Current mood:

sad

This is the End
Those of you from the IRC side of things, who hung out in #SubCafe, will probably remember that I and the channel's bot, maintain a stats page with a running tally of what happens each week.

Each week for like the past two years, I've been watching the stats, and dreading this day. I said if a certain event ever occurred, I'd make this post, no matter how hard it might be, and it is very hard to type these following words:

I'm going to shut down #SubCafe.

The stats have just been sad for ages now. I've been waiting to see them drop below 3000 for a chunk of time. A while ago, that was for two months, but recently it was squished into three month chunks. The original statement came to pass some time ago, but still I waited. And as of tonight, the count finally fell below, WELL below, 3000 lines of text for three months. They currently are at 800 lines of text for an ENTIRE MONTH. That's sad, and depressing. It makes zero sense for me to keep this channel open for the small handful of people that still come in. The likelihood of newbies coming in who have interest in the Subreality subgenre of fanfic is so minute I doubt it will ever happen, so all that will happen is a slow, languid death. Heck, you could say that's what it already is. This is just putting the channel out of its misery.

#Comicbooks will remain open, as it has had a fair amount of traffic lately. Not great, but still some regulars, and actual conversation on a regular basis. I figure the channel about an active topic such as comics will be easier to keep going into the future than #SubCafe ever will be, so that one wins out. #SubCafe will remain open, and I'll direct people from there over to #ComicBooks looking for me, familiar faces, or folks interested in similar topics. There really is very little reason for both channels to remain.

I've had the channel for almost nine and a half years now, and this decision is not one I take lightly. This is probably one of the second most difficult posts I've had to make to LJ. There's a lot of memories there, but...the time has come to move on. Or stay where I am, just a little off to the side. ;)

I feel like I have so much more I want to say, but the words just aren't finding their way to my fingers.

The channel will linger for the forseeable future, to direct others elsewhere for awhile, so everyone knows what's up, but someday the channel will unregister and be gone.

I hope to see some of you there before that happens, and if not there, then in #Comicbooks. I wouldn't know fully half of you people, or more, if not for #SubCafe. But, like I said...

It's been a great 12 years over all. *raises his coffee*

Now if you'll excuse me, I have something in my eye...

J