Will this place see a huge influx of new posters...
 

...over the coming years, due to the films and Nick?

Lots of young kids who are really too young to be posting here will be viewing these films and the Nick show. For some, it will just be another film or show that they pass time with. But for others, it will lead to developing an affection for the TMNT in the same way the first generation of fans did back in the 80s and the second wave did in the early noughties.

This is now the third wave, and the turtles seem to be experiencing a minor resurgence in popular culture. Can we expect to see a proliferation of new posters over the next 5 -10 years as the franchise grows and these kids age and mature? What I mean is will new members join at an unprecedented rate?

Hard to guess. There's a lot of new young fans, but there's so much else out there vying for their attention compared to what there was when many of us were young(er). Is the current resurgence breeding new lifelong fans or just casual ones who will just reminisce about it someday and never even know the history of it.

But with older fans being 20s, 30s+ it's our civic duty to turtleangelize the youngsters. :trazz: How else are these kids ever going to learn what a quality franchise looks like, with all the garbage Nick and other channels actually bother to advertise for.

I don't think so, personally. Forums are slowly turning into a dying medium as the social networking age takes over. The kids you speak of will have been raised on Call Of Duty & ipads, so I dunno that they'd wanna dedicate their time to this sort of thing.

That's fair, the competition is fiercer than ever. That means we might not see enough new people seeping into the fandom.

Yes, I'm on record as agreeing with you. We have a responsibility to teach the next generation about the TMNT. It's our mission and I've started doing my part by telling younger family members about the guys and getting them into the shows and films. When my cousin comes of age he will be introduced to Mirage. He's only 10 right now. He seen my Ultimate Collections & asked what they were, but he was told in no uncertain terms that they aren't for him yet, and warned not to touch them.

True. Nonsense like Facebook and twitter are no substitute for discissions via fora. I mean twitter posts have a character limit - they actively discourage debate.

Even if discussion boards are passe, I do believe the amount of lurkers will increase.

True. I prefer forums where we don't need to be members to view the site. Those are better. It's understandable that risque forums are shut off but even some 'innocent' forums require sign-up in order to view the threads.

I love the word "lurkers" in this context, by the way. It sounds so sinister yet it's a very innocent practice :lol:

As of this post a full 144 lurkers are viewing our posts.

Just think, they could jump in right now.

What are they scared of, LOL?

Yeah, that's definitely a point. Discussions like this take a lot more effort than the short answer text speak plenty of people, esp young ones, seem to bother with these days. Probably couldn't decipher half of it anyhow. Sad that if letter writing is antiquated, someday forums may meet the same fate. (Eventually humankind will just revert back to grunting at each other since it's easier. :roll: Scratch that, it will be an app that grunts for us.)

O.O Be on your guard... At least until we know what they want.

I think lots of people just lack confidence to post on fora. Be it intimidation at being new posters, fear of not being able to articulate themselves well, or a worry that they don't actually know enough about the subject at hand. Either way it contributes. Personally I want to see as many people here as possible, of as many varying backgrounds and knowledge levels. The site should be a turtle plexus with everyone adding to the melting pot and gelling, regardless of their abilities.

All the kids are on Nick.com's TMNT forums, you can tell because all the posts read like 10-12 year olds. Stuff like, "Mikey is so funny" or "read my fanfic where Don and April date!" etc.

Also as Powder said, there is a huge Nick TMNT fandom on tumblr. Kids these days don't care about forums, its all about tumblr and twitter.

Lastly this site is based on the original toon, and nothing of it would be familiar to kids of the Nick era. They're not going to find this site easily either because the name is of an obscure vehicle in the Nick show, not "THE TECHNODROME" that we saw in every episode of the original show.

It's true, you have to wonder. Buuuuuut, as Krang once told me, whenever you see thread views, lurker numbers, etc, a large portion, the majority, even, are bots. Google analytics & stuff like that. So it's prolly more like 14 lurkers, tops.

Right, you totally get my point. Everything is simplified & abbreviated & people tend to take their entertainment at face value, without wanting to discuss/analyze/etc as much as they used to. Text at length is a dying format, period. Hell, a lot of the members who came around for the new movie talk like they do in text messages & frankly don't contribute much at all. "smh it was good" "wtf lol leo" You get the picture. There was a lot of that. :tlol:

Yeah, & I think the reason for that, aside from having social networking shoved down their throats, is because they're self-centered. Facebook & the like have conditioned people to expect everyone to come to them, they make a post & watch the clock so to speak as they await their network of peers to "like" it & validate them. Everyvody has their own little fanbase, so they're not interested in other peoples opinions so much as they are getting their own out there & leaving it at that. A forum isn't a good venue for that, as the format encourages group discussion. Current generations are very much about their own personal thoughtbubble, thanks to all this special snowflake stuff going around nowadays.

Very good point about the name of the site.

I remember when you said you were going to join the Nick forums and educate the youngsters.

Here is Nick.com's official TMNT forum, almost all the threads are 10 year olds posting their fanfics or talking about how much they love a certain Turtle. Its actually quite funny to see what they're thinking:

http://www.nick.com/message-boards/viewforum.php?f=139

In fact you read the "rules" thread and they flat out said you have to be under 18 to post because the forums are for kids only. Heh, 15-17 year olds are still pretty much "adults" so they probably should have said 13 and younger.

I've seen the site before. Their innocence is very sweet and restores some faith in humanity. Faith which is lost again when you realise that they'll grow up to be as cynical as most adults.

It actually brings back memories when I was only 13 years old and came to videogame and Pokemon forums for the first time. This is back in 1998 mind you. lol.

That same faith can be shattered by that same demographic if you wander on over to Deviantart, where 12 year old girls are drawing the TMNT having sex & whatnot. I got cursed out by a little girl there today, in fact. It's all relative. :tlol:

Can 12 year olds even draw that well? Probably looks bad.

Lol, I bet you were never innocent my man :lol:

Lol yeah? I mean I know that 10 year olds rage on youtube etc, but I always figured that was just bluster.

"Cursed out by a little girl" :lol:

LOL Kids now... I fear for the world. There's still those that give you some hope, but others - yeesh. lol
Most I'm going to guess no, but there are always those rare talents sometimes that impress the crap out of me. (Now, mind you none of that has been fan art, but still.)

I would dox her if I were you.