Onto the Bandwagon

It seems that RAFian waves is the theme of the week. Time to add my two cents.

I completely agree with what Duff and Estelore have already said. It's a sad but true fact of forums.

Why is this the hot topic of the week? Estelore, Duff and I are of the past generation. We're old school now. We have all been watching while our friends disappear from the RAFmap. We have been feeling the drift away from RAF.

I believe that the constantly changing list of dedicated members is one of the main reasons why RAF projects struggle. There is always a few commited members to a project, but within a few months people's priorities shift and RAF is no longer an important factor to life.

While this is a somewhat sombre topic, it's simply a part of a forum's life. When I joined, I was a part of the new generation wave. I saw members with seniority slowly fade away from existance.

To the new members, this is what I have to share: Take all that you can from RAF. Make friends, party and most of all, have fun. One day, you will likely take your leave, but remember what you've learned at RAF. Keep those memories close, no matter how far you drift away.



Til the day I die, I shall not forget RAF.

Comment! Please, for the love of Asimov, COMMENT!!

Hi, folks. I'm just about to disappear-for-the-remainder-of-the-weekend, but I felt I oughtta' get this post out there before I depart.

Okey, I know quite a few of you read the blog, and that's lovely. Thanks. Please, could you post comments in the blog once in awhile? I know we have readers, but who are the readers?
Which of you follow this blog and actually pay attention to the posts?

If you really do check this blog at least once weekly, please post a comment to this post. I'd love to know who watches the RAFLocal News, so to speak. Also, if you feel like having opinions, please post comments for the other posts. We like to know what you think! Pleeeeeease??!

Well, have a great weekend, all!
All my love.

-Estelore

They come, they eat, they leave

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the people who frequent RAF, and the people who have left us. Estelore plays a role in this for her great blog post not long ago. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the people who couldn’t be seen off the forums, are now nowhere to be seen. I’ve been thinking about this topic specifically because I’m feeling myself drifting away from RAF. At one point I posted 50-100 times a day every day, now I might only post 10 times. I hope I’m still a presence on RAF, but I can’t deny that I just don’t RAF like I used to.

This isn’t an uncommon thing with a lot of RAFians. Tyler (getting another ego boosting mention in the blogs) was our fastest member (you know…with posts, not…haha) and now he’s awol. Leigh, who I never knew personally, has something like 1100 posts. Now he’ll pop up for a few days here and there, but its undeniable that his time with RAF is done. And then there’s the select few like Mike aka Phoenix004 who have been with the board for years, and still manage to get on regularly.

So does RAF have a shelf life? Do people get bored or sick of it after awhile and just stop caring? I think, as sad as it seems, that they’ve just moved on. Nobody is meant to spend their entire life posting on RAF every day (except Richard; if you ever leave I swear to God…). RAF is like anything else, merely a chapter in a very long life. Sometimes people need RAF to get them through a tough time in their life. I know I did.

I’m not saying this so that everyone will just up and leave the forums. (although that way I could win the last person to post wins thread…again) And don’t worry, this isn’t my farewell speech. (I’m still working on that one, What rhymes with “wanted for murder”?) But I hope it will kind of help people understand why some of us have felt the need to leave. I hope all of you stick around and continue to be as active for as long as I’m here, but if you do have to go, good luck in whatever chapter you’re off to now. And although you may not have time or feel the same connection to the forum, don’t forget the connections you made with the members. I know I wont be on RAF forever, but I like to think some of you will be friends for life.

Dude…this post is just depressing…

RAFMoney - the image

New member Chace/ CDJV in the RAF Private Detective -- Open For Business thread posted $50 worth of RAFdollars... or RAFmoney or RAFmoleons.

Anyway, just wanted to say lol @ the money; it's everything RAF is... EPIC coolness... +1 to Chace.

RAFgenerations: Defining the Passage of Time

The other day, Broken asked me if I had seen passing generations of RAFians, and it gave me pause for thought. Sure, we've nearly all of us seen wave after wave of newbies arrive and build their own positions in our tight little society, but what defines where one wave, one generation begins and where it ends?
Perhaps we should be watching not only those who join but also those who leave us, even if they only leave temporarily. There was a time when RAF was startled to see both Tyler and me gone for more than a day at a time, and now it seems almost commonplace for us to be absent. There was a time when Zues, Ellimist, Toomin, Touquie, Ash, and Terenia frequented the board with great consistency, and now we hardly hear from them. It seems that for every two or three waves of newbies that arrive, two or three of our longest-standing veteran members drop off the map a little bit.

Let's just hope that this trend is not a permanent thing, neh? I don't know about you, but I miss all my old Classic RAF buddies. Sure, I love newbies, but RAF sorta' loses its RAFishness without the Classic members.

4 Million Hits on RAF Forum

When I started blogging about each time RAF Forum hits 1 million hits I had no idea that we would be hitting the milestone every month/ few weeks.

Today, after 3 weeks (and a day) of hitting 3 million the counter passed 4 million.
I probably will continue blogging about each millionth hit, just to keep a record of when it happened.

So expect 1 more million in 1 month? I hope so ^_^

100+ Members Online Today!

This is the most I've seen it since we moved to SMF in May/ June 2008. As of 10:56PM 103 members have logged into RAF Forum today.

RAFparty #5 day 1

Yep, it's that time of the month again...

Today was the first day of the fifth RAFparty (or as I like to call it RAFparty 09.02.01). My name is morfowt, and I will be your author today.

The party started at midnight (like usual), with people counting down the minutes left, hours before it even started. This RAFparty wasn't quite as active or crazy as previous ones, most likely because it was also valentine's day, so some people were spending it with their dates. Others, were probably busy with work and other things.

As the first day draws to a close, let's look back at some of the highlights...

1. Top Poster: Esplin 9466, now an admin, has beaten Leigh, and is now the top poster, with 11245 posts total.
2. New Gods: Congratulations Azguard and Mirienne for achieving God status! Azguard, especially, because he is the first new member (a member that wasn't from RAFclassic) who achieved God status
3. 10000+ posts: Superclaire, recently promoted to Sr. Staff, has made over 10000 posts, and is the 4th member on RAF to do so.
   

Other Stats include:

1. Top Poster Today: Esplin 9466 has made 800+ posts today. Not as high as previous parties, but still pretty high, nonetheless.
2. New Topics Today: The first day, we've created 36 new topics. That places it in second place (first place goes to the first day of the RAFparty in January, with 46 new topics).
3. Page Views Today: Not much happy news here. Although we've made 60440 hits (which is a high number, and the second most on RAFparty days), it's not even the most number of hits this month. On February sixth, we made over 61000 hits.
4. New Posts Today: Alas, we've only made 4188 new posts today. That's lower than the last 4 RAFparties (1 day counts as 1 party).

To summarize, not the best RAFparty ever, but a successful one, with goals achieved...

And remember: the RAFparty lasts 2 days, so if you missed the first day, there's still the second...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whether you think it's a day to celebrate your romance with your significant other, or just an excuse for the big corporations to steal people's money while making fun of all the single people, I hope you all have a great day!

As it happens, I am single and so will obviously not be spending the day with a girl. In fact, it's actually my sister Zoe's 4th birthday so I will have plenty to keep me busy. However, I do think it's quite hilarious that many of my friends at work think I have a hot date since I booked the day off work... (In my defence, I did tell them it was my sister's birthday!)

So, feel free to post your comments about this special day on the forum. I'd like to know what opinions people have on this sometimes sensitive subject.

http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,2320.msg151421.html#msg151421

Goom - New Jr. Staff Member

That's right.. get used to the purple from relative new-comer goom. He has been promoted to Jr. Staff. We welcome him... right?

Oh and Claire is no longer a Jr. Staff member... she has also been promoted: she now holds the Senior Staff position.

Why do YOU RAFparty?

Well, folks, we all know that another RAFparty begins tonight, and I know that most of us are very much looking forward to it. I like the increased activity, and I like when most of the members are online at once so that I can watch the lovely ways they interact. Sometimes I take advantage of the chance to raise my post count, I'll admit, but I RAFparty mostly for the social interaction.
Not everyone shares my reasons for RAFpartying. Some of you like to spam the boards just for the halibut. Others take the opportunity to post as fast as they can all at once, using many windows of the same forum. Some of you make your choicest posts or start new topics for the karma-boosts they bring.

Why do you RAFparty?

Russell = Admin

In case you were wondering what's with Russell's / Esplin 9466's red text colour... he has been promoted to Administrator. He is RAF's second administrator (excluding myself) in our almost six years of existence.

RAFian Commonalities

Hallo, all!
I've been noticing lately how many similarities there are between RAFians with vastly different personalities, and it baffles and amuses me to no end. Not only do we all have Animorphs in common, but the vast majority of us share at least one other RAF-common trait with other members. I'll post some of those traits I've noticed, and you all please do feel free to comment and add any that I've missed.

1. Addiction to "Pinky and the Brain"
2. Musical ability, especially on piano
3. INTJ or similar personality type (Myers-Briggs Typology... I walk the fine line between INTJ and INFJ, for instance.)
4. A certain fondness for crazy
5. Another certain fondness for argument-for-argument's-sake
6. Belief in the existence of extraterrestrial aliens
7. Either very intense religion or no religion at all
8. A solid and fierce opinion on anything at all political, or else an absolute apathy for politics
9. Intense love of books
10. Arcane pop-culture, movie, musical theatre, and literary knowledge

What else, folks? Help me out, here. :)

Thanks to wildweathel for his donation!

New, but seasoned member of RAF, wildweathel has added to the keep RAF alive fund, aka donated. I'd like to thank him for his contribution; he now stands at #1 on the leader-board (along with Russell).