This place used to be a lot more active.

I'm wasting my time and talents in a woefully underpaid job, hoping to get a loan to buy a nice small place to live soon, craving frantic metal and considering buying some Dragonforce, have started attending a very friendly but musically disappointing church, am playing Pokémon X and constantly updating http://NudibranchStamps.blogspot.com and trying to keep my darling nutty rescued cat cuddled and entertained.

To sum up, in the words of Big Gay Al, "I'm super, thanks for asking!":loco:

What I'd like to be doing is singing Tchaikovsky romances in Russian, organising amazing oratorio festivals and creating experimental electronic/symphonic speed metal.
 
I don't know if this is necessarily the case with Theocracy, but I've definitely seen an overall decrease in music-related message board and mailing list usage with the advent of Facebook band pages and music groups.
 
Bands that don't do anything for a long time don't get any attention. I hate to say it but... Theocracy hasn't released an album for almost 3 years and they don't exactly do world tours.
 
Also, the bandmembers don't interact here much anymore, unlike in the past. Not complaining, just saying.

Many people were here just to talk to the bandmembers, not to talk about the band with us.
 
It's just that we love to talk about nothing. But lately, no one had nothing to say anymore.
 
Maybe a little of all of the above. Certainly this place was more active after the release of ATWB. I see SeaStorm's point about message boards in general. I feel like the Mike Portnoy forum also gets less traffic than it used to. Though that may also be a function of him leaving Dream Theater. I don't really frequent any other boards except the Christian Metal Realm. I'm more of a lurker myself. My volume of posts here far exceeds the 12+ years I have been a member of the MP forum, where I average a post a year or so. :)
 
Part of it for me is expectations. I'm doing my best to be a dedicated fan, but everytime I check in, there's nothing new. I've faithfully been looking for live concert dates, willing to drive almost anywhere to see them, but so few are ever announced. Losing Shawn was probably a serious setback so that's no help. I'm more than a little worried that balancing day jobs, family, and music is getting to be too taxing on the band members. I know it from my own creative endeavors. It's hard to pour endless hours into something creative if the return (hate to say it, but $$$ matters) doesn't add up. It's exhausting wearing the family hat, day job hat, and second career hat. I just hope Theocracy can weather it because there's really no other band like them in terms of the combination of Scriptural Christian Integrity and just plain amazing musicianship.
 
^I'd bet a pretty penny that they're going to play some new material. You best record it.
 
Well, personally, I come at it from the perspective of how we identify with music we listen to. When Theocracy was much less well-known and did much fewer shows, this felt much more like "our" band, like we were the select few who knew that Theocracy is a band that is going places, and it felt like a bigger part of our identity. As the second and third album greatly increased Theocracy's exposure and fanbase, more and more newcomers joined the excitement and the activity increased. Now that nothing's happening, the activity has slowed down to this because each of us individually feel a little less "identified" with the band and "responsible" (best word I can think of) for keeping up the word and energy.

Not to say we're losing interest, but just that some of the urgency around the band and it's community has leveled now that a strong segment of the PM community (Christian and non-Christian) knows about Theocracy and considers every release a must-buy - Mission accomplished, I guess? So, it's a bit of an awkward stage. With time and the solidifying of a larger fanbase, I think there will be activity of a new, but less intimate kind here.
 
Agreed. I miss y'alls quirky remarks, witty jokes, energy over something that makes me feel alone around here. I remember the date it stopped was February 21st. I remember thinking it was funny no one posted something for over 24 hours, 48, 72... Not so funny anymore. I still love the band though. I'm sure you guys do too. I used to post when I heard something awesome on the album that made me feel awesome and it made me think of you guys. I can't wait for the next album.