Notes

07-24-2017 04:12 AM
The RP forum is now officially “dead”. And to be frank in many ways, it’s about time it has come to an end. For the last few years it has been eating at me to see a place that I once held with such high hopes and with such love to come to an end, but it is an end well deserved to such a place that I hold as sacred ground. I would be lying if I said that this place deserved to die, but I would also be lying if I said it deserved to live.

It has been several years since I’ve been active in any real way, shape or form on this forum, but I have been keeping track of things in my threads and trying to wade through the large amount of posts for a glimmer or ray that would spark something within me that has long been dormant. Unfortunately, all I had seen in recent years is a slew of C###and spam made its way into the list of locked posts and 6#v####threads that would all but fade out while actual RP threads try to fight against an endless torrent of information that would put all but the most active and consistent threads at the top while the rest were pushed down into the depths of obscurity.

It makes me wonder often what happened to the “good times” or “old times” to which so I speak of that I’ve seen many people comment on at one time or another. I have come to the conclusion that these times only existed when we were different people in the past. The fact of the matter is that there was always some chaos, some spam, some issue that was plaguing the RP forums in one way or another. Drama, accusations, hatred always seemingly popped up from the most irrelevant and idiotic of things. All of us were in some way involved with these things, whether we liked it or not. The good things and the fun we had, however, always outweighed the issues at hand. Threads always moved along at a good pace, sometimes with minute by minute responses between the few active members present. Spam could be ignored relatively easily and we’d move past it. These were the supposed “good times”, and looking back it could be argued that they were relatively bad times as well. We live in space and time, and unfortunately time is what separates us all even though we all gather in the same area of space.

We all grew up in some way or another, whether it be only a few years or several years that had been spent on the forums. Even a single year made a difference in the ways that we interacted as a community and within our threads. Single lines with common misspelled words would often lead to paragraphs which we would consider elegant and tasteful, with grandeur details and livid feelings for the character that we took control of. At the same time, however, many of us began to simply move on. For myself, at least, I found myself losing the time to keep up with threads that progressed 5-8 pages a day when I was busy only for one day. Trying to get back in on a very active thread became harder as time progressed forward. Others perhaps experienced the same as I did and began to lose interest, either way people began to leave as life and time moved on unforgivingly while the forum was left to stagnate. We grew up and while some continued, some left.

Sahanke is online. Sahanke

RAP: R$109,063
Joined: 14 Feb 2010
Total Posts: 22,775
07-24-2017 04:13 AM
Near the end of my active years on this forum, I began to see the invasion of ### and other ridiculous spam that came with it. The drama picked up and there were so many feuds between everyone that frankly it began to become a ##### having to see who was angry at who at some times. It became ridiculous to me and I simply drifted off into different things as this place became more like real life than a suspension of disbelief that I once enjoyed having come into this forum became all but impossible to have happen when I came to check up on threads and possibly join roleplays. Life found its way into the place I looked at to remove myself from real life. Maybe that’s what finally soured others as well, but I can’t really speak for them as much as I can myself. The inevitable invasion of spam and other forums into our space was not anybody’s blame. It wasn’t the admins, or the mods, or even ourselves. It was the showing of a weakness in the forum, the beginning of inactiveness on many of the “old guard” who participated in many threads that kept the content up and policed the forum to some extent.

ISRPs and other quick moving threads began to take the place of what used to be the 100+ page rps that lasted for months and maybe even years. I saw it was becoming a challenge to even get an RP up to 25 pages in a month, where it used to take maybe a week or two to get to 25 pages. Things began to slow down and it seemed as if people stopped giving a damn. I know I personally did and also, I lost the time to keep up with things and try to be active in the community. Quite frankly, RP “died” in 2014 for me. That was when most of the people who were still around left, it was our “day the music died” so to say in my opinion.

The RP forum died when we all seemingly grew up and moved on in our own ways. What really made the RP forum what it was back in the day had really nothing to do with spam or rules, or allowing other threads to make it into the mix. It was probably the childlike approach and carefree ideas we threw around and simply had fun with, not giving a crap and having time to waste. That is the way that I see it at least. Most likely, many other people have their own opinions on the matter and I would like to hear them. Please post it below, perhaps I can get some new insight during the final days of this place. I will be around until the very end.

That is where I stand and why I have such a hard time saying whether I am glad to see this place go or if I am sad to see it go. There were good times here, but that is all in the past. What use will the past have living on other than in my memories? I looked at some of my old threads and RPs, and frankly they were worse than I expected. The narratives that live on in my mind went way better than the choppy posts that I made. The rose-colored glasses have blinded me up and I am thinking the threads were masterpieces, when in all reality they were only that way in my head.

Many people who still enjoy RPing have moved on to other means and ways, and I don’t know if I will ever move on from here. This RP forum has meant a lot and frankly is the only place I ever really participated in such a way. I will still do GMOD dark RPs and that might just about be it. This forum will probably be my coffin in these regards. In regards to petitioning to save this forum, do it as hard as you want but keep in mind the chances of it surviving are slim. There is hope and there is beyond hope, and this place seems beyond hope at this point. Perhaps from the conflict that comes from this place ending, we will all find a new place or area to gather and continue in some way, shape or form. Hegelian dialectics might just create something even better.

Finally, I would like to thank those of you who actually have read this whole thing. This is the musings, rantings and thoughts of an RPer who has thought about posting of these things for a long time. As far back as 3-4 years ago I was thinking about making a thread like this, now that RP looks like it is going away, I guess now is the time to spill my beans. Thank you.