Hello Fellow SAV members,
For some time now I've been posting messages inviting some discussion about the future of this site. With the departure of HCAMan about two months ago it's no secret that the pace of new postings has slowed to just a trickle.
With no new postings the site loses it's 'vitality' even though there is still plenty of good commentary happening. (Do we really want to comment on Laura Loomer forever?)
I've also had a look at Site Traffic and here is what it currently shows for the last three months:
The original founders of the site seem to be no longer very engaged with it. Understandable as people do get burnt out on hunting down new material to post.
One issue with the above is that the site was never well designed as a social media site. Posts disappear after a day or two as they get pushed further and downwards and you'd have to scroll forever to find one.
Also, many people have developed semi-friendships on this site but there is no way to even send a private message. We don't even have a way of contacting some of the people who left, inviting them back.
So in an attempt to start some discussiona around this topic, here are a couple of ideas:
Add a couple of new mods who can at the very least re-post some profiles from HCA. Of course even these will start to slow down at some point, since the pandemic has largely receded.
Allow some profiles other than just anti-vaxxers, since half the discussion here is on political topics.
Or possibly consider moving away from Wix hosting:
Or, start a new discussion on a place like Reddit where we can have mods, pin posts, search posts, send a private message
Start a new site that is more social-media based, and would include all of the current community of like-minded people. This would require a bit of work, and two or more people getting together to start it off. And it would also need a substantial number of SAV-ers to join.
However for the above to happen, we need to have broad agreement on it. Otherwise we just end up with a site with a few members who then leave within a month because nobody else is there.
So there we are. I just wanted to try to get the ball rolling on this discussion to see if it's possible to come to any agreement on what (if anything) should happen.
As the QT update in Forums shows ...with 500 new views in the last week alone... there are still lots of lurkers here. Whether they are members or, do not wish to sign in or CANNOT is the question. Regardless, those numbers are heartening as they show that a lot of people are interested in at least viewing the site.
This site could become unstable at any time, so it is important to have an alternative and... there is one. @JGorn - antivaxxer goatee hell made an alternative site and as @HOS wrote today, it is in jeopardy as the number of people participating are dwindling. Please do sign in there or register if you have not yet, and let @JGorn know you appreciate his efforts.
https://fafochronicles.com/general-interest/have-we-jumped-the-shark/
There is a chat, lots of categories and familiar faces blogging. (unlike this space... sadly)
=So as everybody knows, this website hasn't had any profile updates in about a year. The best thing would be if one or more peope could take on administration fo this site but there seems to be not much chance of that since no one even knows how to contact Vaxman.
Last year we were discussing possibly reforming a new discussion forum elsewhere. At one point someone mentioned Reddit, and one of the objections at that time was that you can't post pics or gifs to it. But now you can. So I thought I'd bring up the idea of starting up an SAV group on Reddit and seeing if there's any interest.
This site could disappear from one day to the next, but we know that Reddit isn't going anywhere. Anyway, just thought I'd bring up the idea to see if anyone has any thoughts.
I just logged in for a quick visit and was surprised to see the first message that popped up was addressed to me by HOS on this exact subject.
I had hoped that vaxman might suddenly reappear from his long absence and provide some guidance, but alas it seems that is not to be.
I know most of us (or all of us) are getting pretty tired of seeing Laura's mug still popping up day after day.
I had thought of creating a wordpress site, with some input from you guys, and then hopefully sharing the administration among a few of the SAV stalwarts.
I was also kind of hoping maybe someone else who has some basic web knowledge could step up to this task but as we haven't seen that happen well....
What I can do is set up an initial word site and have a working have a look at it and see if it's suitable for our purposes. I didn't want to put much effort into something unless people were truly interested, but it seems like most people are at least somewhat interested.
As a minimum what we need is:
The ability to post a new profile. (basically a blog post)
The ability to comment on these profiles.
The ability to administer the site, ie moderate it, if needed
And hopefully also:
Private message capability
Ability to search messages
(anything else?)
So what I'd like is to hear from a few people who might be willing to be a 'working group', first of all to evaluate a new site, and then who might be able to share admin duties. I am not looking to be a new vaxman, so I'd like some kind of community effort to emerge.
I'm basically just trying to get the ball rolling on this, and hopefully then a few others will pitch in and create new profiles as Vaxman and Vaxxylady used to do in the good old days.
I'll post this message in the 'Future of SAV' forum as well. Maybe we also need a new forum for 'New site working group' or something like that.
https://www.sorryantivaxxer.com/forum/general-discussion/future-of-sav
No... don't worry, I am not going to be going anywhere else with you folks... I just don't want this to drop down the reading list because of my posts today,
Stop The Madness wrote: "Since Vaxman's whereabouts are completely unknown, it feels like we should be thinking about decamping to somewhere else." I have thought about what would happen if the site suddenly, simply disappeared. In a poof. No access. We would 1) lose all of the content that has already been built up - not simply the posts of Vaxmann/Vaxxlady and HCA but the comments to all of those posts; and 2) we would lose access to all of the people we have come to know on SAV and have no way of contacting them. If (when) we decamp to greener pastures I would very much like to capture the current posts and comments of SAV for the "archives" of the new site but don't see how we could ethically do that without Vaxxman's consent.
So the question is: would people be in favor of having an alternative sorryantivaxxer site (most likely wordpress) that we could use a refuge in case this site bites the dust?
Ideally we could have a new site in place and it everyone would be informed about it. it could be the emergency exit if this site suddently goes down. That way we could easily regroup and hopefully keep this nice little community going.
In the meantime, possibly a few of us could start publishing some antivaxxer profiles on the new site (if / when it exists) and a few others could start to test it out, give feedback etc.
We'd also need a couple of people who wouldn't mind being adims of the alternative site.
So the idea is: keep using this site as long as possible, but everyone could be signed up to the alternative site (this would be a general wordpress login), so that we could switch over, seemlessly if / when this site goes down.
If we're going to get anything off the ground and have an 'escape hatch', we'd best do it soon, so that the entire community doesn't get fed up and leave. Already there are rumblings of discontent from having to look down the nostrils of Nose-tradamus for two straight months.
I just had an idea for continuing this site and also strenghthening it.
Covid cases have been winding down, but anti-vax hysteria is still prominent, and there are idiots out there who oppose safe and effective vaccines for various diseases! Therefore, I would propose that this site expands to profile people who have been infected with diseases other than covid as a result of their anti-vax stance. In the near future, we may see willfully unvaccinated rubes infected with polio, smallpox, measles, etc.
If this site is expanded to include anti-vaxxers suffering from other diseases, we don't even have to change the name! It's called "Sorry Anti-Vaxxer", not "Sorry Anti-Covid Vaxxer".
It's clear something has to happen if we want to preserve this community. I'm a bit reluctant to give heavily involved with something because I don't have enough spare time as it is. On the other hand I'm happy to be involved in any discussions, offering advice, opinions etc.
And if no one else is stepping up to create a new site, I can create one on wordpress. It's easy enough to do. But then of course we'd need a couple of volunteer mods.
I have checked a few available names for the site for availability in case you'd like to hear them.
Unfortunately (fortunately?) there's not much reason to come here anymore. This site has been abandoned by its creator and its moderators. Vaxxman, Vaxxylady, HCAMan, etc have all left this site ini the dust, and it's not like any of them JUST left. They're all long gone.
Personally I would hope the site will continue as a base for reporting dangerous vaccine related propaganda and factual rebuttals. Recognizing that new posts disappear into the stream, here's an idea. We don't have the daily self-suicide of anti-vaxxers anymore.
Why not have a random day or weekly news topic update posted based on tips from members? Then all members can respond on that topic. It solves the problem of losing updates. Moving to a new platform might entail the loss of many members.
Ages ago I set up a Discord server as a backup for SAV. It had a little traction at first, but never reached "critical mass" to be self-sustaining. Discord is pretty flexible and it's fairly granular re: permissions, but there would have to be mods to help run one, because I’m in Europe and couldn't be online when most people would. Anonymity/ pseudonymity would be possible depending on how it was set up, and Discord is fairly stable.
Btw. I said earlier that I would try to set up a new site, but I'm also busy attempting to find a new job. (I work in automated software testing, in case anyone has any contacts.) I'm finding I don't have much time to take on a new project at the moment, but would be glad to help if anyone else wants to take this on.
I tried to start a SubReddit for us that I envisioned as a place of refuge where we could in case SAV or Wix suddenly bites the dust. However, not only is the name FAFO taken, but it is also 'banned' for being unmoderated.
So the irony is that FAFO is not being used but it is also not available!
I run 3 websites. Ignore the one site as it is my commercial site. The other two are a WordPress archaeology site, and a historical documents site using Omeka Classic hosted on Reclaim ( https://www.reclaimhosting.com/shared-hosting/ ) and each has a domain. For a little money it is a good deal. They are a great site host, I wouldn't go back to Siteground for any reason. You can take your pick on which delivery to use- from here https://installatron.com/apps
You can go free site, but I prefer to control my own content
I wish I could help. But managing my own social network instance is hard enough. Hope this continues on in the same spirit. WordPress is okay, but also just happy if vBulletin was used.
Long term though we need something like this site, only a bit better. and without the shortcomings of Wix. I don't have that much time to devote to it, but as mentioned I'm willing to try to set somethign up on Wordpress and see if it would fit the bill. I was hoping we'd hear something from Vaxman by now, but he's been AWOL for quite a while.
And as a sort of backup plan, we could also start a thread on Reddit. In case Wix really goes kaboom, or if for any reason Vaxman suddenly decides to pull the plug on this site, it would be a way to keep in touch with each other. I'm not suggesting Reddit as a replacement site but just a failsafe. Name of the thread could be FAFO and only the 'initiated' such as ourselves woudl know what it stands for so hopefully it wouldn't get invaded by trolls.
A million views in April! Jesus! It makes no sense.
I'll go anywhere ya'll go except for FB or Xfiles, or whatever billionaire buffoon is calling it now.
I started this forum post to stimulate discussion around how the SAV community can survive and even thrive. I'm glad to see so many of you commenting and expressing some great ideas on where we can go.
First of all, Why not move to Facebook? I think the reasons are clear. Most of us are just not fans of Facebook and don't really want to join any Zuckerberg project. What about Reddit? It's a good choice but We couldn't so easily mix text, images and memes.
So I'm going to try setting up something on wordpress and hopefully get a few of you to evaluate the demo and see if that would 'fit the bill'. (if anyone has any other good ideas, let me know.)
I definitely don't want this to be some kind of 'one man show'. And I also just don't have large amounts of time to spend moderating and posting, so there would have to be at least 2-3 admins willing to help out with this. (guys and gals, pls let me know who's willing to participate).
My assumption is that we are moving away from the pure antivaxxer focus, and more into discussion about the news of the day, posting memes, news articles etc.
The posts would be like a blog with comments (hopefully searchable) and hopefully with private messages allowed.
I had a wordpress site during the early days of 'the former guy', mostly sarcastic news about 'the former guy'. (still exists btw. -- let me know if anyone wants to have a look.) I got to around 100 posts but I never even tried to increase readship outside of a small circle.
Here are some proposals for a name:
'Idiot Of The Week'
'FAFO'
'SAV Social Club'
'This Can't Happen Here'
The first reflects the changing focus of the SAV community to include all outrageous idots, not just antivaxxers.
FAFO is fitting since it's more or less the unofficial 'motto' of this site, but might be confusing for any newcomers. (not thatthat'a a reason not to use it.)
The third reflects the fact that this group has its origins in 'SorryAntiVaxxer.com'.
The third reflects the outrageousness of the current political situation, and calls to mind Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel where an american politician attempts to become America's answer to Adolf Hitler, and also Frank Zappa's 1966 song of the same name. My preference is for this one, and conveniently enough, I already 'own' that name on wordpress.
Mainly though I just hope to get some kind of consensus on setting up a new community and hopefully generate some interest in moving over to a new site.
And agin, any help, advice and interest in this project is welcome. Or if anyone else wants to take this on, I'd be happy to let them. The main thing is preserving the SAV community as a place for thoughtful and sarcastic / fun commentary, and maybe even eventually attract some new members.
I for one won't go anywhere near Facebook, Xit etc but I know I'm not alone there.
I wish we could post topics here. Yeah we have this forum but everyone hits the main page instead. Guilty as charged your honour.
I love the relaxed attitude here, the intelligence, banter and general friendliness. Everyone is chilled. We can be serious or talk shit. It doesn't matter. I've never seen a community that can self moderate like this one does.
I've made some very good friends at this place, I don't like seeing people move on. That's what concerns me most. The lack of stories?? Pfft, we make our own fun.
My 4 dolla fiddy. Fucking inflation...