Who says that I am dead...

[Martin the Warrior]

I find myself in the interesting position of having a site that is nearly 18 years old, but which mirrors one that in many ways is just starting out. A site with an accessible history, but a blank slate nonetheless. If not blank all the way back to the beginning of the site in 1996, at least to the beginnings of the Forum in 2001. The last LP community incarnation-- an LPBBS system hosted on BraveNet (if anyone remembers that service)-- had more or less been as dead as the Forum is now when, in February of 2001, it got replaced with the ezBoard system that led us here. So as I look around and see how many have moved on to greener pastures-- and I certainly don't blame them-- I'm not that concerned, because I've been there before.

That said, I know a large reason the Forum is as it is right now is because I haven't been present. It's hard to have an active forum on a website when:

1. The website it's associated with gets updated at-best once a year, thereby failing to bring in new people which are the lifeblood of any community.
2. The owner of said site isn't around that often.
3. New registrations are required to be validated by said owner.

The common denominator in all three of those is me. Fortunately, each has a clear and totally doable solution. Numbers 2 & 3 I can implement immediately. I'm around daily again. Even if the Forum turns into a really fancy blog system for my personal use, I'll be here, so people can at least count on one person's reaction. Hopefully we'll build it back up to more. On number 3, I've been really happy to see how well the Redwall trivia prerequisite to registration has cut down on spam accounts, so I'm open to fully automating the process again and just catching the few who get through the old fashioned way. Or make the SCRIBE's earn their (apparent) pay.

Number 1 is also being worked on, but I'm going to hold off on implementation until the Anniversary. Both the codework, and more importantly the features, are far enough along that I'm confident both will be ready to go by The LP's 18th Anniversary. The site will be completely overhauled (the Forum will not, except maybe in coloration) and it'll be one of the most dramatic shifts yet. I'm excited to be able to show it to you (finally) but not just yet. Soon.

Of course, those reasons were also compounded by certain factors outside my control:

• Losing BJ has sucked some of the energy out of fandom. Not all of it, but certainly the fandom I knew. I was saddened to see Terrouge on a parallel course.
• Internet usage habits have shifted dramatically in the last decade. Facebook and Twitter changed the paradigm (again) away from standalone forums like this. Or at least sapped the casual audience away.
• The internet is far more mobile-device oriented today. I know I do about 80% of my surfing on my iPad these days, which is great for internet consumption, but not my favorite input device for contribution (greater than 140 characters, anyway).

Even so, all I can promise is that I'll try to get it back up there. And this is the start.

I'm not expecting an immediate influx of new people between now and the Anniversary, but hopefully a few old souls. In the meantime it gives any old hats (that'd be you) a chance to reengage with me and help shape The Long Patrol Forum of the next decade. Things you'd like to see, potential changes, I'm open to discussion.

Incidentally, I'm not going to jump on anyone for thread revival right now. Knock yourself out!

(So for the record, PS4 > Xbox One, Nintendo had the better E3, The Hobbit movies have been disappointing to the point where Desolation of Smaug was the first Middle Earth movie I didn't care to see a second time in theaters, I'm excited about Star Wars again and am strangely content with their nuking of the Expanded Universe, and cannot believe I live in a world where Ben Affleck is Batman. To name a few. )

[Ferahgo the Assassin]

Not sure why I decided to check in here today, but alas, I'm glad I did. It's good to see you again, Martin, and to whatever extent you're successful in reviving interest and participation here, you can count me in on assisting with activity in whatever small way I can. I barely have the time and interest to use the internet for anything recreational anymore, but I can make an exception to check in here every now and then.

If there's anything I can do to help, please feel free to let me know. Unfortunately, it seems that I still have a mental block on reviving old threads, after all this time...

[Martin the Warrior]

I appreciate it, Ferahgo, thanks! Nice to see you around, too! I have no doubt the LPF will get there. The more familiar faces around, though, the better!

If there's anything I can do to help, please feel free to let me know. Unfortunately, it seems that I still have a mental block on reviving old threads, after all this time...

Alas, then we did our job too well.

[Martin the Warrior]

Bumping this to stoke the hype-fires a little bit and let you all know that we're a scant three weeks from the Anniversary. Nearly here!

(And I'm happy to note I had to go to the second page of the forum to find it!)

[Mulchior Lancer]

While I only just discovered the site recently, I'm looking forward to seeing the redesign. I think you've thought out an effective plan to help revive the site.

And while I am new here, if you need any help for content, just let me know.

[Martin the Warrior]

You guys have been doing great just posting stuff and starting threads, so if you can keep it up, that'd be awesome!

I have some outreach stuff planned closer to the Anniversary that will hopefully draw more people in so it's not just me posting, but in the meantime, keep it up!

[Lyrian Aryns]

It's good to see people still posting here. I've been almost completely absent since the year I went off to college, but I have fond memories of the LP as the place where I "grew up" on the internet and it's saddened me to see it so quiet in the times I have checked in. Forums seem a little bit archaic these days, but I'll do my best to chip in when I have the time.

[Martin the Warrior]

This last week is really kicking things into overdrive and keeping me busy, but it'll be worth it and I'm hopeful going into the weekend we'll see a marginal spike in activity here. I'm looking forward to lifting the curtain.

[Hisk]

I should have checked earlier, would have been an interesting birthday present. With respect to what the OP says about the old pre-2001 incarnation of the Long Patrol being as dead as this one, at least at that time the Redwall series was still (somewhat literally) alive. At this point every discussion is going to be about the past, and there's a point at which the material becomes exhausted (although Tolkien fans certainly haven't reached that point yet).

Forums seem a little bit archaic these days

I find this as well, but not in a good way. The disadvantage of modern social media is that it's too generalist and ADD-infected. Forums are useful for keeping a subject compartmentalised and on-topic.

[Martin the Warrior]

Great to see you, Hisk! That's a fair point regarding the series being active pre-2001 and finished now. I'm not sure there's anything to be done about it, though it will certainly affect whatever new equilibrium we reach.

[Fuzface]

*waves*
Feeling nostalgic so I decided to check in tonight!

I'm glad to see the place still exists, even if it is quite static.

It was my first online community and I'll always have a special place in my heart for LPF.

[Mulchior Lancer]

*waves*
Feeling nostalgic so I decided to check in tonight!

I'm glad to see the place still exists, even if it is quite static.

It was my first online community and I'll always have a special place in my heart for LPF.

Heya! Always good to see more faces around here! It's not the most active of forums, but there's usually a few posts a week, which is much better than some of the forums out there sadly. Most of us posting are newer, but vets definitely drop in from time to time.

[Brocktree1]

I'm happy to see this forum is up! I haven't been active here since 2008. Wow. I was only active from 2006-2008 (and some of 2009).

Some memories are so vivid, it's as if I stopped posting 6 months ago. Strangely enough there are things that happened 3 years ago that feel as if they happened 10 years ago. Memory is a wonky thing.

[Ember Nickel]

I registered for the forums ten years ago this July; coming up on a bunch more anniversaries (of uploading fanfic, etc) next month. Glad to see these names still here!

[Cale Yin]

Just poking my head in to see if the apocalypse has started, Martin has revealed his age or identity, and/or that my childhood is still intact in this little corner of the internet. I'm glad this is still here. For people who have no idea who I am, I've been here for more than 15 years, and I'm sure my posts used to be unintelligible. I also want to say that I am Facebook friends with some of the people I met here, and I thought you might get a kick out of knowing Ambrose got married and had a son and named him Ambrose.