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Well, here's the bad news... Posted by Sia on June 13, 2026, 9:19 pm ADMIN Just got this from Boardhost... I don't mind paying for our premium service for this message board, but the Forum is barely used so I am NOT willing to pay for Premium service there. -------- Hello, We are writing regarding your forum at https://civilizeddiscussion.boardhost.com You are currently utilizing our free service plan. We have made the difficult decision to discontinue our free forum service plan due to declining ad revenue, which had been funding our free service. As a result, we have added 100 days of our Premium Forum Service Plan to your forum at no charge to you. During this time, your forum will not contain advertising or branding, and will have access to our additional Premium Forum Service features. However, after the 100 days, you will either need to purchase another term of service, or your forum will be deactivated. Our Premium Forum Service is available for $15.99 per month, or you can also save 10% by purchasing 180 days at a time. Again, your first 100 days are on us, but you can add more days to your forum at anytime by visiting https://civilizeddiscussion.boardhost.com/admin_index.php If you do not wish to enroll in the Premium Forum Service, please utilize the next 100 days to establish a replacement service, if desired. If you take no action, your forum will be deactivated 100 days from this message. Sincerely, Boardhost Support _____ support@boardhost.com Boardhost.com, Inc. https://www.boardhost.com/

This is free and where I am thinking of migrating Posted by Trish on June 16, 2026, 6:30 pm, in reply to "Well, here's the bad news..." Admin https://www.proboards.com/?

I built a board there before here. I didnt care for it, but maybe it Posted by Sia on June 16, 2026, 9:02 pm, in reply to "This is free and where I am thinking of migrating" ADMIN would work?

I don't blame you Posted by greenman on June 14, 2026, 11:26 am, in reply to "Well, here's the bad news..." Valued Poster I can do without poking at Mongo and company on the Lavender Board... SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!

I will try to find another platform or just create another message board Posted by Sia on June 14, 2026, 12:10 pm, in reply to "I don't blame you" ADMIN if anyone would like it to live on. Otherwise, I'll just let it go because it is not very important to me. Yeah, it was a LOT of work to design & set it up, but that's from 2019, so long over & done.

It was clearly better in every meaningful way...but didn't get used. Posted by Poppet on June 15, 2026, 6:09 pm, in reply to "I will try to find another platform or just create another message board" ADMIN TBH, that annoyed the hell out of me. ;P In retrospect, it might have been better to just shut this one down...but hindsight's always 20/20, innit?

Yeah, I tried everything to get posters to try it out and posted detailed directions on how Posted by Sia on June 15, 2026, 10:03 pm, in reply to "It was clearly better in every meaningful way...but didn't get used." ADMIN to use all that it offered without having long learning curves. The forum just has SO MUCH MORE to offer participants than a plain old message board has, even a paid version with log ins, options, private messaging, etc. like this one offers. The forum allows posters to create personal lists to notify them by email once a day of any threads or topics that interest them or they participated in. Plus lists of all new posts made on every board in the forum so no one had to peruse them all to find new posts. It has all kinds of options to make their own experience of the forum fit their individual needs - like colors, font sizes, time zones, avatars, post order, and so much more. Much of the options offered, like on this message board, are dependent on personal log ins to be able to set options. I had been working on, tweaking, and learning HOW to do everything there for a few months before opening it up for posters to use. I wanted to know how everything worked and what extras it had so I could answer any questions and shorten the learning curve significantly. So yeah, I was disappointed that nearly everyone would rather have threaded posts like on the message boards than to have non-threaded conversations that line up in a row. All they had to do was use the "quote" function to establish what any post was in reference to. Oh well, such is life.

My personal feeling was Posted by greenman on June 16, 2026, 8:57 am, in reply to "Yeah, I tried everything to get posters to try it out and posted detailed directions on how" Valued Poster ..that a forum was just too complex, especially for the number of people posting here. There were never that many, and how many topics would there even be? And how often would each get posted TO? I didn't want to have to go from thread to thread, topic to topic to find one post here or there. I spend too much time here as is. A much larger, more complex board was of no interest to me. Sorry, since I know you worked hard on it. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!

No biggie. I get that. That's why I brought this one live because it is Posted by Sia on June 16, 2026, 10:49 am, in reply to "My personal feeling was" ADMIN what most wanted. FTR, there was an easily used feature that eliminated all of the searching with a drop down menu listing of every new post anywhere on the forum. So there was never a need to open multiple threads or boards to find new posts. Plus, even without that, every board sorted by activity and showed each individual thread with new posts bolded so each poster could see at a glance if anything new (to them) had posted. So if you showed up only once a week, everything you missed was bolded. If you showed up hourly, the same thing so no time wasted to hunt for anything. In any case, it will die a natural death in 88 days.

Easiest to use gets used most easiestly Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on June 18, 2026, 12:49 pm, in reply to "No biggie. I get that. That's why I brought this one live because it is" ADMIN I preferred the other concept, but that depended on growth. Even Facebook is shrinking. Competition drives diversification, just like cable did to the big three cbs, nbc, abc. This is why multiple political parties won't work either. Without a clear majority, everything is tenuous at best. I heard Poppet started a popsicle business. Dragonfruit, kiwi, durian, mangosteen, lychee, soursop, chermoia, jackfruit black sapote, white sapote, cumelo and many more new flavors. She's even got an enema flavored one for unrepentant MAGA. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony

Yup. When I created it, there were twice to thrice the participation. Posted by Sia on June 18, 2026, 5:22 pm, in reply to "Easiest to use gets used most easiestly " So it was worth the bother to create such a large forum covering every imaginable topic. As people used it, I began combining boards to reduce the number of them but to keep clearly defined topics for each so no one had to wade through topics that bored them to find ones that interested them. Politics, religion, and cyber warfare had dedicated boards to keep those divisive things OUT of other boards. Lots of folks hate politics so it was only allowed on one board. Ditto Religion. Cyber warfare often ruined regular boards so creating the back alley where anything goes kept the other boards battle-free. Plus, with such diverse boards and different mods for each one, all of the "web apps refugees" would have a home but COULD also intermingle if desired. Now, it's not worth the bother to recreate it elsewhere. Not enough participation.

Maybe we should sell drugs? Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on June 19, 2026, 12:57 pm, in reply to "Yup. When I created it, there were twice to thrice the participation. " ADMIN We're a small Kansas town breakfast diner where the old town men gather most every morning to admire the gold spray painted cow chip and photo of the high school athlete who threw it farthest. Pride and priorities. Trump is our president while the diner, our town and surrounding industry is dying at an accelerated pace due to his policies. To stay in business the diner ownership took to sale of drugs. The America we knew is dying and the one felon branded MAGA is already dead. Only they're too stupid to notice. Many Americans lost faith in the old GOP and old DNC. We are seeing some results in the crop of new candidates they back. The capping cause is the felon, stiffing his base like he stiffed contractors, while focused on himself; his parties and events, buildings and renovations not because they're necessary, but so he can attach his name to them. Our candy counter under the cash register features an assortment of multicolored pills, and dishes of various pot products. They can't make ends meet from sale of pancakes to crotchity old cheap assholes. America isn't dying. It's changing. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony

Decadence. Posted by greenman on June 19, 2026, 3:04 pm, in reply to "Maybe we should sell drugs?" Valued Poster America is decadent. Porn online, drugs, alcohol everywhere, self-indulgence the rule. The Roman freakin' Empire. Sports. Gambling addiction. Like Britain of 100-odd years ago, we're on the way down. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!

Well, I hope we're doing better than that... Posted by Sia on June 19, 2026, 2:07 pm, in reply to "Maybe we should sell drugs?" I am the ultimate, chronically optimistic critter found all asqueal outside of the decrepit diner, franticly competing with the naysayers preaching the end of the world. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

I didn't have this message board go live until at least 6 months after the forum went live Posted by Sia on June 15, 2026, 10:07 pm, in reply to "Yeah, I tried everything to get posters to try it out and posted detailed directions on how" That's because I wanted posters to at least TRY out the forum because I was convinced they'd get used to it and then prefer it to the simple message boards. However, most posters repeatedly requested the simple message board be created because they didn't want any changes to how it worked or having to learn new tricks. The forum allows posters to read an entire page of any thread with just ONE click. Also to see at a glance if any new posts or threads were made to any board. No more having to click individual posts.

Tough decision Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on June 15, 2026, 3:54 pm, in reply to "I will try to find another platform or just create another message board" ADMIN In the wake of Facebook, all boards like this are dying. Writing on the wall. $16 per month seems excessive. Especially for the minimum they provide, called premium. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony

Yes, it actually is. I'd always hoped that the forum would be the main board Posted by Sia on June 15, 2026, 4:32 pm, in reply to "Tough decision" It offers SO MUCH more than any message board ever could. Message boards have only one section to post in so there's no separation by topic. I created multiple boards all connected there because I was hoping to have different moderators responsible for each individual board. Like Ken for the R&E, Poppet for the Philosophy board, Trish for the food board, HH for the Back Alley, you (Pikes) for the Music/Arts board, and so on so the whole "original" community could partipate on various boards in the same "universe". Also, the private messaging function, the ability to use multiple options for each poster to tweak their experience there. Threads living forever. The ability to choose any pix for an avatar. To pick individual signatures. And so much more. Truth be told, I tried the premium version in 2024 to see if it might be worth it and if they'd let us have it be a "threaded" board like this rather than the continuous discussion posts that just pile up on each other rather than splitting responses into separate threads within a discussion so it's easy to see what someone is responding to. That was impossible and never going to happen. Also, it offered little extra stuff aside of being able to have member only boards (like the back alley) where discussions were invisible to non-members so mongo and other nosy folks couldn't see anything. THAT was my main motivation because I was sick of mongo and Ken C whining about what people were writing there. But it simply wasn't worth it upon reflection. Still, I wish I had because it would have prevented the ugly fight between me & Ken C that destroyed our previous friendship because he just couldn't STOP constantly, compulsively, & obsessively reading everything greenman wrote and demanding I make him stop a/o giving him a no-existent DNR because it hurt his feelings and he couldn't just stop looking.

That last is a good lesson to me Posted by greenman on June 16, 2026, 4:08 pm, in reply to "Yes, it actually is. I'd always hoped that the forum would be the main board " Valued Poster Don't obsess over the Lavender Lunatics' board, it's simply not worth it. Dismiss them. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!

Exactly. Just don't look if it causes any distress or provokes anger about something Posted by Sia on June 16, 2026, 4:57 pm, in reply to "That last is a good lesson to me" ADMIN so totally not worth the bother or time wasted. I don't enjoy being at odds with anyone, especially when it's completely pointless or it's with someone I've considered to be a friend. I typically only engage with people I like & find interesting and mostly ignore those whom I don't. The only DNRs I've ever requested were against posters who simply refused to leave me be. If that didn't work, I'd simply leave the board so as to avoid them. Honestly, I don't particularly care to attack, engage, or even think about those I don't care for, but for too long I reacted to dishonest personal attacks on me by a few of them who LIVE FOR attacking & smearing others. So, I fought back and got far too angry at them for their B.S. That is until I realized that I was LETTING them manipulate me into angry, vengeful behavior and having upset feelings I didnt want. Obviously, there's been plenty of bad blood towards and outrageous lies tossed out against me by "you know who", but really, WHY should I bother with his pathetic need to dominate others and his incorrigible willingness to flat out lie about me to get others to turn against me because they believe it? Most of those willing to believe his crap were folks I didn't even know or care about their opinions. However, mongo's LIES about me told to Ken C when he and I were arguing about what was allowed in The Back Alley REALLY infuriated me when Ken threw them at me and publicly trashed me on mongo's board just to "get me". Ultimately, I blew up at Ken when he THEN posted about it on R&E asking posters to judge me for my positions on how to run MY board. That ended our long time friendship because of his willingness to believe mongo, say so publicly, AND his absolutely unreasonable demands that I follow his expectations for how to run my own board. I NEVER did that to him even when I vehemently disagreed with some of his choices because it was HIS board and HIS choice how to run it. I'd helped him behind the scenes for YEARS by sending him every rule violation I saw by both friends and opponents because he was way too busy to look for violations and was being criticized for letting things he never saw go. If he disagreed that something I sent was bad, I accepted it and never squawked about it, because it was HIS board. He refused to give me the same respect. So, that was that. Now I very rarely look on either of his boards, especially lavender because he's let it become a sewer where certain posters routinely trash other posters, ruining the entire board with how prolific it is.

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