Ok, I had to go cool off for awhile. I didn’t want to end up posting some stupid knee-jerk reaction. If that was meant to be a joke, it’s NOT FUNNY!!!
Now that I’m back I see Speedy has already covered much of my more sensible/logical thoughts on the subject and I agree. (And I didn’t know you weren’t in Mr. Speed any more! Aaaaw ...)
This might seem a little stream of consciousness but I’m still now sure the logical order to organize all my feedback.
What does My Space have to do with it? I’m probably in the minority but even though I find it entertaining to check out My Space pages, and it seems like a good networking tool for some, for me personally I find it’s not my thing. (Like don’t hold your breath waiting for the HiFiChik My Space page ... though one never knows.) It seems to me most of the regular posters here don’t have My Space pages. I know a few people do but it doesn’t seem to be a big deal among most of the members here. I think WE enjoy having REAL conversations, REAL back and forth dialogue, REAL interaction, not leaving each other stupid little ~*~THANKS FOR THE ADD! ~*~ or ~*~HAVE A NICE DAY! ~*~ messages.
Or seeing how many “friends” one can collect.
Nice weather? I guess you don’t live in South Dakota
Oh man, I don’t even want to go there about the CRR thing ...
To be honest, I don’t have a clue about the “business” of running a web site or how a message board is tied to a main web site’s business, aside from promoting or plugging the main web site, but none of the money $$$ angles. People I know who have web sites they’re for fun, a labor of love, they’re not trying to make money off it or concerned about that. I don’t see the $$$ or promotional angle when it comes to message boards. Maybe that’s very naive or ignorant of me but so be it.
If it’s not the money the forum doesn’t seem to be that labor intensive on any one person. From what I see there’s moderators, staff, etc. running the board, keeping an eye on the board, actively participating too, and doing a great job in all of those matters. Plus the owner participates and obviously a lot, which I think is cool. On so many forums one barely hears from the owner and/or the owner seems very MIA.
I think the people who check out a web site and the people who hang out at a web site’s message board are two different groups of people. Honestly I think as Speedy already mentioned, most people who visit web sites aren’t too inclined to put together a few sentences and actually post on a board. I’m not talking intelligence level. I’m talking inclination. It seems to be a basic fact of Internet life that most web sites and forums aren't too closely related to one another.
Rock N Roll Universe isn’t the only web site where a lot of forum members barely check out the main web site and you shouldn’t feel badly about that. I don’t think 2,000,000 hits is something to feel badly about! I guess the only difference is RNRU does have a main site worth checking out and many other places ... er ... um ... DON’T.
I seriously thought I was among the last who was still using lousy dialup. That’s an issue too. Yeah, if the forum didn’t drive my dialup connection bonkers, the main web site was 10X worse! Now that I have DSL I’ve had it in back of my mind, ok, I need to go check out these things on the main web site I couldn’t with lousy dialup. I haven’t gotten to it but I will!
The way I look at message boards is, ok, is there anything interesting here to read, do I have anything to say here, and if I do I’ll sign up and if it turns out to be a cool place, I stick around and keep participating. Not that I’m on a lot of boards. Right now this is probably one of a couple public forums I check out almost every day and the only one I post on a LOT.
While the RNRU forum might not have quantity, it certainly does have quality. There are boards that have a good number of people “participating” but putting up mostly stupid useless and just plain stupid posts and stupid thread after stupid thread. It’s unbelievable what one has to muck through to find the slightest glimmer of intelligence. RNRU is just about the polar opposite.
What strikes me about this forum too is how REAL the people here are. It’s not a bunch of ... um ... “characters” (to put it politely) and bored 13 year olds hiding behind nyms. The members are real people I’ve gotten to know and LIKE who enjoy talking music like I do and who have things to say that I am interested in reading and learn from. Which is another thing that says something about this board. People feel comfortable enough here to open up and reveal, share things about themselves, be real and human and like I said, not just some made up personalities hiding behind screen names and slamming each other to get attention.
To echo something frehleyscomic said, this is one of the few boards that doesn’t feel like one is stuck back in junior high school or grade school!
Like everyone else, life happens. There’s plenty of reasons why regular posters don’t post or don’t post as much for awhile and it’s nothing personal. From what I’ve seen they return.
I’ve already learned the hard way one shouldn’t get too attached to boards or take them too seriously. But you can’t help it sometimes anyway, especially if it’s a place you enjoy. Thing is another thing I’ve learned the hard way, and not just the CRR situation but a couple other situations I went through with message forums going through stuff, once someone has made up their mind there’s really nothing you can do.
Ok, that’s my .02. I don’t want to see this board closed down but that’s just me.
;D 
Or seeing how many “friends” one can collect.
