what about this enthusiast message board? Will it sustain?

It might not survive. It was exceedingly difficult to register, and I hate it when these forums demand my birthdate. I always give them a fake date. That is about as private as my social security number, or my driver's license number, so just stop requiring one, the jerk who designs the software for forums. Its none of your business!

IMHO, that's a BFN

Others may choose meetup groups or some other way to communicate, but the people I want to talk to are all right here.

Somehow, I'm not too concerned about that just yet.

Unless some real replacement is invented, I don't really see how they could truly go away anytime soon. Yes they're not as popular as they once were as far as the social aspects that used to be associated with them, but for boards that deal with things like "how to's" etc. the board format with searching makes it easier to find previous answers to your questions. Or ask a question if it hasn't been answered. You can't do the same thing with Facebook or Twitter.

On a side note, the forum registrations requiring a birthdate is usually because the forum admin has said "you must be a certain age to have an account" and it's an honor system thing to put in a date that is at least somewhat accurate (i.e. if the board requires you be 18 years of age, you're 16 and give a birthdate for someone who is 22).

That's surprising to read. The only hard part (IMHO) should have been the CAPTCHA challenge, and since I hate those things, I used the audio version and found it super easy! I never untangle the letters on the first try. And FWIW, I didn't install CAPTCHA, nor did I decide to ask for the birthday. As for that birthday biz: you do have the option button to hide it. It doesn't reveal your age, just the date. And welcome, IdahoBob!

hikerjer says this new forum is "just not what it used to be." Well, Jer, not yet. But as I mentioned in an earlier thread, we have more than 13,000 posts added in four months! With more than 500 members (averaging around 80 member visits in any 24 hours.) It's way better than the last year of the old forum. I see a good rebuilding of info in the Gear Closet, new hikers reporting good results from first trips, and a few people who had posted in the old forums (not noting the ghost-town nature) who responded to my inviting them to come here and ask again; and I see they get immediate replies.

We get a few new members every few days, seldom do they step right in to introduce, but when they do, there are several replies to welcome them and ask the standard questions about kilts and Brussels sprouts. It's a friendly place and the format is much better than Facebook.

Last thing: this was not a Herculean task! It's just that I had an inside opportunity to do the job that needed doing. It was, I must say, pretty easy.

One way the forum could improve would be to figure out interesting ways to use backpacking and hiking imagery.

For instance there could be a member stickys thread showing member gear they are currently using. Thus people might post close-up pictures without people in them of just one piece of gear per post with a short one line description just one per day of say water bottles, or packs, or hiking poles, or boots, or fishing rods, or cook sets in use, or sleeping bags, or cameras, etc. And then in the same thread others could comment on whatever. Then at the top of the thread might be a sticky post with an index as html anchors to member names, their gear, and date posted.

Another idea just rolling crudely out of my thoughts. One thing everyone likes on backcountry trips are lakes and especially alpine lakes out here in The West. There might be a stickys thread of lake images taken only during the current summer. An issue with any images is a thread with lots of images loads slowly and on some browsers will jerk the text around each time a loaded image sizes. To fix that the forum software would generate thumbnails say at 200 pixel widths to embed in the post which would be image map links to a larger image urls of some max size that would load onto a blank page if mouse selected. Maybe set some limits like no more than 2 lake images of the same lake per post and 3 different lakes total with just one image post per day. Thus one would not see any way long posts with 20 lakes but rather small chunks. To display all 20 lakes would thus take several posts over several days and thus not overwhelm an audience. Members could of course comment on image posts and maybe vote in some simple way like selecting a star icon on the side frame. At the top of the thread could be a stickys index post with member names and image post anchors other members could mouse select to quickly move to that page. Of course an issue with long threads dozens of pages long is it is impossible to find stuff in the middle hence html anchors work well. After each summer the thread would archive with a new thread starting the next summer.

It's good. I hope it goes on for many years. It's been a friend and calmer for a long time for me. It is a good link to what it is what we love. Om.