How many members are there in the Orbx Forum?

[Ken Terry]

Nick, I recall some years ago membership excedded 60,000 with the arrival for MSFS how many are registered today.

Is there a place where the total membership number is shown?

Regards

Ken

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Ken,
if you open the Home page: Forums - Orbx Community and Support Forums (orbxdirect.com)

all the various totals are listed at the bottom.

It loks like today's total is 104,651.

[Rodger Pettichord]

Boggled is the mind!

[John Heaton]

1 hour ago, Nick Cooper said:

Hello Ken,
if you open the Home page: Forums - Orbx Community and Support Forums (orbxdirect.com)

all the various totals are listed at the bottom.

It loks like today's total is 104,651.

so where are they all ??

 

I have just been away from my computer for the last 6 days  - and returned to find just 6 new notifications of additions to 

General and MSFS sim

[wolfko]

2 hours ago, John Heaton said:

so where are they all ??

 

I have just been away from my computer for the last 6 days  - and returned to find just 6 new notifications of additions to 

General and MSFS sim

 

Yep, it is very quiet here lately.

[Nick Cooper]

7 hours ago, John Heaton said:

so where are they all ??

 

Hello John,

 

the Orbx forums have always been principally about supporting Orbx products.

The first post was on August 23rd 2006, which I notice is now getting on for 17 years ago.
Some unfortunately will have died.
Some will have registered and then never needed to post.
Some will have moved on, maybe even leaving all flight simulation behind them.
Some look, find what they need and are never seen.
 

In that 17 years, there have been many radical changes, to include the release of two versions of
FSX, four, if you include Flight and Flight Sim World, five versions of P3D, two versions of X Plane and Aerofly.
All of them proved to be a challenge to both their users and the developers who made addons for them.
Orbx Support forums  were very busy with  Orbx staff and developers contributing their technical support

and customers helping each other.

Things quietened down greatly when the product support was moved away from the forums to the present ticket
system.

 

Then there was the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator, which, we are told, came out of the blue for everyone,
including all "third party" developers.
Whether by design, or by coincidence, MSFS is far less open to user-induced problems than any of its predecessors.
The main benefit is that by definition, everyone has the same version, as when updates are published and in fact every

time that it is opened, the simulator will not start until it has checked and updated all of its files.

The second benefit is that once installed, the MSFS user needs never to visit the core files, thus massively reducing the 
likelihood of them being interfered with. The Community folder is where the damage can be done, but it is so easily
disabled, leaving only default files, that troubleshooting is relatively straightforward.

This long post outlines why the support requests have dwindled away and with them, visits to the forums.
The busiest parts are now the Neil Hill Lounge and the screenshots forum.

 

 

 

[wain71]

I'm still here wondering where you've all been? it is quiet but at least we don't get all the noise I see elsewhere.......I also see the logic in Nick's post above....

[Stillwater]

And the screenshot forum lost a lot of interest with MSFS, as there are less Orbx scenery discoveries to explore and share. While the other simulators are optically less attractive, and therefore not posted so often. 

[Ken Terry]

Thanks for the info and comments Nick, behind my question was the "read post" calculation, by this I mean less than half of one percent of members, assuming an averge of 400 people actually read the posts.   It is rare to see more than 1,000 actually read a post.

Regards

Ken

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Ken,
I see what you mean.
The internet is a strange place though.
Just you can never be quite sure who someone is, as anyone can assume the identity of anyone,
you never know if the view count of a topic is say 400 people, or one person, 400 times, or indeed
anything in between.

On top of that, the most valuable topics, those that are usually pinned and that address commonly
asked questions, can have a view total of several thousand, but once again, that may well not be
a true reflection of the actual number of different people who have looked at it.

If you want to see the most viewed topics, you can open a forum using the Sort by/"Most viewed" drop down.
You might be surprised at just how many views some of the topics have amassed, but usually over
several years.
 

[gumbypickett]

Also regarding this question, where are the women?

Over the years I've seen two or three pop up and then vanish.

Come on ladies, join the club.

cheers

Gumby

 

[shermank]

This is a forum I check regularly for any news or comments about P3D….

not much, sorry to say…

and with this week's update to P3D v5.4 there seems to be hardly any reaction here

as a side note, I am traveling until the end of the month so it will be a couple of weeks until I am able install the update and give it a whirl. I wonder if this will prompt developers to get back into action.

 

OTOH, there still is speculation, especially at the P3D and Avsim forums about whether LM will announce and release V6 T the upcoming SimExpo next month in Houston TX. LM has been saying it will have a booth.

 

sherm

 

 

[flying_fish]

On 5/17/2023 at 9:50 AM, Nick Cooper said:

Things quietened down greatly when the product support was moved away from the forums to the present ticket
system.

 

On 5/17/2023 at 9:50 AM, Nick Cooper said:

This long post outlines why the support requests have dwindled away and with them, visits to the forums.
The busiest parts are now the Neil Hill Lounge and the screenshots forum.

Agreed - I visit very occasionally hoping the forum may have revived its oroginal value. So sad that this sharing of expertise has been lost.

[carlosqr]

On 5/17/2023 at 2:50 AM, Nick Cooper said:

 

Hello John,

 

the Orbx forums have always been principally about supporting Orbx products.

The first post was on August 23rd 2006, which I notice is now getting on for 17 years ago.
Some unfortunately will have died.
Some will have registered and then never needed to post.
Some will have moved on, maybe even leaving all flight simulation behind them.
Some look, find what they need and are never seen.
 

In that 17 years, there have been many radical changes, to include the release of two versions of
FSX, four, if you include Flight and Flight Sim World, five versions of P3D, two versions of X Plane and Aerofly.
All of them proved to be a challenge to both their users and the developers who made addons for them.
Orbx Support forums  were very busy with  Orbx staff and developers contributing their technical support

and customers helping each other.

Things quietened down greatly when the product support was moved away from the forums to the present ticket
system.

 

Then there was the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator, which, we are told, came out of the blue for everyone,
including all "third party" developers.
Whether by design, or by coincidence, MSFS is far less open to user-induced problems than any of its predecessors.
The main benefit is that by definition, everyone has the same version, as when updates are published and in fact every

time that it is opened, the simulator will not start until it has checked and updated all of its files.

The second benefit is that once installed, the MSFS user needs never to visit the core files, thus massively reducing the 
likelihood of them being interfered with. The Community folder is where the damage can be done, but it is so easily
disabled, leaving only default files, that troubleshooting is relatively straightforward.

This long post outlines why the support requests have dwindled away and with them, visits to the forums.
The busiest parts are now the Neil Hill Lounge and the screenshots forum.

 

Best explanation ever seen about sim community behavior, all so wisely and elegantly explained

Clear as water

Thanks Nick

[John Heaton]

8 hours ago, carlosqr said:

Best explanation ever seen about sim community behavior, all so wisely and elegantly explained

Clear as water

Thanks Nick

Apart from product release announcements - Discord is not much better with activity - maybe we are getting a little bored with forums

with most of our problems solved in MSFS these days ??

[carlosqr]

9 hours ago, John Heaton said:

Apart from product release announcements - Discord is not much better with activity - maybe we are getting a little bored with forums

with most of our problems solved in MSFS these days ??

 

Personally I find discord unfriendly and weird, complicated to use so I avoid it. 

It's like a bunch of too much

[shermank]

I agree completely about discord. It’s name fits perfectly, complete chaos and very user unfriendly. Admittedly this might be an age thing but I am

normally an early adopter … but not with Discord 😡

[wolfko]

15 hours ago, shermank said:

I agree completely about discord. It’s name fits perfectly, complete chaos and very user unfriendly. Admittedly this might be an age thing but I am

normally an early adopter … but not with Discord 😡

 

I am absolutely with you. I don't think it is an age thing, all my 3 kids, st the age of 21, 19 and 16 are the same opinion.

[wain71]

discord, tried it, don't like it......

[pmb]

4 hours ago, wain71 said:

discord, tried it, don't like it......

I don't like it either, but as a matter of fact more and more developers shift all their support, news, discussions etc. to that messy conglomerate. It's as with facebook a few years ago which once was a MUST (and which I still dislike). 

 

Like it or not, we'll have to live with it.

 

Kind regards, Michael