Post by allanorn on Apr 21, 2024 16:54:45 GMT
In prior years my postings of my outbound February mail sparked a tiny bit of discussion and posts of other members mailings but not so much this year. I'm not one to post a lot of commentary so pics of what I'm sending is likely the best I'll ever offer. This year was really off as far as participation during the writing challenges and I don't really understand why. Maybe folks are just through with the whole Covid isolationism and interacting in person rather than through letters but whatever the case, or cause, it has led to one of the least active writing challenges I've ever been involved in. Facebook itself is distracting in my opinion although I use it to show my sent mail items during the challenges but outside of February I rarely post any updates or activities at all. Not even photos of vacations which I write about endlessly in my outgoing letters. I'm more about the stories of trips than the actual visuals of places we've visited. We do take a few photos but if my wife doesn't post them then they never see the light of day. I prefer to recall them in my mind and with words on paper. It was no big deal to me to take myself out of the Facebook group so Mia didn't need to feel like she was booting me from the group kicking and screaming.
I recognized that the boost in activity during the malaise in 2021 and 2022 wasn't going to last. This year seemed really different though; most of InCo's participants this year looked a lot like last year's participants.
Lettermo's site transition wiped all of their user registrations. People will take an opportunity to not re-register if they were marginally involved when they signed up, or life conditions changed and they can't participate any longer. They'll also leave if they were frustrated with how the site was managed, even if it was no fault of the site owners.
Meta's algorithms for all of their platforms have changed a lot, and it's a lot of work to extend reach if you're not "verified" or otherwise contributing/getting boosted as an influencer or brand. A couple of years ago I'd get a lot more activity on IG; now I'm getting next to none when I post.
I'm not sure what the effect of rising postal rates are. They may not hurt much for Americans if we bought enough stamps, but I can see it being an issue elsewhere.