Well, how do we do it?

[dman762000]

I've been stopping in from time to time since I returned and it seems to me that things have slowed down considerably over the last few years. In fact, it seems that the steampunk subculture has fallen off by a lot. So my question is, how do we revitalize our subculture and power things up again? Perhaps we should put together some sort of committee or planning council. What are your thoughts on the subject?

[James Harrison]

Do you mean, Brassgoggles as a forum has slowed down (difficult to argue against that) or that Steampunk as an entity has? (my experience would contradict that)

If we're talking about re-energising the forum, I think we need to take a step back and see why it slowed down in the first place.  It's easy to say, 'F@c£b00k took our market away' but why did it?  I can give chapter and verse of why I'm not a fan of using that platform in preference to proper forums, but plainly that's a minority view. 

If we're talking about the whole genre slowing down, actually that's not my experience.  It's quieter than back in the early 2010s certainly, but it's still going strong (in the UK at least) where there are local groups organising meets and national events.  Ironically enough, usually organised via the social media platform I mentioned above.

[J. Wilhelm]

In my experience the forum has remained constant at about 1/10 of the original traffic we had circa 2010, for more than half a decade.  I don't think there's much to say about that, because back in 2010 we were as much as a subculture as we were a "fad magnet."

Having said that, none of us are getting any younger.  I'm reaching a point where health concerns are starting to take center place in my life. Simultaneously I was able to get out of my room share situation , managed to rent my own place since the late 2Ks, and that's taken the lion share of my time. I simply have less time to play around in steampunk.  I think that everyone's story is different but aging, health and positive movement in life (as in purchasing, renting flats, improving real estate in general) have taken time from some of us at BG.

What we are missing is new blood... er, new members.  I'm not sure how that can be done without moving into new platforms.

You already know what happened at FB in the 2010s (just read the news archives), and do I need to tell you anything about the service formerly known as Twitter? I moved to Bluesky and that's still like you remember those older platforms before the madness set in.

But none of these short format platforms are suitable for what we do in Brassgoggles.  The go to format today for long exposition of subjects, artistic or educational-wise is YouTube, by far.  But most of us, save a few have posted anything on You Tube, and that's no place to hold a debate of minds.  There's no substitute for the old fashioned forum format.

Yet, the forum is the last place to promote anything.  The internet has changed dramatically in the last ten years.  And without the internet you're relegated to local social events such as what Mr. Harrison is talking about.  Even such social events require the internet, and due to the average age of a steampunk, that usually means FB.  I'd venture to say that Steampunk is stuck on FB save for some individual artists videos on You Tube, and maybe some individual artists pics on Instagram, Pinterest or the like.

The only thing I can think of is a multi pronged approach where we expose our activities on You Tube or similar (ie YouTube for large maker projects, Pinterest for fashion stills, etc.), and invite people to participate in the forum that way. Most content providers today generate multiple formats for various platforms simultaneously: videos, chats, picture galleries all of them linked together.

But do we even produce enough material to attract people in the first place? Can we generate enough content to pull people into the forum? If you look at content providers, the amount of material they have to generate is enormous.

I'm not sure there's an easy solution to this problem - unless some crafty DIY Steampunk suddenly invents something that'll capture the imagination of the public, like a real functional time machine (for those politically inclined to go back to the past) , Autocrat Vapourizer™ (for those politically inclined to go to the future) or a wormhole generator (to escape what has to be the stupidest timeline in the space-time continuum).

[Sorontar]

We already have Spare Goggles (https://sparegoggles.forumotion.net/) as an emergency forum but Discord is a popular alternative amongst the videogame and roleplaying community but it is likely to become a listed company soon, so it may start to be a little on the nose. Furthermore Discord is for chatting, not posting information and stories for others to peruse later at their leisure whilst sipping tea in the stoking parlour.

A number of roleplaying forums I am involved in have webpage forums and Discord servers. The forum is the primary area but some prefer the Discord server. The main way to learn of the Discord server is to read about it on the forum.

But yes, the issue is getting new participants and new questions or topics to discuss. Advertising and discussing events would be a start, or talking about anything you encounter as being steampunk-relevant.

Sorontar

[Felscor]

What I've experienced is that we're on the end of a fad wave, but anyone who took steampunk seriously, ahem, pursued steampunk beyond passing thought, has stuck around.
I'll admit I joined the steampunk band wagen in 09 because it was gaining traction as a fad. I stuck around when other avenues shut down by joining places like Brass goggles, and regret not joining sooner.

In terms of my own current investment into the hobby, its been wanning as my work-family life balance leaves little to no spare time. I just hop on, shoot from the hip a tongue and cheek comment and hope I don't accidentally offend someone.

Fan bases swell and contract, as I saw with Star Trek slump to almost dissipating, then a burst resurgence when the new shows started rolling out. That could just be the nature of my home town though.

A challenge to steampunk I would argue is that unlike Star Trek and Game of Thrones is that there is no singular media to release content to dissect. We make our own content and do just that. It's attraction also means a high bar to entry, it requires creativity and ingenuity, not a streaming subscription. That is not meant to be a jab, just a note about accessibility and the willingness of target audiences. A solution might just be talking more about steampunk media here, maybe. Maybe I don't know the solution, if even needed.

[Madasasteamfish]

Well, the old girl is certainly a lot creakier than she was back in her heyday, but she still seems solid enough.

I suspect it comes down to the factors mentioned above, in that forums in general have declined due to the behemoth factor of Arsebook, and it (and to an extent other social media monopolies) replacing forums as a way of building communities and finding other like minded people.

I'd also be prepared to suggest that the impact of the Plague has caused a deterioration in the community more generally, both in terms of the toll it's taken on people's lives/health and everyday meatspace more generally, and with no events/opportunities to trade for the better part of 2.5-3 years a lot of the people who had a vested interest in keeping the subculture going (as traders/small business owners) have disappeared.