I’ve noticed it as well, but in a different way. Our “community” is growing farther and farther apart so that, sometimes, I feel like we’re not even a community at all. Like we’re more just random sites that link each other at times.
I can remember back about five years ago when I first started meeting other designers from different sites. Once I got the hang of it a little more, it felt very community-like. Lots of different friends, lots of socializing, more updates and less “I’ve been busy” posts.
About a year or two ago that started to change. I’m not sure if I’d fully want to blame the fighting that happened a while ago that “split” the community, but I believe it did play a part. Especially since soon after many began to distance themselves to keep themselves out of the fighting, both in terms of closing their site or just becoming more business-like. I’m probably one of the latter as well.
There’s also been talk of different communities when I always percieved us as one whole, not individual communities coexisting. But maybe that’s just me being the oddball non-graphics site (I have more graphics-related content now, but I didn’t for most of SF’s existance).
What happened?
We don’t talk as much anymore. Each site seems more a separate entity than one piece of a grouping. More and more sites are dying off and the new ones popping up aren’t as up to par (and aren’t growing that much).
Personally, I believe that part of why they aren’t growing is because of the lack of community. There isn’t as much support as their used to be. There isn’t as much socializing that kept people interested. Sure, your site is for yourself but part of the fun is sharing that fun with others. And, more important, without all of that there isn’t that group of others to come to with questions, or ideas, or achievements. If you don’t know what you’re doing wrong and/or if you don’t have people to help you grow, how should you be expected to achieve? Sure, you might still if you persevere but it’ll definitely take a lot longer.
A few years ago our community broke apart. I say we fix it.
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