This forum has become serious, and boring over the last year or so. I'm not seeing much activity like before, especially humorous posts. Anyone else seeing this, or is it just me?

Don't know about others but for the most part I've just been tied up by school stuff and I don't really have a place to take pictures of or show off my collection anymore.

Depends what you mean by forum?, the forum itself or a generalisation of the whole site?
Me personally I haven’t noticed any difference now than what the forum was in 2011 when I joined LG? 
Only the subject matter has shifted slightly and the vintage lamps and lighting now is what was ‘modern’ in the mid 90s!, making the street lighting and such that we all grew up with super vintage! 

LG to me is still as interesting as it was 11 years ago!

Ok, a mixture of personal and admin viewpoints here. It all depends on what you want from the site. Is it purely a technical discussion/museum type of site or do you consider it "social media" (ye gods I detest that term  )

Personally, I see LG as a little bit of both. It has good technical information and excellent photography of historic lamps etc. by people such as James and Max, but it also has some lighter moments, such as some of the derailments that often happen in the gallery comments 

I've been here 5 years now, and the main thing I've noticed is a large increase in younger members. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming to me as someone in my 60's.

Personally, what I would like to see is less grumbling and complaining. If you don't like something someone has said, either ignore it or take it up with the person concerned in private, don't post about it in public, people aren't interested. If it's really serious and you think it breaches a site rule, then report it to us.

Ok, I'll stop grumbling and complaining now 

The context behind the creation of GoL... let's say isn't all flowers and sunshine and butterflies and all. Some of the conflicts going on back then in here would make current drama appear like kindergarten stuff.

(Well maybe it does already look like it without any comparison, but I digress!)

Some years went by, and the few of us who started GoL either moved back here or are less active in the lighting community. I still have contact with Ian who keeps GoL up. He's still collecting lighting stuff but to my knowledge he hasn't been on either sites for some time now.

L-G needs both the formal and informal sides. There are websites like James' for the former, and tons of social media platforms for the latter. L-G sort of became that unique combination that is probably seldom seen on teh interwebz.

On the subject of age, if I remember correctly I was easily the youngest member when I subscribed in 2007, at the venerable age of 14, with my Frenchie froggy sloppy English! So yeah, that's nothing new. 

I'll try to  make a few more humorous posts, but I've been preoccupied with my writting and looking after Ria. 

I'll also restart my weekly silliness picture uploads. 

I like the tech discussions, the neat 'real finds' people add to their collections (not pictures of random stuff on the street), and the occasional funny post or derailment.  Maybe I've become too serious...
I agree with Rommie, a lot of today's members are of the younger persuasion, and a lot of the older members don't interact on here much...too soon it's going to only be discussions about how cool LED's are (in some cases, it's already happening), oh well. Guess I know where my feet are treading...

Don't go, we need people like you. 

And if you want derailments...   

Personally I think as long as there’s a good balance between serious and humorous that should keep the site appealing for all, especially for both younger and older members. After all this is like the last big lighting community around pretty much so it should keep going for years to come. Only when things go to far on one side or the other is when it becomes a concern (at least for me). Again it’s balance IMO.

I'm kind of surprised GoL is considered the "serious" site. I agree it's a bit boring now due to the lack of activity but during the height of GoL, I always found it the more lighthearted site compared to LG which I perceived as the more serious site. It probably stems for me personally from the reason why GoL was founded to begin with (Foxtronix already mentioned so I won't rehash the topic) but it's also because of the fact that GoL had things like a "Forum Games" section to goof off in without affecting the rest of the board and also had a off topic forum and gallery before LG got one.

Anyway I think this site is what you make of it. Some people are in for the technical discussion, some are in it for the nostalgia of days gone by, some are in it for the collecting aspect, and some like to post their findings on the street.   

As for the serious and humourous discussions, I think a healthy balance is something that should be sustainable.

I continue to enjoy this site as well as with GoL site

Perhaps we need to lighten up here

We looked at GoL a while back, but it wasn't really our thing, as it tends to concentrate on American street lighting, which isn't what we're into. It's also rather poorly maintained these days, which doesn't do anything for it 

 4 1/2 years ago , I looked at both LG and GoL . THere were a number of factors that made me choose LG instead : 

 1) : GoL shows on my computer as "Not Secure"
 2) : GoL wasn't very actice back then either .  There's still 1/2 dozen sections in the forum that haven't had any new traffic since when I joined here in 2018 !
 3) : LG seemed (and still does) to be a bit easier for this computer challenged person to navigate .

I do notice a slight decline in activity here, but given how the last few years have been, some of us still haven't got over the stress quite yet. Given the economies in most areas suffering, members have less time for fun if they need to earn a living in a time like this.

I havent been very active myself compared to before.

Don't worry though, LG isn't going the way of GOL. Lighting Gallery is still maintained and cared for. If GOL could just get a little tlc and fixings, it can pick up where it left off as well.

I don't think its going the way of GOL, just in a slower period.

But it seems a number of the older members have either left and/or are simply not really active here anymore. (and in some cases I really can't blame them).
Everyone has their reasons, whatever they may be. Lack of interest? Too busy? Getting old? Feel the site is no longer friendly? who knows.
The site has certainly changed over the years is all I can say.

I myself used to be pretty active here, but not anymore...there's multiple reasons, some being:
I am simply not as interested in this stuff as I was when I was younger.
Looking at the fixtures/lamps/Christmas-lights/bulbs/parts/etc in stores anymore there just isn't much of anything 'cool' or 'interesting'.
Adding to that ^ I'm old, and really not so interested in gathering a bunch more "stuff"... that what? some family member will have to 'get rid of'? when I go EOL?
There's also this thing known as "time" .. there's only a limited amount of it .. I'd rather spend the limited amount of time 'wasted' on internet stuff at other sites where I have more interest.
Some of the newer rules here are honestly a turn-off (and are for example one part of why I will never move my streetlight gallery from GOL to here)


As far as GOL, I used to be sorta active there too. That was mainly used for streetlight pic's, reasons vary somewhat for there:
'not as interested' still applies.
'not so interested in gathering a bunch more "stuff"' does not, since its just photos.
'the time thing' still somewhat applies.
No rules issues there
but really the number one reason is the fact that site sadly is basically dead.
I have more streetlight photos, some even edited & ready to post, some that need editing...but with the unreliability & such, I'm not even inclined to bother
(I also would like to build a 'light art' album there, but for the same reason as above am not gonna bother)