This an extreme oddity to me..

In the United States, people own:

142 million freshwater fish.
88.3 million cats.
74.8 million dogs.
16 million birds. I presume parrots!
24.3 million small animals.
13.8 million horses.
13.4 million reptiles.
9.6 million saltwater fish.

Compared to

The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) reports in 2011 there were 6.9 million skier and 5.1 million snowboarders.


The above demographics, Skier vs Parrot is something that is confusing to me.... I moderated a freeskiing (park skiing) a small portion of skiers) forum website 10x+ the activity than is here. Why is forum activity here so, uh..missing? thoughts? Discuss!!....

Only geniuses can live with parrots, that accounts for the ownership, it's all based on the bell curve. Anyone can buy skis.

Hope this helps.

Interesting, I consider this forum very active!

Missing? I also feel that this forum is very active. No there aren't 50 new threads a day but I come on the forums daily and there are always new posts...

A good 75% of posts initially on ParrotForums are people seeking behavioral help with a new parrot or a parrot seeking advice on a sick bird. Some of those folks wind up being continuing posters. 25% left. Out of those I's say half are non-parronts seeking advice on prospective new parrots. So that leaves 12.5% of posters who are like you, owners who just want to talk about parrots - theirs, yours, cool ones they've seen, just parrots in general. I am all for the last category. Parronts who just wannna have fun.

clark_conure said:

Only geniuses can live with parrots, that accounts for the ownership, it's all based on the bell curve. Anyone can buy skis.

Hope this helps.

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Where is the big-ass laugh button when we need it??!

Looking at stats, you have 251 posts since mid 2012. Me, being a PIA, have 7,640 posts since end of 2014. I am on multiple times a day and..... gee I may need a life!!!

Just going to go ahead and outright say it- a lot of bird owners are "weird", "outsiders" and plenty are NOT big social butterflies (myself included). My parents, for example, are long time parrot owners and love birds but they don't own computers, cell phones and generally want the outside world to leave them alone. You'd never see them on a "forum" (or out skiing, for that matter). I think there's plenty more like them. When you see people with parrots in the news, they tend not to be the most 'popular' looking folks in general. Due to the nature of participating in sports, one is almost required to be a more social personality type. It's a whole lot easier to sit at home, play with your bird and give the rest of the world the finger than it is to go out to a ski resort where you'll almost guaranteed have to at minimum interact with others having to pay for whatever, ride those lift things, random chats about the weather/ski conditions etc... and will very likely feel pressure to participate in auxiliary activities, like parties or special events to 'fit in' to the "culture". I would venture to say, skiing/sports and caring for difficult, time consuming exotic birds, in general, attracts 2 very different personality types that don't overlap too often. I'd be willing to be those who enjoy sports like skiing want to talk and interact more often with others in general than bird owners.

Another thought which is 100% speculation: skiers are, as a whole, a young population (since eventually older folks will have to give it up), and younger populations are often more computer savvy.

Alternatively, as an older but “early adopter” of tech type myself, I didn’t even think forums were a thing anymore until about 6 months before I decided to get “future bird” (now known as Bumble). So maybe all the hip birb owners are on other platforms.


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I would also point out that 1 person can potentially own many birds. While 1 person can only become 1 skier.

clark_conure said:

Only geniuses can live with parrots, that accounts for the ownership, it's all based on the bell curve. Anyone can buy skis.

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Okay.. Skiing is far more expensive, most only do it a couple weekends a year. More people buy parrots than skis. So geniuses don't post as much as skiers?

Flboy said:

Interesting, I consider this forum very active!

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I don't have the stats. However I think that the Macaw Forum which used to be very active (a page per day) has stopped. Because of the Macaw activity back in 2015 this forum was the reason I have Rudy today.

itzjbean said:

Missing? I also feel that this forum is very active. No there aren't 50 new threads a day but I come on the forums daily and there are always new posts...

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Yes there were... again IMO it was tremendously more active here just a few years ago.

wrench13 said:

A good 75% of posts initially on ParrotForums are people seeking behavioral help with a new parrot or a parrot seeking advice on a sick bird. Some of those folks wind up being continuing posters. 25% left. Out of those I's say half are non-parronts seeking advice on prospective new parrots. So that leaves 12.5% of posters who are like you, owners who just want to talk about parrots - theirs, yours, cool ones they've seen, just parrots in general. I am all for the last category. Parronts who just wannna have fun.

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Ive noticed exactly what you refer to. I have watched the -90/9/1- rule for almost 2 decades. Trends appear and then taper off. Im sticking to the stats. as far as I know, there is not another interactive helpful parrot forum like this anywhere. Why has it died here?

Flboy said:

Looking at stats, you have 251 posts since mid 2012. Me, being a PIA, have 7,640 posts since end of 2014. I am on multiple times a day and..... gee I may need a life!!!

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Ah yep.. I will confess. I joined because I needed to learn more info about my BFA. I wasn't interactive with posting ray of sunshine posts. Here again, this forum taught me about macaws, right down to the GWM, hence, I have Rudy. So now I am back, with the idea to contribute back what I took away.

Kiwibird said:

Just going to go ahead and outright say it- a lot of bird owners are "weird", "outsiders" and plenty are NOT big social butterflies events to 'fit in' to the "culture".

I would venture to say, skiing/sports and caring for difficult, time consuming exotic birds, in general, attracts 2 very different personality types that don't overlap too often. I'd be willing to be those who enjoy sports like skiing want to talk and interact more often with others in general than bird owners.

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Actually. that is quite funny, Kiwi!!! The irony is overwhelming. If I switched the topics around in your post you would be spot on! I think you have it backwards. Park Skiers are the outcasts of the Ski World. Online they were the obnoxious loud uhhh..outcasts in the world. It gets deeper. My oldest boy spent the winter before with Josh Christensen who won gold at Sochi 2012. They are the grunge rock park animals. My other son is 15 mos. younger placed 2nd in a Park City National Bode Miller type of Competition.

I have Polar opposites who dont talk to each other, yet love the same sport! Anyways....

Inger said:

Another thought which is 100% speculation: skiers are, as a whole, a young population (since eventually older folks will have to give it up), and younger populations are often more computer savvy.

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THis is a fantastic and very astute observation. The demographic difference between the websites fits exactly as you described.

While I am still very surprised that there seems to be a lack of activity here, you likely have made a perfect point on why that website is exploding. I have not been on it for almost 8 years. On a whim, I decided to post a picture of Rudy in the snow in a thread and see what happens.

https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/861719/Parks-Open-On-East-Coast-Spring-2018


Ahhhhhh.. you know what.. it has tapered off. then again most who post there probably don't have a clue of who I was while there.

Staggering numbers! Truly fascinating . 16 million cute birds

DiscoDuck are you trying to suggest this become a Parrot/Skiing forum? lol...that must be what you want! I ski too, I actually hate it but I do it for fitness even though it terrifies the living daylights out of me especially with a husband that says things like "why are we even skiing if you aren't even going to to do the blue diamond course, come on! you'll be fine."

I came to this forum seeking like minded parrot people and advise and that is what I have received. I was not always so active on this forum but the more I posted the nicer everyone seemed to be and the more I wanted to be included and felt included. What a wonderful wonderful group of people we have here!

to kiwibird....I don't know about what you said, going someplace with a cute conure on your shoulder is a great way to meet people...especially girls! :14:

Facebook has placed tremendous pressure on old-school forums. While a special-interest forum requires conscious intent to participate, a person can visit FB and alternate between their home page, feed, and private groups.

I was a member of many Facebook groups (for parrots) and after about 2 months I couldn't take it anymore. There are too many haters (for no reason) and not enough people to regulate it. I also have trouble finding past posts I've made or looking up older content without a pile of hours sunken into it. I had to quit them and I promptly returned here and now I only use this forum for my parrot advise and chatting needs.

Sunnyclover said:

DiscoDuck are you trying to suggest this become a Parrot/Skiing forum? lol...that must be what you want! I ski too, !

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LOL... No, but you added an item to my bucket list. I'm going to take Rudy with me skiing. Its pretty cool what we do already, but to have him ride or fly with me while ski down a hill would be epic! yeah.. neds to be a warm sunny day...

clark_conure said:

on your shoulder is a great way to meet girls! :14:

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Im gonna catch me some snow bunnies!

Scott said:

Facebook has placed tremendous pressure on old-school forums.

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Good point. I joined FB 2004 as a student. By 2010 I had had enough. that is for the most part left social media. I got back into because our President tweets. Then came here, I looked at FB but that's about it. Reminds me of those magazines you see in the doctors office..

Sunnyclover said:

I was a member of many Facebook groups (for parrots) and after about 2 months I couldn't take it anymore..

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It took me about 6 years to bale!

I don’t trust the people in FB bird groups the same way I trust everyone here. I am in one called Parrotlet Parents and I intend to stay there, because hey cute pictures of the cutest parrots ever all day long. But I don’t get the same feeling of community there.


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Sunnyclover said:

DiscoDuck are you trying to suggest this become a Parrot/Skiing forum?

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Quick, Kiwibird, better put dibs on the username SKIWIBIRD ...

DiscoDuck said:

Sunnyclover said:

I was a member of many Facebook groups (for parrots) and after about 2 months I couldn't take it anymore..

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It took me about 6 years to bale!

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It only took me a couple weeks tops. I really wanted it before I was 13, got it as soon as I turned 13, and promptly didn't see the point of it. There's so much politics/drama there too, and with the data scandal...

My parents haven't been so lucky. They're so into Facebook that they often just check it for the sake of checking it even though they know there's not anything new (because they checked it 10 minutes ago, lol).

Mind you, I don't see the point of social media in general. My sister tried to get me into Instagram, but I got bored of that pretty fast too.