Since it's past 3am and I can't sleep, I've been reflecting on my time at JUB and how the experience of the forum has changed for me over the years. I was really tempted to post in the "what's wrong with JUB?" thread to air out all of the grievances I have, but then I realised I've sort of lost the right to complain since I'm not really actively contributing to the forums anymore. At least in the past when I complained, it was somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that I was here interacting with my friends and contributing to the forums as a whole. Now if I complain I'm just that guy who stops by to remind everybody why he doesn't like to come here much anymore. That's kind of a downer for all of the people who still post daily (or the new people who have started contributing and still really enjoy being here).
I think it's pretty obvious to most people that JUB isn't as active as it once was, and I think there has also been a shift in the overall tone of the forums, but I can't help wondering whether I've been overstating how much change has actually occurred. My experience on JUB is very different now to what it was 3 years ago, but how much of that is due to JUB changing, and how much of it is due to me being a different person now than I was back then?
When I come to JUB now, it's a whole lot easier for me to focus on the petty arguments and the negativity, but that sort of stuff has always been here, at least it was here 4 years ago when I first signed up. I think it's just that back then, I was interacting with everybody constantly and people were going out of their way to interact with me too. That's not really the case anymore, and I think it's mostly my fault. I can't really blame people for not interacting with me when I log in for a day or two and then disappear for a month, especially if I neglect the PM conversations I start or participate in. I'd probably be less inclined to drop somebody a forum comment or a PM too if they hadn't responded to the last few I sent.
So of course JUB is going to seem like a shitty place if when I browse the forums I can't really see many people who are interested in interacting with me. I mean, I can't count how many of my friends have self-deleted or gone inactive, and that's certainly a factor too, but whether it's by my own doing or not, a community forum isn't exactly going to be appealing to me if I don't really feel like a part of the community anymore. I can't really tell if there's less of a sense of community on JUB, or if it just seems that way because I'm not really a part of it anymore (at least not in the way I used to be).
I don't really know what the point of saying all this is, but it's definitely something that's been on my mind tonight. I should probably just sleep.