As my account age on this forum turned five it also mean about five years have pasted since the site transitioned from a paid site to a free site. What do anyone think about the forum as in the past five years compares to the era when payment were required for membership? Is the site in a direction you think would be better than five years ago?

This thread better fits into Site Related Forum and has been moved accodringly.

Is it better? No, to be blunt it sucks compared to when it was a paid membership site. Case in point the non-aviation section. You'll have someone sign up, post hundreds of things related to one subject, drumpf, then disappear. Those of us with half a brain realize it's the same person. This place will never be the same until they return it to a paid membership.

Have been reading the forums and using this site for many years and used to spend hours reading the forums, loved trip reports. Well I’m sad to say this site is nothing but a shadow of its former self. Don’t know why exactly - trip reports I guess fare much better on YouTube but the forums are just, well boring now and not that easy to navigate. Massive topics seem grouped together and everything is so US centric. I would have thought the whole point of the internet is to see quick up to date info easily accessible but it just isn’t on this site. Just some mega posts if you can face wading through them. I get the content is only as good as us contributors but it doesn’t help how that content is accessible and grouped. It’s also tedious reading about the same US majors and whether x is better than y. I used to spend maybe 2 or 3 hours a time on this site occasionally but now it’s never more than 5 minutes. Personally I think it’s time to let the forums die and concentrate on the photo library which is still an excellent asset. It’s a shame, I really miss the airliners.net of old……. These days much more interesting are Instagram/ YouTube channels. Airliners.net I’m sorry is a stuffy, dusty library in comparison. No malice intended and just how I feel as an individual.

[url][/url]

CaptHadley wrote:

Is it better? No, to be blunt it sucks compared to when it was a paid membership site. Case in point the non-aviation section. You'll have someone sign up, post hundreds of things related to one subject, drumpf, then disappear. Those of us with half a brain realize it's the same person. This place will never be the same until they return it to a paid membership.

I have been here so long (20 years) I can remember when it was free prior to being a paid site, full circle you might say!
Back then when originally free it was better for a time, it did maybe suffer then after a few years from ‘excessive popularity’, as you described.
Those like me who joined when originally free did not have to pay when it changed, if they ask now I will go, as you also highlight it is not worth paying for now.

CGIES wrote:

Have been reading the forums and using this site for many years and used to spend hours reading the forums, loved trip reports. Well I’m sad to say this site is nothing but a shadow of its former self. Don’t know why exactly - trip reports I guess fare much better on YouTube but the forums are just, well boring now and not that easy to navigate. Massive topics seem grouped together and everything is so US centric. I would have thought the whole point of the internet is to see quick up to date info easily accessible but it just isn’t on this site. Just some mega posts if you can face wading through them. I get the content is only as good as us contributors but it doesn’t help how that content is accessible and grouped. It’s also tedious reading about the same US majors and whether x is better than y. I used to spend maybe 2 or 3 hours a time on this site occasionally but now it’s never more than 5 minutes. Personally I think it’s time to let the forums die and concentrate on the photo library which is still an excellent asset. It’s a shame, I really miss the airliners.net of old……. These days much more interesting are Instagram/ YouTube channels. Airliners.net I’m sorry is a stuffy, dusty library in comparison. No malice intended and just how I feel as an individual.

I think a huge reason why the quality and content of the discussion forums has declined over the past several years had to do with the advent and growth of social media and other aviation community websites.

Once upon a time, A.net was pretty much THE aviation community on the Internet. Now there are all kinds of other aviation websites and forum communities, including those that cater more to professionals.

You also have aviation groups on Facebook, Reddit, and other social media sites which are fundamentally more convenient and accessible for most "modern" users.

I also think that many of A.net's more distinguished contributors from the days of yore got put off by many of the changes that came with the changes of ownership over the years and subsequently left this website for other communities as well.

Ive been visiting this forum from 2001, however with more options on Social media over the years & work , the time devoted to A.net has reduced.
Also since 80% of my posts were in Tech/Ops Forum , I have noticed a decline in quality of the experienced Aviators there over time.

HAWK21M wrote:

Ive been visiting this forum from 2001, however with more options on Social media over the years & work , the time devoted to A.net has reduced.
Also since 80% of my posts were in Tech/Ops Forum , I have noticed a decline in quality of the experienced Aviators there over time.

The India related discussions are 1% of what they used to be. Did most Indian posters move elsewhere? Or just on to better things in life?

9w748capt wrote:

HAWK21M wrote:

Ive been visiting this forum from 2001, however with more options on Social media over the years & work , the time devoted to A.net has reduced.
Also since 80% of my posts were in Tech/Ops Forum , I have noticed a decline in quality of the experienced Aviators there over time.

The India related discussions are 1% of what they used to be. Did most Indian posters move elsewhere? Or just on to better things in life?

I guess they moved on to other Social media options.Although Some have moved on from Aviation too.

HAWK21M wrote:

9w748capt wrote:

The India related discussions are 1% of what they used to be. Did most Indian posters move elsewhere? Or just on to better things in life?

I guess they moved on to other Social media options.Although Some have moved on from Aviation too.

For several years, those discussions often become — let's just say, problematic. There were a number of users who seem to have joined around roughly the same time, and they would absolutely go to war with each other in those threads. I think it got to the point that several of them were warned or banned on so many occasions that they either gave up and went elsewhere or weren't permitted to return. Discussions on Indian aviation are unquestionably some of the most impassioned and heated discussions I've ever seen on this forum. There's nothing wrong with being passionate, but unfortunately that can cross the line into becoming personal, which it often did in those discussions. They seem to have calmed down about two years ago, and now it's rarely an issue for us. Certainly our intent was never to stifle discussion, but when people are turning to disrespectful language, we have no choice but to step in. That's the only reason I chose to become a moderator years ago was to at least attempt to make this place a little bit more positive.

atcsundevil wrote:

HAWK21M wrote:

9w748capt wrote:

The India related discussions are 1% of what they used to be. Did most Indian posters move elsewhere? Or just on to better things in life?

I guess they moved on to other Social media options.Although Some have moved on from Aviation too.

For several years, those discussions often become — let's just say, problematic. There were a number of users who seem to have joined around roughly the same time, and they would absolutely go to war with each other in those threads. I think it got to the point that several of them were warned or banned on so many occasions that they either gave up and went elsewhere or weren't permitted to return. Discussions on Indian aviation are unquestionably some of the most impassioned and heated discussions I've ever seen on this forum. There's nothing wrong with being passionate, but unfortunately that can cross the line into becoming personal, which it often did in those discussions. They seem to have calmed down about two years ago, and now it's rarely an issue for us. Certainly our intent was never to stifle discussion, but when people are turning to disrespectful language, we have no choice but to step in. That's the only reason I chose to become a moderator years ago was to at least attempt to make this place a little bit more positive.

Moderation can be tough, but at times a troublemaker posts a controversial post in a good debated thread & the moderator instead of realising the troublemakers intent to block the thread and only removing the offending post sadly blocks the entire thread killing a good debate & demotivating others

HAWK21M wrote:

Moderation can be tough, but at times a troublemaker posts a controversial post in a good debated thread & the moderator instead of realising the troublemakers intent to block the thread and only removing the offending post sadly blocks the entire thread killing a good debate & demotivating others

It would be very unusual for us to lock the thread after one or even a handful of offending posts. The only exception I can think of is if the discussion has clearly just run its course and is unlikely to stay on topic or be productive. We typically only lock threads after we've expended a considerable amount of effort to keep it cleaned up. I can understand from your perspective that it seems like one bad post gets the whole thread locked, but what you can't see is any other posts we've had to remove.

This is the typical progression of a problematic thread.. We get one or two reports, and posts are removed as necessary. We get additional reports, we give the thread a good clean up, and we post a warning in the thread. We monitor posts after the warning as closely as possible, removing any as necessary. If there is a general improvement, we will continue posting warnings if required to keep the thread on track (it also gives us a "bookmark" to show other moderators where the thread needs continued moderation). If there isn't an improvement, we will consider posting one more warning, and if that's not effective, then we'll lock.

If we've jumped straight to locking without going through that effort, there's a really good reason for it, and it's more than likely not because of one or two bad posts. We don't want to let one or two troublemakers spoil a thread any more than you do, because from our perspective, that would only encourage bad behavior.

All of that said, we will always put more effort into keeping aviation discussions alive as opposed to non aviation discussions. Non Av is not our priority, and our tolerance for bad behavior is lower in that forum simply because it takes our time and attention away from the aviation forums. We permit more free flowing discussions in Non Av (for the most part), but when users start causing problems, we really don't want to devote our efforts to keeping the thread alive. Our priority is, and will always be, on the aviation based discussions. If anyone has an issue with that, then they're probably on this forum for the wrong reasons.

I think that most of the problems involving bad behavior from people on here stems from the Non-Av section. I've seen many threads where people complain about their thread being locked and then making a big fuss about it in the thread, addressing the moderators, rather than PMing or emailing them. I've noticed that when I clicked on these peoples' profiles, 99.9999% of their posts are in the Non-Av section.

Some threads which a few complaints were in
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1449539
viewtopic.php?t=1421773
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1463563

A few other replies from the moderators in these threads says that they moderate the Non-Av section more loosely and less strictly. Is it just me adding 2+2 to get 5, or is this a possible solution to bad behavior spilling into other places here? Maybe the mods should moderate Non-Av just as strict as they do for the rest? I'm not slandering the mods or telling them what to do. Don't get me wrong. Being a moderator is an arduous experience to put it lightly. They have had insults hurled at them just for the simplest things. They get blamed for being political when they were simply removing a flamebait thread. (And on the topic of politics, in no way am I telling the mods to remove political threads, as I know that people will attack me for that. Am simply making a suggestion for bad behavior that may or may not be related..) Anyways, I was thinking that if moderation was put on the Non-Av as much as it is on the rest, then it might enforce better behavior.

atcsundevil wrote:

HAWK21M wrote:

9w748capt wrote:

The India related discussions are 1% of what they used to be. Did most Indian posters move elsewhere? Or just on to better things in life?

I guess they moved on to other Social media options.Although Some have moved on from Aviation too.

For several years, those discussions often become — let's just say, problematic. There were a number of users who seem to have joined around roughly the same time, and they would absolutely go to war with each other in those threads. I think it got to the point that several of them were warned or banned on so many occasions that they either gave up and went elsewhere or weren't permitted to return. Discussions on Indian aviation are unquestionably some of the most impassioned and heated discussions I've ever seen on this forum. There's nothing wrong with being passionate, but unfortunately that can cross the line into becoming personal, which it often did in those discussions. They seem to have calmed down about two years ago, and now it's rarely an issue for us. Certainly our intent was never to stifle discussion, but when people are turning to disrespectful language, we have no choice but to step in. That's the only reason I chose to become a moderator years ago was to at least attempt to make this place a little bit more positive.

I agree several of those users were very angry people- I remember the Aeroflot Moscow transit fiasco for Indian nationals and the venom that spilled if you tried to explain that what was alleged and what was shown in a clipped video were not necessarily the same story from the same point of view- I'd never seen anything like that before and hope to never see it again!

eta unknown wrote:

I agree several of those users were very angry people- I remember the Aeroflot Moscow transit fiasco for Indian nationals and the venom that spilled if you tried to explain that what was alleged and what was shown in a clipped video were not necessarily the same story from the same point of view- I'd never seen anything like that before and hope to never see it again!

I remember that. There were a few of those knock down, drag out type of discussions. There was an unfortunate level of disrespect among several users who regularly participated in those topics. With some, any wrong step would result in a paragraphs long diatribe and often containing personal attacks. There's a clear line between having a spirited discussion and having an argument, and these discussions often crossed that line. It required a huge amount of effort and patience from us, and it ultimately pulled us away from being able to pay closer attention to other topics. Of course now, political threads in Non Av and debates over masks and vaccines has firmly taken over as the drain on our time and efforts, but that's a different discussion.