Surveying currently active GCers...
 

I am in the midst of a fairly big project revitalizing GreekChat. Been working on that goal throughout the majority of 2024.

As I mentioned back in March, there were many things to do, much of which I completed. Most of that is behind the scenes and not really noticeable on the visual side of the site. Those projects have included dealing with various issues impacting the site as well as extensively modifying GC's hosting environment, server equipment, server software & all that entails, web hosting setup, email server software, DNS stuff for email, cleaning up IP addresses, security aspects, programming, testing & verifying everything, etc, etc. And lots of learning along the way.

But there is still so much more to do.

Part of this GC revitalization project also involves revitalizing activity on the site, which is the main point of my posting this survey today.

Question 1:

Maybe more for those of you who were here on GC back in the day when the site was much more active: What issues do you feel contributed to the general decline in activity on GC?

Question 2:

And for all currently active GCers, what do you think is needed in order to revitalize / significantly boost activity on GreekChat?

I have plenty of my own thoughts & ideas regarding all this. I'm genuinely interested in learning what your thoughts are.

Please do share your thoughts on these issues as they may impact the future direction of GC.

Thank you.

I have not been around enough to be a long time GCer, but for question 2, it just needs to be said that this place is a good place to learn about overall greek like and learn about the system as a whole. There isn't a better source on the web in terms of stories/info since many other Greek life oriented sites are mainly gossip and rankings. I even linked this site to a sorority chat I joined for a place for reliable info, and many of the members lurk here.

It seems to me that there were some early GCers that had a pretty big following, who no longer post. Some of them were banned, while others left for other reasons. And then, when that happened, it seems like it began to slow down. I left like in 2016 because I had a lot going on, but when I came back a few years later, it wasn’t the same. But about a year before I left, I noticed a decline when the more liked GCers were no longer posting. I could be wrong, but that’s just my observation.

Also, when I joined this site purely by accident, there were a lot more random, current events, and fun topics that were being discussed, and those more liked GCers were either posting on those threads or starting them. Again, I could be wrong, but that’s just my observation.

I'll second Cookiez17's view that this site is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to know about the truth about Greek Life.

I second that emotion, CG. I came late to the board, but still around a time when greekchat was still poppin, especially with D9 members. It was a lot more topics to post about on here than just Greek life, which is what I think kept folks around. As was posted recently on the 25 years of GC thread, folks on here, including me have our favorite GC members to chat with. When those favorites leave for whatever reason, their “friends” generally eventually leave, too. There’s still a few people on here I like and enjoy conversation with, but if they leave, more likely than not, I won’t have a reason to hang around, especially without D9 members posting. D9 members pretty much made up this site, to a degree IMO. There’s only a couple of us now. Every now and then, three. We kept this site poppin, no doubt.

It’s going to be hard to get it back to the way it was when I joined because of so many other social media platforms.

Kids these days are on TikTok. They prefer to receive information in an entertaining format in 60 seconds or less. In very broad terms, many original GCers left because they've moved on on their lives (they got older) and the younger generation has not arrived to backfill in what is seen as an ancient social media format.

I think many of the earIy Greek Chatters moved on to Facebook, after fIirting with the Iate MySpace There are GC oriented pages, and the comment of "Is GC stiII up & running?" is often heard I foIIow four of those pages, and have to beIieve that there are more

Yes, my keyboard isn't working properIy - hoping to get a new Iaptop soon!

We had quite a bit of traffic back in the day and were the go to site for NPC rush information. We had many rushees and moms who also shared rush experiences. At some point a group of GC’ers began to bully posters and a lot of posters seeking rush info or wanting to share their rush experiences stopped posting. These bullies then turned on fellow GC’ers and picked on them, causing some of them to leave. About the same time another Greek site was launched. I can’t help but wonder if it was not created in part because we would not allow trash talking chapters or listing chapters in particular order of popularity, something that site is noted for. That site gets lots of traffic, but hateful comments are the norm there. In addition to that site, I agree that we compete with YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and FB groups.

I don’t think it’s anything someone did, or didn’t do. It just seems that forums (unfortunately) are becoming outdated. The main people who came every year and started topics were people joining in college- and those people use different types of platforms now.

This probably isn’t very helpful, since idk what could really be done to make the forum more active. Sorry :(

I am in agreement with these reasons for GC losing traffic.

It reads to me, from GC user names and/or stated fraternal affiliations, some greek groups that used to have many posting GC members simply no longer have members posting here (or it's down to a very limited number). I can't say with any certainty whether or not their particular greek groups began discouraging members from posting on public internet blogs/pages.

*winter*, I beg to differ with you. There were truly past GC posters who bullied other members/posters, definitely causing hard feelings among, and some permanent exits by, decent GC folks.

FSUZeta is right. Bullying, which extended into real life, drove many posters away.

AbsoIuteIy!

I don’t understand how somebody can get bullied on a message board.

One, who shall remain nameless, used a screen name that was a variation on a TV show at the time. It was easy to guess what state she was from...and it happened to be mine. She said enough things that some people sort of got into it with her. I was one. she and I attended the same college but at different times. she figured who I am and made comments about what the people where I worked would think of what I was posting if she sent copies of it to them. We then went on a mission and found out who she was. After I made a comment that her family looked lovely at her daughter's wedding in a picture on her FB page, she pretty much went away.

One way of bullying: People can respond to everything you post with hostile lies about you, so you can't participate in any conversation without the thread turning into a pile-on.

I left for years.

A lot of people went to Reddit (which is very one sided), Instagram, tik tok. Message boards in general have declined, the other one that I was an active member of has vanished completely.

There's also Greek Rank as a factor.

IMO Greek life in general has declined and there aren't as many young people here.

Greek rank can eat shit and die.

I hate greek rank. I only go there if something big happens (and sometimes they'll know if a chapter is closing then I double check with a source like here or the school's page.)

Tik Tok with the rise of Bama rush has lead to a lot of dumb takes, and even with people who have served as advisors/volunteers/etc. talking about their experiences, the public doesn't understand how recruitment works and people think every campus is a big greek campus while overlooking smaller campus where yes the chapter sizes may be smaller but you can get an amazing experience. On the flip side there has been a rise of people going into greek life out of that sort of interest.

I’d never heard of it until Zach mentioned it, so I went over there to take a look. Some asshat said my fraternity isn’t a real fraternity. Alpha Phi Alpha isn’t a real fraternity? wtf??? That site and everybody on it can go fuck themselves big time. I hope somebody over there sees this post too. Talk that shit over here.

Sadly to them the amazing orgs that are part of the D9/MCGO/NAFLO are a "second thought" despite them doing amazing things on campus. I have seen a few videos about the D9 (and they're usually step shows and new member presentations) but it's nothing compared to the sorority rush content.

And with language like yours commonly gracing GreekChat's pages, new fraternity members and possible GreekChat posters are encouraged that this is a website where they may read and discuss fraternal membership in a respectful manner :rolleyes:

I used to post on a site called Pledge Park. It was ruthless over there. Thick skin was needed. I used to post on Black Greek Forums, too, which was really lightweight compared to old threads I’ve read on this site. Those threads are actually way lightweight, based on what I’ve read, in comparison to Pledge Park tho.

Haha you’re getting all uptight over nothing. They said the same thing about PBS. Not a big deal. Who cares what they think?

Y’all are right. I’ll chill. Pissed me off though.

Some of the bullying extended into real life and people were even getting doxxed.

That’s insane! It’s a message board- I can’t imagine how crazy someone would have to be to try to take things into real life.

WTH is wrong with people?

I’m not surprised. I’ve seen documentaries about social media on this same topic. It’s actually dangerous. It can lead to somebody getting seriously injured or killed.

I didn’t see any of that when I came on board. It was still a lot of people posting when I joined. I don’t recall anybody leaving for being bullied after I became a member. I felt like people who were the most interesting and entertaining left, and other folks followed because of their departure.

A couple of things:

1. As I've aged and matured I've grown more wary of the opinions of older alumnae (and I include myself in this group now) as it relates to the collegiate experience. I'm less willing to share mine without a full understanding of specific contextual details that would be unlikely to be shared on a public message board.
2. Political banter/discussion is less fun now post January 6. We used to talk about a ton of stuff but everything feels so much more dire now that I'm uninterested in going back and forth with someone.

My personal opinion:

1. Back in the early days, women came here to get recruitment advice and share their stories. Members became obsessive with it. THEN, we had to tell PNMs not to use real chapter names or tell where their school was because members would figure out their schools and chapters and impair their recruitment experiences. It was sad to watch poster after poster leave before finishing her story because someone PM'd them to say, "Hey, I know you're at UCF and your final two chapters are Alpha Phi and AGD" or whatever. That's CREEPY! And word gets around!

2. This place became FULL of just mean-spirited people. Someone would ask a question, and people would jump down their throats. I was often times shocked at how rude someone could be to a person who just asked a simple question about something they heard or what not. Like, touch grass people! Greek Life isn't that serious!!!

3. This forum, unlike GreekRank, is not fully anonymous. You can say what you like about GreekRank, because it's a cesspool, but it is also a pretty realistic view of a campus's greek life climate. In helping daughters of friends with recruitment, I always go there to get the lay of the land.

4. This site, while great for us old heads, doesn't seem to attract any college-aged members anymore. The posts are all by alums who are far removed from the collegiate experience in most ways. I stay because I like the recruitment thread, and when irishpipes left, I figured I'd keep it going. I know I'm not as good at it as she is, but everyone wants to know that stuff.

How do you fix it? I don't know...get some younger blood on board? :)

Haven't posted in a long time - but do check the site occasionally. My impression is that when a Facebook site was started, it drew people away from the greekchat website. Now I can't even find the Facebook page due to the large number of greekchat or "greek hat" sites on Facebook for those interested in Greecian culture and language.

More importantly, I think there has been a shift in how 19-22 year-olds communicate and interact with each other. To them, we might as well be using quill pens and scrolls. They likely peruse this site for rush information and what to do and not do for rush, but are uncomfortable composing a lengthy post about their experiences, when it is easier (for them) to just produce a short TikToc-style video on the same topic.

Oh - and shadokat's post is right on point.

100% this. I also will add that I stopped posting when certain moderators began imposing their political beliefs onto others and saying some pretty unacceptable things about the lgbtq+ community. They also used their power to shut down other posters and threads that differed from their views though there was nothing in the threads that would merit closure.

If this space is not safe for anyone with a differing viewpoint, then why would the next generation want to join?

Thank you to everyone for sharing your views & opinions. All of your comments are very useful, informative and most greatly appreciated.

Please keep the comments coming if anyone has more to share or if anyone hasn't commented yet.

I've taken lots of notes as I read through this thread up to this point. Pretty much every post since all of them were so helpful.

I'll be posting more on the various comments soon, but for now let's see if we get some more views / opinions being shared in this thread.

I also will bring up another point: reddit’s fraternity and sorority boards have kinda taken the place of this. Many questions that would have been posted here like “I’m rushing at Anytown U what is it like?” Or “I’m going through COB I need advice” usually end up there. The sorority board is actually pretty active there and assume it’s the same for the fraternity board.

I think it was a combination of the bullying. I mean, one person actually had their membership suspended because a GCer told a higher up person in their organization a bunch of lies. The prunetacos thing was scary. The people who were doxxing others was scary (doxxing wasn't a word back then, was it? LOL).

But we hit a point at one time where the bot activity was completely nuts and you couldn't hardly read it. That was before the Introductions posting process was implemented. That slowed the bots, but I feel like a lot of people quit trying at that point and forgot about it.

Reddit is a bigger competitor than TikTok in my opinion as there are subs for sororities and greek life and, I imagine, fraternities. The people who made friends in real life moved on to Facebook for staying in touch, for the most part. Other forms of social media have taken over. Although I liken this forum more to reddit than to other platforms. I know a lot of us are on Reddit too. We could probably push more traffic this way by referencing it often.

I come here for the chapter establishments and closures and recruitment results as well the AI journeys. There is a subreddit for AI but I haven’t seen the other information that GC covers showing up as much on Reddit.

This is actually why I came to GC... I am a sister of a local multicultural (though we are actively working on becoming a national), and we simply cannot relate to any of the 'Bama Rush' content so I came here searching for more relevant information

Reddit is okay, but that also tends to get overpowered with bid day content. At least here its easier to find stuff I am actually interested in

GC is nice because all sorts of GLOs are part of the conversation.

I took a stroll over to Reddit…turns out, all the people who would come here and post “ZOMG I have been a member for five seconds and I don’t have fifty best friends yet!!! Should I quit now?” have migrated there.

There’s a pretty cool discussion on why “this generation” is dropping out, etc…it’s interesting because we have had the same discussions here ten years ago- with similar observations about “this generation.”

I guess some things never change?

C'est vrai!

Thanks again to everyone for sharing your thoughts in this survey discussion thread.

I've had to redirect my focus away from GC for a short bit, but will be right back at this not too long from now.

As this was a survey for currently active GCers, my plans are to next reach out to GCers who were very active in the past but have not been active on GC for quite some time. Goal will be to learn directly from them why they stopped being active on GC and what changes they might want to see here at GC in order to regain their interest in becoming active on GC again.

Reaching out to these previously active GCers will require some database programming to basically build a list of these GC accounts, filter out any who opted in their GC profile to not receive admin emails from GC, etc. Then I'll reach out and see where it all leads. This will very likely be the next mini-project I do soon as I can get back to focusing more again on GC.

There might be some on the Greekchat facebook page. I can post something there if you have a google form or something they can fill out.

That survey I plan on doing via discussion thread here on GC like this one as well as via email for anyone that just wants to reply to the email that I send out. Once I get that survey going & the thread is posted, would be great if you could post a link to that on FB as well. Thanks.