Abuzz Guilt

Seal Poet, I just noticed your aardvark, no, your avatar...gads, I want to pet its nose.

No Guilt Whatsoever!
Well, here you folks are! I'm so glad I found you! Abuzz was a longtime personal favorite, but I pretty much dropped out of it early this year ... for all the usual reasons. I began dropping in again a few weeks ago, and resumed interacting on a limited basis on selected threads, but the trolls, imposters, and crazies have overrun the place.

I really look forward to getting familiar with this site, its features, and inhabitants. I am particularly encouraged that here it seems acceptable to civily agree to disagree. I far prefer debate to diatribe

As an aside, for those concerned but unaware, Anon is recovering at home now, and e-mailing with some vigor.


timber

How could I not post to a forum with a title as compelling as "Abuzz Guilt"? The reason I never participated in Raven's Realm - and had some reservations about coming to A2K - is that I thought the weakening of Abuzz would be accelerated if a siphoning process drew off substantial numbers of good posters.

I expect to be on Abuzz until the walls come tumbling down around me, and my heart is with the Rainforest threads.

My image is this. We are all at a seaside hotel, and we have been swimming in the ocean, with all its enjoyment and its risks: sharks, riptide, jellyfish, washed up petroleum. But the hotel has a very nice swimming pool, and we also like to bask and swim there.
Some of us are not "Either/or", but "Both/and".

Aa - I'm with you. The rainforest threads will keep me at Abuzz. I was wondering if we should talk to AndrewT about the possibility of setting up a corresponding thread here - be prepared in case the walls of Abuzz do tumble down around our ears. I don't want to lose our RainClickers for any reason.

Ossobucco- Agree. I never got "into" Raven's Realm, although I am a member. Funny thing, since going on Able2Know, I am using RR to upload pictures a lot!

Daily I have been going to the rainforest thread but that is it for me too. Of course I look around a bit, so sad, actually heart breaking at times.

Joanne you should make a rainforest thread over here?

There are several things on both sides of the ledger sheet for putting a Rainforest forum on A2K, but my opinion is weighted toward one side.

At the moment, I'm inclined toward the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" line of thinking. My main reason is that the united effort of present Rainforest clickers would be divided, which I think would serve to weaken our currently strong and successful efforts.

One example of the weakening would be that any Abuzz Rainforest clickers who are members of Abuzz but not A2K would have much less support, with several active members gone. My other reason is that keeping the Rainforest thread on Abuzz provides at least a foothold on Abuzz, which I believe has value.

As usual, I am forced to agree with Aa's cogent reasoning.

osso, I know what you mean about recommending Abuzz to others.
I tried to get my mom to participate. She lives with my niece and takes care of said niece's two year old daughter all day. Since retiring and moving she really misses adult conversation and, quite frankly, just gets lonely. I thought Abuzz would be a nice way for her to converse with adults on interesting topics without getting into chat rooms - which she hates.

Her first impression was so negative that she never went back.

Husker, either ehBeth or Aa will create a rainfoest thread here when the time is right.

boomerang- Can you blame her? We have the history, and knew where to look for the good people, and ignore the rest. It must be awful for a newbie there!

Aa, in terms of total rainforest people, I think the expectation is that EVERYBODY will be invited sooner or later, it's just that we are trying to keep things at a somewhat reasonable pace while remaining kinks get worked out. Whether they take to A2K once they are invited is one thing, of course, but I think it's quite possible that within a few weeks everyone who posts to the Rainforest thread will have the opportunity to be a member here.

Too true, Phoenix.

While I know that Abuzz is not a social service agency, I also know that it provides many people with the contact that they crave - think of temper and the difference contact made in her life.

And, while I know that my mom has contact with the world and people who love her - she's my mom - - so I fret.

Boomer Abuzz has certainly provided me with support over the last two years. I can honestly say that. However, the reason I got so much was not Abuzz but the users in Abuzz.com. I to worry about the newbie on Abuzz.com and cannot wait until everyone can be here.

Just think what would have or could have happened if Jespah did not keep up the e-mail list and if Craven had not set up the Raven's Realm.

Me too, Joanne.

I was able to talk through many big decisions on Abuzz.

All the newbies now are, of course, accused of being old members with new names.

Yes! Three cheers for Kraven and Jespah!

Golly, thank ya!

In other news, I just announced this is the second-to-last AARON issue with me at the helm.

I've found out pretty quickly that there's no way I can keep up with things here (and I'm sorry for not getting back to emails and PMs more quickly) and do AARON.

No problem here Jes, my PMs to you and the Raven are just info related I do not expect replies or need them.

I agree with the comments here about what a Newbie to Abuzz would find. I was there when it was different, and, like Phoenix, I know where to go and whom to look for. I will be there until its dying breath because it is like nowhere else. But I am saddened by the disruptors, shouters, and imposters.

I don't think this site will cause Abuzz to go down, nor do I believe that siphoning will hurt Abuzz. I pop into both forums and like different things about each. I love the Who's Online feature, here. And the My Favorite Topics folder that enables easy search.

Things do seem to be much better at Abuzz since I started this thread. Less nastiness, and the resurgent email notification system seems to have brought back a lot of cool people I hadn't seen in a while.