Forums Last Highly Active

[elim9]

I was looking at the last time these forums were really active and it said Feb (or July) of '08, does anyone know why? Was there a time when it had lots of guests and members, do you have a favorite year on this site? Like when you got the most support, were most active, etc.

I dunno if this needs to be moved or not..

[Isoverity]

Hummmm well lots of things happened around 2008. Facebook became huge that year. It grew 35% from 2007 and overtook MySpace as #1 social site. MySpace itself took away some buzz from forums. When I joined RYL there were no MySpaces or Facebooks - just things like "Hot or Not" and 4chan. Forums were very social with lots of MSN IM, chat etc.

There were also a lot of people who joined RYL young (12, 13,14) and passed through RYL over the years like a mouse going down throat of a snake. A big documentary on UK television in 2005/6 helped drive membership high. 2008 was a year when a lot of them went off to uni and pretty much drifted off. A lot of them graduated this year.

2007-8 was also the time when RYLs male membership pretty much evaporated compared to what it was. Combined with the male webmaster taking leave, and the ED forum taking over others, RYL became a girl site pretty much.

My fav time was around 2003-7. Just after 2000 computers started becoming cheaper and broadband was catching on. Masses of people were moving on to the internet as never before. Forums were exploding all over and much was new. People who didn't grow up with computers were hitting the web like soldiers taking a beach. Then the big social sites came around. People got used to the web and now its on their phone - where they have become text monkeys.

RYL was riding the crest of the wave for awhile. It was on television, in papers and on BBC/Sky radio. It made for an interesting adventure for awhile. Alas most forums that take off have a shelf life and soon level off. Even Facebook is now falling from favor - as did MySpace which was wildly popular at one point (that's when parents and politicians started getting in the act of controlling things). Now Google+ and Path are the new next best things but I cant get excited about mobile internet just yet.

[Buttons.]

I thought 2005-2007/8 were good years personally.

[Snow White.]

All the years, I have many fond memories from young emo Aimee, to forum mod Aimee, and now moderately normal Aimee. I don't know what years they coincide with. But certainly 2004-5 were nice, I was new here and meeting people, sneaking on the internet (after having rolled the long phone cord out down the hallway). It was a nice place to come to, a novelty, nobody knew and it was my secret hangout. Now its become part of my life so its not as novel, but certainly still quite special :)

And I can't add more to what Jack has said, I don't know why it was so busy.
Was it maybe when we moved to v3?

[Leo Pard]

It was awesome back in 2008 ish. When all of the old crowd were around.