The Question of the Day is a way to facilitate community discussion to help members ponder the unanswered questions of the world that are somehow relating to the hobby. Questions are many times open ended and up to interpretation. Feel free to post your thoughts in as much or as little detail as you’d like.
Helpful Considerations may or may not help some people focus their answer, these are blurred to not bother those who have their own ideas.
Today’s Question: QotD: Why did you stop posting to the fourum?
Helpful Considerations: Privacy? Ya’ll are insufferable? Im at odds with fourum sensibilities? I cant be bothered to keep up with the daily drama? Discord is the way?
I’m going to take this as a hypothetical case.
If I were to stop posting, it would likely be because I decided that the hobby just isn’t for me anymore: while I genuinely like the people here, there’s the possibility that I’d prefer “moving on” entirely from Pokemon cards, since any interaction would inevitably remind me of them.
Sometimes you might have to prioritize your mental health, or life in general gets in the way, but in that case hopefully it’s just a temporary pause.
Expected replies: People who already stopped posting to the forum need to post a reply in the forum about the reason which makes them again start posting in the forum …
I’ll add my two cents. My activity has absolutely diminished greatly over the years. One big reason is I simply don’t really buy Pokemon-related items any longer. I still love Pokemon, but the engagement with it at large just seems…different from how it was even 5 years ago and I’m not feeling it. The feel that I get from the hobby as a whole isn’t the same and E4 is more of a nostalgia time capsule for me than an active hobby site. I’m becoming more and more of a lurker. I doubt I’ll ever fully leave just because there are so many amazing people here whom I value so much. But in terms of engagement with the hobby….that’s just another thing entirely that has its own weird roller coaster of motivation cycles, if that makes sense.
I think there are some who have chosen to take a step back from posting, albeit not necssarily altogether. I think people have become more selective about how they engage with the hobby as well.
I’m quite a private person in my personal life, and I have personally never felt inclined to share collection updates or acquisitions. That’s something I’ve remained fairly consistent with. With that being said, I do enjoy the discussions and passion people have for the hobby. I do think there are some inherent issues that come with frequently showcasing your collection or acquisitions, however.
I have found that over the years, between bouts of negativity and unsettling price hikes, I’ve removed myself at points to focus on other things. Sometimes personal things pop up and they take precedence. Because of this, I’ve had various breaks since 2016, but I always return at some stage. I’m sure this will continue on into the future and another break will happen inevitably. It’s always nice seeing new faces when I return though:)
Discord, simply. I recently have been attempting to be more active on the forum as well but my attention span can only be consumed by one Pokemon social media space or another. I was fairly active here before I joined the discord and then it didn’t really feel necessary to post and chat in both spaces to (at least some) of the same people overlapping. And before that, it was reddit
I can’t really explain it, I’ll talk about Pokemon cards all day every day (and have, at least on e4, for the last 8 years) but I don’t feel the need to do so on a dozen different platforms. Likewise I think I just better enjoy the casual conversational nature of discord over a forum. (Y’all are too young to remember BeSeen browser chatrooms, but IRC and ICQ may still be a thing)
There’s no stopping until I complete them kanto badges!
But it comes and goes in waves. Sometimes, I feel I have things to say so I post. Other times, I feel like I would not add much value so I just read. Most of the topics I like are around memories, collections and the “what’s your favoutire…” questions, as shallow as that might sound. It lets me go back in time without thinking much about the crazy things happening in pokémon these days.
I got out of Pokémon entirely. It was tough to stay in the community and not collect. Over time life got in the way and I never got back into collecting. Now recently bought my first card in almost two years. I do agree though. Things feel different now
I check the fourums daily but feel like I dont have a ton of input on a subject so I rarely post. I need to get more active since I love it around here.
I think gatekeeping is the reason most new forum users struggle.
And for users who already have a certain amount of activity, I think the main reason they stop posting is when they don’t get support for their posts. If they don’t generate interest, it’s probably because nobody wants to read them and it’s not worth spending time on forum.
See, the problem here is that it has always been like this.
I got back into the hobby in early 2017 when I was making $750 a month. Pretty much everything was unobtainable for me, but I still managed to find enjoyment because there were absolutely things I could buy. And never once did I complain about it. Plenty of others were in the same boat back then.
That’s what many of the veterans on E4 have a problem with. It’s not a lack of understanding, because we’ve literally all been there. Go listen to @smpratte’s stories in some of his older YouTube videos. You think he was just born with the ability to land trophy cards?
It’s the constant complaining that annoys people (and this is really more of a thing in other arenas; you don’t see it a ton on E4). It comes across as entitlement. It’s not like we are talking about food or water here. It’s cardboard, at the end of the day. It’s a niche good, and you don’t have to have it to survive.
I also think a big part of it is that many of the people who have been in the hobby longer are naturally a bit older, so they have more money to spend. Many of the people just entering the landscape are a bit younger and haven’t really fully carved out careers yet, so their pockets aren’t quite as deep. So there is obviously going to be some disconnect there.
Every single one of us has had moments in the hobby where cards/items were unattainable, and we still do. Most of us have just learned to accept it, because that’s life.
And just to clarify, this isn’t directed at you, @johto. I’m just speaking generally.
I’m in and out of the forum (as some can tell lol). Life gets busy, I picked up some other hobbies, or am focusing on other things in life. If I don’t actively think about my collection or Pokemon news in general, then I forget to open the forum to check. I am the same with the discord but I mostly just lurk there when I do check it (or I’m checking it for updates about pokemon events haha).
This hobby used to feel like one of those genuine “nerd“ hobbies that you use to to distract yourself from the callousness of this world.
Currently, this hobby is a tangled web of negativity. It’s about nothing but money, showing off, and trying to prove that it’s not you who’s poor, but the other guy or something like that.
…
Likewise I think I just better enjoy the casual conversational nature of discord over a forum. (Y’all are too young to remember BeSeen browser chatrooms, but IRC and ICQ may still be a thing)
