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Younger shooters probably don’t spend as much time on these antique message boards lol.
Younger people think Facebook is outdated and for boomers.
Many forums throughout the years have dried up and vanished, but I guess that means that TFL does gain new active users.
Most message board type users have migrated over to reddit or the various chans etc.
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I agree with this. I stumbled upon another gun related sub-section of a social site because I was looking for deals on firearm related things. (I was never sure about mentioning other websites by name so I won't)
Let's just say I'm not that old... yet. I think. But even without a genuine old man outlook it was easy to see a difference in communication style. Shorter phrases, less explanations, more references to internet jokes (memes). There was an occasional paragraph written here or there, but it was much less common than on this "old fashioned" message board.
The difference between that and this message board is exactly part of the charm of this site. There is a range of age and experience. And some things need to be explained from the ground up when a short little comment won't do, and the system here makes it easy to do it.
That website also wasn't set up to encourage thoughtful responses and I think that's a new pressure on internet users today. Fast funny/witty responses that didn't earn disapproval were what was rewarded, even among the gun loving community on that site. It's hard to have a real discussion when you'd be penalized by peers (with downvoting) for disagreeing.
Explaining something thoughtfully is an investment and takes time and effort. I have always enjoyed seeing everyone invest in each other here. It's almost like a moment of being mentored which is becoming less common but is needed.