Random thoughts...

[sholloman81]

Was at my local Half Price Books over the weekend and scored like-new hardcover copies of Richar Laymon's "The Stake" and Richard Matheson's "Earthbound". Pretty much over the moon to find them and in that condition. Have never read either story even though I'm a big fan of both authors.

[RonClinton]

I don't have the technical knowledge, but maybe we should come up with a contingency method of staying in touch if something crazy happens. Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts??

Short of someone gathering up all the various emails and starting an email chain -- or a Groups.io email-list account (the expense of which I have no idea***) -- there has to be a platform of some type to host things. I'm not sure it's economically feasible for anyone to host a set of boards for ten, twenty active and participating folks, so it then defaults to an existing platform. It doesn't seem like many of us are on Facebook...I'm not, either. I am on Twitter, and while I know it has its share of proponents and critics, I don't foresee leaving so I can be found there, and it's easy to hashtag folks' User I.D.s to form a "group" tweet for discussion, etc. I'm also on BlueSky, but rarely visit, and when I do I find that it seems few others visit, either.

It's funny that the old way of hosting small conversations, i.e. forums, is by many measures the best way...but unfortunately being the "best way" didn't save video stores, either.

*** EDIT: Actually, there is a free option, and it's probably sufficient for our needs, with a limit of 100 members: https://groups.io/static/pricing

---

• Unlimited Messages
• Up to 100 Members
• Advanced Moderation Features
• 1GB Storage Space

Anyhow, food for thought.

[TacomaDiver]

I don't remember the circumstances, but didn't TDT get lost once before? They changed the URL from .com to .org if I'm remembering right. But that would have been a few lifetimes ago.

I don't post much over there, but do lurk. Not a fan of some of the entitlement to all things King that a few of the members show, but it is probably the best source on collecting King there is.

These forums aren't expensive to run, but they're not cheap either.

This weekend, I was at dinner with a few people who were friends with my wife's friend (if that makes any sense), and one of the guys I was talking to had a similar discussion to this with me. We were reminiscing about the old days of USENET, and also the old BBS forums that were out there. We talked about how libraries of this type of info are all moving (or moved) to Facebook and those of us who don't use that platform lose out. I don't like how one place is the source of all of this info because it's so easy to lose it. When Photobucket killed their free accounts and external leaking a few years ago, it devastated so many forums like this because they were literally the only place in all of the internet that had pictures of whatever it was you were looking for. I would have never been able to know how to fix the liftgate mechanism of a car I owned (since that entire line was canceled) without those pictures.

[TacomaDiver]

I haven't seen any specific books cancelled. Was it posted by authors themselves? There is only one I know of coming out I'd be bummed if was cancelled.

Yes, posted by the authors themselves:

https://twitter.com/CSHumble/status/1749667123960381538
https://twitter.com/MReganFiction/st...66880943772085
https://twitter.com/TheLPHernandez/s...52671010013687

[mhatchett]

Ironic that we were just discussing here a couple days ago about how if this CD forum goes down that advance notice would be greatly appreciated, since a sudden (albeit one vaguely forecasted for years) pulling of the plug like Shocklines and The Horror Drive-In, and now perhaps TDT, is not only is a cheap shot at its members who have invested their time and contributed their knowledge, and have created relationships, but it also creates all sorts of other issues -- like yours. Hope you get it all worked out, if TDT is indeed out for good.

I don't have the technical knowledge, but maybe we should come up with a contingency method of staying in touch if something crazy happens. Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts??

[Martin]

I hope so too and thank you. I lost all my PMs so I am freaking out right now. There's a lot of info I need to get out of there so I certainly hopes it comes back.

I just checked and TDT is back up for now. i would recommend anyone relying on either of these websites for communication to get that info saved to your own devices.

[khaos]

I haven't seen any specific books cancelled. Was it posted by authors themselves? There is only one I know of coming out I'd be bummed if was cancelled.

[Tommy]

I hope so too and thank you. I lost all my PMs so I am freaking out right now. There's a lot of info I need to get out of there so I certainly hopes it comes back.

[Ben Staad]

I have limited social as well. I'm guessing dtd.org will be back up and running soon but I don't have any inside knowledge.

Best of luck to you and hopefully this can all get sorted.

Thank you! I'm thinking of all the friends that I'm going to lose and the community. And the wealth of History and archive of King info. I know a lot of folks are on Insta and Facebook but I refuse. It's very sad and unexpected. I feel like leaving all Social Media now but I need to sell books! Maybe my collecting days should end.

 

[RonClinton]

What it said last night was Considering whether to continue with the website. Could not access anything but that msg. Now the site is completely down. I had a few sales and folks I needed to contact that I may not get paid for now. I will always get people's email addresses from now on on.

Ironic that we were just discussing here a couple days ago about how if this CD forum goes down that advance notice would be greatly appreciated, since a sudden (albeit one vaguely forecasted for years) pulling of the plug like Shocklines and The Horror Drive-In, and now perhaps TDT, is not only is a cheap shot at its members who have invested their time and contributed their knowledge, and have created relationships, but it also creates all sorts of other issues -- like yours. Hope you get it all worked out, if TDT is indeed out for good.

[Tommy]

Thank you! I'm thinking of all the friends that I'm going to lose and the community. And the wealth of History and archive of King info. I know a lot of folks are on Insta and Facebook but I refuse. It's very sad and unexpected. I feel like leaving all Social Media now but I need to sell books! Maybe my collecting days should end.

[Sock Monkey]

What it said last night was Considering whether to continue with the website. Could not access anything but that msg. Now the site is completely down. I had a few sales and folks I needed to contact that I may not get paid for now. I will always get people's email addresses from now on on.

Oh, that’s a bummer.  I hope you get that sorted out.

[Tommy]

What it said last night was Considering whether to continue with the website. Could not access anything but that msg. Now the site is completely down. I had a few sales and folks I needed to contact that I may not get paid for now. I will always get people's email addresses from now on on.

[RonClinton]

Yeah, I swung by the site last night and was surprised to see it offline. Â A note on the page states that there’s some reconsidering going on about whether or not to keep the site active. Â It’s not my favorite hangout (never posted, but occasionally lurked), but I know that is for many others. Â I’m sure others might have more insight as to what’s going on. Â

Interesting. I don't see that note any longer...now it's just a "page not working" / 503 error. I posted occasionally, and over the years and particularly recently saw some posts/threads periodically about the site needing financial assistance/support, so perhaps that issue finally came to a head. No idea, of course, and I hope it finds its way back...the loss of any genre forum, given how scarce they are, is unfortunate.

[Sock Monkey]

Yeah, I swung by the site last night and was surprised to see it offline.  A note on the page states that there’s some reconsidering going on about whether or not to keep the site active.  It’s not my favorite hangout (never posted, but occasionally lurked), but I know that is for many others.  I’m sure others might have more insight as to what’s going on.