I want qualify this with the absolute fact that the quality of content and contributors on here lately is amazing. And I thank everyone involved in keeping this community alive.

But..... is anyone else feeling like things here have seriously dropped off lately?
I don't know if it's a side effect of political or economic changes (if you know what I mean), but like a lot of you - I grew up here. And I feel like it's all tailing off. And frankly hurts.

I'm not mainstream. Taken me a lot of years to accept it, but now I'm proud of it. And if this community goes, I don't know what I'll do.

Open letter.

Jim.

I haven't noticed anything like that and I'm here an awful lot. Still lots of amatuers doing their wonderful stuff, speculative/question/insight posts, newbies, oldies, freebies, scenes out the wazoo, more meets starting to happen again. Same mix of all the wonderful wam genres different people like. I don't think anything is going anywhere. Cheer up love it's all gonna be OK

It's a lot more active here than some fet groups I'm on. Those are on life support but in general I feel like that's the case for a lot of their forums. The format itself for those is terrible.

I didn't know the forums existed until 2010 and wasn't exactly active until much more recently but it seems alright? IDK how many threads and posts there used to be though. On my end the limiting factor in terms of producing material is time. A helper is essential for a couple of major reasons, cleanup in between is a bear (long hair filled with cake batter isn't exactly easy!) and on my own time there's the bathroom. Then just going through the footage, taking stills and watermarking them, selecting a few gifs. It all adds up and I haven't even collected enough to open anything up to try and recover material costs yet.

I'm venting but on my end it's a time thing.

You pretty much echo my overall sentiment. I have a career already that I love and what I do here is more of an extension of my creative influences and interests. This is far from my full time job or income replacement by any stretch and I have no interest in trying to compete in terms of volume nor do I feel I need to.

It's tough really because so few understand what it takes to create and the labor involved. It's not easy nor is it for everyone

I feel ya and while I don't think things are dropping off per se, I do feel that there is a metamorphosis taking place, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Evolution is a natural and spectacular phenomenon and while one thing dies, another BETTER thing takes it's place. Don't mourn change, rejoice it. . I'm seeing some new innovators come out and raising the bar both creatively and quality wise and I love it!

I second Candycustards statement: we're not going anywhere. I can't speak for the fate of UMD as I am not a fortune teller but as for this community, we're made of tougher stock than that

Keep that chin up

As far as conversations on threads go i think that aspect of the forums may have dropped a bit. A lot of threads aren't as active as others, or you could argue the threads aren't as active as they used to be period. As far as content I think things are getting better at least for the content I prefer so I guess that could be a bit selfish on my part. I'm strictly here for the WAM Wrestling content and over the past few years we've gone from next to nothing (or lackluster performances) to having 2 companies who pretty regularly put out excellent, and QUALITY work. Again me being selfish I'm happy with the content here lately. Happier
now than I've been since the early 2000s.

It's difficult to know. I've always wondered why the forums are less active on certain weekdays than others, and that seems to be a little more pronounced sometimes. Then again, maybe the busy days are busier now.

Discussion threads seem to be as busy as ever but a lot of the plug threads now appear to attract very little comment. The main exceptions to that might be the Messygirl ones. Plug views don't strike me as having fallen drastically, though, so perhaps people just don't know what to write without appearing repetitive. Someone remarked they'd like to see more feet recently, and he got his head not bitten off, but definitely chewed a bit, so that could also be playing a part.

I think the Jones controversy last autumn lanced a bit of a boil here, and the forums are less combative now, but there are still occasional and unnecessary flare-ups over very trivial things.

If there is a decline, I'd say it's slight.

Plug threads definitely get little love and it is typically the same people following the same models/producers. They get likes but it's like no one talks anymore on them which makes me wonder if half the forum is afraid to actually speak up on these posts partly for the reasons you stated. Like "Say something! We don't bite. Yet " but as you said, people get wound up tight over the dumbest things and that tension can lower morale and a lurker's or occasional poster's incentive to chime in on a post. Heck, I even debated about actually becoming active again on here for the same reasons and I still keep my interactions to a minimum out of the same concerns. I only just now started to post regularly when I have the time

If I make a purchase from a producer on this site and the video is above average, or just plain good I always leave a review. Not only do I feel it's good incentive for that producer to keep making content but I also feel (hope) it may encourage others to support that producer and at the minimum check out that particular video. Due to the fact I genuinely try to always be a nice guy I can't bring myself to write a negative review (i usually just won't comment) if I personally didn't like a video...BUT.... If I feel someone is being deceptive, or just putting out trash trying to make a quick buck and it's OBVIOUS then I don't mind calling people out on their BS

I alway view plugs as my main source of new content and whether I may purchase or not. If it's something I like, really fits my taste say, I always want to comment but definitely feel like I'm always repeating myself.

I had 5 different people reply to my plug thread a few days ago, as an unofficial producer those are big numbers!

If someone doesn't have a store does it even count as a plug? I just assumed that threads are the main way of telling people that you've updated or created an album because otherwise nobody would know.

Double co-sign

I think I'm still to new for me to know much but their are many here who still collaborate on some really cool things

Their is also a wam discord many wammers use to set things up and talk all over the globe many are on umd

https://discord.gg/jncWBeVG

I have been using the UMD since day one back in 1997! Still going after 25 years too! I thought I was a monster before finding this place, just assumed the only kind of sex or fantasy should be vanilla like health class. Then in my high school computer lab started reading messy stories by Shokolada and seeing Rob Blaine's Messyfun models. Big changes, people come and go, times change, but still it is here. Messmaster has set up the UMD to continue as long as there is an internet and people to run it. I was 17 when I found it and not really supposed to doing so legally ha ha. Now I am 43, fatter, bit of grey hair, gone through a few relationships, schools, jobs. I hope I will still be here and enjoying it no matter where I am in the future.

Yes, this, absolutely. I've been here for a similar length of time and it means sooo much to me.
I've said this before and I'm not fishing for sympathy, but I've lost relationships just for admitting to being into this stuff before. Thankfully things are different now, but a lot of the reasons that I'm still proud of who I am is this place.

Thanks for giving your opinions on this - it actually really helps me get some perspective. And I hope noone took my post as a negative. That wasn't the point.

And Candycustard - damn straight.