I prefer photos. Show me photos.

Oh! And you know what I miss? Vendor posts. Not the crap now, like when someone would blow up about some mishandling at JA, and poor Jim would have to come in and apologize because some poster decided to make public a situation that could have been handled privately. I miss when the vendors chimed in, hung out, and let us get to know them. I miss seeing the JbEG ladies post, and dare I say I even miss the debates Rhino would have about optics? I learned so much during my lurking days. ALL the sub forums used to be lively, and now all the happening is pretty much only in Hangout.

 

[monarch64]

I'm just at a different stage in life right now, one in which jewelry doesn't play a huge role. I have so many other things going on, not to mention caring for a toddler who deserves all the attention possible so that's cut into my PS time. I do read along, and if I feel compelled to post, I post.

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet, but a long time ago there was quite a surge in posting because the former site owners were offering a $1k prize if someone hit the 10k post mark. When that went away,and PS 2.0 was implemented, political discussions were banned, etc. and FB got very popular, there was a noticeable decline here.

 

[AGBF]

I never posted all that much, but when I did they were mostly ignored so I don't really bother anymore. There are a couple of threads that I participate in over in the F&H board though. Honestly, hangout is quite cliquish and I've seen too many threads that just spiral into nastiness lately so I tend to read but not respond.

I know I didn't ignore you, tammy. (Maybe I didn't post a lot to you, but you made an impression on me, I mean!) I know it because I remember your story and I remember your moving to another thread (I believe it was an adoption thread, but it may just have been about children) after discussing your own situation here. I found you very interesting. I am sorry you found us cliquish.

Hugs,
Deb

 

[Dancing Fire]

I almost never post anymore because for me, the tone of the community shifted tremendously in ways that didn't appeal to me.

When I first joined, there was an abundance of self-confident posters who could vigorously debate different viewpoints without taking it personally or feeling slighted that someone else's opinion differed from theirs. Some of my closest friends on this board were people with whom I initially didn't agree, and we became close through the process of talking out diverging viewpoints. While many of us may have disagreed - and hotly at times - many of those discussions led to incredible mutual respect even as we disagreed.

Yup, The good old days. Alj, you kicked my butt so many times that it still hurts today!....OUCH ...

 

[Laila619]

I'm just at a different stage in life right now, one in which jewelry doesn't play a huge role. I have so many other things going on, not to mention caring for a toddler who deserves all the attention possible so that's cut into my PS time. I do read along, and if I feel compelled to post, I post.

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet, but a long time ago there was quite a surge in posting because the former site owners were offering a $1k prize if someone hit the 10k post mark. When that went away,and PS 2.0 was implemented, political discussions were banned, etc. and FB got very popular, there was a noticeable decline here.

Yes, I think those things have a lot to do with it. A lot of posters didn't make the jump to PS 2.0.

 

[Maisie]

I remember being on nine thousand and something posts and getting really excited to hit 10K and the gift was stopped.

 

[AGBF]

I remember being on nine thousand and something posts and getting really excited to hit 10K and the gift was stopped.

I also remember a lot of posters whom I hardly knew and who must have been contributing one line postings flying through Pricescope and passing, "Go" as they did! I was very, very slow to amass 10,000 postings and I was in awe of how quickly (in a year or two) some of these people came through and then disappeared! I mean, they must have contributed something!!! Perhaps far more than I have in all my years of lying around talking endlessly. But I don't even remember many of them now. And I sent a lot of them cakes.

Deb

 

[SB621]

I had kind of a rough go of things a year or so ago and then I was single with a small child to care for. None of those things made me want to read about people getting engaged or buying expensive things I couldn't (and still can't afford). I'm in a better place now so I find myself lurking and posting more.

I just wanted to say stay strong. I'm not a single mom but I have 2 kids so I know they are exhausting!! I truly hope things continue to get better for you both! Welcome back!!!!

 

[Maisie]

I remember being on nine thousand and something posts and getting really excited to hit 10K and the gift was stopped.

I also remember a lot of posters whom I hardly knew and who must have been contributing one line postings flying through Pricescope and passing, "Go" as they did! I was very, very slow to amass 10,000 postings and I was in awe of how quickly (in a year or two) some of these people came through and then disappeared! I mean, they must have contributed something!!! Perhaps far more than I have in all my years of lying around talking endlessly. But I don't even remember many of them now. And I sent a lot of them cakes.

Deb

It took me a few years to reach 10k. I loved my cake. I recently found a photo of it. I was very grateful. Yum!

 

[SB621]

That cake looks so good

AGBF can we change cake rewards to 6k posts? That seems so much more tangable to me then 10k.

 

[AGBF]

That cake looks so good

AGBF can we change cake rewards to 6k posts? That seems so much more tangable to me then 10k.

Just for you, SB! When you hit 6K, e-mail me and I will send you what you need in order to choose a cake from what used to be my favorite cake vendor. It's really funny, but I hadn't ordered from him in ages and today I did.

I had received a notice of a special summer promotion from them and they have kosher cakes. I mean, all their gorgeous cakes and pastries are dairy-free now! My niece, who moved out to Los Angeles after she graduated from college, is lactose intolerant so I always buy her dairy-free cakes from a local Jewish bakery. This year I will not be with her for her August birthday (although her parents will be), so I thought it was fortuitous to get this offer from a kosher cake vendor! Her dairy-free cake is scheduled to arrive on her birthday. The owner of that bakery used to know me well and started giving me a special discount!!!

Deb/AGBF