Site Activity Lesser

[korosensei]

Seems like this site has become less and less active.

[abbby]

I still prefer chatting here as there's a sense of anonymity .

[PNGMK]

Seems like this site has become less and less active.

This is a global trend and it's unfortunate. I used to be active on a bunch of car, motorbike and electronics forums - we shared real knowledge and information. A few things killed it - the photobucket shutdown deleted millions of pics that people had shared of builds and tech info and then FB groups pulled the rest away. FB groups are a cancer in the main and do not provide anything like the depth that real tech forums provide.

[MOCHS]

Forums aren’t popular any more in the age of having information readily at your fingertips thanks to Google.

The newer generation might be too impatient to search through a vast forum full of useful information and they want answers handed to them ASAP. (But that’s just me)

Go to the SG reddit and you’ll see people asking practically the same question every 1-2 days without even using the search function. Do kids these days even know how to use an encyclopedia or dictionary?

[Strong Eagle]

Seems like this site has become less and less active.

The 2007/2008 recession really put the hurt on this forum. At that time it was literally loaded with "western" expats... Brits, EU, USA, Oz, Kiwi's... and a fair number of others.

Like in every recession, the big MNC's pulled back all their non essential spending and cut way back on the expats in Singapore. Normally, once the recession was over, you'd see things creep back up to the way they were.

But this recession forced some fundamental changes into the MNC operations. Whereas prior to the recession companies tended to operate as regional entities... EMEA, North America, South America, and Asia Pacific, post recession, this companies consolidated globally, with design and strategy centered at global headquarters, while the mundane tasks were farmed out to cheap countries.

So the need for skilled management in IT, finance, logistics, and HR, along with their support staff in Asia was substantially reduced in favor of global control over farmed out worker bee activities. The folks all went home and this forum participated dropped way down.

The bright spot for Singapore remains the number of businesses moving their headquarters out of Hong Kong and into Singapore. According to CNA News, Singapore hosted regional headquarters for 4,200 multinational firms in 2023, extending its lead over Hong Kong, which has 1,336.

[gold.spot]

Hmm. I would say there is a bit of toxicity which discourages information sharing.

[jalanjalan]

really? I found this the least toxic forum I've participated in. Granted the rest were mostly gamer forums..
I suppose forums will eventually be replaced with AI, and whatever random stuff it will churn out.

[nakatago]

Everyone's on Facebook groups now. Or reddit.

[malcontent]

Reddit can sometimes be good for quick advice in some cases where it’s not easy to find an answer online or via Chat GPT… but the comments are a lot more suspect. There’s so much garbage/nonsense, and threads fizzle out quick.

[MOCHS]

Redditors on the askSingapore subreddit tend to be lazy and not search before posting when the topic has been covered multiple times before. Almost every other day there is someone asking about PR/LTVP/citizenship chances. It’s exhausting.

My Reddit inbox used to be constantly flooded that I stopped accepting such immigration queries. Maybe I should charge a small consultation fee.

I already made a guide on Reddit, 95% of the time the answer to their question is inside the guide. The other 5% are unknown scenarios that I don’t know the answers to until they try and apply.

[abbby]

Redditors on the askSingapore subreddit tend to be lazy and not search before posting when the topic has been covered multiple times before. Almost every other day there is someone asking about PR/LTVP/citizenship chances. It’s exhausting.

My Reddit inbox used to be constantly flooded that I stopped accepting such immigration queries. Maybe I should charge a small consultation fee.

I already made a guide on Reddit, 95% of the time the answer to their question is inside the guide. The other 5% are unknown scenarios that I don’t know the answers to until they try and apply.

Yes, you should charge them for consultancy fee...

[Wd40]

The forums were our "social media" prior to the advent of twitter and Instagram reels and YouTube vlogs.

The new generation of kids who adulted into social media world, would never have the patience of forums.

It is just a few old timers like us who still value forums, because they are so focused and really the only place if you want authentic and genuine information and experience sharing.

A few of the forums I used to spend so much time, have now been shutdown People say once something goes on the internet it stays forever. This is not true. It is just a matter of time, everything disappears

[Wd40]

Btw, HWZ and EDMW have survived, I think this is because the average Singaporean is now 43 years old. Yes! That is how fast this country is aging. The locals who started with HWZ are still on it.

But since this is an expat forum, the old timer expats who left didn't feel associated anymore over here and the new arrivals are gen z who were already using Reddit and FB groups, could just quickly look for SG specific groups. The average Indian age is just 32 years.

So the youth of the world now lives in India.

[PNGMK]

@WD40 Singapore's demographic cliff is pretty bad. The cliffs being faced by Japan and eventually China though are far worse. I love going to India in part because it has so much energy from young people.

[malcontent]

I haven’t seen much effort to revive the birth rate here lately… have they given up?