no activity in 4 days, is site up?

[vojo]

no activity in 4 days....checking if site up

[Surrogate]

There is so many forum's questions and answers, and users can find there solutions for most part ofproblems

[Paul Herber]

Loads of potential spammers creating accounts. I reckon 10 per day on average.

[wapperdude]

@PH:  you missed one!  Oh.  Wait!  Passed your bedtime.  LOL.  That's what happens when somebody's today is my tomorrow!  You've done a great job vacuuming the site.  😌  😬  😂

[Surrogate]

When I check forum's statistics it makes me sad

In 2020 we get about 3.5M page views, it is about half of page views in 2017.
Trend is interest for MS Visio is lost ?

[Paul Herber]

That's what happens when somebody's today is my tomorrow!  You've done a great job vacuuming the site.  😌  😬  😂

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
My wife doesn't think I do enough housework. She may be right, but a vacuum cleaner does not count as a power tool. I'll use the angle grinder on the spammers in the future.

[wapperdude]

Interest lost?  Hard to say.  2020 being such an odd year due to CV19...money is tight, businesses on hold, Visio would be low priority.  M$ has tried to make it more forward-looking, aka the Ribbon and Visio360. But, it comes with hefty price tag, and very little in usable, feature upgrades.  Plus, no incremental updates to resolve bug issues.  Basically, riding the magic carpet until it becomes threadbare and an antiquated, wall hanging.   All of these point to dismal 2020.  It may take awhile before interest re-bounds... unless lower cost alternatives have finally caught on permanently.

[Surrogate]

2020 being such an odd year due to CV19...money is tight, businesses on hold, Visio would be low priority.

Trend started before 2020! Since 2018, every year we have a 15% decrease in page views...

M$ has tried to make it more forward-looking, aka the Ribbon and Visio360. But, it comes with hefty price tag, and very little in usable, feature upgrades.  Plus, no incremental updates to resolve bug issues.

Their efforts are focused on cloud versions. Desktop versions practically unchanged since 2013!!!

unless lower cost alternatives have finally caught on permanently.

For example AutoDesk have program AutoDesk Developer Network, where 3rd-party developers create new solutions for CAD eco-system.
Not all users have enough standard MS Visio stencils. Some countries use specific national standards. AutoDesk, other CAD software companies (and 3rd party) make products with support national standards!

[Paul Herber]

We don't even get so many members on the forum these days. Many of the old hands haven't appeared for a long time.

Microsoft did have a network of 3rd-party developers and a whole marketing plan for them, lots of work was involved with getting up to speed on the system and meeting MS's requirement. It all got dropped like a hot potato. Never trust MS marketing again.

[Visisthebest]

I still love this forum!

[Surrogate]

I am also! And our Russian visio forum too, there is silence now.
 

[wapperdude]

Yep. Many familiar, regular contributors seem to have vanished altogether.  Others of us are no longer nearly as active.  Feels like our community has diminished.

[Yacine]

Being one of those who disappeared, I deeply apologize.
Yes Visio is still the greatest data graphics tool out there, but:
1. the questions tend to repeat themselves
2. there are so many other (software) toys out there.

I thought about starting a series of Visio Tutorials on Youtube covering the stuff I specialized in (smart shapes, whole solutions, python automation). Especially since Visio is still such a niche product, that you can barely find useful tutorials on the net.
The idea is to publish more on the howto and the workflow, rather than the finished solutions in order to empower others to accomplish the same.

[Nikolay]

I find it really difficult to make videos, espevially tutorials and alike.. writing script, filming, editing. 
I can easily spend one day crafting 10 minutes long video  Yacine do you have some experience to share maybe?

[Paul Herber]

Being one of those who disappeared, I deeply apologize.

3 weeks! You call that being away? I'm talking about those who have been away for years!
I got a gold badge on the Super-User forum the other day, Fanatic - gold - for visiting every day for 100 days. Sad.