random thought about avp and forums
hi everyone i have been using this site for a while and just yesterday introduced myself in the forum too (http://www.pokeratlas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21706). im a little late to the game being a pretty long time lurker. but lately have had a little more free time so decided to explore the site a some more and even make some forum posts.
i see people going back and forth about avp and poker atlas and whether the owner cares about the members and so on. dap poker says that people dont post on the site as much as they did when it was avp because they resent that poker atlas took over avp. but anyway i have an opinion and a question.
my opinion is that poker itself is hurting bigtime. live poker rooms are suffering especially in vegas. online poker has been a flop in the us. many poker forum sites have gone under. card player magazine used to be an encyclopedia and now its a tri-fold brochure in hardly any rooms. and my question is who uses forums anymore??? everyone uses facebook and twitter and other social media because its so quick and mobile. no one reads thru forums like they used to. seems like any less forum activity is just as much from that than anything else but not sure if im the only one that thinks that. random thought thats all. i love this site and enjoy online community stuff just usually as a lurker. maybe ill go back behind the curtain again now haha
I don't resent Poker Atlas, but the table talk is laid out poorly (easier navigation and history review) and the poker room ratings are missing (e.g. rating room quality 1 to 5, rating room competition 1 to 5, rating staff 1-5, etc.)
I am semi-inclined to disagree that poker is hurting. True, the games can be tougher and aren't at the peak they were something like ten years ago. I also assume that poker in Vegas is not seeing the number of players is was in its heyday. But walk into one of the many poker rooms through the country - Talking Stick, the Commerce Club, Foxwoods, etc. - and the rooms are still running strong. I walked into one of my local poker rooms a week and a half ago (Golden Gates Casino in Blackhawk, Colorado) and almost every table was full. I can't say poker in Colorado is dying. I'd say it is alive and well (in fairness, I don't know how well business is during the week and, if it is weak, that may or may not mean that such rooms are truly "making it" from a profit standpoint).
I found AVP to be a great source of poker strategy discussion. I am old enough (mid-40's) that I can use some social media, but am just not really that into it. I am not sure Facebook, Twitter, and other sites have the depth to take the place of a more traditional message board. But sharing thoughts and advice on tough poker hands is a great way to learn. Not the only way to learn, but a great addition to a well rounded continuing poker education. I, for one, wish that poker atlas were generating the same (or better) interest in poker strategy that was one generated on AVP. But I still lurk on this site, post ocassionally, and hope to see this site take off. Sure, I miss the old AVP. But its gone and no use crying over spilled milk. I hope to see this site succeed. I have read a bit on 2+2 (although not lately), but that site has never really appealed to me. AVP seemed so much more down to earth, less attitude, more humor, with a smaller & tighter community. I think there is certainly still room for another good discussion board.
Skelly,
To be fair it wasn't the takeover. My impression is that there were several things that happened during the transition that generated ill feelings. I went into more detail about it in the other post.
Also, I agree with allin that forums seem to be better set up for in depth strategy discussions and I very much enjoyed the discussions on AVP. I haven't posted many here, mainly because I haven't had really sticky spots in my last few sessions.
I also agree with Gamin that there are some layout issues -- I've actually e-mailed support with some ideas, but haven't seen a lot of progress on those, they may be in progress but very little has actually shown up on the site yet.
Dave
tried to post my blog just now, but it seems that I can't post on AVP? When I click to post it just goes blank. Tried like 10x on two different browsers so I think the AVP forums might be broken at the moment? Anyone else having difficulties posting at the moment?
Saying today that "online poker has been a flop in the US" would be like someone in 1981 saying the personal computer was a flop (the only real difference being that the latter never had to exist under prohibition).