The End Of Smerkers

[Graham]

On October 2004, James made a forum for people to congregate and discuss whatever was on our minds. It started off with a few members from VR, but slowly the word spread.
Not long after, James decided that he couldn't spend as much time on the forum as possible and handed the reins over to me. Over the next few months, we extended the forum, redesigned it and with the team of Kim, Ash and Ellen, the forum became a hive of activity.

At the end of 2005, Ash stood down from global moderator and went on to pastures new. We carried on regardless and continued the forum and it's activities. James came and went as a member, and Adam joined us as a moderator.

It's now 2007, and activity has fallen to nearly nil. I feel (with the other staff) that it is time to put the forum to bed. It won't be shut yet, as i would like to leave some time for people to leave their own messages and tributes should you wish. When i come to cloe it, i will disable posting. I won't put it into Maintenance mode as i would like to leave it open for people to read at their leisure. Should people wish to post or discuss things with me (even if it's a late request to adopt the forum) then i can be contacted via PM.

I'd like to say a thankyou to the following people:

James: It was him who started the forum, and it was named after him. If it weren't for him starting it, we wouldn't have had a sanctuary.

Ash: He helped the forum so much, his contribution is immeasureable. He helped with a lot of the design and admin side of things. He was the original spam whore, but gave so much to everything he did. A Smerkers Legend.

Kim:
Even when there was no acivity, she was here posting and keeping things flowing. Happy to help any new people out and was professional, but light hearted and posted interestig topics. A great moderator.

Ellen:
She's been the one to put up with my whinging and geekiness about the board and my plans. She's been the one that's helped try to "spice" up the board with some new topics - the Hobby Horse was a real hit.

There are plenty of other people that have helped out (yes, even you Adam ). Many thanks to them, and all the members that have made the place such a fun place to be.

I type this with an elemnt of sadness - this was my first internet project and it has taught me a lot of things. It's also brought me a lot closer to people and it's been an honour to be the admin of this board. If people want to contact me then i am still available via the normal means (email etc. I'll pop back to check any PMs occasionally). I'll be concentrating on my next project - a Pink Floyd forum named Shine On and i can be found there for certain.

As for now, i bid you adieu. Thanks for the past two and a bit years - we've given it a hell of a run and had a lot of fun times, mixed with a lot of unsure times. All the very best for the future, whatever you do

With a heavy heart,

Graham.

[skuttyb]

thanks for the special mention

its a shame that its come to this but its probably the right decision given the activity now. i have enjoyed my time on here, when more people were around it was a good escape from vr. thanks to you graham for keeping this place going as long as it has, and to james of course for making it

heres to smerkers, may it always live on in our memories [/cheesiness]

[Luco El Loco]

Any general talk forum has a limited lifespan - we're lucky it lasted as long as it has.

[Graham]

It is official. Smerkers is closed.

I have kept all boards open to viewing, but posting has been disabled. The only place that is open for posting is this thread. If for any reason you wish to have posting then guests can add here, or members please PM me. I will continue to check here, though i do not expect much in the way of activity.

Once again, a huge thankyou o everyone who's contributed to Smerkers ove rthe past 2 and a bit years - it was a fantastic place to be, but it is time to put the horse out to pasture.

Thankyou and goodbye.

EDIT: lurkers will have to register to add their messages due to the amount of spam being received by bots.

[Anarchy]

Well, goodbye smerkers, I hope all of us old 'uns stay in touch via myspace, or whatever. Its been fun. Ciao.

[.:King Cobra:.]

Man thats horrible news, i hope for the best to everyone here at smerkers. I just feel like all these members here can hopefully enjoy the momemnts on another great forum just as good.

SO let me get this straight, you closed this cos no one had enough time running it?

[Graham]

cobra said:

SO let me get this straight, you closed this cos no one had enough time running it?

Close, but not entirely true - we had tried to revive it's fortunes a few times but we decided that it was time to let it rest - we had all moved on: Kim had Guitartist Cult and also she had moved into full time work, Ellen had gone to Uni so couldn't dedicate enough time to it and i moved on to Shine On, which has begun to espand a lot.

It's a mixture of "no time to dedicate to it" and "it's got to a place of no return". It's a shame, but we all still keep in touch a lot

[.:King Cobra:.]

oh man that sucks, but yeah hope to keep in touch mate