Is hammock camping as popular as it was 5-10 years ago?

[Hang Williams]

Young people don't do Facebook either, just saying. I stopped posting anything there and would've been wise to delete it many years prior when it was no longer for just college students. I'm a millennial, younger generations just never joined. Thank goodness none of the original content from html editable walls is searchable, I'd never be able to keep a job. They're one of the worst about using your phone's mic input data to sell to advertisers. If you ever have a conversation about something only to get an ad eerily related later that day, thank your Facebook app.

[Darbe]

Many believe this forum is not user friendly. And compared to other on-line forums does not get updates to make it more user-friendly.

I beg to disagree with the not user friendly. I think Hammock Forums are pretty self-explanatory and navigable. If I can use it without trouble and cussing at it, Like I do at Facebook with its spying, all its ads, meaningless posts I am not interested in and that infernal reloading. As for Reddit, it's a fun place to visit because of its weirdness but, all the adds there too and it seems to be a little bit of an unorganized mess. Maybe some people have a problem with it here because there are rules, and we are expected to abide.
Keep up the good work Hammock Forum powers that be.

[TominMN]

While this thread has been hijacked from the original question, I think there is a lot to be gained by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of this forum. It certainly needs a bit of organizational maintenance.

[Karla "with a k"]

Karla with a K what exactly would you want us to change?
Our forum is a vBulletin Skins by Bluepearl Skins.
We don't get to change much. Give us some example and we will forward them to vBulletin to see if they could be incorporated in their software.

Hint hint: This sounds like a great thread to start - asking for ideas from everyone

[cougarmeat]

It is amazing that a moderator hasn't "reminded" us that this topic has nothing to do with Hammocks per say. That's not to say it wouldn't be allowed - just not in the General Hammock Talk sub-forum. There is the Round Table, though that is not accessible to non-donating members.

There does seem to be a little "subjectivity" to what posts/content are allowed. But that's true of life in general.

I don't belong to any "social media" group (FaceBook, Instagram, TicTok, SnapChat, Twitter, etc.) and get a little frustrated when software support departments say, "Just contact us via ...." which would require joining one of those data-selling enterprises.

HammockForums and WestCoastPaddler are my two daily reads.

[sideshowraheem]

Ha I am actually the mod over at r/HammockCamping on reddit. Sorry if we're stealing traffic!

I generally prefer forums as well. The format allows for more in-depth discussion. HammockForums get mentioned and linked to quite a bit over there as well I will add. Most of the posts on reddit are just quick pictures of peoples setups, not nearly as in-depth or detailed as we get here, though I am working to encourage more discussion and less quick pictures over there.

I was gone on vacation for a week and when I logged back in here I was happy to see 500+ new posts still!

[Derch]

I've seen a lot of forums, 2hich I love, get shut down in the last 5 to 10 years because of social media, reddits, discord and such. I think hammock sales are up new vendors keep coming and maybe it's just my algorithm but seems exposure is up. Camping and outdoor activities grew during COVID so I'm sure hammocks had a boom during that as well.

A quick search on the Google machine says it's growing year over year, however tents are growing at similar rates, looking at sites that report these things I saw tents growing from 5.7 to 8.8%, and hammocks were 5.4 to 14.4 in one report. So maybe market share of sleeping outside they are gaining a bit, or just growing even with the outdoor market.

[packman9000]

Hammocks are more popular than they were a decade ago, at least from what I've seen. I've seen a lot of the younger generation start right out camping with hammocks, rather than go with the tent-first approach formerly so popular.

[kayak karl]

More than 2008 when I started, but they use words and phrases I don't understand. The only time I heard of Whoopi was on Laugh-In. The first time I ever spent the night in a hammock was on Springer Mt. 12/31/08 20 Degrees.

[cmoulder]

In general I see more hammocks 'out there' in the woods but still far (far!) more tents. I'm OK with that in a selfish way because it leaves more hanging opportunities for me. But I am not so selfish that I would not instantly provide my best advice and assistance to anyone who really wanted to get into this very interesting sleep/shelter mode for the outdoors. And I still use tents sometimes as well because, for backpacking, a hammock isn't always the best tool for the job.

My participation has waned recently because since Nov 2017 I have gleaned enough information and tried enough approaches and tested enough gear that I've distilled it down to my very specific preferences in the very tiny niche of UL hammocking. The minimalist style is naturally not very gadget dependent, so new bling very rarely is of use. I've also returned to some other interests, such as building model R/C airplanes and riding the MTB, which are activities I had previously 'burned out' on... so it is, for me, a cycle of life type thing, where interests fade and others take their place, and then the process is repeated.

If you look at threads from 10 years ago there are many, many posts by people who no longer participate in HF.