2023 - Scholars is Back Online

[James]

Do you have any kind of patreon or something? If money helps, I think a lot of us are willing to help

Thanks so much. Sincerely. I have received a couple requests, so I am going to launch one.

At the heart of matters, I will restore the sites and keep them online regardless. But some support absolutely does/would help. I wish I could say money was no object for me, but unfortunately that is not the case. On another positive note, if enough people were interested, it would also help a great deal to free up more time, for me, to launch some Three Kingdoms ideas/projects I have thought about over the years. And, frankly, that is something I would really enjoy spending time on.

I’ll follow up on this.

[James]

That seems true. One can find a subreddit for probably everything there so people can find something if they are interested in something new. Moderation, at best, tends to be "stop hate" and not much further so would be on the lighter end of the forums moderation rather then the more control we have here and no "we already have that topic"

One problem I have with Reddit though is that it skews towards the 'here and now'. Once a thread has been around for a couple of days it disappears, never to be seen again. Here there's more of a legacy created.

The amount of times you'll see the same topic of "Was Liu Bei wrong for [x]" is extremely tiresome. Having these discussions preserved and featured here to guide someone to, and for someone to further add on is so much more superior than treading the same ground constantly.

Also having actual moderators helps.

This exchange jives with some observations I’ve made to myself watching, with some curiosity, as online communities have changed and evolved. And occasionally considering what on earth one might do/use/employ to launch an online community these days that wasn’t directly tied to some other corporate entity (never came up with something that really made sense to replace the old forum).

I’ve dabbled with Reddit. It does seem pretty heavily geared (maybe community management?) toward the here and now, and with any sort of real engagement, conversations move pretty quickly and fade into the background before long. Gives me a vibe similar to what it is like to share photography online these days. Very few people stop and spend time to really take photographs in, and it has—for the worst, in my opinion—dramatically shifted what the medium looks like.

On the other hand, that more real-time, semi-conversational sort of medium also seems like it has a place and a value in its own right. While the forum does an excellent job (depending on moderation and community) on preserving knowledge and making it available for future reference.

Discord (fresh in mind, looking at the Three Kingdoms discord active now) is also a really lovely option for active communication and exchange. One more level removed from preservation of knowledge and discoverability.

It’s easy to see how a community can enjoy a range of mediums at the same time, and how different people might end up settling into different aspects (e.g. long-form thoughtful communication is a very different beast for many than off-the-cuff real-time conversation).

[James]

I would like to start posting regularly, if time allows me. I admittedly have fallen away from China studies since the forum disappeared. I still collected books and such, but I think the forum exploding was symbolic of my own interest exploding for a time. But funnily enough, I’ve been writing a biography over the past month about Jia Wu, so maybe this is a sign of my nerdiness returning.

Seems like a pretty commonly expressed sentiment!

I must admit, I am a member of the club as well. I spent years enjoying reading, researching, and debating the Three Kingdoms, and over time I did end up moving away from that. I still enjoy reading exchanges and some debates, and will occasionally read (or re-read) a book. And my Rafe’s Tome and novel will never be sold (well, until I inevitably croak). But what remains in the end is the connection to community and friends. And that’s the part I’m appreciating most through these recent days.

Makes me think a wee bit o’ tuning for the forum might be in order to not just exist as a Three Kingdoms community, but also a bit more effectively as a place for us to share more of the rest of our lives and interests with each other. With around 20 years of history in this forum alone, and community history pre-dating that, it seems worth some thought.

[Chiang Tzu-Ya]

What a pleasant surprise to find in my inbox today.

Welcome back James and all.

[Ts'aoist]

I also received an email informing me that this once-glorious fansite dedicated to the legacy of The Man has risen once again from obscurity and chaos, as He once did from the dust and blood of the Yellow Turbans' rebellion. I am glad that we will all once again have the opportunity to follow the Wei.

[Jia Nanfeng]

The good: SoSZ is back.
The bad: I’m going to be late for work every morning again.

[Tao Qian]

Thanks so much. Sincerely. I have received a couple requests, so I am going to launch one.

At the heart of matters, I will restore the sites and keep them online regardless. But some support absolutely does/would help. I wish I could say money was no object for me, but unfortunately that is not the case. On another positive note, if enough people were interested, it would also help a great deal to free up more time, for me, to launch some Three Kingdoms ideas/projects I have thought about over the years. And, frankly, that is something I would really enjoy spending time on.

I’ll follow up on this.

Perfect, just tell us

[Lord Yang Jiahua]

Got around to checking my email and saw this, in the spam folder, and I'm Like, holup that's no Spam.

Last I was here, it was prior to Covid, the site still worked in spots, and it feels like an age since I've been here.

There's alot to catch up and talk about, I'm very happy to be back, and as James and others have stated, this is 20 years of Memories and
intellect here folks, I don't think there's another place like it on the internet.

I think someone is going to have to do something about the spam bots, if that's what was causing the site to lag before the forum architecture broke.

[Bryan]

Glad to see there's a heartbeat again.

Thanks so much. Sincerely. I have received a couple requests, so I am going to launch one.

At the heart of matters, I will restore the sites and keep them online regardless. But some support absolutely does/would help. I wish I could say money was no object for me, but unfortunately that is not the case. On another positive note, if enough people were interested, it would also help a great deal to free up more time, for me, to launch some Three Kingdoms ideas/projects I have thought about over the years. And, frankly, that is something I would really enjoy spending time on.

I’ll follow up on this.

Looking forward to this. Through the years I'd lurk or revisit, and absolutely missed it after people started dragging me into other spaces and things went down. I do get some spare scratch in the budget, and would absolutely throw some in.

[Dong Zhou]

Reddit seems to have picked up a lot of the forum vibe?

That seems true. One can find a subreddit for probably everything there so people can find something if they are interested in something new. Moderation, at best, tends to be "stop hate" and not much further so would be on the lighter end of the forums moderation rather then the more control we have here and no "we already have that topic"

One problem I have with Reddit though is that it skews towards the 'here and now'. Once a thread has been around for a couple of days it disappears, never to be seen again. Here there's more of a legacy created.

Yeah that is a problem with Reddit as Lorric and Daolun have mentioned. If your unable to respond within the day to a subject, you might as well not bother in most subreddits and same topics can come up as threads again and again so you can end up typing up similar arguments again and again