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INTEREST: Neo Magazine Online Forum Closing

I was one of those "older members". It's sad when this sort of thing happens, but I can't help, but think it's just the first crack in the hull of a ship that's about to break up and sink. Sadly I too drifted away from their forum as my interests changed and the info to be had for those changes was already dated there. Indeed I was more contributor to new info than consumer, and the debacle over those awards didn't help. I just renewed my subscription last month as well so I'm hoping the magazine will continue at least until next January.

Mohawk52 wrote:

I was one of those "older members". It's sad when this sort of thing happens, but I can't help, but think it's just the first crack in the hull of a ship that's about to break up and sink. Sadly I too drifted away from their forum as my interests changed and the info to be had for those changes was already dated there. Indeed I was more contributor to new info than consumer, and the debacle over those awards didn't help. I just renewed my subscription last month as well so I'm hoping the magazine will continue at least until next January.

You mean the TokyoToys thing from ages back?

faintsmile1992 wrote:

Mohawk52 wrote: I was one of those "older members". It's sad when this sort of thing happens, but I can't help, but think it's just the first crack in the hull of a ship that's about to break up and sink. Sadly I too drifted away from their forum as my interests changed and the info to be had for those changes was already dated there. Indeed I was more contributor to new info than consumer, and the debacle over those awards didn't help. I just renewed my subscription last month as well so I'm hoping the magazine will continue at least until next January. You mean the TokyoToys thing from ages back?

Well if you consider 2011, an "age" then yeah.

Two years ago and you still haven't moved on from that? Tut tut tut.

But like I said, I didn't care much for the NEO forum anyway, it was kind of like a handful of old Grauniad-lovin' ex-student types types discussing the news with a faux-outrage tone ironically like that of The Daily Mail. Although younger members came and joined sporadically they posted a brief intro but then they soon left. It was also increasingly low on the anime related discussion, whilst people kept posting in the off-topic chat threads. From what I gather NEO forum wasn't only more popular back in the day but important to the 'scene' connecting people, but the UK otakudom has long ago moved on. After that NEO mag's forum had lived its course and that's that.

On any forum, the core regulars are the bread and butter that keep things going, but over time the same old regulars always turn a forum into a circlejerk of familiars into which newcomers feel excluded, cause that's the way humans work both in real life and online. NEO mag forums is a perfect example of this, less and less people posted there over time and their activity seemed more and more limited to the chattier off topic threads. This is even happening on my own forum which I started last year, or not long before, anyways.

What's the betting this is the real reason why the forum was closed, to help relaunch the mag? The mag is a commercial product that's marketed at a younger target demographic its forum no longer reflected, and worse still the inactivity in the on-topic sections made otakudom in the UK look to be in an even worse state than it actually is.

It seems to be AUKN and AL who have taken over now as Brit otaku forums (though some people won't like to hear that last bit about AL lol).