The Roundtable Forum Community a Rebirth

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Hey, everyone who has been a part of the forum over the last several years, as many of you know the 8limbsus site was maliciously attacked in a pretty devastating way, the site had basically been wiped clean from the server, and though through the very hard work and support of several people 99.9 % of the site has been restored, one of the aspects of the site that was lost were all the photographs that had been uploaded to the forum. This means not only as the profile photos that everyone used, which gave a sense of closer community, but also all the humorous photos, the rich artistic photos, the uploads that were informative and explanatory. This was a pretty huge hit to me, personally. As a photographer I wanted the forum to be a home for an archive of images, and discussion around images, and I worked pretty hard on trying to develop this. I opened up the upload options so photographers could load hi-res versions of their photos, I hoped the forum would be a home for not only awesome conversation, but also graphics. I'm also writing to say that Sylvie and I really have to get back to focusing our time on the forum. For us the destruction was a serious gut punch. It honestly felt like our house had been broken into and ransacked. It felt invaded, and almost like it wasn't our home any longer. It's hard to explain, but we put a lot of ourselves into the digital record. Sylvie poured her heart and mind into everything, I extended my imagination, together we were creating something very special that exists no other place, and the forum was a huge part of that. There is no conversation space like this anywhere in the world, in a time when conversations are so radically changing. We feel beat down, honestly, by the intrusion and erasure, but we want to help bring it back, and maybe make the forum even better, different than it would have otherwise been. I'm really writing this to say thank you to everyone who keep investing in the forum, and to let you know we are in on it too (!), but it's taking some time. And to let you know that the wiping of the forum, and it's photos, it hurt us somehow, and we are still recovering from the kind of psychic-shock. We are doing so many projects, trying to document and foster conversation in so many ways, the blindside of it all just kind of unexpectedly hit us in a weak spot. So, thank you to everyone a part of the forum, you make so many important things possible. This forum is important. It's a digital oasis, and we can make it whatever we want it to be. That is really what this forum has always been. With the help of patrons we were able to carve it out, to kind of donate it back to everyone, and invest in it ourselves. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Aurélien]

I just can't imagine the hardship you've been through... The site and the forum are both incredible sources of knowledge, and I'm so glad it finally got back to 'normal'. Thank you!

[Snack Payback]

Nice post, Kevin. It must have been very upsetting for you and Sylvie to suddenly lose all your work like that after putting so much into it over the years. I'm glad you were able to get most of it back.

And not to worry, that gif I made the other month is still saved on my hard drive 

[LengLeng]

@Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

Thanks for sharing this. I am deeply sorry for what happened. I once had my home broken into and I thought when this happened that it must have felt like that. A violation and attack on your space that you built and nurtured. I'm grateful and happy you could rebuild it.

You two are doing so many amazing things that no one ever done before and it's beyond me how you can be so generous not only sharing it, but also package everything you do in a way we can all learn from it. You always take care of putting things into a context, ensuring the right message comes across for everyone to absorb the knowledge. 

It also struck me more than once how you two never really take any time off and I have no idea where that energy and productivity and discipline come from. First doing all the things. Then sharing it. Repeat and repeat. 

[515]

Thanks for all the work and putting everything back.

P.s.: The "emoticons" te "like" a post also seems to be deleted.