That's a pretty interesting observation and gives me something to think about...
I'm still around - just been busy last few years building a business but finally starting to get it where it needs to be it seems.
The one major delineater is, I'm willing to bet most all of you guys are using 3WW here on desktop/laptop PCs, and not just accessing it from your phone, right? Some Tappatalk I'm sure, but the percentage of smart phone usage vs desktops has completely flipped. Like back in the day you know we all were texting with flip phones basically, the technology has just shifted. And Facebook was the first one to really make that handheld experience just work and flow right. Their picture uploading process and just the general format of sharing media and "short hand" posts is just cutting edge, no one else has a better way for humans to spit out what their brains are thinking a fraction of a second after the thought than their system. Your phone is always in your hand and the method to communicate thoughts and information through that platform is as smooth and seamless as anything else we have on the planet currently until there is actual neural connections to computers which probably isn't far off...
Forums like this were never even designed or thought of with mobile usage in mind. I think I said this a couple years ago, but I'll also make the argument that utilizing a real computer to interact generally increases the quality of posts also, where its not just a mental diarrhea. I mean, for
sakes, back in the day (10 years ago) if you were working in the garage or shop, you had to physically put the tools down, go in the house, open up 3WW and run a search or make a post about a question or something. Now your phone is in your back pocket (at the furthest) and you hit literally 3 taps and your posting something in Facebook or a group. I'm just as guilty and a creature of this habit too - thats one reason I can analyze it so well..lol.
So the new member restriction thing - lets revisit that history briefly. This was put in place back in 2011, at a time when most of the veteran members here were complaining about all the "FNGs" joining and asking the same question, over, and over, and over in Trikesylvania, or 5 people per week asking "what is git it rag and why do you guys keep saying, it is dumb?". People were getting scammed more often than they should have through the classifieds by people showing up here literally to sell stuff or try to rake people over by joining just for that section. The economy was in the crapper and people were trying to find some enjoyment and fun out of using the forum and
around with cheap old threewheelers they found in the grass, I think that was some of the traffic drivers at the time. It was a lot of Facebook level post quality coming in. There was serious concern that the site and the group was losing its culture because of all of these new members (and maybe we did anyways, that's up for debate) and them not taking the time to learn kind of the idiosyncrasies and inside jokes of the board that made it the most fun. So, I made the new member restriction in an effort to atleast "coral" that type of behavior into the new member areas and make Trikesylvania more serious quality content for the long timers to enjoy and the newer members to understand once they cut their teeth on the other sections and sort of learned their way around things. Anyone can search for "new member restriction" and take a time warp for some history. Here is one thread about 6 months before it went into effect:
http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthr...ew+member+rule
Perhaps it is time for me to revisit this process.
I don't recall that ever really helping the moderation load, in fact more moderation and BS usually came from older members that felt they were above the rules or were entitled to act and do certain things more so than new members it seems...
I'm not sure what all the answers exactly are - but the environmental factors I'm aware of are; Mobile device usage, the general public's complete inability to focus on and concentrate on anything without an instantaneous response and dopamine high (Ie I post something on Facebook and wait for the "likes" to roll in to make me feel better about myself almost instantly), and the grumpy curmudgeonly attitude of some folks here has turned even me off from wanting to deal with it from time to time. Just putting all the cards on the table.