Let's just hope GIMPChat doesn't succumb to what happened to GIMPTalk. Not that willing to find another hub. I do sometimes post at PixLS and probably will just stick to doing that if GIMPChat ends, but I prefer not to think of such things at this time.

If all the main posters edit their signatures with a big fat link to the new forum, people eventually take the hint.

If this forum goes down I will most likely head over to Ofnuts site

It's not mine. It's owned by Kevin, Rich, and I. I'm just the more active admin, but Rich and Kevin have got the keys if necessary.

My goal here is not now nor was it ever to further divide the GIMP community but rather to ensure the work here, especially that of Oregonian, Molly, Jolie, GnuTux, and others who are no longer with us is preserved.

Maybe Omega would consider selling GIMPCHAT ... If so my DMs are open. There's really no point in holding onto it if the only plan is to allow it to die a slow death.

I don't think it would be proper of me or fair to Wallace to come here and attempt to convince the members here to leave this site and come to some new one. The thought process was that if we could administrate the forums then we could not only upgrade the software but also get Wallace some help. If the plan is to just let Wallace twist in the wind and leave the rest of us guessing if GIMPCHAT will be up and running tomorrow, next week, next month, next year ...

That was the exact reasoning. If Omega isn't going to be "hands on" and is always absent, what are our expectations for the site when, God forbid, the site goes down and no one has control over it. Rip Van Winkle might take 20 years (I jest) to wake up and fix it. Wallace needs more control, and Omega needs to step up.

@Mike

What is Your position on this subject?
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18437#p251895

I offered to buy the domain from Omega years ago. NO response.

A domain such as Gimpchat is worth several thousands dollars. Over 90% of the traffic is from non-registered users. They get drowned in ads and the site owner collects the revenue. Try using Gimpchat with anonymous browsing (so you won't tbe logged on) and no ad blocker. You get this:



(and this doesn't show the ad that blocks your browser when you try to switch pages).

It's peanuts for each ad, but if you factor in the count of visitors, its makes a non-negligible revenue stream. For Omega, GC is the goose that lays golden eggs. Why should he sell it?

As long as you use GC for light banter, it can be considered that it's a fair deal. But when you invest some time to make a useful answer, you get nothing, Omega pockets the revenue and you are just a "useful idiot". and if you are a moderator, it's even worse IMHO

The same happened with GimpForum. The useful idiot of the time wrote a script to delete all his contributions (about 25% of the site contents) These are not completely lost, you can find them on the Wayback Machine and if GC disappears, its contents will also be available there. OTOH, software evolves and many answers from 10 years ago are no longer good (or even usable) answers. So the practical usefulness of very old posts isn't so great.

Just wondering if it's a requirement for anyone moderating to feel like a "useful idiot"? I witnessed two very good forums collapse since their inception and most of those who were there are now here, minus some dear friends who are no longer with us. Don't take this the wrong way, I "get" what you meant by the "useful idiot" comment and if Omega gathering his golden eggs while I idiotically and usefully contribute to his goose, that's a small price to pay for the company of friends and small amount of joy it produces when users have their little lights come on. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: all because of free software called GIMP. In reflection, I begin to wonder just who really is the useful idiot. Seems to me to be a relationship of convenience, like pilot fish with the sharks.

As I said, as long as you use GC for light banter, you spend 5 minutes, and the post gets 50 views, so the owner doesn't pocket much, the deal is fair.

Now, you write a script and start a thread about it (a couple of afternoons of work) or write a tutorial (several hours for some), and the thread gets 20K views(*), the owner gets real dollars, and you don't get a penny.

(* ) Over on G-F.n, the popular tutorials get 10-100K views, the most popular scripts get 50K views.

So, if I come over to GimpForum and post some very detailed tutorials/videos, are you going to cut me in on the $$$? Or are you going to tell me to "F off"? Which now leaves me in a sort of weird conundrum. I have no website with advertising traffic of my own to collect from, and if you even considered, very slim chance that you did to "cut me in" I'd have to rely on you (totally trust) to be fair. Both, either, are hypotheticals, and though they might be considered pointless (Omega makes money off of contributor's hard work regardless of how we look at it) the real point is most of us would do the same and still not get a single cent off the effort. Or am I missing something?

Yes, you get zero cent either way. But in one case, someone makes money from your effort, and in the other, nobody does. If you were to write code for free, would that be for Adobe or for the Gimp project?

Look forward to the day that replicators and quantum teleportation exists. Money would be all but meaningless then. Until then, so long as I can eat (put food on the table that is) and drink water and have a place over my head (and wheels to travel with along with gas money), I'm happy, Ofnuts. Still, might be asking for too much. lol

I basically said that in my last post. I am still of the opinion that Wallace needs a site he can manage however he sees fit, and we hashed this idea the last go round. Some made offers to make this happen, although I can understand why Wallace doesn't want to abandon GimpChat. Someday this might all change. As for working for free, if any revenue was made from my efforts and it went back into the site, I'd be cool with that. Adobe? Nah. They're not GIMP. I've been defending GIMP from way back even when they were horrid, lacked a scissor tool, and crashed all the time. People thought I was crazy (probably still do, haha). And here we are.

I have never seen a fish like that! It is either very new or very old!!