MERB dwindling?

[mtwallet]

I'll open by saying that in no way whatsoever is this meant as a criticism of the board, the owner(s), the mods, or the members. It is merely an observation, (read: opinion) on my part.

This may have already been asked before, if it has, then my appologies.

Are people losing interest in the board? Or the hobby as a whole? I used to go 2-3 days without signing in, and it would take an easy hour to read all the new posts in the "Lounge" and "Strip Club" sections. For the last six months or longer though, there seems to have been a sharp decline in the number of new posts in any section. It used to be that on a Monday there would be at least a dozen reviews for SC visits over the weekend. Now you're lucky if there's two. And a dozen requests for info whether or not you know if Mary Jane Rottencrotch still dances there. The Lounge used to have some really interesting discussions on everything from global warming to both local and world politics. There were discussions on legal matters, sports, and restaurant reccomendations. Some of these would go on for page after page. Not anymore. Now it's rare to see a thread go past two pages. Of course, how much is there to talk about when the thread is about the death/divorce/arrest of some supposed celebrity who wouldn't be in the news if they hadn't died/divorced/gotten caught. At times it appears that the "Suspensions for posting links", (it really should be renamed since that is the most common infraction), and the "Duplicate posts, Shills" are the fastest growing threads.

I understand that some of this can be explained away to the recession and the lack of funds that goes with it. Sure, some of the more (im)famous posters have moved on. But there are still a lot of members here. If they aren't out in the SC's, MP's, or chasing SW"s, surely they have the time for the Lounge?

My main question is this..(even though I don't expect an official answer)...Is the hobby dying...or just MERB?

 

[lgna69xxx]

i think there are less people coming to merb on a daily basis, because the effects the economy have had on their "hobbying" in general.... less regulars equals less posts. i do not think the "hobby" will ever die, afterall it is the oldest profession in the world. plus it is the slow time of year

 

[Special K]

Or we could all blame it on the new board software.

 

[Uncle Kracker]

I try to come here as much as I can... But the economy definitely has stunted the frequency of my trips to Montreal. Thus lessening my post count on a board based on Montreal...

 

[Techman]

I think that the lack of activity in political topics and other similar lounge topics is partly due to the absence of GG. I remember him being in the center of most of these discussions and when he was banned, the subjects kinda went with him. Then there are others who are no longer around either because they got banned or just left, like Oli and Ziggy, who used to start up threads that got a lot of attention. I know that I post a lot less than I used to and that`s mainly because I don`t spend very much time in strip clubs these days other than the odd trip to Cleo`s and that`s usually to see one daytime girl every couple of months. Other than that I post in the hockey threads and the odd lounge thread and I can go days without checking the board where I used to log in every day without fail. But I miss the political discussions sometimes as long as they aren`t about Quebec politics.

But overall Merb is much healthier than the blue board. I can check that board out once every two weeks or so and have less posts to look at there than there is in one day here. Just checking out Alexa.com shows that Merb stats are actually on the increase, visitor wise at least. While Alexa isn`t 100% accurate it still gives a decent idea of what`s happening with a particular site. What I find interesting is that they rate the speed of merb as being faster than 79% of web sites.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/https://merb.cc?p=tgraph&r=home_home

I don`t think that merb is dwindling. Maybe it`s just finding a new direction and waiting for some interesting new members to take over from us old timers who`ve been around here for so long.

Techman

 

[HG Hunter]

I'm active on the two main Montreal boards and terb. I've seen an overall decline in reviews everywhere. Bear in mind I'm a MP guy, not looking much at the other sections. There is plenty of general activity at terb, but there are so many members who all have something to say about almost everything, that's just normal. But terb is a fun place to hang out. Lots of colourful exchanges.

 

[CS Martin]

T-Man,

As usual, you've hit it on the head. The Mods have charted a new course here. Not always an agreeable one for all posters, but a new course.

From what my dependable sources tell me, things are pretty dead in Montreal Hobbyland these days from a "volume" perspective. Of course lots of things happening in the background. Don't bother asking me what, as I'm sworn to secrecy.

 

[Dee]

It's an interesting question.

I always have the best intentions of posting reviews as a pay back to those whose posts have helped me and as a pay forward to those who will in the future, but hardly do any more... don't know why. Maybe I'm feeling a little weltschmerz"y" these days.... but one would expect that a newer "gunghoier" recruit would take the place of the fallen. ( I hate when people do this but I will do it now... on my last trip to Montreal I had the most incredible escort experience of my life with a never reviewed lady.... will never forget the wink as she was putting on the second condom....I was going to pass it on when I got home but I just didn't get around to it. She's gone from Montreal now, and no, for a special reason, I won't pass her name on now.)

As far as general discussion and debate are concerned, I think the "holier then thou", "everything is black or white ", "those who don't agree with me are scum" attitude of of a couple of members has dampened intelligent, spirited discourse. One wearied of bopping them down only to have them constantly pop back up with the same inane, thick headed, pontificating attitude.
http://www.superdairyboy.com/Toys/Bop_Bags/Bozo_The_Clown.html

Undoubtedly the tight control by the Mods (who seem to frown on humourous comment) has dampened debate, while at the same time preventing wars. I guess there is an upside and a downside to everything (Quaere: are upside down cakes the exception? - http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/dre0068l.jpg ) Anyway I'm glad it's them and not me moderating.

I agree that the banning of the pot stirrers like GG (elsewhere, an almost Saul/Paul en route to Damascus transformation.... medication adjustment I expect), Oli (unvarnished truth teller extraordinaire), and Ziggy (brilliant) has decreased posts here while increasing the life expectancy of the Mods.

 

[CS Martin]

It's an interesting question.

I always have the best intentions of posting reviews as a pay back to those whose posts have helped me, but hardly do any more... don't know why. Maybe I'm feeling a little weltschmerz"y" these days.... but one would expect a newer "gunghoier" recruit would take the place of the fallen. ( I hate when people do this but I will do it now... on my last trip to Montreal I had the most incredible escort experience of my life with a never reviewed lady.... I was going to pass it on when I got home but I just didn't get around to it. She's gone from Montreal now, and no, for a special reason, I won't pass her name on now.)

As far as general discussion and debate are concerned, I think the "holier then thou", "everything is black or white ", "those who don't agree with me are scum" attitude of of a couple of members has dampened intelligent, spirited discourse. One wearied of bopping them down only to have them constantly pop back up with the same inane, thick headed, pontificating attitude.
http://www.superdairyboy.com/Toys/Bop_Bags/Bozo_The_Clown.html

Undoubtedly the tight control by the Mods (whom seem to frown on a sense of humour) has dampened debate, while at the same time preventing wars. I guess there is an upside and a downside to everything (Quaere: are upside down cakes the exception? - http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/dre0068l.jpg )

Thanks for your comments. I can't believe you don't think the Moderators don't have a sense of humor or that they have so tightly controlled this board as to dampen all reasonable debate. Such an environment would resemble a totalitarian regime. This is clearly not the case here.

 

[joedoe88]

i think op is right but also there seems to be a ridiculous amount of lurkers that will never post anything, for example look in the - does anyone know about this person from CL threads in the 411, and some have over 1 thousands views and zero replies

 

[Doc Holliday]

I think we need to get Justajohn, Regnad, Korbel, and Daringly back posting along with GG, Ziggy,Oliver and Tony and his 1000 handles and then things will pick up

Now there's an idea!

Eagerbeaver also has been fairly quiet over the past couple of years. He used to be the posting king on this board. His posts are few & he's toned it down quite a bit. I remember the days when he was much more outspoken & controversial....always interesting to read whether you agreed with him or not. However, at least he's still around to give us his valuable insights once in a while. But i understand that the likely reasons for him to post less & less are similar to mine: he now ventures to Mtl even less than i do. Much less.

 

[Fred Zed]

https://merb.cc/stats/

-Merb traffic is actually higher compared to 6 months ago.
-Over time the number of reviews posted decline simply because
the supply of service providers is not infinite ! After some time, basically most of the reviewable ladies have been reviewed.!
- Merb averages 150-200 new posts daily, that has not changed




_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Some recent new post stats
December 28, 2009

250
December 29, 2009

247
December 30, 2009

224
December 31, 2009

131
January 01, 2010

151
January 02, 2010

167
January 03, 2010

198
January 04, 2010

172
January 05, 2010

191
January 06, 2010

227
January 07, 2010

219
January 08, 2010

201
January 09, 2010

219
January 10, 2010

173
January 11, 2010

156
January 12, 2010

226
January 13, 2010

212
January 14, 2010

178
January 15, 2010

152
January 16, 2010

171
January 17, 2010

146
January 18, 2010

155
January 19, 2010

180
January 20, 2010

169
January 21, 2010

187
January 22, 2010

123
January 23, 2010

141
January 24, 2010

160
January 25, 2010

189
January 26, 2010

172

 

[Kansas Frank]

I check out Merb when I'm bored at work. I too am affected by the lozy economy. I'd visit Montreal more often if I had more dough. But my business has suffered tremendously in the states. I understand the Canadian economy is doing much better. MY president (the greatest communicator in that job, President Obama) has done nothinng to revive the US economy. He's been too busy accepting the Nobel prize, traveling to Copenhagen to reduce CO2, trying to copy the Canadian health care system, and fighting two (unwinable) wars!!!! As some wise dude said, it's the economy, idiot! I'm glad MERB has seen more traffic. I usually get on without signing in. Still not sure why some agencies are charging $200 when the economy is not so robust. I do love Billy's business model. Keep it up Billy.

 

[master_bates]

Fred Zed yes Merb still has many new posts daily, the problem is the majority are now in the lounge instead of in the review sections

 

[CS Martin]

Fred Zed yes Merb still has many new posts daily, the problem is the majority are now in the lounge instead of in the review sections

Yes, if you're a sports fan it has lively action in the lounge area. Maybe Fred should take advantage of this asset and rename the board MESRB or MSERB or SMERB......

P.S. I claim copyright on any of the above new acronyms.

 

[Fred Zed]

Fred Zed yes Merb still has many new posts daily, the problem is the majority are now in the lounge instead of in the review sections

yes, as I said, the pool of reviawable ladies is not infinite, so you will find over time the general areas of the board gets more activity.
But as the stats show, actual traffic and activity has not declined.

 

[bensonnobalia]

yes, as I said, the pool of reviawable ladies is not infinite, so you will find over time the general areas of the board gets more activity.
But as the stats show, actual traffic and activity has not declined.

Good point.

And frankly, what sells ads is traffic.

Whether or not posters talk about ball, the election, or Ipods. most do it here because they are intersted in the hobby, so advertisers get a good deal here.

Hobbyists too.

It may be a little politically correct for some. But there are other places to go for more open discussions.

Like it or not, Green is the best place in the city to go to find lineups of who is available on any given day at a vareity of agencies.

For that alone, it is worth its weight in gold.

 

[Jman47]

I check out Merb when I'm bored at work. I too am affected by the lozy economy. I'd visit Montreal more often if I had more dough. But my business has suffered tremendously in the states. I understand the Canadian economy is doing much better. MY president (the greatest communicator in that job, President Obama) has done nothinng to revive the US economy. He's been too busy accepting the Nobel prize, traveling to Copenhagen to reduce CO2, trying to copy the Canadian health care system, and fighting two (unwinable) wars!!!! As some wise dude said, it's the economy, idiot! I'm glad MERB has seen more traffic. I usually get on without signing in. Still not sure why some agencies are charging $200 when the economy is not so robust. I do love Billy's business model. Keep it up Billy.

Ok, let's talk about that...the current President has less than 12 months to FIX what it took the Moron Dubya 8 years to f**k up...dammit what is taking him so long!?

Frank - we have all been touched by the economic downturn in one way or another...but to blame it on the guy who had big enough balls to step up tp the plate and try to fix it - is just not right.

This should fire up a lively discussion...?!

 

[CS Martin]

Ok, let's talk about that...the current President has less than 12 months to FIX what it took the Moron Dubya 8 years to f**k up...dammit what is taking him so long!?

Frank - we have all been touched by the economic downturn in one way or another...but to blame it on the guy who had big enough balls to step up tp the plate and try to fix it - is just not right.

This should fire up a lively discussion...?!

Funny, I thought we were talking about MERB here not politics. Mods, are we not getting off subject here? Or will the Mods now let us change subjects in mid-thread now? I keep losing track of the rule changes.

 

[Merlot]

I think that the lack of activity in political topics and other similar lounge topics is partly due to the absence of GG. I remember him being in the center of most of these discussions and when he was banned, the subjects kinda went with him. Then there are others who are no longer around either because they got banned or just left, like Oli and Ziggy, who used to start up threads that got a lot of attention. I know that I post a lot less than I used to and that`s mainly because I don`t spend very much time in strip clubs these days other than the odd trip to Cleo`s and that`s usually to see one daytime girl every couple of months. Other than that I post in the hockey threads and the odd lounge thread and I can go days without checking the board where I used to log in every day without fail. But I miss the political discussions sometimes as long as they aren`t about Quebec politics.

But overall Merb is much healthier than the blue board. I can check that board out once every two weeks or so and have less posts to look at there than there is in one day here. Just checking out Alexa.com shows that Merb stats are actually on the increase, visitor wise at least. While Alexa isn`t 100% accurate it still gives a decent idea of what`s happening with a particular site. What I find interesting is that they rate the speed of merb as being faster than 79% of web sites.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/https://merb.cc?p=tgraph&r=home_home

I don`t think that merb is dwindling. Maybe it`s just finding a new direction and waiting for some interesting new members to take over from us old timers who`ve been around here for so long.

Techman

Hello Techman,

While the thread subjects by GG et al may have been interesting the tone was almost invariably combative and the result was almost always a flame war. The attention given to them was often like a mob arriving to turn a tense argument into a riot, and the purpose of many of these threads frequently seemed like a slightly different excuse to open a new door on the same old feuds, as proven by the evidence on the other board that being unable to battle with their old foes most of them have lost much of their creative productivity over there, while still continuing to waste energy in some obsession with the green board in general as well as their personal favorite targets to this day. Boring!

Overall, I have to agree that whatever has happened is because of the shallower pockets of funds among all hobbyists due to the economy. For example, I saw only four different ladies last year in seven meetings totaling about 11 hours compared to about 35 hours three years ago. Whether one was an economically marginal hobbyist, or a well off one, all of those I know have cut way back on the number of meetings and total hours. But despite that the health of the two boards I read has remained proportionally the same with Merb outdoing readership on the other board by at least 2-1 to 3-1 every day I bother to look at the number of online users for each board. So Merb doesn`t seem to be losing market percentage, just experiencing the effect of less resources and resulting decreased need by all; and yet as Fred pointed out actual posting numbers are relatively the same in general. So any so-called "dwindling" does not seem to be a transfer of readership or membership. It is the effect of the economic times on everyone.

Like it or not, Green is the best place in the city to go to find lineups of who is available on any given day at a vareity of agencies.

For that alone, it is worth its weight in gold.

"Green is the best place in the city to go to find lineups of who is available on any given day...for that alone, it is worth its weight in gold."

Ohhh, WHOA!!!!! The effigies are in production and the smurf`s flames are lit.

Cheers,

Merlot