> Yep, this is another "forum and chat stink nowadays" post. This time it has a more personal ring to it. I don't like what's happening with the state of things here at RinkWorks.
>
> The forum has hit a real lull lately. That's not necessarily bad. The forum goes in spells, and I don't think the recent dearth of posts means very much, since the right post can still stir up conversation, the recent Summer Movies thread being a good example of breaking a week-long period of almost nothing. Still, it is a concern.

The forum, to me, is a difficult place. I enjoy reading it very much, and check it multiple times daily. However, I find posting here a very intimidating experience. Frequently I start a post, and then edit it some, and finally end up deleting the whole thing because I don't want to fill the Forum with garbage or irritate people. I don't know very much about movies or video games, so I can't post much to those threads. Furthermore, as I lack a thorough grounding in philosophy and logic, I always feel very much out of my depth in the more philosophical or political threads.

And, of course, time is a major factor for me. Even small posts take a long time for me to write because I want to contribute the same sort of quality writing that I read here. Thus, when it becomes a choice between going through several revisions of a post (five for this one) in order to contribute to the recent prayer thread or writing a paper in order to pass British Literature, I'm going to pick the schoolwork. (Whether I am right to do so is a debatable topic. ;))

> The decline of RinkChat concerns me more. When I go in there, I see the same twelve people, eight of which are idle. Contrast this with the amount of conversation that happens over AIM and in livejournals, and RinkChat is starting to feel like an off-shoot of the Rinkie community instead of its source.

I suppose that, as one of the people who first gave LiveJournal codes to Rinkies (having gotten my own from some local friends because it was the cool thing to do at the time), I can be blamed for at least some of this. In my defence, I think it's a bit much to assert that, *solely* because of LJ, people no longer read or contribute to the Forum. For my part, I contribute to the Forum about as much as I did before I had an LJ (see above), and I still read every post, excepting the hints forum. If something that I think is worthy of posting at RinkWorks comes up, I write about it here and link to the post from my journal.

As for RinkChat, at present I can't devote my full attention to hanging around in it, much as I'd like to. Frankly, I don't want to be one of the eight idle people in any given room. If I enter RinkChat, I do so with the expectation that I will be paying attention the entire time. I may not feel like saying much (and that's normal in face-to-face conversation as well), but I am always listening. This is partly because I feel that my operator status demands that kind of attention (I can't be a responsible op if I'm ignoring the Chat window), and partly because I feel that it is somehow rude not to give Chat my full attention when present, much as I wouldn't ignore my friends in a face-to-face gathering because something else was more interesting at the given moment. I also have an unfortunate tendency to look away just at the moment when a long-missed friend enters, or when I receive a PM, and it upsets me terribly if I think I'm making people feel like I'm ignoring them. The other major element in my absence from RinkChat lately is that it is an enormous distraction for me and I've been deliberately trying to avoid it because of my current workload. It's entirely too easy for me to log into Chat and then, whoops, there went four hours down the drain that could have been used on a Renaissance Culture paper, or even sleep. For some reason this isn't a problem with AIM; I think the flashing windows and the down time while the other person types a response are helpful to me.

> So what's the answer? That's not something I can answer by myself, hence the open question. But I want to arrive at an answer somehow, and that answer depends pretty much entirely on what you folks, members of this community, intend to do. Honestly, if your intention is to retreat into livejournals and abandon RinkChat (not counting those who are just in a busy phase of life), as so many have already done implicitly, just say so. Then I can at least mentally write you off, and I won't have to continue to wonder why I never see so-and-so anymore. Maybe if we whittle down to the group of people who are still truly interested in the community, we can figure out if it's still going to be here and, regardless, how we can enliven it again.

I won't pull any punches. RinkWorks hasn't been a priority for me in the last four months. I am a commuter student taking 18 credit-hours' worth of courses this semester, trying to deal with clinical depression, working a few hours a week, and having family and local friends who expect to see me on occasion. I expect to be more of a presence again in RinkChat when finals end, my last paper is turned in, and I've caught up on my sleep. After this semester I'm dropping down to 12 hours, a far less masochistic courseload, so I'll be able to be around more often even during the school year. I would hardly call my behaviour "retreating into LiveJournal," though it is true that I use one. With your kind permission, I would prefer not yet to be written off and whittled away.

"But you're still visible on AIM!" cries the straw man I just created in order to nitpick my argument, to whom I reply: I need to be able to communicate with Kaz. He's my best friend and my main connexion to my sanity at times. I need some of my other close friends, too, some from RinkWorks and others not. AIM happens to be our usual method of communication, and if it ain't broke ... so there. (And come on, none of you really think that what RinkChat really needs is more mushy talk from Kaz and me.) Also see my point above about AIM being less of a distraction from schoolwork.

I suppose that what I'm trying to say here, is that, while RinkWorks means a lot to me, I'm often too self-critical to post much on the Forum, and often simply too busy to be able to devote to Chat the kind of attention of which I believe it worthy. It's not a sign that I'm abandoning RinkWorks for AIM and LJ, but that I respect this place so much that I'm unwilling to dilute its quality simply because I may happen to have a lot on my plate right now.

In the end, of course, you'll do whatever you think is best, but I hope something I've said here has been useful to you, Sam.

-Cynthia