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Fate of HTLAL

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply
178 messages over 23 pages: 13 4 5 6 7 ... 2 ... 22 23 Next >>
Kimchizzle
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 3421 days ago

24 posts - 44 votes
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 9 of 178
23 July 2015 at 12:24am | IP Logged 
I hope the administrator will find time to talk to some regulars or mods who are wondering about the future well-being of the forum.

The admin really did us all great favor many years ago in creating this forum and I'm sure when the site was smaller it was easier to invest time to maintaining it but things like job, family, and general life can easily split one's time in multiple directions where they no longer have time for everything. I still remember a time when the admin would post much more often about topics, and also later when I began to sense he was getting overwhelmed with the site. I used to use a different username back then.

I don't like the idea of a hostile takeover scenario but I would like to see greater communication between the admin and people who have the necessary skills and time and desire that could update the forum software. Maybe an arrangement could be worked out with some communication between parties.

Edited by Kimchizzle on 23 July 2015 at 12:32am

4 persons have voted this message useful



SladeWilson
Newbie
Canada
Joined 3458 days ago

17 posts - 26 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 10 of 178
23 July 2015 at 1:45am | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
This is very troubling to me and it should be to the rest of the membership who care deeply about the forum, too. It means we are talking to ourselves more and more. If we are not growing, we are dying. It's as simple as that.

We are living in the generation of wifi and smartphones. People are connecting while they are on the go, and smalltalk through social media is the wave of the future. What this means is a change for online communities. I don't think we're going to see a big increase. However, what we can do is make a site mobile friendly. This is something that the forum software here doesn't offer. But the software at the backup site is mobile friendly. Something to consider. I think mobile friendly is the way to go, whether it be here or somewhere else.
7 persons have voted this message useful



basica
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 3538 days ago

157 posts - 269 votes 
Studies: Serbian

 
 Message 11 of 178
23 July 2015 at 2:40am | IP Logged 
It appears to me (and I may have gotten the wrong impression) that it has taken rather
aggressive efforts to get a hold of him to fix things (at least it seems to me that way
if someone ignores your emails unless you call them at their workplace). This being the
case, how aggressively are we looking at getting in touch with him again? I'm not saying
he needs to give us a yay or nay right this second, but I get the impression we won't get
the answer either way unless we actively pursue it. So, are we waiting for an email
response and if so do we plan on calling them again if we don't hear from them? (I also
realize international calls are expensive and more than willing to help contribute to the
costs if that's an issue - hell, I'd call him myself if I had more authority :P ).


1 person has voted this message useful





emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5534 days ago

2615 posts - 8806 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchB2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 12 of 178
23 July 2015 at 3:03am | IP Logged 
basica wrote:
So, are we waiting for an email response and if so do we plan on calling them again if we don't hear from them?

We are actively but politely attempting to get in touch, and we will make more than one attempt. :-) But it's summertime, and people travel, and life gets in the way, so these things usually take more than a day to play out.

Edited by emk on 23 July 2015 at 3:08am

6 persons have voted this message useful



1e4e6
Octoglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4292 days ago

1013 posts - 1588 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian
Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan

 
 Message 13 of 178
23 July 2015 at 3:35am | IP Logged 
From what I see, some members already want to stay in the old site, some in the new
site. A poll would solve nothing--a majority in either makes no sense because whoever
votes still reverts back to their own choice as both seem to be available as of now.
In this case it is like a schism. Some stay here and some stay in the new site. Some
might use both, but they are probably less than the groups of the former two.

In other words, what I mean is that the community inevitably splits. Some like the new
site more than the old site for software reasons, and given a choice they would want
to stay there. Vice versa for those for the old site, some for the posts and
nostalgia.

I cannot see how to prevent a schism. This is like the referendum in Scotland or
Greece being in the EuroZone. Going to the new site (Scotland breaks from the
UK/Greece abandons the euro) or staying in the old site (Stay in the UK/Greece stay in
the euro). Inevitable divisions, just like in those cases. There seem to be no
compromises because a real compromise would be to use software similar to the new site
and somehow upgrade the old site to that level. This being impossible, some migrate
from the old site to the new site, more might join the old site, more might join the
new site, or some users might just stop altogether and use neither.

In chess, this is what calculating 10 moves ahead is like. And to me there seems to be
no solution, more like a lost position on the board with no viable candidate moves.

Edited by 1e4e6 on 23 July 2015 at 3:48am

5 persons have voted this message useful



basica
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 3538 days ago

157 posts - 269 votes 
Studies: Serbian

 
 Message 14 of 178
23 July 2015 at 4:18am | IP Logged 
Well, I think if a majority chose to stay here the best choice to me seems that the other
site shuts down and puts a message referring back to people here.
1 person has voted this message useful



1e4e6
Octoglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4292 days ago

1013 posts - 1588 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian
Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan

 
 Message 15 of 178
23 July 2015 at 4:25am | IP Logged 
basica wrote:
Well, I think if a majority chose to stay here the best choice to me
seems that the other
site shuts down and puts a message referring back to people here.


That is part of the problem--some already would prefer to go to the new site and never
return to the old site, some even said that they would prefer to not post at all if
they had to use the old site again.

A poll in this case is useless, because unlike for example, voting for Prime Minister,
the Prime Minister is the one who has the majority amount of votes. In this case, both
voting camps would do what they want. Effectively this would be like having two Prime
Ministers A and B, and splitting a country in two; those who want PM A have PM A, and
those who want PM B get PM B, wherein the two new countries have both less people than
the one previous country as a whole.

Edited by 1e4e6 on 23 July 2015 at 4:26am

1 person has voted this message useful



vell
Newbie
United States
Joined 3795 days ago

17 posts - 44 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 16 of 178
23 July 2015 at 4:31am | IP Logged 
I've found some useful information here over the years, but quite frankly this website is garbage and I don't
see why anyone cares to save it. It looks like it's from 1996 and it's run by some administrator who seems to
want to keep an iron grip but not give any attention to it. It's slow, not user friendly, and even the registration
is awkward -- it took like a week for my account to even be activated when I made one. Some of the rules and
the "remember our motto 'if you can't spell it, don't write it'" are pretty unwelcoming too and not exactly the
norm these days or helpful for gaining members.

I don't particularly care about the fate of this community because I just read stuff here from time to time and I
can do that anywhere (all of the above is keeping me from becoming active), but it seems to me that you will
have no future if you do nothing. Nobody wants to put up with this kind of bs when they can use another
forum or Reddit instead. I think if you want to continue to exist you need to cut your losses and move on with
a new site. It's likely just a matter of time until the forum dies or it happens anyway.


7 persons have voted this message useful



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