gotta love that change for sake of change stuff....
I could give you 1 million reasons why this isn't "change for the sake of change", but here are two...
- Interest in Android has been declining for a decade now- people are largely content and complacent with their phones.
- Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and especially Reddit have replaced Forums as the defacto first stop for News and Q&A
At its core, AF was built as a community of tech early adopters. We rallied around cool new product launches. We followed fun, emerging tech stories and stuck around to share our excitement (or disappointment) and insight (or ask questions) in those first days, weeks, and months of a product's life cycle.
Android Forums was an amazing destination for more than a decade, but we need to step into a new purpose that meets the needs of a community that has drastically evolved and essentially moved on from both "Android" and "Forums".
There are a bunch of loyal AFers that have stuck around. I'm forever grateful for your participation! But we need to make this place inviting and purposeful for the hundreds of thousands of AF members that left and haven't come back. We need to give them a reason to come back and check us out and reasons to keep coming back and visiting. I can't think of a better reason to keep returning to a tech forum than seeing the best list of new products and a calendar of noteworthy upcoming launches- so that's where I'm starting and I welcome you to join in creating the lists and keeping them updated!
And if that wasn't enough, we need change because I need change. I want to feel inspired and reinvigorated again. I will always have a deep love and appreciation for Android Forums, but all good things must come to an end... why not couple it with a beautiful new beginning?
Rather than continue insisting that AF should remain status quo, I implore you to be patient, optimistic, and see where the road takes us. A positive attitude can go a long way... especially as lurkers and other members follow along.
Let your hair down and have some fun with this!