A Ghost Town

[Rosetta_Stoned]

Hey everyone. I've noticed whilst skimming through topics and boards around here that things aren't quite as alive as they used to be. Im not complaining really, I just thought I would ask what exactly happened? I heard that the site crashed a while back and perhaps that would be at least a partial cause for the decline in activity? Peace, my friends.

[blackxs]

As I recall, the server died a few years back for a prolonged period, most of the regulars moved on - a few of us have come back, an even smaller number of them never left. I had been around back in the day and just came back yesterday, though doubt my stay will be long as its completely dead here. The server crash was substantial, as I recall it wiped out a good 4 months or so of forum discussions, for reference I at one time had 1,000+ posts. Which to me was sad at the time though I have since racked up 10,000 posts on another forum...

I made a post in the site suggestions area regarding this issue and how it seems absolutely overwhelming that there are hundreds and hundreds of topics in every subforum, but most of them havent been touched in years. I find it very unwelcoming and unprofessional. I hate to say it but I am afraid this site is living in the past. If it wants to become as active and large as it once was, steps need to be taken in order to let this be a welcome place for new and old members alike. Dredging through many-year-old topics to find outdated discussions with long-gone members becomes frustrating. Even the 5th topic down on many subforums is dated as far back as 2010... sometimes the third topic down from the top in a forum is from 2008! The default setting for forums like these are to "hide" topics that have no responses within 6 months. Doing that here would help a lot, and would clearly show the need to cut down on the number of forums here.

Not only is it a stark reminder of how old I am and how long my marijuana habit has persisted, but it seems to me to send a signal that the best days are behind us - at least for the site. My topic can be found here for anyone interested:
http://www.weedguru.com/forum/viewtopic ... 35&t=31545

[leprechaun]

We've all grown up, become boring, self serving, uninterested and mundane with the exception of an out of the blue anomaly which we feel deserves more attention than it does, simply because it happens to self. We're busy, occupied, settling down, part of the population and nothing more. Careers, progression, the rat race. Grey.

[Rosetta_Stoned]

Thanks for letting me know exactly what went down man. I came back and saw that the forums were up and running again and I got really excited for awhile, and then I found the place to be all but abandoned. I wonder if it would be worth the effort to try and bring this place back to its former self, or to find greener pastures with no offense to this place or anyone in it. I've found it difficult to find any other worthwhile forums to be a part of.

[leprechaun]

Well to keep returning after 6 years from initially posting here, I'd say it's alright.

[Rosetta_Stoned]

Yeah, I just miss the old gang I used to post with I suppose. Like Black said, it just makes you think about time and its neverending march into the unknown. I'll stick around and post as long as there's a weedguru to post on, whether or not I quit smoking ever. You all were just a very intelligent and thoughtful bunch who always had something interesting to say. It's sad to see this place in the mess that it's in, is all.

[blackxs]

You all were just a very intelligent and thoughtful bunch who always had something interesting to say

Were we on the forums at the same time...? lol


In all seriousness, there are other forums out there but they arent much better. Rollitup used to be full of mindless stoners just stroking each other's egos (either that or being too zonked out to realize how stupid the topic at hand was). Nowadays it is full of egofreaks and arrogant know-it-all pricks. Grasscity just feels so unwelcoming to me, I have bought glass from them before but still dont trust them as far as I can throw em. Greenpassion is a great site for medical growers, only they are entirely elitist and anyone with ideas out of their little comfort zone will be shunned and dismissed as an idiot.

The rest of the forums I have perused enough to know they arent worth the time.

I would never have considered the WG I knew to be full of "intelligent and thoughtful" people. In my day, it was a few hard-headed arrogant egofreaks, a bunch of bigoted anti-American europeans, a number of mindless typical stoner types with nothing substantial to offer, and then a very tiny number of open-minded, respectful people who knew when to bite their tongue, showed respect, and had genuinely interesting things to say.

[Rosetta_Stoned]

Yeah, ever forum has their idiots and stuck up assholes, but I remember most the conversations with the ones that weren't so full of shit. Like you and Logic and Waffles and Gorehound and the like. There were more idiotic posts on this site to shake a stick at, but with any high volume place like this once was, you will have that. I enjoyed the forums alot and always had something to read or talk about, even if sometimes it was just alot of mindless banter.

Thanks for the info on the forums. I've noticed all the boards I've tried to go to that they're either extremely underutilized, filled with people who don't talk much, full of people who talk too much or are just generally uninteresting either asthetically or philosophically.

[weedguru_animal]

Well to keep returning after 6 years from initially posting here, I'd say it's alright.

To call the site dead and buried is wrong...purely on the basis of the still large amount of traffic it receives which is human, not bot. The clear issue is that the majority of people who breeze through use the forums as a resource more than see it as a community to be a part of.

Blackxs and others before in the recent past have made similar points. Its true that many of the old crew have moved not to more fertile pastures online but to off screen endeavours...and its understandable that when work and family takes centre stage, the opportunities to get stoned and exchange a few words with fellow stoners become fewer. However, a small number of the old crew remain, a few are often returning to peek and a trickle of new members continue to appear.

I'm as guilty as anyone at fading away, yet I do have both the desire and interest in reinvigorating the site, from top to bottom. The arrangement of the forums is an easy area for me to change and I would very much like your input. Leave the front end to me...as for the forum content, it needs all of us to weigh in with a post or three per day, to freshen things up, get the snowball slowly rolling from the top of the mountain.

I'm absent from Melbourne until September, but am happy to bring someone on board as moderator, to help with the reorganization if willing...

Once I'm back in my den, I can get cracking on greater improvements. With the modern day usage of social media, I expect we could turn the trickle of new members into a flood if we all work together.

Let me know your thoughts...

Cheers,
Animal

[weedguru_animal]

...I've made my first stab at rearranging the forums, making them more concise. Also, I've updated all the individual forums so that active topics show on the 'VIEW ACTIVE TOPICS' page accessible from the top of the index page...

[keepcalmandcarryweed]

um....must admit...my first thoughts on joining here was 'is everybody to stoned to post ?'

[Mate]

lfie is life... la laaaa la lala

[Weedguru_Falkon]

Life goes by fast. I just rediscovered this forum and was looking at my posts.. it's been 2 and a half years since I posted, and a while before that. I'm down to stick around though. Trying to finish my degree so I don't have a ton of time, but I'll stop by more frequently now.

Good to see you Animal, likewise blacky, mate.
Actually, black, here's something that made me remember ya... Feast ye eyes upon....

[Weedguru Higher]

We need to have a weedguru reunion