Showing my CoasterBuzz Pride

I thought this was the best place to post this...

I've noticed over the years that there is significantly less activity here on CoasterBuzz, and that makes me sad. Of course, I blame Facebook groups and other social media for taking attention away from discussing things here.

I have found that personally, CoasterBuzz has me spoiled. Some of those groups are filled with morons, for lack of a better word. Their posts and comments lack the classiness and discipline that people who post here have.

I am extremely thankful for this community showing me how to communicate effectively and respectfully over all these years. CoasterBuzz forced me, early on, to follow certain rules when it comes to having a discussing that everyone can find interesting and engaging.

So this is not a suggestion. It is a compliment. Thank you, Jeff and everyone here. I just wanted to show my CoasterBuzz pride.

I want to implore anyone reading this... Please post about coasters and parks here more often, and post on other social media less.

Thanks, Travis. Traffic has been relatively flat the last few years, but the number of people who post has certainly declined. And yes, it's likely because they've moved to platforms. But when Facebook goes the way of MySpace, and I think that will happen eventually, we'll still be here, regrettably admitting that the Gonch Business Model was correct.

The thing that bothers me the most since 2000 is that no one builds their own sites anymore. I started this one as a gateway to all of those, hundreds of sites made by college students and nerds of all ages. Any idiot can make a Facebook page, but they don't really own it, and they certainly can't derive revenue from it.

Yes. In spite of our disagreements, this is definitely the place I learned how to have a civil and productive discussion on the internet. People on here have changed my mind about a lot of things, not the least of which was my take on the pandemic and I am better for both the outcome and learning how to get there.

This is one of two sites I visit almost every day. The other is office.com. Coasterbuzz is more interesting. I wonder if the decline in posting has anything to do with us aging and visiting theme parks less.

office.com still exists?

ETA: oh. It's the MS Office site now. Back in ancient times, office.com was a kind of portal for business-y sites, that my spouse took money from. (It was mostly a way to transfer money from venture capitalists to coders, I think.)

I had no idea that office.com was ever a site not associated with Microsoft. That's pretty funny how antiquated the old office.com looks.

This calls for a group High 5!

I have learned much here over the years.

I have never met most of you (or those who have come before) in person, but I have come to value your opinions and insight. Even (and especially) when they differ from mine.

Thank you for this site and for those who post here.

Quality > Quantity.

Thanks Travis for taking the time to start this thread. I've been thinking about that as well this week. As I wrote back in the State of the CoasterBuzz 2018 thread:

What I value most here, and others have said it, but maybe I will say it somewhat differently, is the breadth of conversation in the forums. There are not that many places in my life - on the internet or otherwise - where I regularly engage with people with different political/economic/cultural views from my own - even if engagement is just reading. ... Nearly every week on Coasterbuzz I am reading a different political perspective from my own, usually thoughtfully expressed, and whether I agree or not, or whether my thinking is shifted or not, I am reminded that there are intelligent and caring people who disagree with me. This is a cross-section of people brought together by a slightly offbeat hobby, or at least an offbeat level of interest in it, and kept together, I would say, by a moderator who (usually) gently steers things in a civil direction. That is no small achievement, and that is what keeps me coming back.

Nice recall on the 2018 thread, I’d forgotten about that one. Here’s an excerpt from my post there:

I stay because I dig the community here. I've been a club member every year since 2002 and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Whatever changes occur, I'll likely keep coming back as long as the core group remains.

Nothing’s changed…except that Gonch hasn’t been as active lately. He’s too busy going to concerts and pro wrestling events.

I think Vater just cracked the code as to why there is less CoasterBuzz activity lately. Gonch is missing.

I don't know if I am kidding or not.

I'm ok with the "Gonch Model" for these forums. Less is more. If you added too many voices, the quality of the conversation could very easily drop. If you go back and read the threads from the early 2000s there are waaaay more participants, but the substance was nowhere near what it is now.

If I want inane chatter I’ll head to the site run by that annoying coaster video guy. That doesn’t happen often.

If you add more participants, the quality of the conversation drops - see also: Reddit.

Seriously, I'm convinced that site is mainly bots by this point, because it's just a mess of the same, repeated posts and positions. It's a hive mind and any differing opinions are banned immediately. I still read and sometimes participate in niche subreddits, but the defaults are hot garbage.

CoasterBuzz... Predicting its demise since 2000!

I appreciate how much my (screen) name came up.

Truth is, I just don't have much to say on the subject anymore. I still stop by multiple times a day, read all the posts (or skim at the very least), but in the very spirit of this thread, just don't have much of value to add.

The community (and to a lesser degree for me, the off-topic stuff) is the draw at this point as my family's interest in parks is a fraction of a fraction of what it once was. I still read all of these posts because I'm interested in you guys. That's why most of you are social media friends and connections too. (and if you're not, you know...)

No real point beyond, "Me too!"

Which is ironic because in my State Of The 'Buzz 2018 reply, I specifically make the claim that this isn't a "me too" site. But yeah, all of that reply still applies here.

I've been here for 21 years, mostly lurking. Y'all usually have already said what I would say, more succinctly, so I don't add much. I took a trip through several of the reddit coaster groups and noped right out. There's no place like Coasterbuzz...

I happened to read something this morning about Twitter and its business model, and how it's fundamentally built around as much "engagement" as possible since user make all of the "content." Naturally this devolves into the worst of anonymous humanity, with only a little valuable stuff. Facebook has a similar problem. I don't think that volume is the issue, per se, as much as a willingness to acknowledge that some people just aren't a good fit for a certain community. When you identify those people, you don't taunt them and bully them, you just get rid of them and move on. You know, the thing we've done for 22 years. Having a code of conduct matters.

Jeff:

The thing that bothers me the most since 2000 is that no one builds their own sites anymore.

What bothers me even more is that people don't want to read.

For two decades I've been writing about my theme park days – using occasional pictures, but more text than imagery.

A typical trip report on Reddit gets 15-20 upvotes, while the fifth nearly identical picture of Millennium Force in a week gets more than 300. I don't want to vlog – I want to write.

I hear another millennial spout "TLDR" I'm going to have to get them off my lawn.

I guess I'm getting old.

Well, I was going to give you a +1, but I see you didn't include a photo of Millennium Force - so I guess I'm not going to.