Daka-daka-daka-daka-daka-daka-daka!

No insult intended Jeepman.  I flounced out (with a few others) in either 2004 or 2005; went back a week later to discover the thread had been deleted and most of the others had sneaked back in before me anyway. 

Many others have ‘flounced’ out over the years – I could be wrong but wasn’t that the reason that Plane Talk (the Flypast Expats?) was started, so that they would have somewhere to go? 

Key don’t give a damn about anyone leaving or joining – they could justifiably claim ‘x’ thousands of members, not active members mind you, without any need to make it up to anyone who asks so why bother about one less person looking in. 

Back in the day we could communicate with veterans, with people who were well known within the historic aviation community, with pilots and restorers, with historians, with the knowledgeable or those who knew how to track information down.  No idea if the same could be claimed by any of the other forums but the Modern Military forum is deader than flares, and I can’t imagine any of the others are in any fit state to hold their Christmas party in anywhere larger than a telephone box.  Keys housekeeping is lousy though, with that survey sticky (dated 29/5/20) still at the top of the page although the link is deceased.

If we want this place we will have to just keep going, so that those who poke their noses in will see something that they hopefully want to be part of.

Sorry if this reads like a disjointed ramble but I just finished working an 18 hour shift and am trying to wind down.

Will Jeepmans departure make any difference to the forum – no.  Did the departure of all the other members make a difference – obviously it did, because you only have to look at what is left of what was one of the best forums on the internet.  He will be missed, they all will, but he is just the latest to walk away.

People have flounced out before, and usually had to do it loudly to make sure that everyone noticed.  But having a rant because no one posted for 23 hours?  Really?  Were he here I would ask why he didn’t post in that time; you can point a finger but never forget that three more of your own will be pointing back at you.  JFK said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”; exchange country for forum and do something about it – screw the naysayers and make a difference!  Post questions and images (if the system is up to it), do what you used to do back in the day, ignore the lack of people posting and the fact that you might get no immediate replies and maybe, just maybe, one or two drifters will happen past and see there is something happening here.

Look back to the earliest posts here and see that days went past without posts, replies were slow, but it grew.  Maybe it will never be as big as it was; maybe the system will remain useless and near unusable, but if we work with what we’ve got with the people we have and those who lurk in the shadows and those that drift through… Maybe something will happen.  

Me?  Yes, I will be posting questions at some point, making observations, that sort of thing (when my laptop gets sorted out – working away fine when suddenly mouse right click does not work, then I cannot turn it off except by holding the power button down but that won’t resolve the problem – I have to remove the battery!  Help appreciated… And my user id is not recognised by my phone.  And each time I log in on my laptop it doesn’t recognise me and demands I fill in my email address and password, which my laptop refuses to retain!), and I hope you do too.

I am not trying to be provocative but if it provokes a response then all well and good. 

(And wasn’t the quote thing hammered down on because it used memory or something?  Reading old posts is fun, but when you discover that not all the posts survive, because someone decided to delete their replies, the only hint is when someone quoted them!)

Quote from GEK – “I used to be a regular contributor on the old forum in the early to mid-2000s as ‘von Perthes’, and I’m just wondering if any of the old gang, Rob Leigh, Andy in Beds, JDK, Snapper  etc. are still around here, or have they decamped to pastures new? Anyone have an idea where I might find them these days?”

The large group in front of The Red Lion, 9/5/2004, is as follows: (L-R) Snapper, Von Perthes, Vanessa (Mrs Andy in Beds), Robbo, Mrs DHFan (just hidden), Steve Patterson, DHFan, MikeJ, JDK (at back), Andy in Beds, Andrew O, EN830, Ashley, the late Steve Young, Flood, and Learning Slowly.

Still pop in very occasionally, but haven’t had a reason or account to bother trying to post – and there is little point now, other than putting some names to the faces.  This forum is a pale shadow of its former self – if the first page showed a post older than 24 hours it would be because most of the members were at Legends or similar.

Someone needs their backside kicked for what happened to destroy this place.