Hi, everyone.
There was a point at which I believed that communities needed someone at the top to direct them, or else they'd decline and eventually disband. And the thought of being responsible for losing this place, through what I saw as personal inadequacy, caused me a lot of stress a year ago.
But, looking at the community now, most of you are still here, and there are a lot of fresh posters too. Opinions are encouraged but rationality is rewarded. And I realise that this place was never bound from the top-down, but rather held together by the input of every single poster here, no matter how long they've been around. So thank you, all of you, for your participation here. You make this place as valuable as it is, and always has been.
Also, I have some new and exciting news for zoos as a whole but I'm not quite done with the presentation yet, so you'll have to wait a little bit.
T-V
Glad to have you back.
I too am glad to have you back, TV. Please don't ever be a stranger.
It's good to see you, Tundrovvy. You were always one of my favorite users here. Welcome back.
Well welcome back. I don't know you, but you seem like a great person of importance here. i'm looking forward to your exciting news. :3
I had already brought up, in another thread, that there are many chat channels and forums that survive very well after their moderators vanish. As long as you have a service administrator ensuring that the services don't go down, small communities can manage very well.
Most people hitting up the web tend to believe this at first. It's what people know - nature or nurture, doesn't matter. But with enough online exposure you eventually see it's undeniably the opposite: rigidity, overthinking, overmoderation are the things that most often ruin boards with potential, or they make the worst disappointments. For a few reasons, but one being that the mechanics and dynamics of web forums are simply bastardly different beasts than real life social situations from which people import a lot of pessimism, apprehension and exaggeration - unnecessary things that lead to more unnecessary things in webspace that prevent personal growth and translate into lost potential.
I was never exactly your BFF, but you wrote a nice reply to me once when everyone else was missing the point.
<3
thank you too tv (: good to have ya around