State of The Cellar Address 2019
 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dwellars and Lurkers, the state of The Cellar is strong.

This is my first address in three years, and hardly necessary, but here it is.

In recent times, we have suffered the death of several of our most notable and active posters. Following each loss, there was a big drop in activity.

We are now sort of at the level where we were in the early 2000s, but with less "churn" of the user base. It's comfortable to have "just us" -- and we should expect this to be the case from here on out, as web forums have dropped off as a way for people to be social online.

In the last address, I suggested that maybe we would transfer to new forum software. We can still do that, if we choose to.

But many people hate new software. This is something that "just is" -- even if the new software is "better", people do not like change as it confuses their routine.

Losing 20% of us now would be sad. Therefore, I made the executive decision not to make any changes.

But at some point, the current software will not even run on newer operating systems and infrastructure; when that happens, it will be necessary to change. This will not be required for a while; at least until the end of next year.

~

I watch the statistics for The Cellar from time to time. In 2018, we enjoyed an increase in the number of posts per month. This was a slow increase; it went from a low point of 1410 posts in October 2017, to 2242 posts in December 2018.

This is far off the numbers we enjoyed in our true heyday, which ended with the popularization of Facebook and other platforms. Our record month was March 2009, in which we had 12131 posts. But over eight years later, we are in a comfortable place, now.

What I have noticed is that people are becoming skeptical of the major social media platforms, and that there is still a role for the web forum. In fact, sometimes old users email me to help reactivate their old accounts. Two such requests this year came from people who were HUGE posters back in the day, but they have not decided to post anything new, at least not yet. It is hard to re-integrate into an old community, just like in real life.

I know i dont post much these days , but thanks Sir Toad for keeping this Bar/Coffie shop / forum going for us all . Nice to have extended family all over the place .

In general, I think members of forums like ours enjoy far more actual sociableness (yeah, I made it up) than do the twitterers and basefookers. We have a much denser, more thoughtful, and far more creative content stream, IMO.

:yesnod:

Thanks for this great place to hang out, UT. I love you. :hug:

Aw, I love all youse guys. :grouphug:

*like* ;)

What Griff said.

This probably falls under the category of "software update" but what do you think would happen if The Cellar's posts had a "share on Facebook" button?

We'd have to quit both.

What Griff said.

What Griff and fargon said.

What Griff, Fargon, and Glinda said.

What Griff, fargon and Glinda said, and Griff reiterated.

I don't post as much as I used to - but then I used to work from home and intermittently:P

I still check in most days and from time to time have a flurry of posts

Facebook on the other hand exists purely as a way to log into some apps. I lost access to the account I started in 2006 - and recently opened a new account for logging in purposes. I haven't made a single post or added a single friend or update.

i don't think I've even logged into Twitter in about 2 years - and even before that I only used to post once in a blue moon.


If I'mma sociallise online, it will be here.


Thanks UT for keeping the virtual roof over our heads :)

UT: You may find this interesting.

I mean.. what do you think would happen?

Many people would then post about the item on FB, ignoring the Cellar thread.

The Cellar would then become nothing but a source of ad-supported material for a pretty stupid big silicon valley corporation.

Then, without a community contributing to it, the Cellar dies. The only (remaining) purpose for this place is the community.

I like keeping them separate. How can we bitch about people in our real lives if there's a chance they'll follow us here from Social Bleedia? Or share personal feeling that may hurt or worry our relative with whom we are friends on facebook.

Thanks UT, Cellar rocks as is.

I would definitely not be okay with my personal Facebook acquaintances knowing everything I've posted on the Cellar.

Thanks Sheriff Bart.

The Cellar appeals to me as the posts range from the concise and witty to the considered and detailed.
There's usually something here that will provoke thought and nudge my sense of curiosity into gear.

I have neither a Twitter nor Facebook account and the appeal of the former seems to be that it affords the opportunity to be rude and abusive to a large number of people with the minimum of effort.

As they say, YMMV.

Emphasis mine.
This is very important to me. One of the reasons we are relocating Chateau Limey is for the sense of community ....

And big thankos to UT for keeping this place for us :grouphug:

What limey said.

+1 :thumb:

Yeah, Thanks Tony. I'm glad octopuses open jars.

I use the cellar partially as a journal. I can go back to 2003 and see what I was up to. I'm currently writing my own instruction manual for guitar building, for example.

Can't really do that with book face.

If the cellar were lost, I'd be crushed.

Hey, can I get a back up copy?

As long as people find it useful I will keep it going.

:heart-on: :hearts: :heartpump

You Sir are the jolliest of good fellows. All Hale Undertoad!!!

@Toad:

You better watch out, big fella, I think Mongo's taken a little fancy to ya.

And Thank You.:notworthy

Good idea. Burn it to a disc and mail me one, too.:p:

Here are some thoughts regarding the State of the Cellar along with my confessions


1. I just don't have anything of interest to add now days. Years ago I did things that were mildly exciting. Or at least not common. Now I don't take photos of everything to comment on and add here.

On that rare occasion that I do think of something mildly interesting that happened to me, I can't find the photos or videos to talk around!

Like the head on auto collision here in the Philippines. I have the dash cam video somewhere but can't find it now.

The reality is though, the funniest or most interesting part of the video is me screaming "WHAT THE FUCK" immediately following the crash :D

2. My funny bone has completely atrophied. There have been some very funny threads, posts and personalities here. I have participated in and enjoyed many threads, posts and stories.

Maybe something in my travels is actually funny. I'll take another look in the bag. Maybe there's something there I overlooked.

3. Many things that people post online is later used against them in one way or another. Not like BF where everything is centrally controlled, measured, managed and packaged and SOLD.

That's not true here at the cellar but it's common through out the world. It's not paranoia if they really are watching you for some unintended purpose.

4. If I ever was up for some type of debate, I'm not now. Especially a political debate. You have an opinion or fear or concern. I have entirely different opinions, fears and concerns.

All these current events debates boil down to who you believe. Your source says this, my source says something completely different.

I'm burned out on all of that.

However...

When I'm selected for the next contract sometimes I do think "hey, that's near this dweller or that. Wonder if we might both have overlapping time available to do something moderately cool."?

That has worked out in the past and meeting dwellers here and there is a very cool aspect of the cellar. Practically everywhere you go, there's a dweller some where close by. Even here in the Philippines, remember Louisa?

No matter who I meet in real life from here they are very friendly, helpful people and that is truly amazing. They are the same as they are when typing on the keyboard like a monkey on the cellar. :D

So, I'll have to make more of an effort to keep plugged in here. To bring more to the table. To engage more. Like so many others do.

Many thanks to everyone here that have helped me over the years.

I don't have a lot to say nowadays, but that's just me being Lazy and Stoned. It's too cold to go outside and there is hard ice underneath the snow. The shop is in a hollow and is icy, and I've given up. I thought that rat said that there was going to be an early spring. I've gone off topic long enough, all I,m good for is feeding Cats and reading the cellar, and watching BBQ videos. I had to rescue Oona last nite It made me feel needed the first time in a long time, I've been able to accomplish something. Sorry to go off topic horrible thread drift. I go now.

Uh-oh. What happened with Oona?

Who's Oona? I have a friend called Oona. It's an unusual name

I'm assuming Oona is a cat?

Slang drops in...

Oona is the daughter we never had, we adopted her last summer when she stayed here for a couple of months. She is hard working and a Cat person. But she fell on the ice at Kwik Trip night before last and when she went to work last night she hurt to bad to carry on. So we rescued her from durance vile.

Only sexobon will do that here

Oh shit I just did it to him

I don't have a problem with that. Only adults who still act like children would.

Is that you TW?

Couldn't help m'self...:stickpoke

Ah. Thank you for the elucidation.

fify

They have been successfully merged to create a new whine. Cheers!

You're Welcome Sir.

Oona and I texted this afternoon and she said "Slept for 18 hours and legs still throbbing" Tomorrow we will be taking her to the Urgent Care, or somebody will be she can still walk just not for very long. My poor baby. Her real Dad may come up tomorrow. It snowed like stink all Fucking Day.

That's pretty funny. And truthful.

There's no strange looking carpet that ties my room together in my life but this was surely a bizarrely interesting movie.

Being seen as "the dude" or "dude-like" isn't the worst thing I can imagine.

I was referring to info used outside of the cellar but was not clear in the original post.

Things written here may on occasion be mildly irritating but don't normally interfere with my real life.

Yah, see why I'm a bit paranoid now? I'm being followed by a German bot offering me online security tools.

Happens all the time.