There are very few new good long-lasting footbag players posting here to modified anymore. Even Jorden just called this place a "ghost town". Lets talk about it. Lets get nostalgic. This forum is something I have been privileged to see play out and (barely) be a part of. I'll be the first to admit I'm not even very good - but I know what I have witnessed.
The last time I posted this no conversation occurred which is fucking pathetic. I'll say it. Are we really gonna peel off, one by one, and let this place die without any sort of meta-commentary? Even reddit has meta-commentary.
This actually pisses me off. This forum deserves better. Running this forum costs time and money. There won't be anything like it again. We can extend this conversation to not only the death of modified.in, but to the the death of footbag if you want. I don't care if you just went to a jam and saw a bunch of players, I say we need to admit this sport is dying! Of course I don't need to remind you - if there are no new players footbag will surely perish.
Footbag flourished using the new technology known as the internet and modified.in was the key factor in keeping this sport alive. I propose that Modified.in supports new players - Facebook only supports veteran players. New players cannot find modified.in (do a google search for 'footbag' and find modified.in). If Modified.in is dying, very few new players are becoming pro. If you disagree with this explain why! (Calling all big names!) I would prefer if somebody proved me wrong.
To get conversation started, I'm gonna repost something I posted about 6 months ago:
I think how facebook destroyed modified can be summed up in maslow's hierarchy of human needs. We're all at this forum for a reason. For many of us, modified was the only place where we could talk to other people who played footbag. Unfortunately, many pros DIDNT need modified for that, and that's where we ran into problems.
Maslow said social needs are required for a person to become self-actualized. The fundamental problem is that most players here at modified didn't have many social needs to meet - they likely already had real-life footbag friends. Whatever needs remained Facebook could satisfiy. On Facebook everybody is on a first name basis and everybody is literally friends with everyone else. Its a nice place where pictures, videos, conversations, and publicity could all occur. Non-footbaggers - family and friends - could see your moves now too! You could also stalk your favorite pro and get a glimpse into their personal life and feel like you know them better. This is powerful. I would assert that FB actually meets social needs far more effectively than modified ever could.
Once all the big names were friends with each other on FB, there was simply no reason to come here anymore. They were socially satisfied. I remember a thread from many years back (probably around 2008). They were talking about how great facebook conversations threads were being lost and that concerned people. People wondered if they should be using modified instead of facebook. So, I think as this was happening people intuitively knew there was gonna be a problem down the road.
Its important to note that I speak of all this from an outsider. I never friended anyone from modified on FB. Without modified.in I'm sure I never would have played footbag nearly as much as I did. This place is important. We need new players. I live in Iowa so there wasn't really anyone to play with or talk to. I NEEDED modified. Modified made footbagging possible, plain and simple. Pros and big names did not need Modified like this. Case in point - Vasek never posted here as far as I know.
We had a real bad situation growing: Modified.in was far more important to new players and loners than to pros.
I had a theory long ago on the evolution of footbag. It basically says that instead of survival of the fittest, its survival of the supported. People with other people to play with tend to keep playing. Those that don't tend to quit. In the end what resulted was an overwhelming forum demographic of people who had real life footbag friends and therefore most social needs met. This sounds good but it actually put us in a real bad situation. There were many vulnerable people that NEEDED modified.in for their social satisfaction. BUT, there were vastly more people - the core of modified, the big names - that just didn't need the services that modified provided anymore. And that, folks, is how the stage was set for facebook to ruin us and for modified.in to collapse. I'm absolutely sticking to my premise here: the pros - the pillars of the community - abandoning modified for facebook is directly what caused the online forum to crash. New players, pretty much archeologists at this point, are left with nothing but evidence of a once active past. Most surely stopped playing footbag shortly thereafter.