This comparing lives bullshit.

Truer words have never been spoken.

When you've both been on a board for close to a decade and a half it's not really worth quibbling over any difference.

You can't go home again flashy.

The internet just isn't the same as it was 10 years ago. Neither is the world. The world and the internet are much more intertwined today than they were 10 years ago. I'd go so far as to say that for most people the line between 'the internet' and the 'real world' has ceased to exist for many people.

This effects where and how people interact on the web. And I'm not just talking about social media like facebook and twitter (although that is significant). For those who do like to discuss and debate policy we've seen the rise of hyper-local news and discussion platforms. I spend much more time reading and commenting on Seattle Transit Blog, Publicola, The Urbanist, Seattle Bubble, etc than I do here. It's more relevant to my life and something I can actually influence. I've never seen the President pull out one of my very well reasoned WF posts, whereas I have had the Mayor pull out of his briefcase something I wrote for the Seattle Transit Blog* and tell me how it really put the issue (parking) in perspective. And how he had used it in a policy discussion that very day. Younger people that are interested in the type of back and forth that happens in the red room are doing under their own name and doing it elsewhere.

Legacy boards like this still exist. But not many new ones are made. And those that hold on are aging. It's just how it is. So far we've managed to do better than most. As more go under hopefully we'll be in a place to grab some of the old folks like we were with Starscape.

For me, I'm not going anywhere. While my posting has cut back the mental masturbation is too much. I'm an addict at this point. However even for those of us who do wish to argue for the sake of arguing over national and international issues we're in kinda a lull.

As I said in the beginning the world has moved on. We've entered into a period where Americans are less engaged with the world than the prior decade. After pulling out our major land forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and no big international terrorist attacks against western targets (9/11, London, Madrid, Bali, etc) combined with the Great Recession and the issues it highlighted we've shifted to more domestic focus.

And those issues are increasingly being argued over and implemented on the state and local level, not national. Since the Republicans took over Congress not much has happened on that front. Aside from their shutdown of the government, name something that has come out of Congress in the last couple of years. Compare that to the years before where you had major policy decisions being made (Obama Care, Stimulus Package, Financial Reform, Auto Bailouts, Bank Bailouts, etc).

With Congress abdicating their role of governing, states and local governments have had to step up. We're seeing some interesting work being done there, but aside from issues that could scale nationally (healthcare systems, minimum wage, etc) will other posters really care? In my life the biggest policy issues effecting me recently are the state transportation package and Seattle's HALA (Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda) recommendations. How many people on WF want to talk about 75 proposed zoning, permit, and tax changes to the Seattle Municipal Code?

That gets back to what I was saying about the hyper-local media and discussion platforms.

Yeah, stuff still happens nationally and internationally, and when they do we still get threads with 100s of posts (ISIS, Iran, Presidential Elections, Police Brutality, Gay Marriage, Minimum Wage, etc) it's just that we have less such events/policies. So less such threads.

*in case you were wondering:
http://seattletransitblog.com/2013/12/20/downtown-parking-supply-is-up-demand-is-down/

What I have observed recently is that parking is most difficult in inner ring suburban "lifestyle centers" trying to create faux urban experiences, but actual real urban downtowns do not have the same problem because driving is one of many options rather than the only option.

Which is why we end up getting threads full of SoCal food discussion, etc.. In order to rejuvenate WF, you need a critical mass of local discussion.

Nice post.