Hi Cat and P.
You are right Cat, it is a little quieter at the moment and I think P is right, the recent changes will no doubt have made people less comfortable as they adjust to those changes. Unfortunately some may even leave the site, change is scary. Even stopping gambling is scary as it’s likely the biggest change most of us have made!
I would have to add that we need to be honest, another reason things have got quieter is how bad the old site had become in some areas. The lags and connection problems made many of the groups unusable and certainly that would have put off new members and old alike.
Thats changed now, no lags and good connections mean the groups and helpline run better, discussions flow and people receive better support. Yes change can be scary but change can also be for the better, I think it is in this case.
As P says, the best thing anyone can do is to keep posting, old members will get used to the new site and of course new members will find us. Unfortunately turnover of members at any recovery site, on line like this or face to face like Gamblers Anonymous or others, is fairly high. The people that have most chance of success are the ones who keep posting/getting to meetings. No coincidence.
At GA I always say that the most important person in the room is ME!! Thats not to say I’ve got any superiority issues lol because that answer is the same for all of us. If we aren’t in the room we can neither receive support nor give it to others.
So I would repeat what P said, the best way to get more people posting is to keep posting.
On a personal note I would add that whilst I hope all old members do return to posting etc there may be some who decide not to. Before they leave I would ask them a question – what support are you going to use instead? We have all seen the posts which begin ” I used to post here but then stopped……..” they usually continue with whatever horror story has happened since.
I am a Compulsive Gambler myself and if we could do it on our own then we wouldn’t have a problem in the first place. It’s important to use support both to initially stop gambling and then to continue using support to stay stopped and maintain recovery.