...You're Crazier in Person

I just got back from hanging out with Jess (Kit Cloudkicker), Tara (Myitt) and Dave (Pez) in Boston. It seems like RAFians meeting in person has been going on a lot more lately. Jess, Tara, Dave, Estrid and Liz met up in California, then Jess, Tara, Dave and I met up in Hampton Beach, and now Claire’s world trip is causing RAFians from around the world to finally meet. Personally, I think it’s fantastic.

Meeting in person really brings us together as a community. I consider many of you on the forum to be close friends and I’d love the chance to hang out with all of you. Hopefully some day I’ll get to do a world trip of my own. I guess the message of this post is not to be afraid to get out there.

That being said, be careful guys. I’ve been talking a lot about community and close friends and family…hmm I don’t think I mentioned family. But…I have in the past, so yea…RAF is like a family. BUT it is still a group of random internet people. Treat them as such. Don’t put personal information on the site. If you want to share information do so only with the members you really know and trust. And be sure that you really know and trust them. The three members I have met I knew for almost a year before I’d even admit my name wasn’t Duff McCain (hmm, Duff McCain, got a nice ring to it)

If you do feel you have built up the trust and comfort to actually meet a few RAFians then do so very carefully. Don’t meet anyone one on one, invite a few of your friends or a few different RAFians. Meet in a public place and keep the general plan for the day/night to mostly public things. Don’t just head up to a hotel room (haha oops). Tell a few people where you are going and who you’ll be with. If your parents know about RAF then tell them about the meeting. Don't do anything you aren't comfortable with or meet anyone you aren't comfortable with.

And to the younger RAFians…maybe just not do any meetings for a few years. Its just not responsible. You wait a little while and get to know your RAF friends a little better and when you are old enough to do a proper meeting you’ll have a lot more fun.

So…lets organize some RAFcons! Responsibly, safely, and obviously full of insanity. And don't forget to take pictures, especially when someone is doing something stupid.

The A is for...umm...something about Animals right?

Hey guys, I’m back with another random post about nothing really all that important. Sorry about this. Don’t worry it will be over soon, you can just leave a reply saying hey good point and pretend like you read it. I would honestly never know.

So anyway; Richards ANIMORPHS Forum. I think most of us notice that the Animorph’s board is one of the least active boards on the forum. The common trend is for new members to start in the Animorph’s board and gradually move over to the general categories. The veteran members are rarely seen actually talking about what brought us all together; Animorphs!

Some people find it hard to believe that an Animorphs forum is active after almost 10 years. You can really only talk about Animorphs for so long right? After a certain point the discussions start to repeat themselves. The newer members will bring up a great point that you talked about seven months ago. After awhile they’ll start to feel the repeat of the discussions and they’ll drift away from the Animorph’s board too.

But just because most of the discussions of the board have been done in one form or another, that doesn’t mean we should give up on them. There will always be fresh perspectives on the books that we all love. For every “Thoughts about book #54” and “What would be your battle morph” threads, there will be a unique idea out there that makes the Animorphs board worth checking out every once in awhile. (I just read “The wall between Jake and Cassie” and thought Hylian Dan made some great perspectives on their relationship.)

So to sum up what I’m trying to say (because my posts are never clear enough to pull the message out without an idiot proof conclusion) we should try to bring back the Animorphs discussion to the forum! Check out a few of the new discussions and try to see if you can get some new perspectives on the series. Reassess the points of the series you love or that you questioned and maybe you’ll find some new discussion topics too. Terenia should be commended for organizing the group reread; a weekly reread of the series in order. Not a bad idea. Revisiting what brought us to the forum in the first place might bring us closer than ever.

But we should be proud that if the Animorphs discussion isn’t what has kept us together for so long, it means that e have survived solely on the community we have created. RAF FTW!

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…

Duff Welcomes Himself to RAFblog

Wow. Thank you Richard; for allowing me to contribute to this blog, and for giving me such a cool entrance. “Popular, and active member, Duff” I swear, I did not tell him to say that. I’ve been itching to put out a little introduction to you guys, mainly thanking Richard for letting me do this, and tell you a little bit about what I planned to write about. To be honest, I really don’t have a plan, I have no idea what I’m going to write about, “I’m like a dog chasing after cars, I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.” But when I saw the post looking for new bloggers I knew I had to jump at the opportunity, because as Richard said, I like to be very active around here. So that is what I will be talking about in my first blog post.

What draws us all into this community? For me, it was the Audiobook project, which is always looking for new contributors. (plug #1) I’ve always been interested in being a part of something, being active in a community. I think that is what really changed things for a lot of the members of THIS forum, THIS community. For some of us (myself included) this was your first ever forum, for others, it was your hundredth. What kept many of us here is a sense of belonging, of camaraderie. If you ask my fellow RAFcasters, the first episode of which can be listened to on our youtube site (plug #2), this was just another forum until we started working together, sharing our ideas and putting out something that we are really proud of. The members of our old roleplay, Operation MAAS (no plug, this has been dead for quite awhile), will agree that they were just a part of a faceless forum until we all became truly good friends through the experience.

What I’m trying to say is this; this forum, this community, can be so much more than an internet site if you get out there and be as active as possible. Still trying to find your place around here? Join a roleplay, the audiobooks, the video project, wikiraf, the ebooks, or start up a project of your own, but GET ACTIVE. You’ll meet some great friends that will stay with you for as long as you’re here at RAF, and you’ll have a great time.

Duff Joins the RAF Blog

Popular, and active member, Duff, has joined the authoring team here on the RAF Blog. Member of the RAFCast (the Animorphs Podcast) and the RAF Audiobook Project, he will hopefully have some nice blog posts for us in the near future.