This forum is dead

totally agree. While the insults were not always constructive, at least there was entertainment value. And, people visited the site so you would get more good responses unlike now where there is no traffic and very few responses.

Couldn't agree more.
When I first started visiting this site there would regularly be up to 20 questions a day.
I really don't understand the rationale. Surely the more people who visit the site, the more people look at - and use - the ads which is what is important for the site owners.
Now, many people see no reason to visit Q & A and thus don't look at the ads either.

I would add my own comments to this but I see you've already had your maximum of two replies.

The Original Adriano.

I did not die. I merely moved to Belgium.

The problem is that it's not a forum. It's a q&a.

Their developer needs to look at this page:

http://inspirationfeed.com/articles/blogging/top-10-forum-choices-and-al...

Hello,

we're aware that the current registration process is too top-heavy, and are working on a light/smoother version. Going back to Q&A without registration isn't on the table, though - the amount of abuse this used to generate makes the Q&A-section unmanageable.

Thanks for the input, we'll pass it to our devs.

Thomas

At a minimum, how about keeping the most active posts on the top like a real forum so that interesting discussions don't disappear behind more recent but less interesting stuff?

Unfortunately, we would be over run with people like J who abuse the site and the people using it.

We've seen free access in action and it was ugly and spilled over in to real life on the streets of Brussels with threats of violence in the Irish bars. Certain posters (one female in particular) were outed on here and in at least one case, the police became involved after threats to "watch you back".

Mind you, you would be hard pushed to feel sorry for her.

Dearie me Mike, I've been very actively participating here for way more than ten years and had no idea about such goings-on.

I do remember one clearly certifiable German lady who I think did receive some not-so-sweet feedback but she did indeed deserve it 100 %.

To solve the problem about registration, I wonder if it might be technically feasible to have two separate sections, one like this one, with compulsory registration , and the other where everyone could write whatever they want. No moderation at all, no "report abuse" button, but with clearly marked information that every user is there from their own free will, and the site owner does not take any responsibility for the contents of said section.

Violence and police involvement? Somehow, Mike, coming from you, that doesn't overly surprise me. Oh - I think you threatened me with violence once.

Tell me, Mike, if you go back so far, how come you haven't had an issue with me for years?

Why the decline? Slow march of progress.
- The Bulletin got taken over and effectively destroyed by a Flemish media group who didn't understand the English speaking ex-pat community that the magazine was targeted at
- Facebook