Abuzz Guilt

Sozobe- Although I thought I would, I don't feel the least little bit guilty. Hell, most of us here have been involved in various efforts to keep Abuzz from crashing on the rocks, with very little encouragment from the management.

Although I will still visit Abuzz from time to time (I LOVE getting into new subjects by looking up various things for people), I think that I will be spending a lot less time there.

I believe that what we have here is "La Creme de Abuzz".

I had told Craven long ago that I had preferred to start the Ebert's Greatest Movies threads on The Raven's Realm but it coincided with the time he was moving to create an all new site and the film section died on that site. I've had a few trolls show up there and post their vicious diatribes but thankfully most everyone disregarded it. I reported it to Feedback and to three moderators and nothing but nothing happened. I think the software programs and graphics are woefully out of date and there's no prefessionlism in running the site. I believe they deactivated the E mail updates as that is what was crashing the site. Ah, well, all good things must come to and end. I'll start simultaneously posting the Ebert Great Movies on this site beginning on Monday and take it from there.

Pardon my pronoun puzzle -- I meant Abuzz as to where I had nasty posts, not The Raven's Realm (I know everyone here would likely figure that out!)

Sozobe - i think that enough people are already at other sites that this one won't really make that much difference. I won't leave Abuzz til it dies, unless i figure out a way to carry the whole Rainforest group with me - we've made too much progress over the past 2 years to lose that momentum.

Abuzz was my favorite site. When I first joined I didn't use another site for about 2 months.

I will always visit Abuzz but their management is beyond shoddy. It's a deliberate attempt to slow down the site and use less resources. And it makes no sense.

If Abuzz were to spend 10-50 dollars a month they could have an awesome site. If they were to start selling targeted ads they could cover all the costs. There is no excuse for this. I can sell ads on this site so the I.T. downturn can't be blamed.

If Abuzz were to allow search engines to index their pages they'd have more visitors (they have a "no index" meta tag in their threads, go ahead and check).

If Abuzz were to allow the volunteer moderators to help they'd have no trolls and this would not cost a cent.

If Abuzz wants to kill their own site there is nothing we can do to save it.

I will always be a member but when'the site is down all the time I can't participate.

So I don't feel guilty. I will always try to use Abuzz when I can but I see them doing things that a two-bit webdesigner could avoid and that makes me want something better. So as a 2-bit webdesigner I'll try to do just that.

I realized that what I loved about Abuzz was the people. Not the site. When the people I liked to interact with stopped showing up there were only Abuzz loyalists and Abuzz trolls. And the trolls are gaining while the good ones are losing. It makes me sad and angry to see what they did to Abuzz. I'd love to have worked for Abuzz for free to improve it but they don't care about Abuzz as much as we do.

I'd say 3-bit...

Yeah, I'm really disappointed in Abuzz management, such as it is, too. This Brooke thing has been really irritating -- a staffer arrived, halleluiah! Then she's completely disappeared. If she hadn't shown up in the first place, whatever. If she said, "I'm working almost entirely on AmexAbuzz, but I'll show up here now and then," whatever. But to show up as a staffer, say that feedback is being manned, etc., etc., and then just fade with no word.... urgh.

ehBeth, thanks for clarifying that I don't need to be too black and white about it -- for Abuzz or against Abuzz. I can just let go of spending an undue amount of energy trying to keep it going, and enjoy what's enjoyable while it's there to enjoy.

Sounds like a real winner to me, Craven. The only real reason for a small monthly or annual fee is to discourage anyone not really interested in interacting with the established membership. A thirty day trial would give them a change to figure out if they really want to be here. But it is up to you and I know you are capable of making a wise decision. It would be great if on the film forum we could link up to IMDB and provide an advertising link to their site. One thing on Abuzz is that I have been getting from 20 to 60 and more hits on the Ebert discussion and most of them valuable commentary. Even Clark Kent who is on the edge of being one of the arrogant Wingnuts behave himself and complimented the thread! Actually. this discussion should be over in the editor/moderator's section except you might get some input from the general membership.

I'm building the film page right now BTW. As to IMDB there are a few options:

a) I'll add the IMDB search to the film page.

b) I'll buy their database and integrate it into this site.

The first option is more likely because I won't have much time to setup that huge database and the search box will work just as well.

I went ahead and posted the next part of Ebert's Great Movies as Part One for this forum with links also. Everyone please participate -- the poll is going to be fun and you can add anyone of course. One of them is rather obvious (he's Saruman in the "Lord of the Rings" films).

Guilt? Not in this time. That outfit has had all the loyalty it deserves and quite a bit more. As a matter of fact, I'm planning to stage a small raid on the membership as soon as Craven declares the site open to the public. In fact, I'm making up a list of people to invite.

Angelsmom
anita_b
Equuas
filmprof
Finn
Gezzy
Jesusgirl
penelope2
redheat
sunnigirl
Suzy
Temper

I'll argue for my choices, but suggested additions would be welcome. Sadly, most of them (surprise) do not list email addresses and contacts through the Abuzz system seem to get deleted as routine garbage.

No, I don't feel at all guilty. I will stay with Abuzz until the end because my participation has been very minimal lately except to post Quote of the Day. It was a great site at one time, but unfortunately that has changed.

We have all been very loyal to Abuzz, and that loyalty has not been returned by the powers that be. We haven't asked for much, but received nothing, not even an explanation as to why the down times or the reason they allow multiple names. So, why should any of us feel guilty? We have given it much more than they deserve.

As you all probably noticed, I gave up on Abuzz quite a while ago. I thought I'd feel guilty, too, but it honestly bothered me very little. I did miss the 'good guys' (most of whom are already here), but it had reached the point that I found myself getting aggravated virtually every time I visited Abuzz and finally I decided that I had enough aggravation in the 'real world' without seeking it out in the virtual world by hanging out at Abuzz.

I absolutely love this place (and the people in it) and look forward to visiting each day.

Craven, you've done a wonderful job and I thank you.

roger (and everyone else) - We're going to be doing a lot of inviting. Don't sweat that. I will probably work out some way to divide up the work so that I'm not doing all of the inviting.

As for guilt, I don't feel it. I still go to Abuzz, and still interact there. I will post the next AARON thread there on Tuesday. That hasn't changed. But then again, I've been pulling away from Abuzz for months now, in the sense that I am going to new threads less and less. I spend much of my time on TFH and on whatever threads I am currently involved in. If someone sends me a thread, I read it and try to respond to it, but that's it. Otherwise, sorry, but I probably won't see a thread there.

Time is limited (as it is for everyone). I obviously have responsibilities here that I don't have on Abuzz. To fulfill my obligations here, I spend less time on Abuzz. Que sera, sera.

And you're doing a great job, jespah!! Just in case Craven hasn't passed it along ( ), please call on me if you need any help at all. I love being here.

Yes, very good job.

I guess I've just been locked in "MUST SAVE ABUZZ" mode so long that it's hard to change gears. I'm one of those loyal-to-a-fault folks. (My Chinese zodiac sign is a dog, doncha know.) But, yeah, I've been less and less involved myself lately, for many of the reasons here, especially Bandylu's. (WHY subject oneself to unnecessary stress?)

Able2know.com=no stress. Guaranteed. (I think?! )

Ah, Rae, just to prove the old saying that the only guarantees are death and taxes, I bet both Craven and Jespah would dispute the fact the Able2know is stress free. It's just that it's a good stress (if there is such a thing).

Yes, there is stress. But it's good energy. I find myself jumping up and saying "Dang it (well, a little more forcefully than that), I wanna go online!" And I mean, I want to come here.

jespah -- I have to ask the significance of the 'dirty water'.