I decided to find out whether I'm right or wrong about this and ended up making this graph, the leftmost column represents Jan 1/2009 and the last one is today, each column represents the number of posts on that day.

It's too irregular to draw any conclusions but I thought I'd post it anyway.

That spike is probably around the time GC died, I'm guessing?

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You like music, yes? I made some for you.

Hmm, interesting. Looks like things have been pretty consistent "post-spike", if a little slow (which I think can be at least partly explained by the fact that it's exam time, so all the members in school and college are too busy to post right now).

Which all makes sense to me. I've been keeping an eye on the number of people who log in every day and for a few months now it's been hovering around the 25-30 people mark (jumps up to 35-ish every now and then, and tends to drop down to 20-ish during the holidays when people are too busy doing stuff IRL to post on forums), About half of those are regulars who log in pretty much every day, but the people who make up the other half change all the time, so there are a lot more than just 30-odd people using the forum.

EDIT: Just checked the members list, and FWIW it looks like about 63 different people logged into the forum last month. No idea how many people just lurked though.

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

I agree with DC - if you disregard the spike (which from the timeline looks to be last November which is when globalchatter went down) then it has been slow but consistent.

You have to remember though that we are not comparing like with like here. The more established sites like Typology Central, PersonalityCafe and INTPc each have over 9,000 members which means that their post counts are going to be a lot higher than here. Furthermore, the online MBTI forum 'market', particularly insofar as introverted intuitives are concerned, was already beginning to fragment long before globalchatter was taken down (its slow decline was possibly a contributing factor towards this trend I suspect), resulting in the situation we have today whereby there are a number of choices available for people looking to join active MBTI forums. INFP traffic does not all go to the same site anymore but is split between a handful of these places, which is why the membership here did not suddenly expand following the closure of GC.

Another thing to bear in mind, as previously discussed in another thread here, is that many of the members of this site tend to be more mature INFPs and long term posters:



Other thread discussing this along with globalchatter's demise:

the-other-site-t167-100.html

this forum is wandering slowly and stopping to smell the roses

Mulls it over...

It takes a long while and a lot of effort to create an active online community. Maybe after Globeshatter got shut down INFPs didn't want to put the effort into creating and getting used to an entirely new social dynamic.

Every forum needs a few people who are willing to obsess over the forum to make it work (you know crazy people). Looking at the stats it seems that a lot of people log in see that there is nothing going on and then don't come back. We need people who are going to stick around despite that, people who are quite honestly lonely.

So the next question is how would you like your forum, really slow or with people who are emotionally unstable? I personally a prefer the former cause the latter is at least interesting.

How thoroughly was this forum advertised anyway? Have sent word out to other sights? Have we posted links on online tests? etc etc

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Joy, beautiful spark of divinity*
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Into your sanctuary, heavenly (daughter)!
Your magic reunites
What custom strictly divided.
All men become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests -Ode to Joy

I think Noodle has a bit of a point with the emotionally unstable bit. I'm part of a forum that's mostly made up of teenagers and we are definately a bit off-kilter--but there is always something going on, scuffles occurring, new ideas getting bounced around, etc. This forum has a slower-paced and directionless feel to it. Not that this is a bad thing. xD A change of pace is nice, but sometimes having some crazy teenagers bouncing off the walls gets things moving a bit. We have a couple members on the other forum that are always prodding at how we view things and making discussion threads, debating ideas and finding new information. I feel like if we lost these...I don't know, say five dynamic members, the forum would slow down and not a lot of change would occur (it might also be worth mentioning that the forum has way more active members than this one here).

I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just throwing out a few things. If the forum's slow pace is fine, then fine. There's nothing that needs to be done, just keep wandering along and smelling the roses. If you need more things going on then...well, new threads help, get some discussions going, ask questions, call your friends in for some input. I'm not sure.

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Lolyes. This is why I don't mind INFPverse being a bit slow... I guess it feels like a clubhouse (where others are welcome of course), and I like it that way. I prefer our members going to the clubhouse when they feel like it, rather than obsessively because it's their final lifeline.

I agree that we could be more active though.


It hasn't been thoroughly advertised--lots of other forums (the best place to advertise for forum dwellers!) frown on advertising for non-affiliated sites.

We are on typelogic though because they are very cool.

If anybody has any suggestions for other places to advertise the forum, they are very welcome.

Yeah, I also encourage everyone to start and/or participate in a thread or two.

There are a lot of cutesy threads here that I'm really not into, and maybe I'm not the only one who feels that way. I would participate more if there were more threads discussing MBTI theory. Yes, I realize I could start them, but it's not typical for me to start threads. Is lack of initiation an INFP problem?

I've also got a link to this place in my sigs on the ENTP and INFJ forums, and there's also our link-exchange partner The Crossroads/Personality Piazza.

If anybody else feels like putting a link to the 'verse in their sig line on the other forums they visit, I've found it to be a pretty good way of getting people to check the site out (be sure to clear it first with the mods/admin(s) there though, like sciski said a lot of forums don't like people advertising other forums on their site).

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

How about the Globalchatter group on Facebook? I'm pretty sure that Kara doesn't have anything to do with the admin of this group, but even if she did, INFPgc is no more so I don't see that there would be any clash there.

There are other INFP groups on Facebook too I think.

Well, for as long as we aren't pushing tulips, this is horticulturally sound.

However, we should be cultivating more roses.

And speaking of roses, I saw that a new one just dropped by!

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Sorry I haven't been much help, you guuuys. I come often but never say anything. XD

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"I don't make sense! You don't make sense! I make sense, that's who makes sense!"

I just registered today, and I noticed that the forum seemed rather quiet. I assumed it was due to the Holiday season, that being most people were visiting with family etc.

I found this thread which has caused me to think twice about my inicial assumption, and now I plan to help by posting fairly regularly. I believe that people have many interesting things to say, and I feel it would be a shame to see the forum remain fairly slow (unless that is how everyone wants it). I'm sure there are people here who value the forum and would like to see it remain somewhat active...

I think there's still plenty of room for growth here, but personally I wouldn't want to see it get very busy, as that would change the atmosphere of the place and make it much less relaxed (which is one of the main reasons I signed up here in the first place). Obviously that's just my opinion though, and if this place did get that much busier I wouldn't whine about it or anything, I''d just try to find somewhere a little quieter.

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What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. - Gerard Manley Hopkins

I think it might help for us to subscribe to certain topics we'd like to see developing, and to turn on e-mail notifications, since we may not all have the luxury of time to check back several times within a day...

Also, there was a time there were more active members for several months, but I think that major life changes have made them focus more on the real world than introverted topics like typology.

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Hmmmm.

I must say, I'm no longer as interested in typology as I was when I first discovered it, the stereotypical INFP-like phase of all-consuming enthusiasm being mostly spent, with the remainders assimilated into my automatic worldview, thus I am not given to discussing personality typology with anywhere near the fervour I may have done as recently as a couple of years ago.

I also believe that the intensity of INFPgc is something I will always look back on with the utmost fondness but that now doesn't seem as relevant. Parting is such sweet sorrow, they say, but in the chaotic maelstrom of those months I think I grew and learned as much as a person as it is possible to do via an internet forum, and I no longer feel the urgency I had before to search for answers. I am still, of course, very much a journeyman, as are we all, but I feel rather less frenetic in my methods. It's also possible that there was something of a 'feedback loop' going on - there were many more topics and many of them thought-provoking, particularly as I hadn't considered certain ways of thinking before, which inspired in me further introspection which led to more posts and so on. I rarely start topics as I don't always feel like I need outside input and I don't always know what to talk about, much less sharing my ramblings in any further detail than I do in my posts already. So yeah, OA, I'm with you there.

It's true that I did miss some of the richness, and sometimes I worry lately about how decidedly tranquil my mind seems to be, but this board definitely grew on me. It's not the kind of place you can check several times a day or not always daily but it has a very relaxed atmosphere. I'll always feel welcome and I know that no matter how things are going (or not going) in the outside world, I can always check in here for a quick laugh, a touching video or an obscure thought. So, no, I don't think we're dying, nor do I ever wish to see the board die, and I'm very grateful for the work and money the admins put in to keep this place running. That's just how things turned out.

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We are beyond our own ability to define ourselves - we can only describe what we think we are.

I do think this forum has sort of turned into a place where you can just go to visit the people you like, keep updated, and just basically be friends. I do hope we can attract more friends, or somehow encourage those who read but don't post (much) to participate more often... but if this is what it is going to be, I'm glad at least there's a place on the web where I can still keep in touch with my INFPeeps.

I just started posting here but, i love the feel of some place where it seems safe for an INFP (or some-thing like) to express freely, without a spotlight of quick judgement. That's kind of why I've posted some tangential stuff as of late but, it was nice to just let "what-ever" out. I can't think of another place where i could express myself this way without ignorant comments immediately following. I think this place is cool to come and go from. I always wondered why at parties i'd always like to switch from room to room. They'd always welcome me and, then i'd slip into the background.

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"...he must bring forth values which are an equivalent substitute for his absence in the collective personal sphere. Without this production of values individuation is immoral and, more than that, suicidal..." Jung

this is a safe place for me on the interwubs. i'll always keep coming back.