I'm afraid you're not wrong. The most vibrant part of SOH seems to be the Cantina.
The other day I was wondering if there's anything we as staff could do better.
Priller
I have a few thoughts as to the lack of participation, unfortunately they are no easy fixes for them. I don't know when I first started posting here but it has to have been twenty-five years ago. SOH was started by guys who were into content creation FS204, FS98, and earlier versions of MSFS. Back then all content created was freely offered to all, hence the Library. Some of those gentlemen later formed companies to create content and started charging a nominal fee. I can remember paying $5.00 for my first airplane from AlphaSim.
In the early days, SOH was the place to come to learn and share ideas. Everyone helped each other. It was a true community. Besides the content creators, people like me who didn't create but enjoyed the fellowship and knowledge shared, begin to frequent SOH. Many of us helped out by volunteering. I did a stent as a moderator. Since I traveled a lot back then, I even met several of the members. We were all friends.
However, when the content started shifting from free to paid, expectations became higher. Also FSX came on the scene and an influx of younger newer simmers begin to join. The community became more diverse with the non-content creators becoming a majority. As prices climbed people complained if the model didn't meet their expectations. They complained here directly to the creators.
Where as most of these guys were self taught and didn't have the resources to troubleshoot problems created by FSX and their lack of knowledge how FSX worked, as MS was slow on providing a comprehensive SKD (anybody seeing a pattern here). The people who were paying often didn't afford much sympathy. Their constant harping slowly drove the content creators away. Unfortunately, this trend has continued to this day. Last year we saw the departure of Dean of DCDesigns and just recently GAS throwing in the towel. While I can't say for certain that the product complaints had anything to do with GAS's leaving the industry, I suspect it was a factor.
Also, I believe is that we are mostly military and GA aircraft fans. The money is in the tube-liners. Look at all the upcoming aircraft being highlighted, every version of Airbus and Boeing. Some are being made by two and three different companies. Same for airports. I think every airport builder has their version of LAX, MIA, or ALT. I would love to see someone build my local airport here in Lafayette. We are a community of 250,000 people, when you include all the sub-burbs and outlining towns. But our airport with it brand new terminal is crying for some creator's love.
Another factor, in my opinion is X-Box. To most of us at SOH flight simming is a hobby. We dump big money on massive computers and peripherals. All to feed our hobby. Not so for most X-Boxers. For them MSFS is a game. One among many. They are gamesters. They are the new generation and they aren't coming to chew the fat here with us old-timers.
Microsoft is obviously trying to get rid of 3rd party content creators by more and more "encouraging" them to sell through Marketplace. It is more money for M$ (as Priller likes to call them) but less selection for us consumers. AND the content creator is somewhat protected. They can and do blame M$. We are at Microsoft's and their spreadsheets mercy.
That is my take on the problems. Let's see if we as a community can put our heads together and generate some ideas on how we can make our Flight Sim home once again vibrant and lively.
