Posting here isn't subversive at all.
I don't like the format of the new CH and I don't think the moderators were sensitive to the nature of the CH in the first couple of days.I understand that after a few days without the CH, what we have here is a big disappointment. It's also pretty clear that many people have gone elsewhere: whether to the PRT, to Kemibe's site or to other running forums. I've not been to Kemibe's site but I lurk in the PRT and post from time to time, and have done for a few months. The CH that existed before the transfer does not exist any more - and I know there are some that argue that it ceased to exist some time before that. It seems, right now, that this site will plod along with very little interest and the vast majority of people who used to frequent the CH will go elsewhere. If so, that's fine. A shame, but fine.
I liked the old CH. I wasn't married to it and I actually had a, y'know,
life, and I'm not going to be breaking down in tears if the community that was the CH no longer exists, here or elsewhere. But I
will be a little sad. Because it was an interesting place to be: it was full of intelligence and wit and idiocy and snark and inanity and teh kewt. Some people were annoying but most were great. And if you're reading this, it's possible that, at least once or at least some of the time, you thought that too. And if you
are reading this, it may be because you are lurking to gloat or it may be because you are curious as to what it has become or it may be because you are checking it out just in case one or two people who you used to enjoy chatting to are still here.
It's looking like it's dying. It seems the most likely way for it to go at the moment. And of course this becomes a vicious cycle: people don't post because it's lifeless and because people don't post, it's lifeless. It's difficult to say quite how much of the deadness is due to people finding the site difficult to access, or people just going elsewhere, or the usual lull that happens over times like Christmas. Old threads popping up didn't help: it made any sense of conversation or community difficult to cultivate.
As I say, it's probably dying. But it's worth a few days of popping in and chatting to whoever is here. Why not? The CH was an interesting place to be and the new CH deserves a few days of visits, I think. There are issues with format and issues with moderation, but they would only be one of the contributors to the decline of the site: the most important part of the CH is the people in it, and it is those people leaving that will stop it being a viable community. Of course it's only a shadow of its former self: I'm not continuing to post because I'm blissfully unaware that everything hasn't gone rapidly to sh!t. But if I think (and I do) that the CH that existed a fortnight ago was worth something, then surely lurking a bit and posting a few times is worth doing?
