Interesting how participation has declined over the years.

[Father Bill]

Ivor, you and your posts are more than welcome here. Yes there are those who have pushed their luck when they thought that XMarks was like the rest of the Internet where there are so many rude people and have been flagged for it. It isn’t and that’s why they were flagged.

You have probably seen how polite the members normally are here. The rules are one of the reasons for that. You need to know that the moderators are not the only ones who sometimes flag posts. Members do that and then the moderators take a look.

Please don’t be too sensitive, just read and post politely on permitted topics and you’ll be fine. I for one, like a lot of your stuff.

[Ivor]

Thanks for your encouraging reply, Father Bill. As a newbie I don’t want to rock any boats but would like to learn as much as possible before, hopefully, taking the plunge. My wife who is Scottish would love me to wear a kilt so maybe, just maybe once I pluck up the courage I will.

[Father Bill]

Thanks for your encouraging reply, Father Bill. As a newbie I don’t want to rock any boats but would like to learn as much as possible before, hopefully, taking the plunge. My wife who is Scottish would love me to wear a kilt so maybe, just maybe once I pluck up the courage I will.

Go for it, man!

[Jock Scot]

It does appear that interest is on the wane here on Xmarks at the moment. I fear that it does not feel like the other times that waning interest has occurred on this website, only to pick up to a healthy input from members in its own good time. I really hope that my instinct if way off beam. Perhaps that there are new outlets for discussion available these days, that may be more user friendly, or some such, but the near silence here at present is almost deafening! Am I missing something, I wonder?

[tundramanq]

I fear you are correct Jock.
This is still the only wide spread source of kilt information and opinion. But Facebook now has dozens of kilt/Celtic sites many of which are specialized or vender operated where one can play "show and tell" and ask questions. I am part of 5 such groups. It directly competes with X Marks for ones free time and is not likely to go away any time soon.

I am one of the ones who got bruised by the photo hosting scam and, refusing ransom, most of my old info posts on X Marks are now useless nonsense. I put me off of adding more posts even after the issue was fixed.

A major asset here is being able to find posts on any subject, new or old, and the lack of censorship that goes on at FB so long as one follows the rules here.

This is also place of sanity relative to FB where group moderation is pretty hit or miss.

I still drop in about monthly to see what is happening or when someone posts on a string I am following and I get and e-mail notification.

By the way, Next August will be 9 years since I have worn pants. All your fault!

[Steve Ashton]

About the same time every year we hear the same thing.

X Marks is not as active anymore. Does this mean that the days of X Marks are coming to a close?

Well, it is a fact that winter is a bit slower than summer. Kilt sales always slow down between Burns day and the start of the Games season.

But X Marks is still here. We are still the world's oldest, largest, and most active on-line community dedicated to the kilt. Are there a lot of facebook pages that have kilts in them? Yep. Do some members here also spend time on facebook? Yep.

But the best indicator of the health of X Marks can be found at the bottom of our home page (We just label it 'forum'). You should be able to find a statistic called 'Active Members'. This is the number of members who have logged on and made at least one post in the last 90 days.

Currently that number is 2,382. Heck most facebook pages don't have 2000 total members.

The number of active members is actually up from this same day 1 year ago when the number of active members was 2,194.

I speak to a lot of X Marks members. I hear about the same thing over and over. "I am not as active as I guess I could be - but - there is only so much about the kilt that one person can write about.". And that is true. We are hearing much the same comments and get much the same questions today as we did back when we started in 2004.

But new members still find us and still join in large numbers. 5 new members so far today. They come to us because we are still the best source for the best information on our chosen topic. They come to us to wade through all the myth and hoopla that is so rampant about the kilt. Maybe they have seen TV show Outlander or have read the books and want to know more. Maybe there is in their family an oral history that they are of Scottish decent and feel that it is time that they celebrate that.

The health and vitality of any group or community is up to its members. If you value X Marks and want it to be vibrant and active - start posting. Answer a new memeber's question. Help your fellow kilt wearer. Post your own questions, your ideas, your thoughts about kilts. Others will respond and follow along.

I made a promise to keep X Marks on-line and X Marks will still be here long after all the other forums, and the facebook pages, and the others are long gone and forgotten.

[Me cousin Jack]

I wanna join. Where is the donate button? Can’t find it anywhere.

[tundramanq]

Agree. As I post there are 179 users on line of which maybe 10% will post or reply now. The other 90% are just "reading the newspaper" to see what is happening or using the site as an encyclopedia.

[Father Bill]

As I write this response, there are eight people reading this thread alone - three members, five guests.

That seems alive to me.

Edited:

Now up to seven and eight respectively for a total of fifteen.

Oh, and 163 members alone have read this thread.

[Steve Ashton]

I wanna join. Where is the donate button? Can’t find it anywhere.

We hide the donate button. It is only for the elite few. You know, those who wear the pleats in the front and the basting stitches.