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The day the Forum died

Allen Stark

The Forum died for me 4/3/18. It has been resurrected a couple of times, but it seems to be on life support.

4/3/18 my wife got her hip[ replaced and while I was in the waiting room I logged on the the Forum and it wasn't there and there was an ambiguous message. It finally came back to  no fanfare and we were told it was a necessary update. Activity on the forum was low. It was updated again to more fanfare but activity was still low. I inquired about it and was told Forums were an outdated system. This surprised me as the other forum I frequent (for DnD) has gone though similar updates and is vibrant. I am' repeating again on the Forum, my theory and solution. When the Forum was vibrant anyone could post and we were getting posts from all over the world. One person from another country said it was THE best source of information for masters swimmers. Now it is restricted to posts from USMS members only saying it is a perk of membership. It would be a much better perk if it was a vibrant  site and good marketing for USMS. Imagine asking about finding a workout in another country and having someone from there answering. That used to happen. 

I know USMS staff monitor the Forum, please open it up, I can practically guarantee it will not drop enrollment. Has anyone said ,since 4/3/18, "I'm joining USMS for the Forum.". Open it to the world and someone might.

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  • Here is some information to help answer some of your questions and clarify your comments. 

    • The USMS Community was launched in March of 2021
    • The old forums was decreasing in activity for many years before launch of Community as the rise of Reddit and Facebook groups grew larger
    • Many members were having issues accessing the old forums because of the old architecture and it required a second login from the USMS site
    • It is member's only to post but it is open for the public to see (in most areas)
    •  noted a lot of the reasons for going with a member's only forum

    We will continue to enhance the features and integrate with other areas of USMS. 

  • in reply to Kyle Deery

    I recall the old forum was reasonably active until 2018. I understand that the format was getting archaic and needed to change. Until the new forum community started 2021,between 2018 and 2021 it was very difficult to find and get on the forum. I agree with that.
    I think it’s important to note that ForceDJ’s enumeration of reasons for non member access was in the context of saying that he thought it would be better to have non-member access. It may be more difficult to manage, and therefore more expensive, but it would have more chance of being alive and meaningful in my opinion

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  • in reply to Kyle Deery

    I recall the old forum was reasonably active until 2018. I understand that the format was getting archaic and needed to change. Until the new forum community started 2021,between 2018 and 2021 it was very difficult to find and get on the forum. I agree with that.
    I think it’s important to note that ForceDJ’s enumeration of reasons for non member access was in the context of saying that he thought it would be better to have non-member access. It may be more difficult to manage, and therefore more expensive, but it would have more chance of being alive and meaningful in my opinion

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