@adz
It has nothing to do with the Amiga.
@whomever is using socks
I see socks are still quite fasionable around here. If you aren't careful I might have to go hunting for my old sock avatar
It has nothing to do with socks. The socks joke is far more worn out than the pancakes joke at this point. For some of you, the socks are threadbare and the callouses are many if you catch my drift.
@metalman
How would it be different than the thousands of blog sites?
Not saying it would or won't. Hasn't even begun operation yet, so it's far too early to tell.
What would be the draw? (To keep people comming back}
You all come back here to the coffee house don't you? Most of you have nothing to do with the Amiga any more.
What keeps it from degenerating into name calling?
The same thing that keeps any site from degenerating into namecalling.
@whabang
The problem would be to keep discussions civil.
The reasons that they have done so here, is that the site is focused on Amiga. Our attitude towards each other is way better than it will ever be on a pure political forum.
I'm amazed that anyone would consider the Coffee House as civil. Just remember that for the long start, only Amiga.org people would be there.
@everyone reading.
Here are the problems and the thoughts in a nutshell.
1) Amiga.org is unfocused. Wherein Amiga.org used to be the primary resource for Amiga Information on the web, it now simply isn't. Distracted by a couple of things, such as the Coffee House forums and of course, the fact that the Amiga itself is pretty much stagnant. Even Amiga Inc is supposedly distancing itself as far as it can from the desktop platform, leaving hands-off to Hyperion and Eyetech.
2) The software that Amiga.org is currently using is woefully inadequate to the task and considering the Xoops team's propensity to embrace newer Web technologies, it's never going to get better for the Amiga-using members of this site since the browsers on the Amiga are still stuck in 1999. When I say that about the browsers, please understand that I mean NO offense to any of the authors. I simply accept and acknowledge the fact that no Amiga author can keep up with new technologies the way a thousand person staffed Mozilla or IE can.
In short, we will eventually NEED to reboot the site and simply walk into more appropriate software. This site however, as it sits, would be archived on another domain in read-only mode.
That being said, due to;
a) continual stress in my personal life
b) certain {bleep}s who continue to try and run everyone off and ruin this site for everyone else
c) the fact that for all intents and purposes, the status of the Amiga platform isn't likely to change any time soon,
I have been considering closing Amiga.org for quite some time. At the same time, I have been desperately searching for a way, and a reason to keep the site going. My solution is quite simple.
- Create a new site where everyone who enjoys the coffee house can be happy without distracting from Amiga.org
- make the new site more of a blog where the news items equate to the same way forum posts work here. You submit a news item, everyone discusses it in comments.
- remove the coffee house area from Amiga.org to run off the rabble. Leaving one single "general discussion" forum instead of encouraging non-Amiga-related debate.
- rewrite, rebuild, and refocus Amiga.org into what it ought to have been. The completely unbiased resource for Amiga information on the Web.
In short, in my mind, in order for Amiga.org to survive, a split is in order. I know a lot of you won't agree with that, but remember that change is always hard to accept.
I believe that if we do this, then remember to come back and refocus Amiga.org on the Amiga, that it would not only survive, but be stronger for the process. The new site is only one of a dozen or so I'll be planning as part of my company's web presence. The first one is pretty much the key.
I'll let you guys know what this new site is, as it becomes even mildly usable and stable.
