Has DZ.com run it’s course?

[jclalor 12]

It sure seems awfully slow lately.

[Meso 38]

There has definitely been a slow down in the community forums over the years, which we assume is due to Facebook. Almost all forum websites have slowed down as Facebook became the place where people spend a lot of their time.

With that said, our 'on topic' forums have remained fairly consistent in comparison.

As always, we're open to any suggestions or feedback that you guys have on how we can make the site more valuable.

[gowlerk 2,190]

I participate in FB because there is a lot of action there. But it is far inferior to what is available right here. FB content is like a vapour.

[wmw999 2,439]

FB is for announcements; it sucks for discussions. 

Wendy P. 

[shorehambeach 9]

On 9/20/2019 at 5:54 AM, jclalor said:

It sure seems awfully slow lately.

Yep completely agree. The site traffic has fallen off a cliff.

 

Its not FB that has ruined this site its the newlook / overhaul.

 

The easy format and simple way to follow and catch up has been ruined.

 

DZ.com was a superb forum to my pre-skydiving days and has always provided to be a great learning tool / valuable insight since i started jumping several years ago but now its simply doesn't work as the ease of use has gone.

:-(

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by shorehambeach

[JerryBaumchen 1,354]

6 hours ago, shorehambeach said:

Yep completely agree. The site traffic has fallen off a cliff.

 

Its not FB that has ruined this site its the newlook / overhaul.

 

The easy format and simple way to follow and catch up has been ruined.

 

DZ.com was a superb forum to my pre-skydiving days and has always provided to be a great learning tool / valuable insight since i started jumping several years ago but now its simply doesn't work as the ease of use has gone.

:-(

 

 

 

Hi shore,

I absolutely agree.  They are ruining it.

Jerry Baumchen

[wmw999 2,439]

It was way slow before that, too. There are probably a few who left because of the redesign, but not a lot. 

I’m not impressed, but forums as a whole might be fading as a means of discussion, which is a shame  

Having a really old platform, out of support and with no source (or without the manpower to support that old a platform) is much more expensive. It’s not just a matter of letting it run. It has to interact with the rest of the programming world, which isn’t necessarily backward-compatible. Kind of like trying to drive a model T on the freeway. 

Wendy P. 

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

I don't find the new format to be significantly worse. The only real difference I see is that the numbers of new posts doesn't appear in the forum list. 

The old posts don't read as well as they did originally in the new format, siglines are really hard to differentiate and the pics are gone. 

Other than that, I don't have any issues pulling up the first new post in a thread, or seeing what's new in a given sub-forum. 

[Greekos 6]

well I reckon this forum is great, Facebook is a joke as a whole, all this place needs is just a bit of effort to kick off the discussions again. I bought my reserve off here for a good price and seller was great to deal with and went above and beyond for helping me get it shipped to another country.

[billvon 2,989]

16 hours ago, shorehambeach said:

Its not FB that has ruined this site its the newlook / overhaul.

Eh, people said the same thing about the previous overhaul.  Things change.

[shorehambeach 9]

9 hours ago, billvon said:

Eh, people said the same thing about the previous overhaul.  Things change.

Yes and the traffic for the site has fallen off a cliff since the new look. 

Its no coincidence. 

Have a a look for yourself at the stats. 

I have no skin in the game - I just really miss DZ.com  

Its like a ghost town now. 

 

 

[oldwomanc6 52]

I don't think  the "overhaul/site change" threw it off a cliff.   The site change came after the drastic drop off.

I think the fact that they threw the three highest clicked-on  threads into the garbage  did.  (one , and then two in one night)

One of them probably deserved it, but the other two were pure entertainment (and revenue generators if clicks=$). Never did understand throwing money away like that.

 

[Erroll 80]

6 hours ago, oldwomanc6 said:

and revenue generators if clicks=$

Probably the only reason the rubbish in the DB Cooper thread has been allowed to continue.

But I agree - those high click threads bring the traffic. Much like a shopping mall needs a headline store to attract  the customers and the speciality outlets benefit.

[Brillo 1]

As a relative newbie I still find it really useful for learning a lot from the old sweats.

All the other forums I use are on Tapatalk which brings a great design and means they’re all handy from one app. That would definitely help.

[DiverMike 5]

I am one who stopped being active because of the new interface.  It is a step backwards.

 

[Administrator 52]

Just a reminder that we are still very open to making adjustments to the forums to help users in cases where they feel certain functionality is missing or something worked better on the old site.

Of course, moving to new technology is always a challenging, you gain a lot but may also lose some aspects that the old software had. We definitely have no regrets moving the system, as the old system was barely breathing with how outdated it was. The developers last update was over a decade ago - the site would have run into the ground.

With that said, there are things we'd like to enhance and fix on the site still, of course. But we've typically worked with users to address most of the concerns. I'm going through old threads at the moment and ensuring that nothing was missed, and creating a tracking center where you can see the status of changes and suggest additions to our tracking list. I realize a lot of what we do is happening behind the scenes and not really seen by the users.

If you have suggestions or comments about aspects which put you off the new design, I'm always happy to listen and make adjustments where it makes sense to and where possible.

Please feel free to add feedback and suggestions here particularly: https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/266945-bugs-functionality-tracker/
 

[flyhi 24]

As long as no one knows WTF DB Cooper is, this site will have a new post every six hours or less. 

[sfzombie 3]

yes