Dear friends, this is the Administrator, Ivan Benko.
During the last few months I have read your messages, but I have not actively participated in the forum. The reason is none other than my professional and student activity. The end of university and the beginning of work (in addition to continuing studying) leaves me without time to be part of the forum. I read, but writing, even though it seems silly, is difficult for me. Above all, because the majority of people I interact with (friends, family...) are in WhatsApp groups and not a website, so I spend the little social time I have left there.
Our beloved forum turned 3 years old this August. I think the project has been a success: we created a wonderful community and distanced ourselves from (some of) the sons of bitches who exercised tyranny in Greassy Lake.
The reality today is that participation in the forum is decreasing. Many people have left, I suppose to larger forums (which is understandable, in the end you want to be aware of what as many people as possible are saying), and I feel that the project may be coming to an end.
Right now we would have to pay again to renew some of our licenses and... Is it really worth it? I, personally, would participate more in conversations if, for example, we were chatting on a messaging service (WhatsApp, Telegram...). The sad thing would be if the good friends made here would never see each other again, but if we all go somewhere else, even if it doesn't have to be a classic website, maybe it would be better.
I want to know your opinions. I hope you don't feel like I'm leaving the project aside. I just think we have to be smart about managing our efforts. I, now, barely have free time, and I think that for the forum to remain active it would need a face lift, advertising, etc. I have to say that I think that in the near future forums will die and will be converted to messaging services.
I want to hear your opinions. Feel free to give your opinion and say what you want.
I love you all:
Ivan.
Huge thanks for all you've done, I can only imagine how much of your time it's taken,
I'm feeling very guilty that I haven't contributed more, especially recently.
It's very easy for me to say but I would be in favour of the site continuing. It's always been far superior to our former home in so many ways. I'd be more than happy to contribute financially.
just shed a tear
It would be excessive to say I saw it coming, but I just have to review my dwindling contributions to this forum to acknowledge that things have been mighty quiet for quite some time. Personally, my reluctance to post had to do with my growing disillusionment with Bruce and his development. The ticket fraud was one instance, his musical output another. There just wasn't enough reason for enthusiasm anymore, I felt.
I feel huge gratitude for the one who got this place set up and running, and I would certainly miss contact with many of you if this site was discontinued. But it seems to have run dry...
Should it be thus decided, I would gladly join a WhatsApp group to keep in touch with you. I'm not on FaceBook and don't want to join there. Should enough of you want to continue here (and should someone be ready to do the necessary work), I will gladly contribute whatever funds should be necessary.
As was quoted when Backstreets shut down: For a little while, Sir, we had us some fun...
I've been coming here, lurking. I am always possessed by fear when I come here now. I feel like I have abandoned this place, this place I suggested we should start after a good friend was banned from the Lake. I thought we needed it then, but now I feel the emptiness has frozen me in some way....I have nothing to say now and the board is dying a slow death. I want to continue to share here even if nobody is listening. I will try to post more. Don't let this die.
"Laying here in the dark, you're like an angel on my chest
Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness
Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see
Trying to learn to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be
And after all this time, to find we're just like all the rest
Stranded in the park and forced to confess
To hiding on the backstreets
Hiding on the backstreets
Where we swore forever friends
On the backstreets until the end"
Only saw this now, which, I guess, illustrates the point perfectly right?
Ivan thank you for what you did here. I know you 'saved' many of us, myself included, by creating this site.
Perhaps this is the end, perhaps not. I only participate in one other forum and its massive enough for me to just be a name on a board, I don't know anyone personally and I'm not emotionally invested, which, sometimes, also has its benefits. But this was special and unique and if WhatsApp is the next step in the evolution, I'd be willing to give that a go too. I am on dozens of WA groups for work and I am certainly way faster and more efficient on there these days. Its also quicker and easier for me to look on my phone than to open my old personal laptop, which is how I communicate on here.
Reading this made me feel sad and hopeless... It felt amazing, such a moral victory when this forum was created, and it's always been a great place to hang out... I've met some amazing people here, fallen in love and out of love, I consider all of you my dear friends... Without this place, I don't think I would have had the guts to go through my divorce and I don't think I would have found myself....If this is the time to say goodbye, please let it be just a goodbye to the forum as a form of communication, and we will continue to chat and stay in touch in some other way. I can't imagine not having that privilege....
This all said I would still participate financially
to keep this forum alive... Was thinking that we might not be dead, just hibernating....
I love Bruce and all of you... ❤️
If we can figure it out, then I feel What's App may be the way to go.
There is so little activity on here that there is less reason to check it out and it's slowly fading.
I am really thankful to Ivan for setting this up. I have made friends here and would like to continue those friendships, but I think the time has come to say a fond farewell to ATB.
Well, first up, if there's an appetite for the board to continue, I'll happily contribute financially.
Having said that, things have gone quiet.
It seems message boards all over have been usurped by WhatsApp and a miscellany of social media platforms.
And if Ivan is real world snowed under, do any of the rest of us have the tech skills to undertake the routine care and maintenance?
I think the alternate suggestion of a WhatsApp group (or a Facebook group? though I've no idea how FB work) to keep the chat going is a good one.
This wee forum was a welcome sanctuary following "the night of the long knives" at the other place.
And if any amongst us have the time, know-how and inclination to take on the maintenance, and a "marketing relaunch" I'm more than happy to be a footsoldier.
I'd like to be here, but it just seems so dead here.
Ivan
Thank you for the effort you put into getting this place up and running, and your oversight thereafter.
Elsewhere I've floated the thought that perhaps a shift to WhatsApp would be the way forward. Indeed, a few of us have been using WhatsApp for informal communication. However I'm not sure how it can be used in a more formal, structured way to facilitate communication within larger groups.
Anyone used it in this way?