Announcement: OK, we’ll keep the forum…

[Eric Charles]

Well, you all spoke up and I listened.

We’ll keep the ANM forum.

I won’t try to save face and claim it’s for XYZ reason. Truth is, there’s just too much goodness here to just throw away.

There’s a unique community here. And the quality of poster and content that comes from this forum is rooted in the soil of what A New Mode is… I don’t know that it would manifest if the forum lived somewhere else.

There is a high cost in operating the forum with regards to database space, but I think the solution there is just to wipe out the posts that have a low amount of activity on them.

The forum’s been around for years and let’s be honest – nobody is going to read a thread from 4 years ago that got zero replies to it… it’s just taking up space.

So I’m going to figure out a system with my tech guy to clean out old posts that never had any interaction and that should free up the space needed.

There’s so many posts here that he’s actually going to need to write a special program to clean out the database… but I’ll make it happen.

Sorry for the roller coaster ride. It’s you all that make what we do possible, so I want to reflect that love back to you that you’ve been so kind to give us.

The forum will live on here. Thank you for being a part of it.

[Jess]

Here. Here!!

[Raven]

Terrific news!

While you’re cleaning up… can you close old threads…
What happens is new posters post on old threads & their post gets lost as new commenters respond to the old thread.

Also, can you create a ‘How To’ create a new thread, like you have for the avatar…

Thanks!

[kaye]

Yay!! I feel like I just went through a breakup and my ex decided he made a mistake and came back!! LOL I am so glad we get to stay. And I do hope wiping out some of the old content and maybe finding a way to prevent people from posting the same question to multiple forums will cut down the costs!

[V]

Hooray! And, thank you. I’m a lurker but value this place x

[April]

Haha that’s funny kaye! I felt the same thing!

This is an amazing news! Thank you so much, Eric. :)

I am wondering though if there’s any way we can avoid trolls? because sometimes they just advertise stuff or post unecessary entries that has a negative tone in it just to make fun of other people.

[peggy]

Great and happy news! THANKS-I am glad!

[Ms. Winterborn]

I’ve posted and replied a couple of times but I read the forum all the time. I dont do facebook or instagram and this was usually a good read and you could get some insight. I’m reallt glad its staying i would’ve missed Lane’s common sense.

[Eric Charles]

@April – The ANM forum is a double-edged sword… on the one hand it’s open and accessible, which makes it easy for anyone to jump in. On the other hand, it makes it easily accessible to trolls and shills.

The best solution I have at the moment is if there’s a troll in the forum or someone being abusive, message me on Facebook and I’ll take a look. I will never disclose anything anyone says to me via Facebook, so your communication with me will always be private (in case that’s ever a concern).

[Eric Charles]

@Raven – Thank you for the suggestions. I will consider some solution for closing threads (such as maybe some sort of “auto-close” function).

As for a How To create new threads Pinned Post, yes, I’ll figure something out there. Even better if someone could volunteer and create that for me. :)

Thanks.

[Khadija]

Hi Eric,

This is great news!

I would like to say thank you to the ladies that stepped up to keep this alive else where. That to me shows the good in people to help others.

Long live the forum!!!

[Kate]

Yay! I’m so glad this forum is being kept. :) I was so sad to discover it and then find out it was being shut down.

[Honeypie]

Hallelujah ! I’m happy with that! 😉

[Algo]

I’m so confused. Happy… But confused.

You know Kaye , the ones that bolt and then come back are usually not worthy of being let back into your life ;)

And yes at the closed threads. I’ve lost so many minutes of my life reading a 500-word post to realise it’s from June 2015. And then you have to go looking for the start of the new person’s post, by that time I’ve lost all the will to actually comment.

[Anne]

I think once you said you would close it, you should stick to that decision

[Hannah]

Yay! Eric I’m so pleased! This forum is fab and it wouldn’t be the same anywhere else.

I’m so pleased you’ve decided to keep it on!

(Also more than slightly relieved we don’t have to try and come up with an alternative!)

[Kathryn]

I am someone who has read posts for years and learned so much even though I don’t post myself. Wanted to express my gratitude to all who have stepped up to keep A New Mode forum going!

[Emma]

Terrific news! It does feel like getting back together LOL…

I wish we could all celebrate..but alas.. the digital constraints..

Many thanks to Eric and Sabrina for changing their mind.

But I am surprised about the database space, text does not take much space…you can always ask your hosting company for more bandwidth and upgrade. If hosting costs are an issue, I’d be happy to donate towards it. There is a “donate” component for WP, if you add it to the site then people can use it. I know of several blogs that gather some income via it.

There is a service called Patreon, I support a couple of bloggers via it, by $5 a month, and they have hundreds of users doing it..

So if costs are a concern this can be remedied and I would gladly contribute.

[T from NY]

This is seriously amazing! Thank you! This forum has been such a part of my life, for so many years — it literally DID feel like a break up.

Way to give us trust issues Eric! 😉

This is an amazing community. Women can get catty and insensitive — but we’re human — and the wisdom contained, the advice and support given every day, can be life-changing!

[Eric Charles]

@Emma – text doesn’t take much space, but this forum is built on WordPress architecture and while WordPress is solid and easy to use, it is not efficient or compact in how it stores data in a database for this forum, especially when you consider the number of posts being in the hundreds of thousands now.

My solution is to just clear out a lot of forum posts that never went anywhere… like I was saying before: Nobody is going to read a post with zero replies from 2014. It’s not going to happen.

These types of posts go up all the time, but because nobody replies they very sink out of sight. These could be deleted and free up the database.

There are other technical issues that the forum causes that I don’t feel like going into, but since we’re deciding to keep the forum, we’ll figure it out.

Unfortunately, it will mean me having to pay my tech guy for some work to do what’s needed.

The forum database usage is already so massive that he’s going to need to write some code to even make it possible to delete all of these “low quality” entries. But I’ll figure that out.

I’m not looking to start a Patreon or crowd fund for the forum. The way I see it, if you all are here helping to make sure the community is high quality and protected from bullies, trolls and spammers, that’s payment enough… I’ll see what I can figure out on my side so we can keep things going.

I intend to keep you all posted with any changes that might occur or anything I need from you all, but for the most part I think anything I have to do behind the scenes will go totally unnoticed by anyone using the forum.

[Mae]

I’m back after a long hiatus. I needed to focus my energies elsewhere (work, marriage, family). Glad to see some new “faces,” some familiar ones and a continued support system. I’ll jump in now and then where I can.

[Author]

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