Is TAZ now (or soon to be owned) by VerticalScope?

[\o/]

I'm still trying to figure that stuff out. NFTs and Meta...

"NFT": Selling virtual goods for virtual money. Basically, a scam scheme for hipsters.

Meta: The company that makes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and several other pointless non-discussion products.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

"NFT": Selling virtual goods for virtual money. Basically, a scam scheme for hipsters.

Meta: The company that makes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and several other pointless non-discussion products.

That scam scheme is starting to get pretty big!

I know Meta as in the company but I mean more along the lines of web 3.0. I always hear "metaverse" on Clubhouse rooms and stuff like that.

 

[\o/]

That scam scheme is starting to get pretty big!

Still no reason to become a part of it.

I mean more along the lines of web 3.0.

"Web 3.0" just isn't.

edit: Seems like TAZ won't let me put a link to URLs which contain "bull****". Oh my...
https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/web3-bull****.html (replace the ****).

 

[KimmiKat]

NFT is a joke and like Freakbook they should be tossed off a tall building.

About Meta, what's his face is trying something that was done by Second Life 20 years ago, but without legs!

I'm still trying to figure that stuff out. NFTs and Meta... My brain hurts!

 

[TrixieTang]

NFT is a joke and like Freakbook they should be tossed off a tall building.

Just sold this post as an NFT for 5 ETH. Who's a joke now, huh? Me, that's who!

 

[KimmiKat]

Just sold a virtual fart for a buck 3.98!

Just sold this post as an NFT for 5 ETH. Who's a joke now, huh? Me, that's who!

 

[ThornInYourSide]

I may well be ignorant or overly positive, but it seems to me that TAZ is not the average website that can be treated the same way any other community can.

To VS it is. And it's about to be yet another sub-par VS mess.

I don't know VS so ultimately I have no clue about what will happen.

Then you should listen to those of us who have seen the mess they create.

 

[sixlxvi]

Regardless of whether TAZ is dead or thriving, I don’t think

In fact, and I think I've posted this somewhere already, the posting rate here has increased substantially in recent times.

is a good way to make a conclusion.

Posting rate tends to increase with industry drama. In recent times, XF and IPS have had some juicy threads at TAZ. And now we have this juicy thread about TAZ itself.

Threads like these will increase posting rates, sure. But how has activity been in other sections of TAZ? The graphics discussion and help forum hasn’t been posted in since October 2021, for example.


I’m indifferent about the TAZ activity debate and don’t visit enough to have an idea of actual activity in recent times. So my only point is that it feels like this was overlooked.

 

[ThornInYourSide]

Thing is, their boards aren't fully dysfunctional. They work, they just suck at it. Members don't like change or standardization. We like boards to be different and have their own flavor, even if it takes us a bit to get used to each one. Then VS takes over, plops their standardized mess down and commands everyone to like it. Each time, they make a big production about how it's so much better and if you don't like it, tell us and we'll fix it. I've seen six or more (maybe ten) boards assimilated and not once, not one single time has a member suggestion been taken, or complaint resolved. Not once.

In the last iteration, they've started crosspromoting (spamming) their other boards, even if they're not at all related. AVS is promoted on a tractor and a car forum for example. Even if they were directly related, aka another tractor, car or TV board, why? Why would you want to drive traffic off one board to another? Most boards have rules against that.

Every single one of their boards runs much slower than non VS boards. It's hard to measure accurately with any tools I have, but each page load takes at least twice as long as others. Yes, we're talking small time increments of second or less, but why are theirs consistently slower? Why do sites slow down as soon as they take over? Part of it is the number of ads and the amount of scripting. I have so much of it blocked, I don't see what's trying to load, but one of my tools lists dozens of things it stopped or denied..

There isn't a specific cut your arm off type bad thing. But there are a number of little things that take away from what the boards were before their assault. Death by a thousand cuts if you will. But there is nothing they do, nothing at all, that makes any of their boards better than before. They add absolutely nothing at all to the experience. There is not a single thing they do that makes any board better.

Topping that all off, I just hate conglomerations eating up everything. Yes, there are a lot of boards left out here, and they may not be considered a monopoly, but if I were ina postion to stop them from acquiring even a single additional site, I would do so. I really and truly do hate VS and I don;'t understand why sites sell out to them unless the former Admins just give up and decide they don't like what they started or the members who have joined..

 

[KimmiKat]

Someone in our Discord is (or was) on the DBS Talk board and she said it's gone to poop and slow loading too. She has since left that board. If I had popular board and wanted to get out of the forum thing - I'd close it before seeing it get VSed. Of course I ask the any mods/admins if they want the board before PKing it.

We can comment all we want, but VS won't listen and soon will implode this board. They only worry about their bottom line.

 

[ThornInYourSide]

I'm curious.

Does anybody who has seen a board taken over by them have anything good to say about VS?

I honesty don't think I've ever seen an unbiased positive comment about them. I mean by someone who is not/was not involved with them in some way that they gained personally or financially.

 

[haqzore]

If so many know so well what VS does so poorly...

Why not start your own non-VS TAZ clone and absorb the fallout you know is coming?



I don't love or hate VS. But if it's all this obvious and this inevitable, then that same knowledge & skillset that makes it so obvious could be used to create & have ready the better alternative. Right?



Personally, I don't think its as simple / black & white as that.

 

[TrixieTang]

If so many know so well what VS does so poorly...

Why not start your own non-VS TAZ clone and absorb the fallout you know is coming?

Ah yes, another admin forum. Just what the world needs. Such an original idea that has never been tried before.

TAZ has been slowly wilting for years. So have all the other admin forums I've seen. Let's go back to what Howard said...

It’s an interesting turn of events. I hate to say It, but the glory days of forums are long gone. Almost everything has changed completely sine TAZ was founded… the people who use forums, the people who run forums, the people who make forum software… have morphed into something entirely at odds with the way things once were in forumdom. For those of us who remember and pine for the good old days it’s sad… the world has moved on.

It is not that forums are dead or dying - they still have their place and many are still active. The issue that TAZ has been seeing for years is the fallout from the fact that forum admins are:

1. Growing up and getting out of the game. As in all those teenagers that started forums in the 2000s because they wanted responsibility or power.
2. Growing old and getting out of the game. As in all the longtime admins who started out on UBB and early vBulletin and are now in their 50s, 60s or even older.

And no new forum admins are showing up since the Zoomers are all going to Discord (which will eventually go the way of Skype and MSN before it), reddit and Twitter.

 

[Nev_Dull]

I agree with what Trixie is saying -- sort of. Putting up another TAZ in the event this site becomes to bogged down in adverts and such likely isn't going to work. That doesn't mean there isn't still room for a good admin forum, it just has to be something that fits today's admin. We're past the need for the endless "I want to start a forum, what software should I use?" or "I'm starting a forum, what should it be about?" threads. And we definitely don't need more "How do I compete with social media?" sections.

Most forums now have been running for a few years and new ones (at least those that last more than a month) are established by experienced admins who know what they are up against. The kinds of problems we face tend to be more around content controversy and people issues. Technical problems still crop up, though not as often. We've seen this change right here over the last couple of years. We aren't getting the "how do I get more members?" questions. Instead we're getting the "how do I deal with polarizing topics?" ones.

Anyone thinking about replacing TAZ should be thinking of taking on today's issues, not yesterday's.

 

[sixlxvi]

Anyone thinking about replacing TAZ

Also, if anyone really is thinking about it, consider this:

The XenForo and IPS support forums are essentially replacements. I can only speak for the XF forum, but it's active and has decent forum owner discussions that a TAZ replacement would want. So I'm pretty content staying there.

 

[astro]

I oversee ~130 Communities in the automotive space and I can say that forums are not dead, we are growing. virtually across the network, large and small communities are growing and activity is outpacing previous years. What is needed is radical transformation of most leadership teams to ensure they reflect the current customer demographic. This can be very difficult and painful to achieve.

 

[Deathstarr]

I oversee ~130 Communities in the automotive space and I can say that forums are not dead, we are growing. virtually across the network, large and small communities are growing and activity is outpacing previous years. What is needed is radical transformation of most leadership teams to ensure they reflect the current customer demographic. This can be very difficult and painful to achieve.

Are you part of the VS team?

 

[cdub24]

And nobody wants to "discuss" things on their phones, like long discussion we see on forums, because it is

Literally all my forum use is on my phone.

 

[\o/]

That explains why your discussion points are so short.

 

[Pete]

I’ve seen people write 1000+ word posts on their phone, but you're never going to convince me it’s ever able to be a good experience writing a lot on mobile. You *can* but mostly won’t want to.