The unavoidable and serious problem with Maiotaku

I think I made my first post in like 2013 or something. It's been a long road on this website. I've seen drama, wackyness, and all manner of things on this site. I've met my wife on this site. But the state Maiotaku is in now? Nowhere even close to what it was a decade ago. It's almost like a shadow of it's former self, a monument that has been withered away to an eroded form that is only a fraction of its former self. What caused this decay? For a big part, technology. The rise of reddit. the rise of discord and other social media that work on mobile changed how many in Gen Z interacted with the world. Take for instance, discord. A lot of gen Z users are members of many different discord groups. They grew up communicating in a different way than millennials. Instead of topics arranged in forums, they prefer a group chat that is just a steady stream of information of random people talking. There is never a "topic". There's memes. There's emojis. There's instant replies. Take for instance, Anime Soul Discord. That's where all the new blood is, not here. Then you have reddit/twitter. A person makes a topic and can get social validation through likes and agreement online from randos. Then you have facebook where you do the same thing, but with people you know. There are also to other reasons. The biggest ones are: -No app support (gen z and future generations are primarily mobile) -rampant bots scare people away I guess I'm just old fashioned. Discord channels with this continuous stream of random, inconsequential thoughts don't appeal to me. Twitter/Reddit just feels like a cesspool of angry people. Facebook you cant do anything because your family is on there. Forum website formats such as this are a product of my generation, and sadly, I think it may die with my generation. Here, I've had so many memories. So many thoughts posted. I can look up every single one of them since 2013 if I wanted to and see how much I have changed over the years. That's precious to me, and it doesn't exist anymore outside of forums. The future generations prefer fragmented, short-term content spread across multiple feeds. The atrophy of information doesn't matter to many in Gen Z and Alpha because that's how they grew up consuming content. nothing is perminent. Now I kind of get how I felt such a disconnect with the offline social environments of the generation before me. Hah, look at me talking like an old man. Well, I'll just stick around here posting at my leisure because having my posts liked by people I know in my community is still a good feeling, even if that community gets smaller and smaller. Thanks everyone for just posting.

I haven't been here as long as you @arc, but I don't remember this place feeling so... dead. It's been so completely lifeless this year that it makes me wonder, what's the point in checking in when nothing is happening or has happened for days, weeks, months.

Thank YOU for posting Arc-Senpai, you've truly been here for quite a minute. I know I'm still the 'newer' person on a technicality, because I had to leave for two years when I first arrived sometime in 2020-22 (for reasons) and came back in 23, but it was a lovely experience when I came back, some users here were more active. I just hope that those who aren't online here anymore are having a good life. And who knows? Maybe, one day when I have the means to travel and do things with my family. I can fill up this space even more frequently about the details of my life, heck! I'd see if we can rally the measly number of people left here on a fun trip or something lol. Idk...I'll post fun lifetimes someday sksksk.

The bot spam doesn't help. Just feeling nostalgic to forums in general. Old school forums are really a relic of the past. I'm surpised MO is still alive. I do prefer these old school forums, though. I guess Mo is on its last legs.

This place has always been a very small and I'd argue, relatively tight knit community. The problem is, if one or two old heads leave or remain quiet,it dies(It's happened time and again until a few new-ish people take the reigns.). No one likes to converse on the threads,just "What I did today..." (Done that myself.) memes and lurk... It was always literally a handful on the forums, even if others just stuck to private messages. A few have gone on hiatus, many have grown up or just moved on with their busy lives. But, yeah... The bots suck.lol

man im a serial lurker when it comes to anything and i think ive been on off this site for 10 years now and i thought it was nice to see most my friends list is still online but the posts are far and few now. i dont remember how i found this website but i know i was using it to keep track of what i watched but then i moved to my anime list and stopped coming here completely then life got busy and i didnt check up for like 3 years. the thing is how do you even find a site like this now. i dont even know people now who want to use forums. i like it for the nostalgia since most my old forum websites died with net neutrality. idk itd be nice to see it active again but i dont see that happening

It’s kinda nice not having all the chaos of huge forums. Since 2008 I’ve been on music forums, anime/ video game forums, schizo forums (it was only me jk), city forums. I was usually the person that a lot of people hated. The bullies always leave after a few years.

I joined MaiOtaku almost 3 years ago so I have no knowlege of old times. I like the fact that this site offers both a forum and a chat, so you can interact with people either in public or in private (or both). But forums nowadays are basically dead so it's no wonder this one is too. What bothers me the most is not the lack of active users but the insane amount of bots, and I have a feeling it's done on purpose so the site can feel more alive. It's annoying to be blasted with daily friend requests everytime I log in, just to realize they are all bots. The Newest Members area, especially female members, are mostly bots. It's insane.