What happened to so many UP Boards?

[Tennessine]

I noticed almost all of the Southern states had very active forums back in the day, and a lot more cities, too.

Now the only genuinely active boards are Charlotte, Nashville, Orlando and Grand Rapids, MI.

 

What happened?

[MLBrumby]

I think lots of people dropped off because the early mods were jerks. Back when UP was still trying to build critical mass, I recall a couple of purges when some key posters were "disappeared". One mod in particular was like Torquemada.. If you said something s/he didn't like, your account was suspended. Often without warning and for mostly innocuous comments. Also, this board has seemed to me to be more regionally focused than a couple of other development-related ones.

[Mr_Bond]

I recently posted to one of the Tampa boards asking this very question.  Only one person responded and he lives in Orlando (and has his entire life).  He didn't really have an answer.  Since I go to both those cities regularly on business, I may try the Tampa boards occasionally to try to stir up some interest.  The Orlando site is about as active as Nashville's.

[dragonfly]

Funny how I went to the Houston board today b4 seeing this thread to find out the history of an industrial bldg being torn down in my neighborhood. I didn't bother to post the question. So the last text post on a Houston thread was 2013. The last post to a photo thread was 9-17. Maybe I should do the same go ahead and post it. I will say I got wacked years ago for the tone of one of my posts that I didn't think was so bad. Because I came of age in Nashville I'm thankful for the info here.

Edited November 12, 2018 by dragonfly

[KJHburg]

I would add Raleigh Durham and Greensboro Winston Salem (Triad) as 2 boards as well as Austin and Orlando;'s, Richmond and Tidewater VA Norfolk VA Beach are pretty active though not to the levels of the 2 king daddies Charlotte and Nashville.    I would say in the past it was moderators from what I have heard (I have been around less than 3 years) but that is what people told me.  

Edited December 15, 2018 by KJHburg

[Tennessine]

I have a little more information now, and yeah.... I'm glad those 2000s guys didn't scare everybody off. Yeesh, some of those people were stingy.

I think a lot of the disgruntled users substituted sites like Reddit and CityData for UP. My goal is to help revive the East Tennessee and Memphis boards. I'm thinking about posting on those sites to lure people over here.

[KJHburg]

Here would be my suggestions to revive a board and I would do if the moderator:

if someone wants to talks politics have a separate category for that and keep it there

Post lots of photos people like to see what is going no matter how mundane it might be. 

Have a photo of the day section just where photos of the city can be posted even if the building or object has been there forever

RESPECT people not all have the same opinion but disagree gently.  This is supposed to be fun and interesting.  As we all know people love to hide behind keyboards and computer screens.  Build a community and promote it have meet ups like they do in Nashville.   BUT don't criticize any comment and think it is stupid.  The Golden Rule does apply here too.  

A lot of people are very negative just let them stew and rise above it. It is so easy to be negative harder sometimes to be positive. But people flock to positive people not negative ones. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by KJHburg

[Tennessine]

Great suggestions, KJH! 

[Dale]

On 11/2/2018 at 6:27 AM, MLBrumby said:

I think lots of people dropped off because the early mods were jerks. Back when UP was still trying to build critical mass, I recall a couple of purges when some key posters were "disappeared". One mod in particular was like Torquemada.. If you said something s/he didn't like, your account was suspended. Often without warning and for mostly innocuous comments. Also, this board has seemed to me to be more regionally focused than a couple of other development-related ones.

The infamous metro.m 

He brigged me for posting *muted trumpet sound* when a project was cancelled.

[MLBrumby]

Whatever happened to that dude?  Hair triggered. 

[The ATX]

Posting photos/renderings is definitely the best way to get attention in sparsely attended sub-forums.  That's what I do in the Austin forum on UP.  At the busy Austin sub-forum at SSP, I rarely post photos.  I mostly stick to building permits and other early info about projects.  If I did that at UP it would be a bigger yawn fest in the Austin section.  Also, project lists tend to get attention.  I post a list which I update about once a month showing the status of Austin's tallest projects, and that gets some attention.  

[spenser1058]

On 11/7/2018 at 6:59 PM, Mr_Bond said:

I recently posted to one of the Tampa boards asking this very question.  Only one person responded and he lives in Orlando (and has his entire life).  He didn't really have an answer.  Since I go to both those cities regularly on business, I may try the Tampa boards occasionally to try to stir up some interest.  The Orlando site is about as active as Nashville's.

Happy Holidays, Mr. Bond, nativetenn  and all the Nashville posters from those of us in the Orlando room. Many of us there are in awe of the success y’all have accomplished with this forum. We’ve been trying to get meet ups started (if you meet someone in person, it seems like it helps to be a little more polite toward them when responding to a post you disagree with), but so far haven’t been successful (several of our guys/gals seem to have met anyway.)

For a number of reasons, cities like Tampa and Miami choose to post on SSC while Orlando has gone with UP. Personally, I find UP to be much easier to navigate.

Jacksonville, otoh, had one of its leading posters, Ennis Davis, blocked from SSC and started his own forum, metrojacksonville.com, which has since become thejaxon or something like that. His in-depth articles on cities (especially in the South) are amazing.

Anyway, keep up the great efforts y’all do here, and come see us in the Orlando room anytime!

Edited December 24, 2018 by spenser1058

[satalac]

On 11/2/2018 at 5:27 AM, MLBrumby said:

I think lots of people dropped off because the early mods were jerks. Back when UP was still trying to build critical mass, I recall a couple of purges when some key posters were "disappeared". One mod in particular was like Torquemada.. If you said something s/he didn't like, your account was suspended. Often without warning and for mostly innocuous comments. Also, this board has seemed to me to be more regionally focused than a couple of other development-related ones.

Oh yes, I was suspended quite a few times back in the day by that lovely individual and threatened with a ban simply because we didn't agree on things. Glad they haven't been back for almost a decade, at least under that screen name. They had a serious power issue. 

[Mr_Bond]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Anyway, keep up the great efforts y’all do here, and come see us in the Orlando room anytime!

Thanks, @spenser1058.  I have clients in Tampa and Orlando and make trips there every 4-6 weeks.  The UP boards will help me find some cool projects to visit as I get to know central Florida.

[Tennessine]

13 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

For a number of reasons, cities like Tampa and Miami choose to post on SSC while Orlando has gone with UP. Personally, I find UP to be much easier to navigate.

I agree with this. The SSC website is dated. UP is more user-oriented.

[smeagolsfree]

A lot of folks lost interest when the recession hit as there was not much happening anywhere.  When the recession ended there were only a few places that came out hot and heavy. Nashville was one of the cities that came out strong. Other places are still just not seeing much like St Louis or Kansas City, or many other mid size cities .

The big boys are doing fine, but a lot of the smaller places the poster just lost interest. I do think a certain moderator played a role in this, but there were a lot of factors.

I do agree UP is very easy to use.

I worked hard along with a few others to keep this forum up and running and we still kept doing forum meets through the recession. 

[Tennessine]

Hopefully the current macroeconomic state is more so a period of stock price correction rather than a prelude to high unemployment and cancelled projects.

[Mr_Bond]

On 12/28/2018 at 11:16 AM, nativetenn said:

Hopefully the current macroeconomic state is more so a period of stock price correction rather than a prelude to high unemployment and cancelled projects.

As an economist and investment manager, I will state that my current opinion is the former, not the latter.

[nashvillwill]

On 12/27/2018 at 2:11 PM, smeagolsfree said:

A lot of folks lost interest when the recession hit as there was not much happening anywhere.  When the recession ended there were only a few places that came out hot and heavy. Nashville was one of the cities that came out strong. Other places are still just not seeing much like St Louis or Kansas City, or many other mid size cities .

The big boys are doing fine, but a lot of the smaller places the poster just lost interest. I do think a certain moderator played a role in this, but there were a lot of factors.

I worked hard along with a few others to keep this forum up and running and we still kept doing forum meets through the recession. 

I’ve long forgotten the politics behind it, but there was a short run during those turbulent years where I found myself at nashvillecharrette.com. I don’t remember much about the “why’s”, but I do remember dropping off of UP for a short while, in favor of that site. But that webpage is long gone.