Of course it works, still a mobile interface would be better, compare CPF or TLF which have one and BLF which doesn’t.
Not dying for me. Some days the traffic seems slow. I set up to browse “Recent Posts” rather than specific forums. I like that capability, and the ability to go directly to “last post” in any given thread. Makes it easier to filter. Not a modder, but I enjoy reading about it and am amazed at the skillsets of those here that do. With little exception, everything I’ve learned about flashlights/ batteries/ chargers, etc. has come from this site.
Long live BLF!
You can use a mobile internet browser like Firefox that remembers BLF password and username. That browser makes BLF very mobile friendly.
Reddit, fb sucks.
Proper forum is best solution. Like BLF 
That is a stinking attitude IMO. I think anyone who wants to “shame” some forum members, just because the person doesn’t like or agree with their thoughts, ought to be ashamed of himself.
If a post violates forum rules, by all means it should be modified or deleted. But this idea of “shaming” people for what they say and think is absolutely outrageous nonsense. (And some people wonder why there’s less traffic on BLF. Perhaps a look in the mirror will provide those people some answers.)
Personally, my involvement on BLF has waned somewhat because my hunger for new flashlights has waned. For the most part I feel pretty satiated; I have so many great lights (about a hundred), I don’t feel a strong urge to seek out another. Barring some new situation cropping up (such as my recent acquisition of an ebike for which I might look for better lighting) I feel like I have lights that perfectly fit my needs in just about any setting.
The only other reason for posting is a sense of cameraderie. And I’ve had some negative input from other members (who like to shout down anyone they disagree with) which minimizes my sense of cameraderie; it’s sort of like if you were visiting your relatives and they purposely insulted you to your face… wouldn’t you reduce your visits?
Sure, there are always people we don’t see eye to eye with. People we disagree with. Maybe even dislike outright. But proper decorum (politeness around other people) has in the past always been to remain civil, to politely disagree, and to be temperate and judicious. Only with the advent of online interactions (where we don’t see the other person “in person”) have folks become as rude, crude, mean, insulting, and willing to verbally slap others as they now are. “Shaming” the people you’re socializing with had zero place in polite social contexts when I was growing up, and frankly I am astounded and horrified that anyone would think it is normal or acceptable (let alone desirable) behavior in a social gathering.
+1
Maybe BLF is just in a down period but as someone mentioned above somewhere, I know that a new BLF project light will draw the crowds back.
I'm not a modder so getting on-board Project lights is perfect for me.
I love using my BLFs (Q8 to name one) and think back to how exciting they were to be a part of.
I know we come here for lights primarily but we all have other hobbies and topics like Knives, Coffee, Music on this forum really draw my attention too. Maybe we should have more 'Other Interests' topics say like car detailing for instance off the top of my head to get people engaging again.
We need a BLF headlamp.
Plus it’s hard to follow what people are replying to. I stopped reading down the thread page because of that, and am trying to spend more time on here instead. Still lot’s of good people with custom items and knowledge for this hobby on BLF.
I think it always ebbs and flows…the participation as well as actual active members. Some people progress in knowledge and mods and such, eventually reach their plateau, and they may move on to other interests. We’ve had a few spikes in developments that brought everyone in to learn and discuss but other than Anduril and some nice newer design lights the hobby itself isn’t what it was just five years or a decade ago when there was a lot more room for improvement and experimentation with mods. That said, I certainly have noticed that some longstanding respected and knowledgeable people disappeared from the forum starting a few years ago and it was like a lot of them left within a year or two time frame. Inasmuch as we can get like family, it was sad to see the shift and the absence of their skills and input, but people come and go. Some we heard from again or found out why they left, but several are gone without any (public) word said. There are some great “new” people here and it’s always neat for me to be reminded of just how much talent and abilities there are in the world - even when we only get brief participation from people that are devs or scientists or industry members or advanced tinkerers, it’s great to see them attracted to flashlights and BLF.
I don’t know what may (or may not?) have caused an apparent exodus or shift on this forum but it’s certainly different. I still like it the best and I think it’s the best format for actually educating people and preserving a lot of the fantastic technical information and test results, etc. We’re lucky to have had a lot of that in the past that was over-the-top quality, and while dated, most of it is still very relevant for products today and for people new to the hobby who need to get an understanding of basic electronics and the components we use the most. You just don’t see that on CPF or Reddit…and while the former has good archives, most of it is not so useable today…the latter just doesn’t have it and/or you can’t find it unless someone has a permalink saved and shares it. I’ve found reddit content to be largely a waste of time, albeit fun sometimes because there’s a lot of energy there, but recently have seen that they do have a small handful of contributors that are becoming good experts in various ways. One thing I don’t like is the platform’s inability to have a simple chronological view without a ton of extra clicking or screens, etc., and I really don’t think the whole up/down voting thing is beneficial to the site or to people in society. I also see a “low effort” tag on posts which seems kind of rude or belittling, and often those posts are just simple good fun humor (the kind of thing that brings people together and might make your day better than fretting over which emitter to choose in your “hanklight”).
People will come and go, people will go where they feel comfortable. BLF is still a fantastic place to hang out and an amazing repository of both past and current information - solid technical information. It would be nice if more people tried to contribute to helping those with troubleshooting and repair needs, but it seems like most people get at least some info. It’s hard when folks are just completely clueless about electronics or emitters or soldering or even just mechanical disassembly and then want to fix their light…some people that could help may shy away from diving in that hole again since it can be a deep one (especially trying to help online-only…). On other forums (and here too I guess) there’s a quick default response to ask for a refund or exchange with a new light, and as that has become more and more common I don’t think it’s good for the overall industry/hobby, or for the light users since they aren’t learning about the products they own. Nobody likes it when their light doesn’t work right, but it’s still par for the course with “budget” lights even as complex and much-better as budget lights have become, so learning/educating is really important to everyone’s happiness and satisfaction, I think. For whatever reason that seems to be lacking in other places. If a post gets missed or ignored here, a second post of a bump will usually bring help, and much of the time people will help the poster to figure it out (and so often it’s something really simple anyway).
One thing that really bugs me the last couple-few years is the way members treat manufacturers here at times. I’m not sure our relationships are as strong as they used to be and collaborations seem to be limited to tweaks or after the fact changes. It was maybe a little disheartening to see that several recent releases weren’t even announced here…that’s a big change. When people are impatient, rude, or unfairly demanding (and don’t understand the uniqueness of differing cultures and a global-direct buying experience) it can turn off otherwise helpful vendors, reduce their willingness to participate, and/or let their input devolve into simple sales efforts/discount baiting. We’re fortunate to have several great vendors but it seems to have changed, and several others seem to have left. Makes it harder to get the BLF collabs going or to correct/improve lights on the market. We shouldn’t expect or demand the walmart/amazon response to issues but it’s great that several vendors attempt to do similar for us, as much as that has to affect their profits. Most of these are pretty small businesses and aren’t making giant corporation money like people may assume. Not sure when it changed but there’s been a shift toward complaining and expecting and impolitely calling out issues before taking time to learn or investigate to see what the issue is or isn’t. That makes “us” look less skilled as enthusiasts and maybe vendors don’t think our input is as valuable as it used to be…however, recently, we’ve shown that opposite to be true with help to Wurkkos, which is great. I don’t know that this trend reduces overall forum participation but it hasn’t been pleasant to see and the results do seem apparent.
The best thing about BLF, in my opinion, is that it has the broad variety of content about our hobby. It’s not 99% focused on consumerism or choosing which new light to buy. Whether it’s posted or not, a lot of us still enjoy older lights, modding and repairing, and learning about the real magic that makes things go - drivers, on an intricate level. And the science of light, the mechanics of light and changing it from source to beam, etc, etc. That understanding is key to happier shopping, better modding, and fewer complaints about things that should probably be expected unless you’re new-new to the hobby. What I see elsewhere just looks like chaos without that base knowledge (and that has included some vendors, too…something we can help with and used to help with).
I’m not too active here because I’m not a collector. I’m the oddball that will spend hours reading and learning, reading and learning for periods of time (seasonally - fall/winter - in case of lights), develop preferences, and so on, but not build a collection. I’m fairly minimalistic and practical, so in the two years I’ve been here, I’ve only bought one flashlight and one headlamp because why would I need more? I do keep an eye on the CPF headlamps forum (been there 19 years) and used to like modifying headlamps to get what I needed.
I agree that the lights most here like are fairly well developed, so there’s less need to modify. My own specific light needs - bright headlamps for fast moving activities that are stable on the head - are not quite being met at the budget level (and the higher end headlamps don’t have the emitter choices I’d pick), but there isn’t a critical mass of contributors that are seeking the same kind of light for there to be real discussion.
Forums are still the best for discussion. Usenet newgroups also were fun back in the day. I’m a regular in one running forum, a few car forums, and a couple bike/mountain bike forums. If you write a post, you can be assured it will be read by people interested in the thread, threads live as long as there is interest, and old threads are great for research.
I tried reddit for about a year but deleted my account last week. It’s just frustrating to use. If you spend a lot of time writing a good reply, there’s a good chance it won’t be seen by more than one person if you see the thread a little late. Reddit intentionally makes you refresh threads to see additional posts to a thread, and most people don’t do that. Like others have said, what’s written is ephemeral there, and that affects what is talked about. I also dislike the upvote/downvote thing and group think that encourages. I find group think more common on reddit than forums. I can see value of reddit in some types of threads, such organizing those threads that get thousands of replies (discussing nba games for example), but I didn’t bother to post in those (skim only). I still have reddit subs in group on my browser to read at times, but with my account deleted, I no longer tempted to waste my time posting and interacting.
BLF is far from dead. Yes it has moved more from discussions around modding to production budget lights, but that is due to huge improvements to budget lights. It is generally a friendly place compared to most forums. Search functionality is good, and there is a lot of knowledge. There is a bit of over-demanding on some manufacturer threads though “I want an unobtainium Convoy S2+ in pink with orange spots, with an XHP70.3, 20A driver, aux LEDs on the side clip, and Anduril”.
I’m also on Reddit, and whilst I like the ease of uploading photos (as Reddit hosts the photos) which is great for beamshots, etc, the threads have a life span of a few millisecond before they head into obscurity. Google search is best for finding past threads. Reddit r/flashlight is actually friendlier than most sub-Reddits (I’ve given up posting in urbex sub-Reddits due to entitled pricks demanding locations).
CPF, I keep checking back, but few threads interest me.
Like Correllux mentioned, I largely left flashlights because I reached a plateau.
I could dive deeper into theory but that wouldn’t bring significant real benefits. I could go seriously into modding but that was not fun for me.
I could invest more time in software but there was no host that I liked enough.
I tried to drive an initiative to build a small BLF zoomie, but that project folded quickly. After that I started thinking what to do next…and failed to find something engaging enough.
So I left.
I still like BLF, so I come here from time to time. I hope the community does fine. Because that is what makes BLF special.
Take care friends.
That is a very good point. We are seeing a golden age of “budget” lights. $15-$40 has a wide variety of high output (500-1000lumens) of your choice of tints and CRI. AND some great UI’s. Amazing.
Life has really gotten in the way the last several months. Have only had time for a few mods with the 519’s
I will be here until I die, I use reddit but really hate the format and some of the idiots that feel their BS 2 cents worth are needed on every thread.
I mean, that’s not really exclusive to reddit. I share the same feeling about some posters on BLF too. Youtube comments section as well. And very much so with the general populace on Facebook and social media (which is why I tend to avoid it).
But I think that’s more an ‘internet in general’ thing as it’s grown.
The browser doesn’t matter when BLF doesn’t have a mobile/responsive theme, so the text is small and hard to read on a phone. Having to zoom and scroll the page left to right is not user friendly.
Internet forums go in several stages.
1. first online forums- high level enthusiasts meet for the first time online after the dark ages of snail mail. It was a very exciting time, even the thought you were recieving messages on a screen from someone in another country was like omg:)
2. Average consumer turns up over the next 10 years, increases numbers. He is like the town settlers turning up after the frontiersman have paved the way
3. Tech stage. The number of members + advancements in tech reach a critical mass where there is new second wave of innovation. This usually also drives manufacturers who start paying attention to forums. Custom makers are the apex predator of this world
4. The stupid stage. Fashion trends evolve which start to make hobbies chase weird goals. Flashlights its crazy lumens, 800 for a keychain light and “level of sun before dropping down, SOS, strobe, beacon and communicate with ET mothership light display” for any light more than 4” long. Guns, blades, camping gear, optics have gone down some strange corridors recently as well. 
5. Normal stage and or/decline
I hope BLF is not dying, but I had a similar thought several months ago. It appears the overall postings and responses has gone down.
For me, I only have so much time in my life for flashlight fun. Between work, family, and life stuff, I prefer to spend my time on BLF for the flashlight time I have. I signed up for CPF a long time ago, but never posted. Thought about signing up for reddit, but haven’t yet and don’t plan to.
I’ve spent hours and hours reading posts that I didn’t keep up with when I finally get around to whatever was so popular back when. I’m always impressed with all the knowledge and insight that the BLF members have! I’m not sure if I could get that anywhere else.
And I always look forward to updates with certain posts here on BLF, like What did you mod today? There are some posts that continue to grow and grow, which seems to be unique to BLF.