Agreed Peter. I have never been near snapchat, instagram or a host of others. I have also stated my dislike of twitter and discord. Now I am having doubts about facebook, although I am unlikely to abandon it altogether. However I have now left three groups, one because it was about painting miniatures, but there were very few tips on how to achieve particular effects, but lots of look what I've painted now, which is not helpful. The other two I have given up on because one was too Anglo-centric; the other was rather surprising - someone asked for a photo to show what buildings were being used by FPW players. I went to a lot of trouble to set up a French farm I had bought, photographed and posted it. Almost immediately another member came back with there's no such thing as a generic French building. You need to take account of where in France you are fighting. Your farm looks very Norman, but most of the fighting did not take place in Normandy. You should go for buildings that match the area of conflict. All I could do was sigh and leave the group.

I don't think the forum is obsolete and offers the opportunity for a variety of queries, discussions and signposting to other sites (for those with specific interests or too much time on their hands). There is no reason why it has to try be all things to all people.

Which people have "too much time on their hands?" I do not understand this concept, but it does appear to have the inclination of denigration.

I usually agree with dourpuritan... this time too... I thought (wrongly) that when I will retire I would have find TIME!... it is never the case I fear... simply things are different but you have less and less time for your hobby when REAL life keeps pestering you all the time!.    THIS BACCUS FORUM IS A MUST IN ALL ASPECTS AND PROBABLY MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS FOR DIVERSE PEOPLE... GREAT IDEA BY PETER!... please do keep it open... for those like me living in the back of beyond it is simply precious!... and I indulge in Facebook too!

Agreed, but I also feel that in the Protestant English speaking world if you are not in paid employment you are deemed to be a lazy shirker. I think these people who boast about continuing to work at 82 (or whatever) and are held up as beacons of excellence are actually rather sad individuals, or else too poor to be able to retire. The former appear to have nothing else in their lives for them to retire to. My attitude has always been I work to live, not I live to work. Should you have more than work going on in your life, then retirement enables you to expand on it and continue to enjoy it. However, as many people discover, retirement still has many aspects to it that keep you busy in a more mundane fashion. Housework, shopping, cooking, home maintenance all take time. Those who have grandchildren find themselves with grandparent tasks. Those who are married still have to take into account their partner's needs. Other kinds of things can intrude as well. As an immigrant in another European country I am having to learn a new language. This takes up hours of time, esepecially if languages have never been your forte or a side interest. So please don't talk about people having too much time on their hands.

I think you've read too much into that and taken it as a personal dig.  It is a well known fact that lots and lots of people fritter away time on-line, scrolling through Tik Tok or Facebook.  In days past people would fritter time slumped in front of the TV.  I guess when radio first appeared people wasted time slumped on the couch listening to that.  Too much time on their hands is just an expression for someone who is bored!

Never take anything "personal" specially over the net... this Forum included... I  again agree with dourpuritan (married with children & grandchildren)... LOL... try to paint 6MM with them around! BTW I am never bored at all... it is my life purpose not to be bored!. Great Forum as always!

When I restarted my wargame hobby in 2006 we had a leading warhammer forum in Holland with a small historical corner. Three things caused it's downfall.

1) bad admins. Trolls and competitive warhammer 40k-fanboyz dominated the forum and chased everybody away, first the historical gamers, then the non-GW-fantasy gamers ('our GW is the best and Infinity- AAAARGH') and finally their own GW-players who left and never returned.

2) technical problems. Hacks and the hard work to upload a picture.

3) Facebook.

The old-style forum withered away between 2012-2020, and was finally deleted in 2023 along with it's failed 2020 successor that was doomed from the beginning. Forums that seem to survive are Lead Adventure and TMP (talking about admins...!) 

I like old style forums because they retain structure. The few good ones are compendiums of knowledge that can be searched. Q&A Wikipedia. As long as this forum brings us updated structured information, it has a future. For picture sharing, contacts and community feeling other social media are better. In general the future for forums is bleak, but a few will survive, I think.

Jon1066 is right the phrase "too much time" is not meant as a dig and yes retirement is a time to focus on activities which you enjoy (which is why our garden fence is only half painted but that could be due to me not using the paint brush that my wife purchased from the DIY store but one I purchased from the model shop), other duties permitting.

I find it's a real problem when 1:1 scale construction and painting is required.  Keeps me from the more interesting 1:285!