Are we irrelevant?

Are you referring to the inflation fetish as a whole, or just the niche aspects of it that appeals to your specific tastes?

Because I can tell you right now that the inflation fetish community as a whole is bigger and more diverse than it's ever been.  I mean, there are currently three separate fetish clip studios on the internet that are dedicated to inflation, which would have been unthinkable a decade before.  It's true that BI.org isn't quite the hotbed of activity that it once was, but only because most of the content creators within the community have migrated to other sites (DeviantART, FurAffinity, Patreon, Tumblr, etc.).  There is currently more inflation related content on the internet than there has EVER been before, to the point where it's virtually impossible to keep track of all of it. 

Yes, there are occasional 'dry spells' where content output seems to slow, but that's because the people creating it have Real Lives to tend to - often with day jobs to work and even families to support.  Even so, the claim that the the art and videos have just 'stopped' is simply not true.  There's more content out there than you can shake a stick at right now.  Either it's slipping completely under your radar, or you have some very niche tastes you're not telling us about (which, judging by your opening post, doesn't seem to be the case).

I'm sure a sociologist could explain it better, but from what I understand there's an ebb and flow to the particular tastes of society. Fads (using the term in general, not discriptive) come and go in predictable cycles. It's just the order of things, sorry to say. Nothing can last forever. I mean, you don't see a lot of powdered wigs and big "hulahoop" dresses around anymore right?

We have to remember though, inflation isn't exactly mainstream... there are a good few people out there who find it actually disgusting or somehow perverted. We're deviants, social outliers. We're a minority and so no wonder there doesn't seem to be that much of us.

It's a very closeted fetish as well, some people might not admit they like inflation, not even to those online. I'd never tell anyone about this and I'd probably never share a face pic with you guys either to keep my public and inflation lives separate. Not to mention many might think they're alone, as a lot of us did, and might not know sites like this exists or are too wary to sign-up. I used to come here a lot before I eventually made an account only in August 2014 I think.

There could be anonymous folk viewing this thread right now, unsure of whether they should join. We should welcome them as it's difficult to get more inflationists as it is if they have no knowledge of this place or others.

There has been a slowdown but I don't think we're out for good. I've noticed morphs seem to still be quite prominent and a lot of artists still release a lot of drawings over on DA.

We just have to... inflate a bit to get to where we were or better.

I don't really have anything to add that hasn't been discussed before on this thread, but I'll add my two cents anyways.

I do agree with everyone about what's been said here. I'm one of the few ones here that don't actively browse inflation content, but my interests have been changing with time.

Again, since I don't actively browse content my word isn't very strong here, but I think OP might be talking vanilla women belly inflation, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's been getting limited. Posting IRL inflation takes a fair amount of effort, and drawing realistic women inflating I don't feel has ever been very popular. I've found that with furries their inflation content is absolutely huge, but that was back in 2009 or so. Due to the size of their community vs ours, it wouldn't surprise me if their inflation sub-culture is so much larger as they are gigantic in the drawing community. I can't think of a single style that has more art creators, aside from the Japanese animation culture. Even then in North America, I'm sure they're comparable in numbers. In the end though, you have to be a fan of anthropomorphic art, otherwise, it doesn't matter how good or numerous their content is.

I think part of it too is as AirPump says, it's a bit of a fad, and a lot of users on here, more than not, have stayed for a duration of time then left. Maybe their fetishes had evolved or changed and it's no longer relatable to inflation.

One more thing I like to mention is that back in the day inflation was so limited and people really had to bring their A-game forward, resulting in a stronger bond with a community, not to mention how limited sites were back then. The content was limited and had a lot more respect for it. Now everyone can see so much of it that it's not as valued, and nowadays younger people feel so entitled like they deserve it, and the respect gets thrown out the window. Since there is so many different places now and so many new users, I can't help but feel like the originals had left to pursue other areas of interest. I think part of the fad thing as well is that certain area's get a major focus (fat, weight gain, ETC...) and a lot of focus then goes to that and mostly only that as people are contributing to an area that others have an interest in, bonding over that social aspect.

(Bronies were a prime example of this back in the day. The fandom was really strong and ironically, very mature. They had to be to enjoy their culture and had to be strong, because "it's a show for little girls". As time went on, however, interests faded and less desirable users started to join, 'scaring' off the originals and changing the entire structure, because now more than ever there was less opposition and no longer that bonding agent. Yes, some of the 'good' ones stayed, but a lot of people moved on. This is focused on a show and not a fetish subject though so mileage does vary.)

Things like this tend to fluctuate I find. I think it's just a long dry spell and we're in a state of dormancy, awaiting a surge in popularity.

 back in the day being in anything new took a whole lotta effort, and as such people had to bring their A game.

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It depends on your definition of "we". This site has decreased in relevance over the years as other platforms have become more popular and more capable. Artists and authors increasingly self-publish their work on other sites, as Phraxus has noted. Things were different back in the 90s when people who wanted to have a persistent web presence had far fewer options and far more hurdles to clear. Now anyone with an Internet connection and an email address can set up their own art gallery.

But I have no idea what gave you the impression that production has stopped, or even slowed overall. There's more material being produced now than ever. It's just that the vast majority of it doesn't live here.

I'm older and tired.

Come to think of it, a big deal of this fetish is making fun of relevance

Your plan is great news - good luck!

I'd actually like to weigh in on this myself with personal experience. I've been feeling the drift away from this place because it's honestly been in less of my interests. If you've seen my posts I've been honestly slowly converting to the latex side, and now, dare I say it, I think the furry side. For me, plain vanilla inflation just doesn't offer anything to me, and it's been more so now than ever.

Since trying water inflation I'm leaning more towards the enema community, since getting my latex suit the latex community (mostly just inflatables though), and for artwork and latex enthusiasts, and fellow suit owners furries dominate the charts. I know nearly zero people on here that have an inflatable suit and likes to chat about it. On places like Twitter I have over a dozen, and this isn't at all supposed to attack the community here but they seem much more enthusiastic about it. This community and plain male and female inflation just don't do much and I want something else, with people who are more chatty with my interests. And again, that is at no fault this forum or anyone here, that's just my preference. I don't do roleplaying so that really restricts my options, and again, that's on me. It just feels like other communities have more to offer.

With all that being said, I have absolutely no plans on leaving this community. I'm here to help on IRL stuff and will do that until the forseeable future. This community has always been more focused on the fantasy side anyways, and I'm not expecting or hoping for that to change. I just wanted to say all of this so perhaps people see why users might be dissapearing. I have no plans to myself, however.

I agree with you there, I'm fond of the 3D animations and the Dailymotion crackdown was a real blow as the site was home to, at least from what I've seen, one of the largest colelctions of such material and it was almost entirely wiped out. A decent chunk of my Dailymotion favourites list consisted of such videos, and it was reduced from well over a hundred down to three. I've since found myself trawling through VK, a Russian social networking site to find some 3D animated videos, and discovered that there's quite a lot of inflation material in general on VK, but finding it can be a bloody nightmare. 

If anything, it seemed like the inflation phenom has been increasing to me. There's more content out there than ever with more and more content creators appearing every day.

For me I feel like its not so much slowing down but its hit a point that the material is more or less being recycled. So many fan stories involving a female anime character becoming a blueberry etc. for instance. There was also the flood of celeb heads getting copy/pasted onto the body of Violet with varying degrees of quality. Its even harder for me as I prefer male inflation but I also understand that interest in male and gay male at that is in the minority so its just a much smaller to pool to begin with.

Like I said, interest isn't slowing down, the material is just being recycled to the point that it seems like not a lot of new content is being produced.

Thanks Balloon for bumping this thread, it was a good read.

As someone who remembers when this site didn't exist, I don't at all feel this is a slow time.  I also don't really recall any time when things were booming.  I do think content has become scattered and that maybe it seems like there's less because so much is for pay (and if you do pay, I suggest MaxGrowth's videos.)

NameTaken actually brings up an interesting point as they were originally looking for BE.  As someone who seemed to have this ingrained since childhood, I am wondering if anyone simply stumbled upon inflation/expansion and found to thier surprise that it worked for them?  It is certainly not a mainstream fetish, but I do wonder if some random person read one of the better stories, would they become a convert.  The biggest problem faced by this community is that it's not something that can really advertise, nor something it's memebers would go out and promote publicly.  Back when the internet was new I poked around wondering if anyone else in the whole entire world had the same strange thoughts as I, and when I found Inflate123 and Sievert's "Remote Possibilities," I was shocked to find I there were.

Lastly, to do a bit of self advertising, I am in the midst of my most ambitious work, which can be found here:

http://www.process-productions.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40272

It is free, and involves multiple kinds of expansion.