Just for some background, I am an amateur in my 20s who has been trying to learn piano on my own. Pianostreet has been an unparalleled resource online, and I would never wish to see it die. I am deeply indebted to people like bernhard, keypeg, and ted, whose posts have shaped my learning of piano. I was most active on the forum in the beginning of 2006.
This year we are under 2k posts and we are near the halway point, where last year it was at 6k posts in the year though all of this is a shadow of what pianostreet used to be with 100k+ posts back in 2005.
- Pianostreet is an "old-school" online forum. It is reminiscent of the internet in the early 2000s. In my experience, activity on most such forums has gone down (perhaps except for reddit, but I don't know how much that counts as old-school). The dark theme with mostly discussion-based posts without video or images contributes to this. The UI on the site looks decent, but most other sites look more "attractive" on a superficial level. I personally would not want this to change (!), but perhaps add some optional customizations for new members on the site. People are using the internet very differently than they used to.
Either there are less argumentative people left or we have discussed controversial topics to death...
I agree with this. Many common questions have been debated and answered so thoroughly, from so many angles, that there is not much to add, after a point.
I had noticed this myself, particularly over the last few months. A number of very talented people, regular contributors, have left this forum over the last few years, some formally and overtly, but others seemed to suddenly vanish altogether from the internet and email. I had attributed the decline to this but there might be other factors involved.
After a while, unless you post regularly in the Improvisation subforum like ted (and maybe even then), questions start to get repetitive, and it is natural that one may eventually leave the forum. One needs to keep attracting new high-quality posters, because old ones will almost inevitably leave after a few years.
My opinion, which I am sure few will agree with:
-A number of new members, particularly less experienced pianists, have been accused of being frauds, trolls and PW plants. Why in the world would you stay in that kind of environment that was allowed to continue over and over again. Forum moderators did not stop it.
-Audition room: it is visible but few professional/semi professionals will take the time to offer suggestions. The same post on PW receives views and comments.
Sadly, this is true. Trolls mostly didn't deter me from posting, but I would imagine that most people who are beginners and do not realize the true value of the forum could leave it and look somewhere else. I also agree with the reply to this post about how moderating the forum could stifle free speech, and make it harder to have real discussions with opposing viewpoints. This is always a dilemma -- perhaps have some moderation, but have a high ceiling for it to kick in? I was on the internet when trolls were rampant, so Pianostreet seems very clean in comparison, but many new internet users are totally disconnected to that "subculture" of trolling.
I have been really apprehensive about posting in the improvisation forum, because I am just a beginner, and most of the people there are excellent improvisers. I do not expect to get feedback on my improvisations there, and it is really nerve-wracking for me to actually upload an improvisation on the forum.
The free Silver membership has deliberately been closed for new registrations for more than a year and most new members are signing up to get access to the paid resources such as sheet music library, recordings, AST, piano news and other features of Piano Street. That is obviously the main reason for a declining forum activity the past year.
This explains a lot. Perhaps add a feature for guests to post? But again, if it's only a few months, we may as well wait.
Topic: Pianostreet Forum dying, how can we help?