(Written 4/18/12 by ChristopherK2 for the Uglier MDers blog)
PRIOR HISTORY
As I mentioned in my 2/12/12 article, the Coolest room had declined from its lofty earlier days of being fairly popular to an average of just 7.8 people in January.
It held onto that average in February, but with some ominous signs. It compensated for those with huge increases by SxyMAFIA, Muddy, and Pretty. But meanwhile, Bitch, NotWithout, and SMPinkrose disappeared.
Worse, a nasty trend developed of several regulars drastically reducing their times in the room. Dee was about to vanish, and there were major drops by Ham, Hooters, and SexyDoll. This trend would become a virtual flood in March and April, crippling their room.
MARCH--THE MASS EXODUS BEGINS
The departures and reductions dropped the overall average number of people in the Coolest room from about 8 in January and February to just *5.8* in March, a huge hit.
Several regulars left entirely, including Dee, Eminence, Legs, and Muddy. But the major negative factor was people sharply reducing their time in the room. And the biggest news there was Beth, whose attendance plummeted by about 85%. Others who cut back by half or more included Hooters, Felony, Ponie, Rooster, Sexydoll, and Trikin. And there were also substantial reductions by Aint, Jmb, Pantry, Perky, and Pretty.
APRIL--COOLEST GOES ONTO LIFE SUPPORT
If you thought an average of 5.8 people was BAD enough, how about 4.7? That's what Coolest averaged in the first half of April. And that average actually worsened as the month has worn on, so it's now even lower.
They again entirely lost several regulars, including Hooters, Pretty, and Feefers. But once again, the major effect was caused by people not showing up nearly as often or for nearly as long. Many of those mentioned above reduced their time even more. And Bak and Alan did, too.
There are now several who are around so seldom that they may soon disappear entirely, including Aint, Bak, Ham, Ponie, Rooster, Sexydoll, Trikin, and Alan.
OVERALL
There are some frightening (if you're a member of their nasty little clique) statistics since January.
The number of people passing thru their room has plummeted from 40 in January to just 18 thru mid-April.
Their peak number so far in April is just 12 on April 3rd. Otherwise, they haven't reached even double-digits in April. And the majority of the time they have four or fewer people there.
They have become far more concentrated in the past few months. Now, a bit over 70% of their attendance is accounted for by just four people: MAFIA, Zeeke, Vomit, and Wilson. That essentially means that nearly ALL of the time, it's just them or them plus one or two others.
They've also become primarily an early evening room. If those hours are dropped, it would pretty much just be MAFIA, Zeeke, Vomit, and Wilson yammering at each other.
THE FUTURE
How BAD is attendance in the Coolest room? Well, for a perspective, it's now averaging about the same number of people as MY room did as recently as mid-October. And mine was dead by late-December.
The end of a chat room can come VERY quickly.
Soooooooooo, I think we should officially start a Dead Pool on Coolest! What's YOUR guess???
Let the emails, IMs and phone calls BEGGING people to return to their room begin! Poor poor Vomit... Poor poor Zeeke...
Oh, and it's hard to not notice that--now that they have little to do in their room--they're posting a LOT on Vomit's blog. It's all, of course, ugly attacks on me, Bonnie, or this blog. What else have they EVER commented about?