A lot of guests on the forum,

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by W921

Lot quit because their posts were disappearing or mods where basically censoring a lot.
I see a lot of well known and liked members were banned and whatever the reason was I dont know because its not like I can message them and find out.
Its hard to see the site on a smart phone. I use I big computer with big screen to come on this forum.
Another thing is hunter numbers I'm sure are getting lower. I dont care what experts say but there are less and less Alberta hunters every year. Expense,gun laws,regulations,lack of gun ranges and lack of places to hunt.
Im not sure but are there other rural forums in Alberta?

I know a lot of hunters and unless I met them through AO or through an AO member 99% are not on this forum. They all prefer to use facebook or instagram. I only broke down and got Facebook last fall for other purposes and yeah there is way more activity on facebook pages

It’s not a lack of hunters or interest in hunting

The fact is it is harder to share pics on AO for starters. Lack of outdoors related content leads to less content posted. Trolls that never offer any outdoor related content are another. Yup some were banned too.

A portion of my buddies have checked out AO but have no interest posting here

The forum isn’t declining do to lack of interest in hunting/fishing it’s just not attracting hunters/fishermen to post

[jstubbs]

Web forums as a whole have been dying off en masse for well over a decade now. Coincides very closely with the rise of social media. Facebook groups especially have taken a big bite out of the web forum world where people can discuss all ranges of their niche interests.

At the end of the day, attention is valuable, you and I only have so much free time in a day for leisure activities like web browsing, and these social media companies spend literal billions every year trying to figure out how to keep you focused on their product and not anyone else’s. It’s like asking why is cable TV slowly dying out.

[Pathfinder76]

Originally Posted by sns2

Exactly, so why would there all of a sudden be 5x more eyes on the forum. The forum has really become a general discussion / politics venting chamber.

Guns and hunting can go for hours without a post.

It's bots.

It’s a shame really. Most of the gun/hunting guys have been given the boot it seems.