Why did 4HV die??

[TDAF]

I was wondering what was the reason behind the"death" of 4HV.org??
Most of the big coilers(with exceptions like Kaizer or Finn hammer etc.) aren't active anymore and there are next to no posts.
What might the reason be??
Same is the case with the TCML
Why have these great resources extinguished??

[AndreiRS]

I THINK the first reason are facebook and whatsapp. People are just to lazy to get back to forums since writing there is easier. But they are all crap sites, it is just a ad network, you post something usefull, half day latter you can't find it anymore. To not mention the data stealing, I type "memory stick" on whatsapp, go to google and start receiving ads from memory sticks prices.

The second reason, I read somewhere the admin of that site is very busy, and he is the only one who accept new registrations.

[Hydron]

A lot to do with busy admin I think. There used to be a wiki (which broke), the software isn't updated and registrations take forever. Being busy is understandable though - life can change pretty quick!

[AndreiRS]

Why don't he just put someone he really likes as admin to accept new members and fix the forum? Don't need to give "all" permissions to that person if he is concerned...

I usually post something here and there too. Just to create some movement.

[Mads Barnkob]

4hv.org is not dead, but a lot of its processes in user handling etc. has to be done manually. So there can be some dead-time in the user experience.

Chris, the owner of 4hv.org is a nice guy and I do not want to discredit him in any way, he did a good job with the forum over the years. Chris wanted to stay in charge of 4hv when we proposed to make a non profit organisation to take over the ownership and maintenance.

This is where I moved on with starting up HVF and that is about 1 year ago now.

Facebook and other social media is truly a threat against hobbies, as all knowledge is kept in closed groups that are not open to search engines to find, if you search the forum you can find a thread in general chat that I wrote on this subject and which was also posted on a lot of social media sites to raise attention to the problem. But times are changing and we can only hope that people find the forum through searching or from posts on social media and then join up

[TDAF]

I meant dead in the sense that none of the "old guys" are active no more
Also 90% of post 2013 threads are about how to assemble a fricking onetesla or something

[Mads Barnkob]

I meant dead in the sense that none of the "old guys" are active no more
Also 90% of post 2013 threads are about how to assemble a fricking onetesla or something

We got older, got girl friends, had kids, got married, bought a house etc. No longer studying, but now working full time etc. Life changes and so does the time you have available for hobbies

[Uspring]

Mads wrote:

4hv.org is not dead, but a lot of its processes in user handling etc. has to be done manually. So there can be some dead-time in the user experience.

I think you seriously underrate your effort to keep this forum going even if it's based on a more convenient software. So it's time to extend a big thanks to you and your moderators for putting this forum online and keeping it alive and well.

This is where I moved on with starting up HVF and that is about 1 year ago now.

Happy birthday! May the forum grow and live long.

IMHO 4hv and TCML ain't dead. Attention seems to come in waves, long pauses and then again a flurry of posts.

[Mads Barnkob]

Thank you very much Uspring, it was some hard work, but the growth in posts and members shows that it was worth it, a good HV community is what makes a difference As activity grows there will properly also be more work for the mods/admins.

I did look into having the domain owned by a non-profit organisation, but the Danish tax rules in a international setting kind of set me back and I just jumped into it with a personal registration.

Unfortunately I forgot to celebrate the 1 year birthday of the forum, it was always 1½ month ago

Code: [Select]

Raw WHOIS Record
Domain Name: highvoltageforum.net
Creation Date: 2017-03-06T00:00:00Z

[futurist]

I agree with AndreiRS, biggest problem is facebook and similar closed networks
Generally people use forums less and less, yet in this hobby almost everyone uses info from stevehv.4hv.org, kaizer power electronics, loneoceans labs, etc.

I really hope this will change in the future

[MRMILSTAR]

TCML isn't dead, just less active. I have been a member of TCML for about 20 years. Back then I used to see at least 20 postings a day. Now, you don't see many. I believe that the members are still there. If you post a question you will get an answer though it may take a little longer.

I posed the same question a few months ago to TCML. The consensus on why there is less activity is that 20 years ago there were still many questions about the basic workings of tesla coils and what the best design required. Most of those questions have now been answered. Design software like "javatc" have helped a lot too. So there just aren't as many questions. I still post an occasional question and I eventually get an answer.

[MRMILSTAR]

I joined one of the major HV FB forums about one month ago to see if I was missing anything. Let me tell you, as far as technical knowledge dissemination is concerned, we have nothing to worry about. As a matter of fact I think that one would end up being dumber about HV if FB was your only source of advice due to the huge amount of misinformation. I have seen very little technical information on there. It is great if you like to have a quick interaction with other posters and for posting videos and pictures but that's about it. I would never go there for technical advice. I always refer people on there to "pupman.com", "4hv.org", or "highvoltageforum.net" for real technical advice. The FB groups are also great if you are addicted to getting "Likes" and I will say that I am as guilty as anyone in that regard.

It seems like half the people on there are Tesla groupies and are obsessed with what Tesla did 120 years ago concerning wireless power transmission. Then you get people posting about "free energy" and other such nonsense. Overall, not much is being lost to the FB groups IMHO.

[Hydron]

Thanks for the referrals and the content you've contributed to help maintain these forums as somewhere for serious learning and discussion. There is a reason that forum rule #1 exists, as you've found from your foray into Facebook!

[oneKone]

I joined one of the major HV FB forums about one month ago to see if I was missing anything. Let me tell you, as far as technical knowledge dissemination is concerned, we have nothing to worry about. As a matter of fact I think that one would end up being dumber about HV if FB was your only source of advice due to the huge amount of misinformation. I have seen very little technical information on there. It is great if you like to have a quick interaction with other posters and for posting videos and pictures but that's about it. I would never go there for technical advice. I always refer people on there to "pupman.com", "4hv.org", or "highvoltageforum.net" for real technical advice. The FB groups are also great if you are addicted to getting "Likes" and I will say that I am as guilty as anyone in that regard.

It seems like half the people on there are Tesla groupies and are obsessed with what Tesla did 120 years ago concerning wireless power transmission. Then you get people posting about "free energy" and other such nonsense. Overall, not much is being lost to the FB groups IMHO.

Some of the BS that gets posted on a particular Facebook page is next level stupid. For that very reason is why I'll always be grateful to mads for starting/maintaining this forum,

[John123]

It's a shame 4hv isn't as active as it once was, I used to frequent the place during my teens. But like everyone has said times change and the old guard are probably not the same people as they were 10 years ago (I'm certainly not). It's still nice reading old threads for information however.

Another aspect which springs to mind is ebay and how pretty much all of the beginner projects are available to purchase as completed products for a couple of bucks, back in my day you'd have to venture to the local radioshack type store and pick up parts and make it yourself. Now it's a click away and all the excitement and mystery around building the thing or researching how it works is lost for most people.

I still hope the 4hv archives can be resurrected in some form, there was so much good stuff there and even the currently accessible forum threads often link back to them. Just a shame we can't access them.