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Over the past week there have been 276 reactions, 219 posts and 22 new threads created. Looks like you created 3 threads and 31 posts Kev.

I think we all know that you are one of the most active members here, so I can understand your frustration with the pace of things right now.

There is no disputing that the figures are down compared to this time last year. Google hit the site in September and again in March, but it was the March core update which hit the traffic and new user registrations to the forum the hardest.

Here’s a look at the new registrations over the past 12 months.

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They literally fell off the cliff when the March Google core update was released. This in turn has impacted new threads, posts and interactions heavily.

There was another update last month that seems to have favoured the site again a little more, but traffic is still far from where it used to be.

Even some of the main news sites (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen writing articles on Google updates before), decided to write about this one: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-how-googles-new-algorithm-will-shape-your-internet

The lack of interaction here has nothing to do with why the rankings are down, and besides 80 percent of forum sign-ups here come from all of the links I have over on the blog. Only 10 percent are coming from forum related search terms such as: Sony Camera Forum, Sony Alpha Forum, Sony A7III Forum etc..

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We did used to rank first for all of the camera + forum terms, until we consolidated the forums. But I was expecting that drop as a result, and we are still usually in the top 5 for the new consolidated forums, and most people looking for forums will take a look at the first few results anyway.

Currently we rank 6th in Google in the US and 3rd in the UK for Sony Alpha Forum. Although results will vary between mobile, desktop and also different regions. Having personalised results turned on (normally default) can also deliver different results.

SonyAlphaForum ranks first when I check Google US and UK. But if Google ranked forums purely based on their level of engagement, then I’m not sure why that forum sits at the top (well, I do know but I won’t bore you with the technical details).

They have 4x the number of members that we have here (apparently), yet looking at the few posts a lot less engagement than here. Probably because of all the spam ad posts linking to Amazon from the admin there.

But it’s not only Google's manipulation of the search results for their financial benefit that is impacting activity here. There are many existing members who have been quieter recently as well.

Everyone has their own reasons, and personally I don’t mind in the slightest if people want to take a break from the forum.

Almost two years ago I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Whilst I was waiting for my scan results to see how far it had spread (three very long weeks), all I could think about was that there was a very real possibility that I wouldn’t be around to see and support my boys growing up. I reflected a lot on life during those weeks and never once did I wish that I’d spent more time on internet forums.

Thankfully it was just stage one, and had not spread any further. I was very fortunate and also avoided chemo, just 5 years of close observation.

I decided from that point on that I’d be spending a lot more time with my family making memories than I would on the Internet, especially as my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer around the same time, despite never smoking in her life.

That said, forums are unfortunately falling out of favour, especially with the younger generations.

We lost POTN last year and even DPReview came very close to shutting down. Other forum admins sold out because they were struggling to pay the bills or they’d simply had enough of forum management.

So you are probably right Kev. At some point this forum will most likely die, but it won’t be in 2024 unless WW3 breaks out.