Actually, come to think of it, I wouldn't say places like Vizzed were more prevalent, because although Vizzed is based on older forum software, it actually has more in common with sites like Facebook or Reddit.

For instance, most posts seem to be seeking karma, and the summoning feature, while nice, discourages reading a thread after you posted in it--after all, if someone were replying to your thoughts, they would have summoned you. It feels to me like it creates less of an atmosphere for reading and replying, and more of one for getting your thoughts out and moving on. Again, much more like Reddit or Facebook, than a traditional forum.

The web was definitely a different place before, I'd say, 2006. Forums like Vizzed were much more prevalent! I remember days when I had six or more forums to check in a day!

Actually, a lot of that is still out there, it's just quieter and harder to find.

TOO BAD, WALUGI TIME!

Pacman+Mariofan : Yeah, I'm working full time from home. I kind of wish I wasn't some times because I'm also taking full time classes at night, raising two kids, and trying to have something of a social life, so some time off work would be welcome!

Davs is very protective of his design, I'm not sure he'd appreciate this thread!

But hey there are some very important historical reasons for Vizzed looking the way that it does! Did you know that Vizzed is based off of a forum software written by a 13 year old in the late 90s? (I think, might have been as late as 2001). The design keeps a lot of those old elements because that's sort of what's attractive about the software. It's nostalgic for a lot of us.

Another thing is that Vizzed allows users to have post layouts. That sort of thing is not really compatible with a super design focused site, because personal layouts can ruin the whole design!

And finally, the HTML technology used has nothing to do with it. The site could be converted to HTML5 and not change at all. And it can be updated to a more modern design but stay with XHMTL 1.0. Everything in XHTML 1.0 (Which Vizzed uses) is valid or partially valid in HTML5, so davideo could change the site to HTML5 with a single line of code and literally nothing would change.

Oh dang yo I didn't even realize a VCS was going on. Why isn't the leaderboard up anymore? Did that code break or something.

How many points do I need to get in the next four days to win? Or at least beat leggy?

Wow! Look at all these responses! Some of you I remember, some of you I feel like I should remember based on your register dates, and some of you I could never forget!


Furret : Dinosaurs are cool. When I was younger, my family had a couple of pet dinos. When I was very, very young, maybe 4 or 5, we had a mccaw, but I barely remember it. About ten years later we had a green parakeet named Chicken. He was a great little dude!

SonicOlmstead : Here's what I find really interesting: during the time that I was active on Vizzed, I lived on Olmstead Street. Isn't that cool? Anyway, bears are great. Ice Bear is best bear.

Pacman+Mariofan : Thanks homie! I think I found it on imgur?

sonicmcmuffin : Get a load of this guy! You still playing dogeball? Have you gone pro yet? I can't do anything this weekend for reasons I'll get into later in this post, but maybe next weekend or so? I'll pop into one of the discord channels and ping everybody so we can start planning.

EX Palen : You know, I've definitely seen deader forums. That anyone is posting is pretty amazing to me!

Eniitan : I've been well, what about you? I think the last time we talked, you were getting into baking or something? How is that going?

becerra95 : Oh hey man, glad to see you're still here! You were one of the last people to believe in QualityRoms if I recall.

legacyme3 : Years ago you gave me a stuffed zebra for secret Santa. I still have it, and right now the doorknob to my closet is broken, and until I fix it, I'm using your zebra to keep the door closed. This means I think of you almost every day. <3 You still running?

---

Okay, that was a reeally long list of replies. Here's some stuff I've been up to since the last time I posted here: I'm working as a system administrator at a manufacturing facility (So I'm still working despite lockdown!), and I recently started taking classes online to get a teaching degree. I'm quite a bit away from that, so I still have time to decide that I don't want to take a paycut just to do something I enjoy. I had a second baby, but I don't know if I ever mentioned that here. I finally started contributing to my 401(k) so maybe I'll get to retire some day lol. Uhh... I think that's all the interesting stuff.

Davideo7 : Get your butt in here and welcome me back!

Minuano : I definitely remember hanging around with you, and I remember you changing to Minuano. I don't really talk to anyone online anymore, so no, I don't keep in touch with them that much. I think they still have a discord channel they muck about in but I'm not much of a discord user, so I don't really know how active it is.

Maybe we should all get back together for one more hurrah?

Boured : Sorry, the name doesn't ring a bell, were you more into the chat/rgr side of things? I was only really a forum haunter.

Haha, post quotas... Man I totally forgot about that. I wonder what happens if the forum is actually dead and nobody makes their quota? No more mods? Anarchy in the streets?!

My ISP is a coop, so it doesn't have any of the nasty side effects of using a huge corporation to bring internet pipes into my house. The connection has been very stable, and just as fast as ever.

The only real thing I've noticed is that I used have my Usenet downloads go during the working day, while I was out of the house, because it can choke your internet connection. That was great while I was actually out of the hosue, but now it stops me from working, so I had to change the times. But that has nothing to do with my connection, and is all about me.

pennylessz : That's a shame. I was feeling nostalgic so I thought I'd come here and see what was up. Guess not a lot? It's kind of hard to tell, the site has changed so much since I was last active.

I guess if Vizzed is dead, where do the cool kids hang out now?

oh hey is this site really still here?

i wonder what that means.

looks like a lot of people i used to know still post, what's up guys?

No, you should make your own forum, with blackjack, and hookers.


And it should only be for a gang of super-elite megaposters, personally chosen by the council of "Good posters". Some kind of league, just for us... A "Just Us League".


Naah but really, was there ever a point to becoming active in the first place? Why did you come to Vizzed in the beginning? There never was a point, it was just something you did when you couldn't think of anything better to do. Leggy was close with "You end up here when it's better than where you are at", but I think that's sort of a bleak outlook on it, isn't it? You end up here when you think about it, and these days you just don't think about it as much. So what if all of your old friends have moved on? Move with them or make new ones. That's how forums grow.

The only thing killing Vizzed (Besides social media) is old farts like you and me going around posting about "the good old days". What was so good about them? That we didn't have social lives? That we weren't so bitter? Stop with the boohooing, Vizzed hasn't changed, you have.

Zeldisaster : That's all fine and good, but in 20 years nobody has ever done it. It will never happen.

Davideo7 : What's the CPU load on the SQL server right now?

Ghostbear1111 : That's true. When I was a Global I used to tell people that if I knew their username, it probably meant they were awful.

This should be the default background on Vizzed, it's really great.

Davideo7 : This is exactly why I haven't greenlisted Vizzed in my ad blocker. I would highly suggest you don't continue this course of action, as it will only serve to alienate users.

I know that advertising is your bread and butter, but that's why it's so very important to really vet your ads. Have you considered Project Wonderful? They're a really great platform and I think you could get some good results from them.

But really, David, it comes down to trust. Your users have to trust that you're not going to sell the site to bozos like this. I know things are desperate but there has to be another way.


Out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, how much do the server(s) cost?

I only remember good members and I don't remember you.