Do you think fanpop is going downhill ?

I think a lot of it has to do with Fanpop's demographic shifting. For the first few years, it was a lot of teenagers and 20-somethings. Pretty close-knit community, lots of interaction between users and the site's creators. Then... the site got kinda popular.

I'm not sure of exact dates ("over a year ago") but I'd guess sometime around The Twilight Boom, fanpop started changing. At the time, it looked like fanpop was trying to go mainstream ("facepop", the wall, etc.), but looking back at the big picture, it looks more like trying to appeal to a younger audience - familiar colors (dull blue, as seen on FB), changing the rating system, making medals easier to get, the bigger & brighter logos for achievements on our profile banners, the showcase, even the rounded bubbly letters on profiles & spot titles look juvenile.

Twilight was just the beginning. With the popularity of Glee, Justin Bieber and One Direction, younger and younger fans started showing up. I get it - these kids are the ones seeing the ads, paying the bills. But once they lose interest in the subject that brought them here, they'll likely move on or "grow out of it," leaving the rest of us dreading the changes the next big thing will bring.

Things the "old people" appreciated have been phased out. The original layout, the importance of rating, banners (back in the day, kids, people actually made icons & banners for spots they weren't a member of! Every spot needs love! But why bother now, who has time to work around the fade & text?), screencaps, now *all* images are a pain in the ass to add, even our time here seems meaningless because everything important happened "over a year ago." I'm not gonna mention the few features the last of the "oldies" still use, for fear of those being the next to get fucked.

Sure, some "old" users went and got themselves lives. But there are plenty of them who just relocated to a different site because this place didn't feel like home anymore. Anyway. That's why it feels inactive. New fans come and go, and the old people have been run out.

Wow. Didn't mean to go on that long. Guess the legacy of Tangent (Wo)Man lives. (Reference to the old days. Just smile and nod, kids.)

I also feel like most of the spots I go on are getting inactive--but I think that's mostly because all my shows have been on something of a winter hiatus. Generally I've noticed that fanpop will typically have a day or two when activity spikes followed by a drop in activity and then it goes back to normal and the cycle eventually repeats.

As an older user myself--I've been here for about 5 years I think that would make me an dee user--I can confirm that a lot of the older users are gone. A good number of the people I talked to upon first joining are either gone or don't get on as much. But I don't think this is what leads to a drop in activity; people come and people go. An older user leaves, someone new joins.

I don't think the f4 are responsible for that. It happens to most all websites. People typically get bored with sites after a whole and there's nothing the f4 can really do about it. Frankly I think if they change anything else it would do more harm than good (especially if premium stuff works it's way in) but that's all up to them.

Yes absolutely.
Three years ago, this site was amazing and now I hardly visit this place. Most of the fun people are gone but what irritates me the most is the disappearance of meebo. I used to chat for hours with people and I loved it. Now you can't chat anymore and that is the main reason why I think fanpop is falling down. What would be good for this site if they allow the chatbar again so that you can talk to your friends just like Meebo.

Yes, it's most certainly dying.

Personally I don't think that and haven't notice anything like that. Of course it's not like every minute someone post something in the spots I'm a fan of but just like the user above noticed, it's winter hiatus, there's no new episodes so there's not that much to talk about. I'm on Fanpop since 2008 I had some little breaks with this place but eventually I was always coming back. I think the phenomenon of this place is simply that you can find here anything you love so that makes you stay. I'm glad someone created this place and hopefully it will last as long as long can be:)

Its Just A Rumor, I Am Not Leaving Fanpop :)

I don't know about members leaving. I don't think I've been active long enough to really notice that. But as other posters have pointed out, sometimes people try something for a while then get bored.

As to being less active here, I think it just depends on what clubs you're a member of. Some are still really active, others are quieter. If something has finished or is on hiatus, it makes sense that there's less to contribute. If it's ongoing or recent, there'd be more new things.

I don't really think it'd be the F4, or know what they could do. They can't drag old members back, or force people to contribute.

slightly..... len hasnt been on his page in over a year!!! DX

I see activity fall basically as I would expect it too, less activity during the school year and work week, more during Summer and the weekends. I've only been on fanpop for about a year and half, so I'm just starting to see users coming and going.

I just joined a couple months ago, so I can't say much about the website as itself. The community of users, however, just rolled dozens of yards downhill, because many of us go to school, and Christmas break just ended.

If spots are unactive, it's not Fanpop's fault. It is OUR responsibility to keep the spots we're a part of, activ.

Fanpop? No.
Users? Maybe.
But I'm pretty active here right now so it can't possibly be going downhill.

Fanpop has given me the chance to write fanfiction and tell you guys what goes on in my head, I don't believe it's dying but I think that if we are to become more reconsied by the public we need to be more active: write more stuff, post more images and make it look more exciting