A lot of what barthelon said. The forums weren't hustle and bustle, but they flowed and usually a thread had around two hours before it got moved to the second page by the rapid amount of new threads and posts being slung out. There were a lot of generally dumb, pointless, but fun to interact with threads. Threads like what your favorite TF2 loadout was, what you thought of the recent game or movie that came out, recommend me a game for this system I just bought, how do you think the sequel to this game is going to play out, and whatever else. We still have them, but they're less frequently popping up, and they are starting to get crowded out by "srs bizznizz" discussions about ☐feminism ☐art ☐religion ☐politics ☐journalism ☑moderation.
Another thing to say was that threads seldom ever lasted long enough to see past three pages of comments. It was uncommon to see more than five pages (which usually was a controversial topic full of six people bickering at each other), and there is a handful of threads in the entirety of Gaming Discussion/Off-Topic that ever made it past 30 pages (1000 replies). Threads were bite-sized, but they didn't cater to short attention spans. That's where you started to appreciate regulars and their avatars: you got tiny glimpses of their humor and character, and that's part of what made you like forums as tight-knit as this one. It's speed-dating but for forum-goers.
It's undeniable that the forums are slower than they were before Extra Credits or Jim Sterling left. I think it's a little different in some ways. A lot of threads are still those bite-sized "throw away" threads that you want to post in but forget about by the end of the day, but there are many threads (because they last on the front page of the forum for almost a whole day) that don't have to vie for attention and can get down to controversial or unpopular threads, and people go on them because what else is there to post on?
I am being jaded and looking at the Escapist with rose-tinted glasses, but the forums simply don't interest me anymore. I don't really post in the same topic twice because I hate repeating myself, and after nearly six years and 15,000 posts, I've posted in a lot of threads and gotten enough my opinion out to satisfy me. (Because I only partially post to spread my opinion; mostly I post just to get my thoughts written down). I still check the forums once or twice a day, but I usually only post twice a week because most of the threads don't interest me (feminism-art-religion-politics-journalism-reform) or I feel like I've already given my answer once before and won't bother, even if that answer was from a thread five years ago.
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Another thing I think of is that it really doesn't feel like I'm a part of conversations anymore. Opinions are getting splashed onto threads without anyone ever looking at what others have to say, or opening up conversations. I used to get several quotes a day, because people were reading what I said and putting forth their thoughts and opinions (which I begrudgingly admit that I enjoyed). I just checked my inbox, and I got 7 quotes in the last 3 months. I know I don't post as often and not as many people are here to reply to them, but that is really low. I don't know if it's a shift of people's attentions, or if it's me writing boring stuff, but I kind of don't like it. Just feels like I'm putting a Sticky Note with my opinion on a bulletin board and walking away without reading, and everyone's doing the same thing and nobody's getting anything out of a thread except the satisfaction of writing the post.
Just doesn't have the same kick to it. I highly doubt I'll last to see post number 16,000, since going from 14,000 to 15,000 took me nearly two years in itself. By then, I'll have abandoned the account, had it closed for personal reasons, or maybe even something bad will've happened to the Escapist. It's been a good 15,000 everyone, and I'm not leaving yet, but it's been fun.
