phpbuilder

jeepin81

Is it just me or has this forum really slowed down a bit?

Maybe a few contributing factors??
1.) New Design
2.) Site Speed
3.) SEO
4.) Lot's of PHP Resources since 1999 (treehouse,lynda,youtube mania, etc...)
5.) PHP apps'

???????

Anyway... just thought I would start a quick thread and see if anyone else thinks the same?

traq

I've noticed the slowdown, and I haven't even been here that long. 🙂

Most forums go through slow spots, though, and I didn't think it had been long enough to say if it was anything more than that.

#1, #2, #3: never noticed any problems.

#4: yes, paid services seem to make more popular programming "resources" than community-based groups. disappointing.

what do you mean by #5?

jeepin81

#5: I mean app's for phones, tablets, etc... Lot's of great reference apps to inquire questions. just a thought.

I don't want to hark on the new design too much b/c I don't hate it but it seems since the redesign it's been less and less post. I did a bing/google/yahoo search for PHP Forum(bad search I know) and phpbuilder wasn't on any #1 pages but php freaks was always near top....

I actually have a few books from University that mention this site. Just seems like a big slow down.

I for sure could be wrong.

NogDog

I figure it's some combination of the increasing popularity of stackOverflow, the fact that people who used to use forums like this both for information/learning as well as socializing (especially in this sub-forum) now do most of their on-line socializing on facebook and similar, plus the likelihood that many early members have gotten tired of the same old questions* once traffic peaked here with lots of new PHP-ers.

Why do I get this "unexpected end" error? Why do I get this "not a resource" error? Why do I get this [some error that would easily show up in a decent editor] error? Etc., etc., and so forth. 😉

Emma

Actually I noticed that the site seems to load slower since the re-design. Also my old bookmark stopped working instead of redirecting quickly, so that may have put a few people off too.

Derokorian

I think NogDog has a point. The fact that quite a few regulars (including myself) have text files with "Standard answers" doesn't speak well to people's ability to use a search system. The fact that half the time, I can find the answer by copy pasting the subject line into google, also speaks poorly for the regulars to "exercise" their brain power on good questions, instead see nothing but drivel.

I know from my point of view, I will probably not be leaving this forum any time soon, if for no other reason than I kind of feel like I owe this community, being that many of the long time members have shaped my knowledge into what it is today. Thanks for that by the way 🙂

NogDog

Yep, I owe much of my PHP/web-dev ability to this forum. Interestingly, a lot of that did not come from asking questions, but from figuring out answers for other people's questions. I think all good programmers like to solve puzzles, so they are more likely to search for answers, do some trial-and-error and so forth rather than just asking someone else -- at least not until the schedule demands it. 🙂

laserlight

NogDog wrote:
Interestingly, a lot of that did not come from asking questions, but from figuring out answers for other people's questions.

Exactly the same for me 😃

Derokorian

NogDog;11026439 wrote:
Interestingly, a lot of that did not come from asking questions, but from figuring out answers for other people's questions.

I agree completely, although I did ask some pretty dumb questions that y'all helped me with, but it wasn't "here's the answer". I think the most important thing I learned from this forum isn't how to write code, but how to find answers.

dalecosp

First of all, I'd suggest that it's real, at least in terms of interaction. Ten years ago we had multiple pages of new posts each day. Now, less than one some days.

Facebook is a bit of it. Slow load of pages may have an effect. I wonder if many of the geeks who were here to learn PHP back in the day learned it and have moved on. Whoever mentioned StackOverflow has a good point, too.

I've wondered if we trolled Elizabeth and Daynah too much (are there any women here anymore?)

Can anyone comment on where PHP peeps might be besides StackOverflow? I think I'm a member at PHPFreaks, but I always preferred this community. Reason I ask ... if there are just as many, or more, people using PHP forums these days, they must be someplace. It could be that an analysis of what's happening where they are could reveal our shortcomings here.....

jeepin81

I agree, I've learned a lot here and I really appreciate everyones help over the years... One thing about this site I really enjoy is when people post multiple solutions to the same problem.

Everyone mentioning other social platforms available today makes me think of sites like Wordpress, Drupal, CMSMS, phpBB, WuFoo, etc, etc... If you need something you just download a module or plugin. I guess when I first came here a lot people were building all of those modules/plugins/sites on their own.

The only sites I frequent now are stackoverflow, css-tricks, iprodeveloper, zend, code-pen, daniweb, php-freaks(rarely) and here of course.

I still think the new site & load times are playing a small role. JMO

Weedpacket

Derokorian wrote:
I think NogDog has a point. The fact that quite a few regulars (including myself) have text files with "Standard answers" doesn't speak well to people's ability to use a search system. The fact that half the time, I can find the answer by copy pasting the subject line into google, also speaks poorly for the regulars to "exercise" their brain power on good questions, instead see nothing but drivel.

Has anyone else heard of "help vampires"?

NogDog

Another thought that comes to mind would be to provide a mobile-friendly interface, or perhaps add Tapatalk to the forum, if Vbulletin supports it?

cretaceous

I've learned a vast amount here and I read any thread that has an interesting problem I don't know the answer to.
I don't like the competitive nature of Stack Overflow - there's some pompous people there - it has its place though.
But I see the main reason as the uptake of Wordpress.
There's an article (see the discussion page that follows the article) on the UK news site The Register (IT with an attitude) about how the middle ground of the informed amateur (or office dogsbody) is disappearing - web dev now needs either properly knowledgeable programmers .. or up to a point, a Wordpress install.
In most ways that's a good thing but it means fewer beginners.

dalecosp

Weedpacket;11026503 wrote:
Has anyone else heard of "help vampires"?

That's hilarious and poignantly sad at the same time. Perhaps the explanation for the apparent demise of the communities does indeed lie right there with the life sucked right out of it.....

NogDog;11026533 wrote:
Another thought that comes to mind would be to provide a mobile-friendly interface, or perhaps add Tapatalk to the forum, if Vbulletin supports it?

vB (newer versions --- I think this site should be included) has a pretty good Mobile Stylesheet setup; it has to be enabled in their administrative panel.

cretaceous;11026557 wrote:
I've learned a vast amount here and I read any thread that has an interesting problem I don't know the answer to.
I don't like the competitive nature of Stack Overflow - there's some pompous people there - it has its place though.

But I see the main reason as the uptake of Wordpress.

There's an article (see the discussion page that follows the article) on the UK news site The Register (IT with an attitude) about how the middle ground of the informed amateur (or office dogsbody) is disappearing - web dev now needs either properly knowledgeable programmers .. or up to a point, a Wordpress install.
In most ways that's a good thing but it means fewer beginners.

Worth thinking about, for sure. I wonder, also, if we're seeing some of the results of the F/OSS movement. Companies can obtain some pretty good software at low/no costs these days; that allows them to pay a few people to support it, but there's so little graft anymore now that we're all so altruistic about software, right?

Emma

I think you'll find the biggest problem is phpbuilder's front page it has a two year old obituary as editor's choice followed by a story from 2010 - it looks like the site died with the creator so why would anyone go further.

bradgrafelman

Emma;11026637 wrote:
it has a two year old obituary as editor's choice followed by a story from 2010

Funnily enough, that's probably more recent than the last time I ever visited anything but the forums. 😉

As for my $.02 about the new design... I still miss the old one. Others have pointed out the fact that a lot of the resources (images, scripts, etc.) on the new design aren't being cached properly. Fixing that would not only reduce subsequent loading times but probably even alleviate some of the bandwidth usage.

EDIT: Looking at the response headers, perhaps the cache issue is a local one. Hmm... oh well, I still miss the old design. :p

dalecosp

Something else I miss ... just occurred again. I can no longer post images inline.

That SUCKS, IMHO.

Derokorian

Seems to work for me dale 🙂

dalecosp

Hmm. Someone read the post and changed it, most likely.