Would it surprise you if Fluther closed down due to lack of activity?

Nooooo!!! Fluther is one of the few places where I can contribute to society.

@reddeerguy1 I, for one, appreciate your contributions here.
I have been here almost 10 years. It’s a second home. I would be lost.

They depend on volunteer labor to keep things going. Eventually that will dry up.

@johnpowell I would be willing to pay $10 a month to keep the lights on in Fluther. It would reduce the spam and trolling.

The volunteers have been keeping it going for years !

Not much surprises me these days. I would definitely be disappointed though.

From what I can tell, people are accustomed to more traffic. I like the slower pace. It gives me time to really think about certain questions, and probably give a better response.

No, it would not surprise me. But before then bad grammar will make most questions unintelligible anyway.

We’ll know it’s over when the spam stops getting cleaned up.

It comes and goes, so I’m not worried. Due to the mass exodus, it may seem a little slow to those of us who’ve been here awhile, but it’ll pick up again. Spring is a very busy time for people, too, with taxes, gardens/ snow, physicals, work, etc…

@Tropical_Willie The volunteers have been keeping it going for years

It’s certainly true that many people contribute their time and skills, although some of the mods have been paid.

@Love_my_doggie True; most, I thought were volunteers only.

From what I have seen so far, I would be surprised…I must say I have never seen it advertised and heard about it through a friend. This site is fabulous in my opinion.

@KNOWITALL What mass exodus? This site is no slower since a few left not that long ago. It’s been this slow for a few years now. Some may want others to think their departure is the end of Fluther but that is not the case.

Seems slower to me ha!

We are down to 35 or so full time members

@RedDeerGuy1 That’s a faulty estimate because I’m sure not everyone answered the question.

Fluther used to have some programming staff as well as the two original owners and Auggie was paid as Community Manager for a time but the mods have all been volunteers for a number of years.

@janbb Its my best guess. What do you estimate?

I wouldn’t hazard a guess. I’d rather see some hard statistics.

@janbb Maybe it could be interpreted as a core base. Their is a tracking app that could be used. I forgot the name of it.

A lot of people have left, for their own reasons. There are other good places to go now, and some of the folks who have left this site are thriving in other places. So it’s all good.

@Kardamom Can you share what some of the other sites are that people are on? We may need to migrate if Fluther does eventually shut down.

@janbb Answermug . Yahoo answers. Answerbag is up and running again , but nowhere near as good as it was..

I found this. It’s interesting. I googled “how to find the traffic of a site” and this was one of the sites it gave me. It had outdated info about Fluther but gave me the option to update it. http://www.siteprice.org/website-worth/fluther.com

Daily Unique Visitors : 1,250 Daily Advertisement Revenue Daily Ads Revenue : $3.50
Daily Pageview Count Daily Pageviews : 1,750 Monthly Advertisement Revenue Monthly Ads Revenue : $105
Average Time Duration on Site Avg. Time On Site: 1:36

@Aethelwine Thanks. Fluther only makes $3.50 a day?

@RedDeerGuy1 Ben isn’t keeping the site up to make money so that’s not surprising. He’s keeping it going for its users. He also has a family member or two who still use the site.

I’ve been thinking this for a while now, I think it might. I’ve been here near when it opened and it’s never been this quiet/dead.

I think it is very kind of Ben to keep it open, especially that it only makes 3.50 a day. Gosh who knew? If I compare it to other sites it is not busy at all. I am also shocked at the questions that make it through. In the ‘old days’ the standards were far higher than now. I feel they are desperate for questions so are just letting them go up. I remember in the old days how many of my questions were returned to me for edit. Compared to some of the gumph going up those questions were fantastic!

^But it has been just as dead. I can remember going back a few years and there would be spouts of just a question or two per day in general and social. You could fit an entire week of questions on one page. We had the same demise of Fluther questions in meta. This is not something new.

*bouts, not spouts.

I’m back after being gone for a few months. It seems a little boring now. Maybe I’m just less addicted than I was previously.

I don’t see a lot of interesting conversations or questions like back in the first years I was here. Not that I’ve asked anything very interesting lately either.

A few jellies seem to say they like it calmer, but for me, I can get calm in real life. Not that I’m ok with anyone being verbally abusive, I just mean a heated debate can be ok.

Fluther was a place to ask anything, and learn a ton. I learned so much here over the years.

Would I be surprised if it shut down? Maybe a little, it does feel to me much much less active, so I wouldn’t be totally shocked.

Just like any tide pool, Fluther ebbs and flows.

@janbb If you are interested in joining some of the other Jellies at a new site, this is the link:

https://thetidepool.party/index.php

Thanks! Will keep that in mind.

@Kardamom: you mentioned “sites” (plural). Are there others you could recommend as well?

@canidmajor, the other is a private FB page for Jellies. You have to be invited to join. But people are doing very well in both places.

Thanks. Maybe I’ll look into that.