Do you advertise BOYAC elsewhere?

[tommyinajar]

 I've been on PC's for almost 40 years, and on probably 40 msg boards.

BYOAC is the only one I really Schill for. I plug it on slick deals (Every 1-up thread I accidently read, lol), Ebay, friend's, cable repair guys, (saw 6 cabs here)

 I was wondering if anyone else does, or if maybe I should stop.

 I'm on a few car or tool forums that really blast noob questions

. I blundered into a great one(https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/search/)- and got beat down (4 pages of "Search Dumbass") when I asked if Gearwrench were as good as craftsman, which was asked 1000 times that week,,,   

[tommyinajar]

 I also was wondering if membership has grown, or average or what, I can guess it's going up, 1-Up- , but I bet a lot of guys here daily 10 years ago, may have gotten too fat and too many kids to be playing video game, said the wife.

[lilshawn]

i don't know the official numbers but I think we probably lose as many people here to dying of old age as people that genuinely sign up and become regulars.

[PL1]

I also was wondering if membership has grown, or average or what

You can see the number of signups each year/month/day at the bottom of the stats page.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=stats

For several years now, there have been an average of about 5-7 signups per day, usually 2 of those are spam accounts.

The massive number of new accounts from 2010-2013 reflects the development and deployment of systematic spam account creation tools before the forum software got a bit better at preventing mass spam account creation.

The number of posts per year peaked in 2005 and has decreased since.
- There are now over 1,715,920 posts on the BYOAC forums, so many people can find the answers they're looking for without posting a new question.


Scott

[Zebidee]

I first started haunting BYOAC over 15 years ago. I learned much of what i know about arcade gaming/cabs/emulation here.

Back then I worked in ICT/digital economy innovation and industry development, and my BYOAC experiences influenced my work. From those 'seeds' of thinking, a whole new policy/development 'theme' around access, hubs, digital literacy, e-communities, social innovation and 'digital collaboration' emerged. I could (& actually did) write essays, but will summarise by saying it was a fun time.

I'm on a few car or tool forums that really blast noob questions

Unfortunately that still happens here. Despite what I noted above, I was called a "newcomer" recently, by a member who (by comparison) must surely be completely fossilised into rock by now (though I suspect they are slightly younger than I am). I'm not new, they just didn't get what I was talking about.

There is a team of "thugs" that roam about this forum, looking for any opportunity to either a) mansplain to newcomers why their 'newcomer' thinking is wrong; or b) tell people with new ideas that their ideas are "dumb", even if the people presenting them have been successfully implementing or proving them for many years, and with many good reports from those that have actually seen what they have done.

The 'thugs' like to provoke the 'newcomer' by mansplaining why their ideas are 'wrong' or 'dumb', until they finally crack and explode, at which point all the ancient fossils go and high-five each other. Great entertainment.

I keep hoping for the mods to be more active about this kind of behaviour, but understand that there is little they can do except when a member is clearly out of line.

This sort of 'ossification' of thinking in an older forum, like this, is not new.

Having said all that, don't give up hope, there are many wonderful people and new ideas coming out on BYOAC all the time. It is a still a vibrant community.

I also was wondering if membership has grown, or average or what, I can guess it's going up, 1-Up- , but I bet a lot of guys here daily 10 years ago, may have gotten too fat and too many kids to be playing video game, said the wife.

This is also true, to some extent. BYOAC appeals more to older gamers, from the arcade era. Younger people tend to be more attracted to forums more focused on console and other gaming platforms. Such is life

[Howard_Casto]

This site is kind of dead truth be told.   Back in the day we had the usual, "sign up, ask questions until their cab is done, then leave" members but we had a core of about 20-30 people who were regularly active on the forms working on new projects and helping folks out.   I think that number is closer to half a dozen now.  Even then most of us are far less active.   I used to post several times a day and now you are lucky if you hear from me every couple of weeks.  My point being number of posts and quality of posts are two different things. 

[pbj]

This hobby died when those $10 PacMan joysticks came out.  Circa 2005.

 

[Zebidee]

I often don't 'actively' look at BYOAC for months at a time.

There comes a point where everything that is worth saying has already been said, and repeating that eventually loses appeal to the best of us. Maybe all we need is a better search function

In some cases, things that used to be difficult are now easy.

Some areas, like lightgun development, are still very active.

New build threads are always fun to follow.

As age/demographics move on, the peak of interest in BYOAC 'arcade age' games also falls, but there will always be a certain base level of appeal, for both young and old.

[lilshawn]

personally, i don't POST every day, but i do stop in a couple times a day when i'm at work and see what's new since my last visit, and look at any posts I've posted in. if it warrants me posting, i do. but i don't post for the sake of posting.

if a new thread has zero replies, i'll certainly check it out and see if i can help out.

i only have 7000 posts now, but you can be assured that a vast majority of those 7000 posts have been as helpful as i can be.

[nipsmg]

This site is more of a reference and encyclopedia for me now than an active forum where I’m looking for new content.   /r/cade is generally more active than this site now.  I do definitely mention BYOAC frequently however when commenting on Reddit. 

this site is the embodiment of the history of this hobby, and there’s tons of amazing info here if you know where to look.

[javeryh]

This place seems dead compared to about 15 years ago.  I still pop in almost every day but I post a lot less if I'm not actively building something although I do try and post in the project threads I like just to be able to talk about stuff.  The Reddit r/cade sub is really awful even though I have popped in from time to time to post a project or answer some questions.  Pretty sure 99% of people there have never been to an arcade in their lives.

But to answer the OP's question... I do advertise BYOAC when I can.  I don't want it to die!

[tommyinajar]

This site is kind of dead truth be told.

 If BYOAC dies hope I get a warning shot to prepare


 I'm hoping that is because the forums is loaded with some excellent responses to repeat multiple questions.

Unless new product come out-(How much has membership gone up with 1up??) I think we covered everything.

I'm also saying this is probably the friendliest forums I've seen.....

(Schilling ON the shill for site)