Hello all
It's perhaps a long time coming, but today is the day I've decided to ask all of you if we should still bother with keeping these forums online.
The reasoning is quite simple: the yearly renewal fee for hosting is coming up, and I believe it's now the 8th or 9th year that I'll be paying that out of my own pocket. It was a very small price to pay while the forum was active and we all bonded with each other, but the last handful of years it looks like we have simply run out of things to talk about. The era of classical forums is over (we've been replaced by Reddit and other social media), so even if we were to advertise more, I'm convinced this would not be super fruitful.
The issue is, I don't want to pull the plug the way the old PFO admins did. I want to discuss potential options with the couple of people who are still around, which is why I'd like all of you to chime in and share your figurative $0,02 when you see this post. I say figurative, because I believe Alec has offered previously to share some of the hosting costs, but I don't really think this is an interesting solution: a year (or a few) from now, we'd end up again at the point where we have to decide to continue paying for (almost) nothing or to pull the plug.
My own idea / question, to start it off: is there any other online platform where we could stay in touch with each other? And on that note, does anyone still have contact info on people who have stopped logging in long ago?
Any thoughts would be more than welcome.
Best regards
Arno
The end of Floydians?
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The Silver Lining
- Animals
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The end of Floydians?
Wonderlust - Not so soon™.
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Alec Taylor
- A Momentary Lapse of Reason
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- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:03 pm
Re: The end of Floydians?
Great to hear from you Arno,
It's true, I think we can all agree this was inevitable. I know a few of us would still post from time to time, but I feel like at this point, literal years can go by between posts. Pink Floyd is effectively over, so there's nothing left to discuss here. It's bittersweet because the members of this forum (and from the old PFO forums) are some of the only friends I've made in adulthood, but there are other platforms these days besides these old school forums.
I can personally say that I know The Silver Lining, Artisan, Floydy, and FrowningBanana outside of Floydians. However, both Floydy and FrowningBanana have seemingly left social media behind in the last two years or so, I've completely lost contact with them both. I still talk to Artisan on a near-weekly basis, he is my closest friend, and I did link him to this forum post for his input. As for some other members, a lot of them have been missing since years before the forums started to quiet down. I know Lady Floydian is still active on her blog and Twitter (which her profile links to), but I think I burned that bridge with her permanently all those years ago when I still a hot-headed, immature young man. If you happen to read this Beth, I really am sorry for all of it. I didn't value you as a friend like I should have.
In terms of alternate platforms, the only one that pops into my mind is Discord. I don't know too much about it personally, but it's like a chat room app for your phone and desktop where rooms are private and members can just IM each other (I think?). I'm not that tech saavy and I've only started using it recently because that's how I receive and get paid for my music contracts. But it's a possibility if everyone was on Discord. It wouldn't have to be Pink Floyd themed or carry the Floydians name, it could just be a way for all of us to just message each other as a group, spam each other with dank memes, etc etc. If that's popular I can try to set it up, I'm willing to learn.
I don't know how to end posts.
-Alec "SunShade" Taylor
It's true, I think we can all agree this was inevitable. I know a few of us would still post from time to time, but I feel like at this point, literal years can go by between posts. Pink Floyd is effectively over, so there's nothing left to discuss here. It's bittersweet because the members of this forum (and from the old PFO forums) are some of the only friends I've made in adulthood, but there are other platforms these days besides these old school forums.
I can personally say that I know The Silver Lining, Artisan, Floydy, and FrowningBanana outside of Floydians. However, both Floydy and FrowningBanana have seemingly left social media behind in the last two years or so, I've completely lost contact with them both. I still talk to Artisan on a near-weekly basis, he is my closest friend, and I did link him to this forum post for his input. As for some other members, a lot of them have been missing since years before the forums started to quiet down. I know Lady Floydian is still active on her blog and Twitter (which her profile links to), but I think I burned that bridge with her permanently all those years ago when I still a hot-headed, immature young man. If you happen to read this Beth, I really am sorry for all of it. I didn't value you as a friend like I should have.
In terms of alternate platforms, the only one that pops into my mind is Discord. I don't know too much about it personally, but it's like a chat room app for your phone and desktop where rooms are private and members can just IM each other (I think?). I'm not that tech saavy and I've only started using it recently because that's how I receive and get paid for my music contracts. But it's a possibility if everyone was on Discord. It wouldn't have to be Pink Floyd themed or carry the Floydians name, it could just be a way for all of us to just message each other as a group, spam each other with dank memes, etc etc. If that's popular I can try to set it up, I'm willing to learn.
I don't know how to end posts.
-Alec "SunShade" Taylor
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The Silver Lining
- Animals
- Posts: 1518
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:17 am
- Location: Kessel-Lo
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Re: The end of Floydians?
Hey Alec, thanks a lot for responding so soon!
I'll go ahead and reply real quick before waiting for others to do so, because there's just a little tidbit from your post that I want to chime in on. I hope I'm not hijacking the discussion by doing so, but:
Firstly, I apologize for misspelling your name, and I've edited my first post. I guess that goes to show for how long it's been.
Secondly (the main reason I am chiming in): I want to second what Alec said, from my own perspective. I'm able to see today that there's been a bunch of heated discussions I've had with a number of you (particularly Alec and Beth come to mind). It's the type of cringe-memory that occasionally pops into my mind when I am trying to fall asleep, and which makes me feel downright embarrassed for how I used to behave when I was younger. I want to apologize for that, and I honestly hope y'all may cherish the good times enough to accept that apology. I don't expect or demand it, so please don't feel pressured to dignify this in any other way than you see fit.
I'll go ahead and reply real quick before waiting for others to do so, because there's just a little tidbit from your post that I want to chime in on. I hope I'm not hijacking the discussion by doing so, but:
Firstly, I apologize for misspelling your name, and I've edited my first post. I guess that goes to show for how long it's been.
Secondly (the main reason I am chiming in): I want to second what Alec said, from my own perspective. I'm able to see today that there's been a bunch of heated discussions I've had with a number of you (particularly Alec and Beth come to mind). It's the type of cringe-memory that occasionally pops into my mind when I am trying to fall asleep, and which makes me feel downright embarrassed for how I used to behave when I was younger. I want to apologize for that, and I honestly hope y'all may cherish the good times enough to accept that apology. I don't expect or demand it, so please don't feel pressured to dignify this in any other way than you see fit.
Wonderlust - Not so soon™.
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Alec Taylor
- A Momentary Lapse of Reason
- Posts: 2756
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:03 pm
Re: The end of Floydians?
Couldn't have said it better myself.The Silver Lining wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 7:54 pm I'm able to see today that there's been a bunch of heated discussions I've had with a number of you (particularly Alec and Beth come to mind). It's the type of cringe-memory that occasionally pops into my mind when I am trying to fall asleep, and which makes me feel downright embarrassed for how I used to behave when I was younger. I want to apologize for that, and I honestly hope y'all may cherish the good times enough to accept that apology. I don't expect or demand it, so please don't feel pressured to dignify this in any other way than you see fit.
I went ahead and created a temporary Discord server that we can all join. The invite link is here. Admittedly I don't know much about Discord because I don't use it a lot, but it is free once you create an account, and it has "channels" that function the same as forum threads, but in the form of instant messages rather than posts. It has the Floydians name for now, but since it's just going to be a place we can all hang out, we can honestly name it whatever we want (you can change its name an unlimited number of times).
If people want to join, then great, I look forward to us having a new way to stay in touch. If not, then that's alright too. I can always just trash the server and be done with it. I can always be found on my Bandcamp page and YouTube channel, along with my website.
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Alec Taylor
- A Momentary Lapse of Reason
- Posts: 2756
- Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:03 pm
Re: The end of Floydians?
Well, I tried to keep us together by creating an alternative place for us to gather. Judging by the nine months of silence, I'd say that everyone has moved on. I'll be taking down the temp Discord server. If you're ready this, it was nice to get to know you all. Thanks for the memories, and good luck in all your future endeavors.