The future of Thorn Valley?

Hey everyone. Sorry if the title looks ominous, but I figured this post deserves some attention. Let me just preemptively state that Thorn Valley's in no danger of going down in the immediate future.

As many of you have probably figured out in your interactions with me, I don't do much with the website anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still love the Secret of NIMH, but the site's been basically stagnant, aside from the parts that people can add to on their own, such as the forum, art gallery and Robin's. Even then, it's been running off an old collection of software that hasn't been updated in a few years now. Lately, I've just been overcome with a sense of ennui when it comes to the website; since I do this sort of thing for a job, coming home to do more of the same isn't something I'm excited about. And that bothers me somewhat.

I know a lot of you would say, if it works, don't fix it. And I would tend to agree, which is one of the reasons I haven't been particularly anxious about fixing it. But I know that if I could dedicate time to getting things in order, it could be a lot better around here. As it is, stories take a while to get posted on Robin's, it takes some doing to get new artists set up on the Fan Art Gallery, and a lot of things still require manual intervention on my part to deal with. And that's not fun for me, and it leads to frustrations for you guys, 'cause I take so long to respond to email or get something done. Worse, if some part of the site goes down, if it isn't an easy fix, I'm generally very demotivated to fix it. That's why NIMHmuck.org has had a "down for maintenance" page up for some time now. If I keep going down that path, Thorn Valley will just end up dying a slow death as bits and pieces rot away.

So, here we are. Those are the problems. Thing is, I don't know what to do to fix them. I could hand the responsibility of dealing with the site to someone else, perhaps, but I don't know anyone with the right set of skills to take what I've built and make it better. I could try to move as much stuff as I can to some third-party site solution (like wordpress.com or something along those lines, I haven't explored it extensively) and designate people to help maintain things, but there's the difficulty of migrating everything over to the new platform, whatever it is, and the difficulty in finding a platform that does everything I want to begin with.

Where does that leave us? I don't know. That's part of the reason I'm putting this out here. I'd like to hear your discussion and ideas. Right now it's been me keeping Thorn Valley going in my ivory tower and I don't really like the solitude that comes with that. I don't expect to find a magic bullet, but ultimately, you guys are the people that I'm doing this for, so it ultimately makes sense to get you involved.

So, what do you think?

So, what do you think?

If you're not having fun with it, my suggestion would be to just let it go. There really isn't any point in running a website dedicated to such a small group of people if you don't get some enjoyment out of it. Personally, I think going through the trouble of handing it over to a third party site solution isn't worth it. Also, I don't mean to be a stalker, but from what I've heard over NIMHMuck it seems you're having family issues as well. There's no need to add to your stress.

If you need another assistant editor for Robin's to speed up the process of submissions, I can still do that. I know a good amount of HTML, XHTML, Javascript, and CSS. Though programing languages such as Python are still out of reach for me. Yet again if you don't trust me, Id totally understand that as well. :wink:

It all comes down to you, my friend. You shouldn't feel pressured by us if you want to call it quits. Id totally respect any path you take.

So, what do you think?

If you're not having fun with it, my suggestion would be to just let it go. There really isn't any point in running a website dedicated to such a small group of people if you don't get some enjoyment out of it. Personally, I think going through the trouble of handing it over to a third party site solution isn't worth it. Also, I don't mean to be a stalker, but from what I've heard over NIMHMuck it seems you're having family issues as well. There's no need to add to your stress.

Heh. Well, I do like having Thorn Valley exist. My family issues don't particularly affect that. And it doesn't take too much effort to keep what I have up running as is. I think for me it's more that it bothers me that I see the potential for something better, if I had the time and inclination. What I'd really like to have is a site that gives people the tools they need to contribute. But again, we run into the problem of setup. Maybe it'd be enough to just start up something new and not worry as much about migration. Put everything else into read-only/archive mode, and if people want to migrate stuff to the new thing, that's their prerogative.

In any case, I'd rather do the 'slow death' option than just kill Thorn Valley outright.

If you need another assistant editor for Robin's to speed up the process of submissions, I can still do that. I know a good amount of HTML, XHTML, Javascript, and CSS. Though programing languages such as Python are still out of reach for me. Yet again if you don't trust me, Id totally understand that as well. :wink:

HTML, JS and CSS are definitely useful. Maybe they'd be enough if I don't try to do a complete migration. But right now there's a lot of legacy PHP and PostgreSQL databases running the most interesting stuff. So, I'm not sure, exactly.

That's kinda what I meant when I said "let it go." I don't want it to die right away, but it seems that you're not enjoying it, so let it die a slow death. Website management isn't my area of expertise, so there isn't much I can recommend to you. My vote on the matter is do whatever is easiest/painless, but still yields a satisfactory result.

Maybe it'd be enough to just start up something new and not worry as much about migration. Put everything else into read-only/archive mode, and if people want to migrate stuff to the new thing, that's their prerogative.

That sounds like a fair decision. You might get some angry looks because people will have to migrate their stuff for you. But still, it seems like a fair option. People will be people and complain no matter what you do.

I can't make your decisions for you, and neither can the rest of the community here. However, I can probably speak on the behalf of others when I say that we stand behind any decision you make, and we don't want you to get stressed out over Thorn Valley.

Boy, talk about starting the new year on a positive note… ( As if all the doomsday predictions aren't enough... )

Obviously I would hate to see this site go away completely, since it and Robin’s have given me a great deal of enjoyment in the past year-plus. I can only hope that you’ll be able to find a solution that will enable you (or somebody) to keep it going in some form. While I don’t know the first thing about setting up or managing a website, I can understand what it’s like to begin some project with enthusiasm and then either lose interest in it or find that you can’t devote as much time to it as you’d like or make it into all it could be. Certainly I would like to see improvements, especially in the area of submissions to Robin’s (hint!), but as SMT said I wouldn’t want you to get especially stressed out about it either.

I know that I too share some of the responsibility as far as being a non-contributor as of late, but you should not let that get you down. Believe me when I say that the time and effort that you put into this website is appreciated a thousand fold. After you, there simply aren't that many places that one can go to for information or just to get their daily fix on NIMH trivia. As far as some of the website issues are concerned, I'm afraid that I cannot offer much assistance on that front. I have no experience where site design is concerned, but I would be willing to lend a hand if you need someone to help research articles and other stuff related to NIMH. Let me know what you think.

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

Coming and seeing this thread was a bit of an unpleasant shock, as it only further confirms the bitter feelings I have about the way the internet has changed over the years from the golden days of web 1.0.

It's a sad coincidence, because I had actually come here with the intention of posting my own new thread, stating to tell about how much I appreciate this website as being this beacon of that memorable internet that still to this day remains. The internet has gone from a diverse vastness of individual home pages to one giant walmart of google, youtube and facebook. Outside of these mega-sites much of the rest of the internet has become a ghost town. I remember fondly, thorn valley is one of the earliest websites I recall visiting and being impressed by, back in 1998, to enrich my fascination with the rats of NIMH universe. Yes, after all these years, I can still come here and feel that refreshing feeling of how magical the internet first seemed back then all over again. I know this may sound a bit overly-praising, but it really has been my experience. I dearly hope this doesn't have to end too.

Coming and seeing this thread was a bit of an unpleasant shock, as it only further confirms the bitter feelings I have about the way the internet has changed over the years from the golden days of web 1.0.

It's a sad coincidence, because I had actually come here with the intention of posting my own new thread, stating to tell about how much I appreciate this website as being this beacon of that memorable internet that still to this day remains. The internet has gone from a diverse vastness of individual home pages to one giant walmart of google, youtube and facebook. Outside of these mega-sites much of the rest of the internet has become a ghost town. I remember fondly, thorn valley is one of the earliest websites I recall visiting and being impressed by, back in 1998, to enrich my fascination with the rats of NIMH universe. Yes, after all these years, I can still come here and feel that refreshing feeling of how magical the internet first seemed back then all over again. I know this may sound a bit overly-praising, but it really has been my experience. I dearly hope this doesn't have to end too.

As I said in the first post, Thorn Valley isn't going anywhere, at least for the time being. What I'm looking for is ideas on how I can address some of the problems I mentioned in the first post, and get a general gauge of what people think should be done. If possible, I'd like Thorn Valley to continue long after I've personally stopped working on it directly.