Breadcrumbs

[reececlarke]

Now I have to assume that I'm not the only one who has noticed a decrease in the amount of users on this site sadly, granted I myself have not spent as much time on the site due to me being busy with other things such as course work deadlines (and a lot of procrastination granted).

However, I feel we could all pitch in in some part of brining more users to the site, personally I joined after watching my first programming tutorials on YouTube which I feel is one good way of bringing members back and if I have the spare time after exams I may make a few tutorials myself on the topic on bringing more life back to the point where the chat room is always full like it once was.

(the active users within 24 hours was a nice feature as well, although I'm not sure where that has gone too)

[mikethedj4]

This site is mostly for VB.NET programming as that's what most of the users here code in.
Most of the users here (myself included; I've been here since Mar 24, 2010) came from the videos on YouTube back when VB.NET was the most popular programming language for Windows.

Back then this was made as a forum but used mostly as a Q&A site and with now Microsoft handles desktop development now it's very different than it was back in 2010.

NOTE: Forums have been around much longer than Q&A sites and there are more open source forum platforms available still. It's a matter of "age" and that everything takes it's time to adopt. I think a forum is also a typical IT person's preference (going as far back as the bulletin boards before the Internet arrived), whereas from a marketing perspective Q&A sites are preferred.

Hence why Q&A sites like StackOverflow are becoming more and more popular while forums are decreasing in popularity.

With mobile and cross platform development in higher demand now more than ever frameworks like Electron, PhoneGap, NW.js and WebDGap are now more popular than ever. Many companies rely on these tools now more than ever for cross platform distribution.

Sadly VB.NET is strictly for Windows development. Now there is Project Centennial that allows developers to release their old software as a modern desktop app (In which they call, "Centennial"). However last I checked you have to be a Windows user to run and test it. I know I can easy develop cross platform apps with WebDGap, test and develop on my Mac and it'll run perfectly fine on all the other platforms I release it for. (Well except Chrome because of Google's Content Security Policy)

VB.NET is still made only for Windows (sure I can use the language on apps like MonoDevelop, Gambas and maybe Jabaco with the Mono Framework) but still it's just not as effective as developing with frameworks like Electron, PhoneGap, NW.js and/or WebDGap.

I love this community and will continue to come back from time to time. Now I do I still invite people in from time to time but they don't usually stay because of how dead the site is regularly. People love social networks now a days and turning the site into one may increase it's popularity drastically but will have to require a marketing plan behind it because people will still want to make money while using it. That's just my take on it though.