# For those who wish to reminisce.



## Kedves (Nov 18, 2019)

Hey members. Being new here it is next to impossible to know the full or even a short story being this forum.

When it was started, who was behind the idea, are those people still active or was it in a meantime transferred to others and so on

I see huge number of members and even larger number of lurkers, but honestly rather small input from that crowd. Is it because of grow or other social platforms? Is it because of other Vizsla related forums? 

Was it different in the early days?

Who can shed some light on it all.


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

Calum started the forum back in 2008. As far as I recall he was a vizsla owner working in tech that wanted a place to discuss all things vizsla. When I joined in 2012 the forum was still very active, though calum only posted occasionally and usually only as it pertained to administrative things. He later sold the forum to a management company who updated the platform to what you currently see.

I’ve attended and helped organize forum meetups, I’ve been “friends” with people on other social media, and one member even drove three hours to help bail me out when my car broke down on a road trip. We ran monthly photo contests and in general had a vibrant and tight knit community. Some members or their dogs have sadly passed away or had changes (marriage, kids, moves) in their lives that have caused them to leave the forum. We also had a couple members who were oddly antagonistic and started harassing others and that drove people away. As a moderator at that time, I regret not shutting it down more quickly. And we lost a few more with the transfer to corporate ownership and the new platform. 

I also think, as you mention, that a general shift in internet culture and the rise of new social media platforms contributed to the decline in active members. Even with the updated platform, this is still primarily designed for text-based discussion and isn’t great for sharing media like pics and videos for quick likes. Facebook came out with groups, instagram has pet influencers, and reddit has its own vizsla subreddit. 

At the end of the day, too, there is only so much that can be said about vizslas and our lives with them. Forums about topics with innovation, new gear, etc. probably fair better than this one. Most of the new posts tend to come from new vizsla owners and are the same questions that have been asked over and over. That can get boring for long-time members, but they’re important for sustaining the health and growth of a forum. We also used to get more general update/personal kind of posts and those are what we’ve lost to other platforms like facebook where there is more engagement and it perhaps feels more worthwhile to post. 

That’s my take on it. I’d love for the forum to get really active again and to regain that sense of community. I think it’s unlikely, but I’m glad it’s still here as a reference for future vizsla lovers.


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## Kedves (Nov 18, 2019)

@einspänner

Thanks so much for shedding at least a bit of light on history of this place. Sometimes it is really difficult to understand, without being properly introduced to a new place,, what is expected, desired or needed from new members . With the very limited input and posting from members, be that new or very established, one could even sense a vibe from the Mgmt, that this place wants to be left alone. Without proper history, it is hard to tell. 


Did not really expect the ownership change, as it happened here, but otherwise it is your typical everyday, any forum story. I AM SHOCKED, that with membership at around 75k there is only 30-40 members visiting this place on daily basis, let alone posting much less. 

I wonder if there is enough desire to make this group vibrant once again. Call me old-fashioned, but this is the question that I have on my mind right now.


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

i found the forum accidentally and became active right after i joined, finding lots of good advices and quality exchanges of thoughts. i like the diversity of backgrounds and experiences and the fact that it has members from different parts of the world. Yes it may not be 100s os posts daily but i still found a lot of value in it. Actually selfishly i would not have the time to read 100s of posts, so probably don`t even mind that it is not overly active. some of the questions posted here made me do lots of research and widened my knowledge immensely. Still a lot to learn for me.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

There is a cycle with everything, and internet forums are no exception. People will come and go, and interests change. Sometimes life just gets in the way of having fun.
I was pretty active for the first few years, but then some medical issues caused everything to come to a halt for about three years for me. Once I got past all of that, I was promoted to a new position at work and really put alot of myself into being successful at that new position. I've become comfortable in my current position and the medical issues are behind us. From 2014 to 2017 I didn't have full use of either of my shoulders. They've been rebuilt, as well as one of my knees, so I'm good to go now.  
It was the passing of "Gunnr", my namesake, this past spring, that got me posting again. And then losing Tika last month, I just started to try and stay connected more. If there was going to be a place where folks would understand what the passing of your Vizsla can be like, it was only going to be here. 

When I first joined, a lot of the folks were having some fairly serious issues with their dogs. For many of them the Vizsla was their first dog as both a person, and a family. Some had never grown up with dogs, and just did not know where to start to learn how to train their own dog. 
This forum was valuable to them, I hope, because other folks more familiar with dogs, and the Vizlsa in particular, explained the basic, and also advanced, concepts to train their dogs and get them under control. I believe that if a person were to research those old threads, and posts, it would take them a long way to being able to train their own dog successfully. It's all there for any one to find.
The advent of other forums of social media have also had to have had an impact. I know that there are more than a few facebook pages for all dog breeds.
Things go in cycles, but don't believe that a lack of daily posts is the only metric with which to measure of the value of a forum like this.


Mike.


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