Hiatuses.

[seatazzz]

I've not been my usual bloviating self lately. Work is crazy (new system that was apparently built by third-graders working from kindergarten plans, all while eating hallucinogenic paste), and I've kinda gotten into a new hobby consisting of doing my nails a lot, because it's fun. I feel bad about it. Not the nails, they're pretty. That little HBT icon in the bottom of my screen has been mocking me lately. Also the nails thing has even (GASP!) overshadowed brewing for a bit, to the point where I've had to buy commercial beer TWICE in the last month. So why not another episode of Seatazzz Asks A Silly Question?

Forums like this have been around for many many years; I remember back in the day when bulletin boards were THE thing. I've signed up for many, but no membership has lasted as long as the one I have here. Reddit drives me nuts, it's hard to follow a conversation without scrolling up and down to find the pertinent responses.

Anyway. Bloviating again. What forums have you been a member of, that for whatever reason you either stopped responding to, or took a hiatus from? No need to specifically identify said forum, just a general subject will suffice, unless it's a good one that some of us may want to check out. As long as it's not goats.

 

[Hophunter]

I frequented a Nissan Frontier forum back when I had an older model that I was making repairs/upgrades to. Once I upgraded to a newer model several years back, I stopped visiting. I have a very utilitarian view of vehicles and was only there for instruction/answers and to post how I repaired things. While I don’t post a lot here outside of this section, I still read a lot. I think it’s beneficial to take breaks and dive into new interests from time to time.

 

[Airborneguy]

I left this one for years. Only “paused” the hobby (8-9 years lol) due to lack of space. Once I got settled in the current house with plenty of room, I fired it right back up.

Hmm let me think… I was a member of tons of aquarium forums, Jeep forums, gun forums… gotta be more. I still get emails from the Wrangler forum. I traded my last one in 2012 when I started commuting to Manhattan. Lifted Jeeps aren’t exactly fun commuting vehicles.

 

[Airborneguy]

I frequented a Nissan Frontier forum back when I had an older model that I was making repairs/upgrades to. Once I upgraded to a newer model several years back, I stopped visiting. I have a very utilitarian view of vehicles and was only there for instruction/answers and to post how I repaired things. While I don’t post a lot here outside of this section, I still read a lot. I think it’s beneficial to take breaks and dive into new interests from time to time.

Same, I had an ‘01 before my Jeep phase. Forgot about that forum.

 

[Kent88]

Linux forums.

The first Linux system I got really into was SimplyMepis, which could make a good case study for how to ruin a wonderful product by insisting it's your way or the highway. The developer, Warren Woodford, declined all help from a strong community with active forums and just let his distro die. I remember the folks on the Mepis forums being really friendly, even if they were occasionally talking above my capabilities.

Now I use Mint, Ubuntu Studio, and Raspbian (which changed their name a few years ago, but I still call it Raspbian). I used to be a member on the Mint forums until they were hacked. I've never been inclined to join the official Ubuntu forums.

I really should get back into such forums. I bought a Hauppage TV tuner that I'd dearly love to get working. But besides that, Linux just works for me.

 

[shoengine]

Now I use Mint, Ubuntu Studio, and Raspbian (which changed their name a few years ago, but I still call it Raspbian). I used to be a member on the Mint forums until they were hacked. I've never been inclined to join the official Ubuntu forums.

So Debian, Debian and... Debian!

I started with Suse, moved to Redhat for work and then picked up Fedora. Ran a bunch of Centos (RIP) servers until they canned the project. Now I have a random laptop with Ubuntu and several Pis. Wish I could run Ubuntu on my XPS but gotta have Windows for the school apps and most games are just easier. Probably could run a VM for the times I need a proctored exam though...

Bad experiences on *nix forums though. I always seem to run into the "you're holding it wrong" crowd.

 

[DonT]

I hung out on a few car/racing forums while I was racing and modding the car but quit after selling the car. Then saw this place when I was researching getting back into homebrew. Which is funny because homebrew was kinda my first hobby I took up in my early twenties, but stopped when I got into racing.
I guess I've come full circle....

 

[shoengine]

I hung out on a few car/racing forums while I was racing and modding the car but quit after selling the car. Then saw this place when I was researching getting back into homebrew. Which is funny because homebrew was kinda my first hobby I took up in my early twenties, but stopped when I got into racing.
I guess I've come full circle....

To be honest, they are pretty darn close...

 

[sibelman]

I don't hang out on other online forums, but rely on stackoverflow for tips and tricks when writing code. I read slashdot regularly, but the commenting there tends strongly toward repulsive, incivil tangents and pointless flame wars - I usually ignore them.

btw, the text with the molecular models above is wrong. Ethanol has 2 carbon atoms, commonly written as CH3CH2OH.

 

[MaxStout]

I was active on a woodworking hobbyist site several years back. There were many good people in the group, and it felt like a community. It had hundreds--perhaps thousands--of active members and it appeared there was good ad revenue coming in. But there were some trollish members who would espouse some hateful commentary. I'm not talking about garden variety mean talk--I can handle that. I remember the flame wars of USENET in the 1990s, so a little trash-talking back and forth isn't unusual.

No, these were posts bearing racial or ethnic or misogynistic commentary. One guy was a self-styled writer who was constantly promoting his self-published book that he claimed was similar to The Turner Diaries. The board was moderated, but the mods did little, stating "people should be able to discuss their beliefs freely," etc. Yet if someone slipped and dropped a swear word or bad-mouthed some company, they'd receive the riot act from these same moderators. I remember getting a nastygram from a mod (who was anonymous), due to me posting an honest review of a thickness planer I thought was poorly designed. They pulled my post. OK, fine. It was probably in the site's Terms of Use somewhere.

I dropped out of the group--just stopped posting. Years later, I saw that it was defunct and a visit to the page showed a "this domain is for sale" notice. I don't think the group moved to social media. They were just gone. No surprise.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Great question that I never really thought about until now. I love forums. Especially when you have more than just a casual interest and want to give back to newbies and continue to learn. I have been part of many and lurked on many more. Here are some in no particular order:

Nissan Titan forum: Left because I sold the truck. Great forum with a lively bunch. Still have some friends I met on there.

Nissan Frontier Forum: left because I hated that truck - only had it for a few months.

Lotus forum: Still a member, but don't post much. Those are some serious car guys.

F150 forum: Liked it, but it just kinda fizzled out. No real comradery or entertainment for me. I made a decent collection of Sync 3 wallpapers while I was active.

A BBQ forum: I won't name the name or members, but this one was great until it wasn't. The moderator was a total tool. I deleted what I could of mine and left.

This forum: Probably the longest active membership to date. Jury is still out on this one. You guys are all nuts.

 

[day_trippr]

Speaking of BBQ forums...best as I can recall - and outside of work-related forums - "The Smoke Ring" was my only other extensive involvement beyond this place. I enjoyed it for what it offered - which was a major head start on how to build and operate smokers successfully. Ten years or so later I had pretty much traded the whole smoking thing for brewing beer instead and the rest is history

Cheers!

 

[Kent88]

So Debian, Debian and... Debian!

Basically. Not that I'd ever use Debian itself. I'll spare you my rant on IceWeasel, IceDove, and SeaMonkey. I really like Libre software, but some people go to far. User friendliness is also important to me.

I started with Suse, moved to Redhat for work and then picked up Fedora. Ran a bunch of Centos (RIP) servers until they canned the project. Now I have a random laptop with Ubuntu and several Pis. Wish I could run Ubuntu on my XPS but gotta have Windows for the school apps and most games are just easier. Probably could run a VM for the times I need a proctored exam though...

I haven't done any meaningful computing on windoze in years. I keep a partition around and I don't know why. The last time I used it for anything remotely important might've been testing to make sure the TV tuner could work. It can. Hauppauge just made setting it up enough of a PITA that I never got it to work.

My first Linux install was openSuSE. That was right before they went to liveCD, so instead I had about 9 CDs and I was going through with some kind of text installer. I must have had help, because I had no idea what I was doing. I quickly switched to Mepis.

I liked the idea of Kubuntu, but years ago I tried a LiveCD and they were using KDE software for everything. Standard Ubuntu didn't use the gnome web browser or email client, they used popular Mozilla software. Kubuntu didn't get the message. I bet an overwhelming majority of people who use the gnome or KDE web browser are gnome or KDE developers.

I skipped the IceWeasel rant and still found a way to sneak a rant in.

I switched to Ubuntu Studio almost two years ago, I think. There are some settings they have sorted out immediately upon install that are difficult for a novice to set up. If I had a second desktop that wasn't an rPi, I would also be running Mint.

Bad experiences on *nix forums though. I always seem to run into the "you're holding it wrong" crowd.

The Mepis forums were decent. I never got rm -rf there. There were just some people who I think came from Debian and wanted to be helpful, but often gave really technical answers that wouldn't have been approachable for newbies. Someone in the forums patched apt-mirror for me, and I appreciated that. I wonder if that patch ever made it up stream...

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I guess I'm a late bloomer, or perhaps just lucky. This is my first forum but I recently have been reading another home brew one. I stumbled upon this site looking for others who brewed beer plus I had more time since retirement.

 

[matt_m]

I was very seriously into woodworking and gave it up after a move because of a lack of space and not long after left a couple forums even though I'd been extremely active for several years. Similarly, had been active in tractor and UTV forums when I had those tools/toys for our big property.

I've joined, been active in, then abandoned several car forums based on buying and later selling them. Generally have joined forums for any cars we own because they are good sources of information on dealing with quirks or common issues.

 

[Dland]

The first forum I frequented was about use and repair of civilian held military vehicles and equipment. This coincided with my buying several trucks and a few generators from on line surplus auctions. The on line surplus auctions were really my introduction to the internet in general, as I had no use for it before that, other than business email.

Then an antique engine forum with a active generator sub forum for generator repair and practical electric transfer matters.

Then a Mercedes forum when restoring an old benz, in which I also delved into the "off topic" section until it was over run by eastern block bots. Also have used jeep, volvo, diesel repair, etc forums as needed.

But HBT is the only one I regularly visit now, and the most engaging by far.

Oh yeah, then the is a botany forum dedicated to growing, propagating and identifying bamboo plants, where I'm still a participant and give advice, but the forum itself has gotten very sparse as much of it's activity has migrated to a social media channel, of which I will not play a part in.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Speaking of BBQ, I was part of one devoted to kamado-style cookers. Really active on it back in the day and learned a TON about cooking from that site. But... Eventually I just got bored with it and never went back.

As for a hiatus, I've got a college football forum that I've been with going back until probably the early oughts... A place where a bunch of fans of Big Ten teams could congregate and talk sports--and life... The forum went through a bunch of changes of ownership, as the media company hosting it would be acquired or sell things off, and we had a group of posters that migrated from one to another and stuck together. Eventually the host company killed it, and a few of the guys banded together and decided to self-host on a server that one of the members had for other reasons.

So... I'm a Purdue fan (or... was... but that's foreshadowing). We kinda suck at football. With occasional bright spots (one of which was while I was attending, which is probably how I got hooked). But while we suck at football, we've been a historically powerful program in basketball. But we've also been a historically snakebit program, especially when it comes to performance in March. Literally I watched for years as teams that were very, very good would get a critical injury at the wrong time and screw up the season. Or a team that had promise would get a 4 seed in the tournament, and instead of getting lucky and having a broken bracket where the 1 seed gets knocked out, they face the 1 seed in the Sweet Sixteen and are just overmatched. And when they didn't have that problem, they'd get some upstart out of nowhere who upset them (VCU in their Final Four run comes to mind).

In the 2022 tournament, that was all ready to change. We had a legit NBA guard on the roster. We had a 7'4" matchup nightmare in the paint who just dominated. We were a powerful team coming into the tournament as a 3 seed. In the first round, we easily beat the 14 seed. In the second round, we beat the 6 or 13 or whoever it was. And while we'd normally face the 2 seed (Kentucky that year) in the Sweet Sixteen, some plucky upstart 15 seed managed to beat them and their second round opponent.

So, here's Purdue. No seed worse than a 12 had EVER won a Sweet Sixteen game. On the other side of the bracket, the #1 seed had been knocked out, so Purdue finally had the broken bracket. Win the game, and you're facing either the #4 or #8 seed, where you should be favored. Purdue had the most promising path to the Final Four that they've had in my fandom. And all they have to do? Beat some 15 seed who is overmatched at every single position on the court.

You can see where this is going. Purdue lost. Made history* losing to a team worse than a 12 in the S16 round.

I was crushed. I haven't watched a minute of Purdue sports since that game. I refuse to let them continually be Lucy holding the football and believe, like Charlie Brown always does, that THIS year will be different.

So I took a hiatus from that message board. I just couldn't do it. I was gone maybe 6 months. I eventually went back. Discuss all manner of things with them--rarely anything Purdue related. As mentioned I don't watch the games, so I've tuned out. But it's a great group of guys, and we talk about all manner of off topic stuff, so I am happy to be there.

(* Purdue made history, sort of, the next year too. Only one team previously had ever lost, as a 1 seed, to the 16 seed. Purdue became the second. Which is kind of deflating--we graduated the first man to step foot on the moon, we can't be the first 1 seed to lose? But it was also sorta historic because we lost to literally the worst team in NCAA Tournament history to win an NCAA Tournament game. So we at least notched a semi-historic loss in there!)

 

[passedpawn]

I was a usenet guy haha. Big time. PCMCIA was phat at one time, lol. I used to hang out on the technical threads there.

 

[day_trippr]

Haha! I totally forgot Usenet (jeeze!) I participated in a number of fishing related groups, particularly rec.outdoors.fishing.fly (aka "r.o.f.f"), along with a crapton of technical groups related to DEC platforms.

Of course this was well after DECnet had been around for years, and we had our own internal forums on a text based platform named "Notes", much of its functionality ending up in Usenet. Most were business related but there was an extensive collection of non-business forums including a flyfishing group...

Cheers!

 

[Broothru]

Speaking of BBQ, I was part of one devoted to kamado-style cookers. Really active on it back in the day and learned a TON about cooking from that site. But... Eventually I just got bored with it and never went back.

As for a hiatus, I've got a college football forum that I've been with going back until probably the early oughts... A place where a bunch of fans of Big Ten teams could congregate and talk sports--and life... The forum went through a bunch of changes of ownership, as the media company hosting it would be acquired or sell things off, and we had a group of posters that migrated from one to another and stuck together. Eventually the host company killed it, and a few of the guys banded together and decided to self-host on a server that one of the members had for other reasons.

So... I'm a Purdue fan (or... was... but that's foreshadowing). We kinda suck at football. With occasional bright spots (one of which was while I was attending, which is probably how I got hooked). But while we suck at football, we've been a historically powerful program in basketball. But we've also been a historically snakebit program, especially when it comes to performance in March. Literally I watched for years as teams that were very, very good would get a critical injury at the wrong time and screw up the season. Or a team that had promise would get a 4 seed in the tournament, and instead of getting lucky and having a broken bracket where the 1 seed gets knocked out, they face the 1 seed in the Sweet Sixteen and are just overmatched. And when they didn't have that problem, they'd get some upstart out of nowhere who upset them (VCU in their Final Four run comes to mind).

In the 2022 tournament, that was all ready to change. We had a legit NBA guard on the roster. We had a 7'4" matchup nightmare in the paint who just dominated. We were a powerful team coming into the tournament as a 3 seed. In the first round, we easily beat the 14 seed. In the second round, we beat the 6 or 13 or whoever it was. And while we'd normally face the 2 seed (Kentucky that year) in the Sweet Sixteen, some plucky upstart 15 seed managed to beat them and their second round opponent.

So, here's Purdue. No seed worse than a 12 had EVER won a Sweet Sixteen game. On the other side of the bracket, the #1 seed had been knocked out, so Purdue finally had the broken bracket. Win the game, and you're facing either the #4 or #8 seed, where you should be favored. Purdue had the most promising path to the Final Four that they've had in my fandom. And all they have to do? Beat some 15 seed who is overmatched at every single position on the court.

You can see where this is going. Purdue lost. Made history* losing to a team worse than a 12 in the S16 round.

I was crushed. I haven't watched a minute of Purdue sports since that game. I refuse to let them continually be Lucy holding the football and believe, like Charlie Brown always does, that THIS year will be different.

So I took a hiatus from that message board. I just couldn't do it. I was gone maybe 6 months. I eventually went back. Discuss all manner of things with them--rarely anything Purdue related. As mentioned I don't watch the games, so I've tuned out. But it's a great group of guys, and we talk about all manner of off topic stuff, so I am happy to be there.

(* Purdue made history, sort of, the next year too. Only one team previously had ever lost, as a 1 seed, to the 16 seed. Purdue became the second. Which is kind of deflating--we graduated the first man to step foot on the moon, we can't be the first 1 seed to lose? But it was also sorta historic because we lost to literally the worst team in NCAA Tournament history to win an NCAA Tournament game. So we at least notched a semi-historic loss in there!)

I feel your pain. University of Kansas grad here (C.’73). Being the pre-season #1pick for hoops is the curse, because ‘Lucy’ will always snatch defeat from the jaws of Charlie Brown’s victory.

The ‘Hawks have a chance this year though, due to a 7’3” portal transfer (sorry, all you Michigan fans). The kid scored 7 points, had 2 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots in THE FIRST 90 seconds of the season opener two days ago! Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

Purdue has talent this year. Side bet for March Madness?

 

[passedpawn]

Haha! I totally forgot Usenet (jeeze!) I participated in a number of fishing related groups, particularly rec.outdoors.fishing.fly (aka "r.o.f.f"), along with a crapton of technical groups related to DEC platforms.

Of course this was well after DECnet had been around for years, and we had our own internal forums on a text based platform named "Notes", much of its functionality ending up in Usenet. Most were business related but there was an extensive collection of non-business forums including a flyfishing group...

Cheers!

DejaNews really made Usenet easy. But later, google would gobble up that (and crush altavista). Usenet was a free-for-all. You might find anything back then (alt.binaries as a hoot haha).

 

[Yooper]

I've not been my usual bloviating self lately. Work is crazy (new system that was apparently built by third-graders working from kindergarten plans, all while eating hallucinogenic paste), and I've kinda gotten into a new hobby consisting of doing my nails a lot, because it's fun. I feel bad about it. Not the nails, they're pretty. That little HBT icon in the bottom of my screen has been mocking me lately. Also the nails thing has even (GASP!) overshadowed brewing for a bit, to the point where I've had to buy commercial beer TWICE in the last month. So why not another episode of Seatazzz Asks A Silly Question?

Forums like this have been around for many many years; I remember back in the day when bulletin boards were THE thing. I've signed up for many, but no membership has lasted as long as the one I have here. Reddit drives me nuts, it's hard to follow a conversation without scrolling up and down to find the pertinent responses.

Anyway. Bloviating again. What forums have you been a member of, that for whatever reason you either stopped responding to, or took a hiatus from? No need to specifically identify said forum, just a general subject will suffice, unless it's a good one that some of us may want to check out. As long as it's not goats.

I left the Jeep forum. Not on purpose, but sort of just slowly faded away.
I don’t post much here anymore but I’m still around here and the Brewer’s Friend forum.
On Facebook, I’m active on a couple of groups like Florida Kayaking, but not as chatty as in the past. Maybe I just got old and crabby I guess.

 

[Kent88]

Maybe I just got old and crabby I guess.

 

[tracer bullet]

Hobbies and interests wax and wane, I think it's natural.

I find I have a certain amount of time for goofing off, so I pick and choose a few forums to be active in and the rest end up having to be put aside. I do somewhat rotate through them but it's a few years of activity before it falls.

After a while it gets to be a little bit "the same". With homebrewing I am pretty decent but still have things to learn, can see new recipes and techniques, see new equipment and so on and so I have an interest level keeping me here. And it's fun to help others, the same as I've been helped. If I stopped brewing for any reason I'd probably last about 6 months and then depart until I picked it up again.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I feel your pain. University of Kansas grad here (C.’73). Being the pre-season #1pick for hoops is the curse, because ‘Lucy’ will always snatch defeat from the jaws of Charlie Brown’s victory.

The ‘Hawks have a chance this year though, due to a 7’3” portal transfer (sorry, all you Michigan fans). The kid scored 7 points, had 2 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots in THE FIRST 90 seconds of the season opener two days ago! Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!

Purdue has talent this year. Side bet for March Madness?

Aww, cry me a river

Kansas has 3 national championships and 10 Final Fours since Purdue last went to the Final Four.

The difference between being a Kansas fan and a Purdue fan is that you have a rollercoaster where you have highs and lows. We look from the ground at how high the big roller coaster hill is but can't ride it because even though we have a ticket, it broke down when we were in line just before we were gonna get on.

 

[Broothru]

Aww, cry me a river

Kansas has 3 national championships and 10 Final Fours since Purdue last went to the Final Four.

The difference between being a Kansas fan and a Purdue fan is that you have a rollercoaster where you have highs and lows. We look from the ground at how high the big roller coaster hill is but can't ride it because even though we have a ticket, it broke down when we were in line just before we were gonna get on.

When did we start talking about Kansas football? That defines rollercoaster! Lookin’ good so far this year, but still plenty of time for them to break my heart on or before Jan. 1st.

 

[Rodent]

been forum admin on several back when I was doing a lot of 'specialized woodworking', and super active on pinball, gardening, and other beer focused forums.

back then I used to wonder why a number of members migrated away from the forum focus and collected together in the off topic section. these days I get it - there's only so much forum focus content to discuss before eventual burnout on the topic, and the off topic section allows for continued engagement with others who share a similar interest/perspective that you've built online relationships with.

work workload increased significantly, and a cross-state relocation pretty much killed my available time to engage deeply in hobbies is used to enjoy often. I'm sure I'll eventually return to those other forums when things settle down some. until then, I enjoy exchanging with the fine folks here on OT (and learning so much on an unending number of non-brewing topics)

 

[Kent88]

I just realized that @applescrap is on hiatus from our website and I'm concerned.

 

[Rodent]

I just realized that @applescrap is on hiatus from our website and I'm concerned.

has been for some time now, sadly

I'd have reached out directly if I knew another contact method beyond HBT PM

 

[balrog]

Usenet, compuserve, alt.binaries, very brief arpa.net one summer at Oak Ridge (yep, those "grain silos" really were machine gun placements).
ah, the memories