A question for Vic Smith, why do you think the fRoots message board has so few contributors and so few discussions ?

Dave H

A very interesting question. There certainly seems to be a reduction in postings on that forum, just as there has been on other Mondomix-based forums such as Sounds of the World and my impression - no data to back this up - is that other specialist message boards are suffering a decline in usage. Certainly, the BBC Folk & Acoustic recently closed down citing much reduced usage and other specialist folk music boards that I peruse seem to have fewer visitors than previously.

My opinion is that this is related to the rise and rise of the all-singing, all-dancing boards such as Bepo and particularly Facebook. In the swiftly changing world of internet sites, those where you cannot easily post videos and photos quickly seem to be a bit clunky and out-of date. It is also clear that MySpace which was in a dominant position for musicians only five years ago now have a greatly reduced number of visitors across their whole vast site and Rupert Murdoch, who thought he had a bargain when he bought it is now known to be very unhappy with his purchase. Meanwhile, Mudcat in spite of all its much-discussed problems associated with the attitude of some contributors seems to continue to thrive. The main problem with the vast multi-national sites like Facebook is that it is possible for all sorts of scams to be carried out and identity theft happens on both MySpace and Facebook as I know to my cost as the loathsome BNP has included both Tina and I as supporters on their vile cause. Despite many attempts to remove these malicious postings, I was just told that it was a matter between me and the person who posted it. The one time a lie about me appeared on Mudcat, I emailed Joe Offer and it was quickly removed.

Coming back to the fRoots Forum, it seems to me that despite the reduced level of postings, the overall feel of the board has become more serious; perhaps the more trivial, jokey comments have been transferred to Facebook. I would think that this is true in my own case.

I think that there has been a tendency for the percentage of postings on fRoots Forum to be from the known artists, activists. journalists. movers and shakers seems to have increased in recent times and it may be that this discourages entry-level posters. Certainly the figures show that the number of lurkers has increased greatly compared with the number of posters.

Thank you for your question, Dave, I found it thought provoking.