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Explanation about the massive CW forum activity decline of Summer 2017

Started by Dream of Omnimaga, October 23, 2017, 03:56:57 AM

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Dream of Omnimaga

So I don't think I need to inform anyone that in the last 6 months, the activity on CodeWalrus has dropped drastically, even lower than what Omnimaga had after CW opened. The reason why this time around I did not complain non-stop about it in the last year is because this massive activity decline was inevitable. Everyone who got access to the safe-haven sub-forum are aware of the reasons behind this, but now that September has passed, I can now publicly share some of those reasons.

For the past 31 years, I have lived in the city of Lévis, on the south shore of Quebec City. Unfortunately, over the last decade, problems happened then I slowly discovered that the overall mentality, quality of public transit and nightlife made Lévis inadequate for me to live in compared to Quebec City. So in August 2016, I decided that I would quit my old job in late 2017 then move to downtown Quebec City in April-July 2018 (the year where I expected to have saved enough money for both the move and to counter the lower payroll I expected to get at first at a new job). I wanted to get a new job close to my future home at least 6 months ahead of the move in order to ensure that my employment is stable by the time the move happens. I also did not want anyone in Lévis to know about the move until my final week of service at my former job, because there is a serious privacy problem in this city and I would probably not have survived the consequences.

Unfortunately, this meant that I have to spend 6+ months commuting to work, and that CodeWalrus would pay the price. This was exacerbated by the fact I have moved on from programming entirely before taking the decision to move and the fact I started rebuilding my friend circle afterwards. In other words, the activity decline of Fall 2017 was inevitable. It just happened two months earlier because of health issues (caused by the aforementioned Lévis problems) that forced me out of work for the entire month of July. So now, CodeWalrus averages at 300 posts a month instead of 1500, which is much higher than the 50 posts a month I originally feared that would happen the day after I switch jobs.

Oh and I screwed up big time. The move should have happened much longer ago and I should not have spent decades keeping everything inside instead of talking, but I guess that's what happens on the autism spectrum (which I am nearly guaranteed to be diagnostic-ed with in the near future, alongside Tourette syndrome). So shortly before the job switch I ended up with what appeared to be post-traumatic stress disorder, and it's possible that this was not the first time this happened in the last three months. This rendered me very unstable for a few weeks and this was followed by a month of depression due to the PTSD effects having put one of my very few friendships into jeopardy. My health also suffered because of the many panic attacks I got during a month as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the aforementioned friendship and the medications that failed. So while the activity has not decreased as bad than originally anticipated, my three trips at the ER and the depression didn't help. It could have been worse, though, because I barely even survived the experience (my heart almost stopped three times during the first week of panic attacks and there was an actual suicide attempt two weeks later).

Nowadays I am fine, as I took steps to feel better (eg getting more support, socializing with other friends more and distracting myself), but CodeWalrus will have to live as a shadow of its former self from now on. I don't think it will die, though, because our Discord server user count is skyrocketing and people tend to be more into real-time chats than forums nowadays, but yeah, I hope this explains things (as well as why I am much less active than before). The other good news beside the fact that I feel better now is the fact that 24 hours from now, CodeWalrus will turn 3 years old.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

Yuki

Eh, don't think it's not totally your fault here. Been away a bit with my move, didn't really had time and motivation (or both) to be really active on the site. On that, I hope it gets better for you. And me. And everyone, really.

But yeah, I'm glad that despite all this, it's still pretty active, even if it's only on IRC and Discord. I've seen chatrooms way deader than this.
  • Calculators owned: TI-83+ (dead?), Casio Prizm (also dead???)
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: A lot
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YUKI-CHAAAANNNN
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