what happened to the forum? Options

[chi]

where is everyone did they abandon this forum i mean even i left for a while we don't want the forum to be closed down cause of lack of talking TT~TT

[Shiidou Hikaru]

It's not closed down, anyone that's a member can come back whenever they wish. Everyone has moved on to other things and only once every few weeks will someone come by to visit anymore. The registration function is turned off however to prevent us from being overrun by filthy spambots.

[Dr. Casey]

Aye, there's no reason for Hikaru to close the place down. It's not as though these forums cost money to maintain.

Personally, I think the decline of the forums is pretty... unnecessary, or at least to the extent that it's progressed. The core group of posters seemed to be close friends just a couple of years ago. If I had a message board where a bunch of my good friends were gathered, I think I'd care enough about where they are/what they're doing to at least drop by every once in a while, even if a busy life can cut down on the time and energy needed for activitity a great deal. There's a fine line between neglect and genuinely being bogged down by life, and I think it's pretty obvious which side this forum as a whole has landed upon the last year or two. I know that I've gone long periods of time without posting or even browsing, but I've always been on the fringe and never really knew anyone besides those active whenever I first joined (Hikaru, Batou, and yuzuki, kinda).

*shrugs* I've just never been a fan of the "Oh hey guys, I've been really busy, so that's why I haven't logged in for the past 14 months. It's not because I've forgotten you guys exist, I've just really been that busy, seriously" excuse. It's incredibly transparent and not logical in the least, but Internet denziens seem so fond of it. Wonder why.

Anyway, Yuki and Shiro have been logged in some more lately (Yuki on July 2nd and Shiro on July 8th), so maybe things can become vaguely more active before long.

[Shiidou Hikaru]

I usually stop by here every few days, but most of the time nothing new has been posted so I don't leave a reply. I'm pretty sure that it's the same for everyone too. It's sort of like a group of old friends or family getting together for a dinner or something like that and we all sort of look at each other uncomfortably waiting for someone else to go first. Maybe I'm off the mark there, but it's a guess that's why forums wither away - there's just nothing new to talk about. v_v

For sure life is full of busy things, so if for whatever reason you stop participating in a certain activity, there are half a dozen others waiting to take its place. So I'm sure that people didn't drift away because there was a problem here. Our attention just strays a little and then something else comes to grab it and drag us away to something new. For me, I spend a lot of my free time online doing mmo games now rather than forum socializing, but now my interest is beginning to wane on online games now too. I'm not sure right now what will come along to replace those.

Initially the forum software cost $70, but after the terrible problems with Ezboard I viewed it and the time I spent converting over to IPB as time and money well spent. There is an annual subscription for IPB if I want technical support and to keep doing upgrades, but I don't pay for it because the upgrades were always a problem for me to do and the forum seems to work fine as it is. Keeping the spambots out has always been the major problem, but that problem is solved for now.