What makes you leave?

So, without mentioning other boards, here is two cents

I was never into forums until I discovered buffy, and in my frantic attempt to find other fans to talk to about the show, I discovered this place. And I have never looked back. I have joined two other forums for buffy. I have left one a while back due to rude members and lack of moderation, and the other I'm still a member, but don't visit often.

Why would I leave a forum? Rude members, lack of moderation, and inactivity.

This place rocks. You all do such a good job with this place, and we alll really appreciate it!
 
I usually just get bored with duscussion Boards after a while. The thing is, most discussion boards I ever joined were for specific TV shows, and especially if that TV show isn't actually running anymore, topics just repeat themselves and nothing really new happens any more. On top of that, there's cases when I don't even watch the show at all anymore.
So that's why I usually leave. Rude members or staff don't really bother me that much; there's bitchy people everywhere, just ignore them.
 
Mostly when my show finishes. Like with the Kryptonsite forum, when Smallville finished there was just nothing to post about. Also unfair mods. And sometimes it's the posters. And sometimes I just forget about forums all together.

Buffy Boards is certainly one of the better forums out there.
 
Either I get banned or everyone I like quit the boards, so I quit too. 😉 😛
 
The biggest reasons I'll stick around a forum are:

1. Friends/general feeling of belonging. I'm not very active on this forum, but there's another that I left for awhile because I didn't feel I belonged anymore. I think this ties into cliques and the like, too. Generally, feeling left out of any community isn't a good thing.

2. Interesting content or discussion. I'll usually keep coming back (like to this one!) if there are discussions I'm interested in, or if I'm learning things I didn't know, etc.
 
For me i only ever leave if i don't get on with the people there or don't like the forum, on some forums i will just take a couple of months out and then come back but not leave as such
 
Usually I feel really left out on other message boards or I just don't have much to contribute. I love Buffy and it's so much fun to discuss it with other people. I don't know anyone, not one person in real life, who knows enough about Buffy to truly have an in depth discussion about it. The only other message board that I'm currently a member of ...is Brass Goggles, but I don't know that much about steampunk, so I just read what other people say. Participating is a lot more fun 😀 But yeah, this is the only board that I can't seem to stay away from. I doubt that even the nastiest person I encounter on here could drive me away 😉 but so far everyone here seems to be incredibly mature (compared to some other boards I've come across...oh boy). Also, it's easy for me to brush off what people I don't even know say.
 
Trouble and flames. That is surest thing to make me leave. Whether it be poor member behaviour or out and out trollish behaviour, I will be out the door. When it becomes a hardship to be on a board, that's when you know you need to get gone.

Well there was that one time I was *cough*banned*cough* from a board but we'll just skip over that...*whistle*
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
[No message]
One of the reasons is inactivity. I'm a member of another (not Buffy) board and the place is so quiet its not really worth it.

This place has so much activity sometimes I don't know where to look first. Love it.
 
Well, BB is the only forum I've been on. I was away from here a bit though, not completely, but I didn't write much at all. It was mostly lack of time. I'm glad I'm back again! 😀
 
I think every forum has a type of flow or atmosphere to it. I've been on forums since I was like 13 and thats....oh my gosh, like 10 years ago. Anyway, once you're a member of a forum for a long (ish) time, you'll notice that its "flow" can change. That's when I get restless.

Sometimes that flow can be a down time (lack of posts, lack of interesting posts) and I get bored. I usually end up coming back though. I invest myself in people I havent met and they keep me coming back.

A power tripping staff doesnt matter to me. What bothers me when I see the same 100 topics repeat themselves. It's an inevitability but it makes my interest wane.

Edit: I've also noticed that when there's a large influx of new members, I have a tendency to want to fade into the background and eventually kinda fade out.
 
The things that make me leave a forum are

1. When I don't feel comfortable with the subject
If I joined a board that goes more in-depth with things than I can, I feel really uncomfortable and stupid

2. When atmosphere changes too quickly and/or a shift in staff power goes towards the worse
My first online home used to be a really great place... I was a mostly active member from the time I was nine to the time I was fourteen (don't worry, it was a forum for kids). However, the board changed drastically when I was eleven, trying to become more "modern" and deleted most of the posts that had real, sentimental meaning to me... I mean, that was my entire online childhood, since that was the only website I went on. I left for about five months, just because I was so upset.

Then, about a year after I came back, the paid staff started using informants of sort to tattle on people... but these kids had no leniency. There was no warning, only reporting and infractions. Plus, they used their small staff powers to start public threads for themselves only- everyone could see it, but only they could post- where they would publicly diss other members, including me. I left for about a year after that bullying started. And when I came back, there was soon another big atmosphere shift when they got rid of my favorite section of the boards. I never came back after that.

3. I don't have time
Normally, I come back to boards I leave for this reason, but sometimes I'm too embrarrassed for disappearing for so long! Not to mention, it's like starting all over as a new member, something I hate.

4. It's not what I thought it was.
Mainly for roleplay forums. I thought it was a small, multi-para community... but it's a big, huge, crazy forum that I can't get into. Agh!
 
I sort of move around different forums. I might be inactive on one for a while, but I usually come back if it is one I like (like this one). I'm most active on the SoapCentral forums, just because soaps come on every day and there is always something new to discuss.

I've only really had one bad experience. There was once a One Tree Hill forum that I was a part of. It wasn't a big one, but the admin there was pressuring me to post stuff (I only joined to be nice as he invited me on a different forum), and then notified me my membership would be deleted if I didn't post in 14 days. I just let that expire.
 
What puts me off forums is overcomplicated guff that's added because there's no real discussion, or forums I've joined on a subject I'm only vaguely interested in and I was just bored when I signed up.

This place has had its ups and downs with members, but it's always got good discussions, and at least this way I don't bore people I know irl with my Buffy talk haha
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
Glad you're back!
I normally cant take fandom wars or mods that treat themselves like gods.

I've been on boards that are unmoderated and unprotected.

I was once almost the Admin of what was at the time a very big "buffy" site.

I immediately got the hell out of there once I realized that people werent playing by the rules.

I've been on boards that are silent and quiet and barely got any traffic.

I guess there's a secret to keeping a site together nowadays....or else It will end up dead in the water.
 
The board I was most involved in a few years ago - a forum for a sitcom like this one actually - actually disappeared. The board's host couldn't afford the bandwidth and it died. I was kind of sad after that... not wanting to get involved anywhere else. I wrote FF, I made friends I still have... that was hard. And then I got burned at a few other places because of really stupid dramatic things, arguments, etc. Or ship wars get out of control and I just mentally peace it out of there. Don't have that problem here, though. Everyone is willing to acknowledge that other opinions have validity. 🙂
 
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