Changes at the top

[siledouyaoai]

I haven’t posted on here for a long time, but seeing this takes me back 15 years ago to when I joined. This was such a useful resource and it was so motivating to see others learning Chinese at a time where this wasn’t so common. Thank you to Roddy and all the moderators who made this forum such a great place! 

[PerpetualChange]

I was thinking recently how @imron appearances have been pretty rare lately. 

Just speaking for myself, but I'm sure others, that his writings (both on Learning Chinese the Hard Way, and here) have been an inspiration over the  years, and the lack of presence is felt! 

[suMMit]

Yeah, very rare. A lot of contributor's post have become rare nowadays😞

[abcdefg]

Imron and Roddy helped me a great deal just starting out. I will always be grateful. 

 

On 7/26/2024 at 11:32 AM, suMMit said:

A lot of contributor's post have become rare nowadays

 

In years past, I posted a lot about Chinese cooking, Chinese tea, exploring Kunming and other parts of Yunnan. Lately, I've moved back to the US and am no longer studying Chinese. My visits here, to the Forum, are now just kind of a "trip down memory lane." 

[Tomsima]

I think the issue is, during covid a lot of us moved back or to other countries 'permanently' without really fully planning to. I used to share a lot of real learning experiences here, but it seems there are not many advanced students going to China at the moment to help us live vicariously through their stories! I wonder if the pandemic also interrupted the annual wave of year abroad students that then go on to take up the mantle here at cf...

[abcdefg]

On 7/28/2024 at 12:12 PM, Tomsima said:

I think the issue is, during covid a lot of us moved back or to other countries 'permanently' without really fully planning to.

 

Good point, @Tomsima -- I left China in a hurry, fully expecting to return in a month or two after Covid had "blown over."  

[Lu]

On 7/28/2024 at 7:12 PM, Tomsima said:

I wonder if the pandemic also interrupted the annual wave of year abroad students that then go on to take up the mantle here at cf...

There was always an annual wave of worried scholarship appliers on the forums (typical post: I haven't heard back yet, have you guys???), and it stopped for several years. I was delighted to see it rise again this year. It's only a ripple, but it's more than it's been in years.

[Tomsima]

On 7/29/2024 at 3:05 AM, abcdefg said:

fully expecting to return

 

I'm sure I'm just one of many here that really misses reading your cooking, tea and general Kunming life posts, and also harbours the hope you will one day return (it's like the Chinese forums version of the stars wars saga)

[imron]

On 7/25/2024 at 6:05 AM, PerpetualChange said:

 

I was thinking recently how @imron appearances have been pretty rare lately

 

Life has been pretty busy!

 

Don’t quite have the same time that I used to so haven’t written anything for ages - but still have a bunch of stuff I want to write about. 

[roddy]

So, this process is complete - we're running on Mike's servers and, importantly, Mike has ownership of the domain name. Feels very odd to say it after a gazillion years, but I no longer run Chinese-forums.com. It's good to be leaving it in such safe hands.

 

I do have to say a thank you to the people who've posted and helped run the site over the years, both those who are still here today and those who've drifted away to other pastures. Trying to name everyone would be a fool's errand, but I can't deny a little nostalgia for those who were here in the very early days, many of whom came over from the Lonely Planet's now-defunct Thorntree travel forum - names like bhchao, Quest, skylee, gato, wushijiao, xuechengfeng... Happily, some from those days are still logging in today. I'm glad to have been able to help provide something so many people found useful, and I look forward to seeing it continue. And no doubt I'll be dropping in to contribute as well, I'm handing over ownership, not dropping off the face of the planet. If anyone wants to keep in touch offsite, though, Mike's set up a roddy@YOU CAN GUESS WHAT GOES HERE email address (the old admin@ one had become a spam-bucket over the years). 

 

Thank you all.

 

[TheWayfarer]

Thanks for all your hard work over the years @roddy! You've done a really great job, and it's much appreciated.

[abcdefg]

A tip of the hat to you, Roddy and a thank you for being welcoming as moderator of this forum when I was just starting out on my own China adventures.

[OneEye]

You've built a really special place here, @roddy. Thanks for all the love and work you've put into it.

[Jive Turkey]

I’d say the two most enduring support tools over a couple of decades of my Chinese learning have been this site, and then Plecodict. I think I got on here pretty early, but I did not start using Plecodict until about 13 or 14 years ago. It’s interesting to remember how I learned Chinese without these tools. It seems fitting that they’ve merged, so to speak. 
 

I think what makes this sight uniquely useful in the past and now is that one can almost always find advice/suggestions from somebody who has taken their learning to a higher level than one’s own, and who has figured out how to overcome learning obstacles that one hasn’t even come to yet. I think it’s hard to find that kind of advice in any given place offline. Advanced Chinese learners are simply spread thin on most patches of ground. In big Chinese cities and in more rigorous learning programs, one can meet some people like that, but that’s only for 8-9 months at the most. Being able to find this kind of advanced-learner advice here is extremely motivating. 
 

The Chinese Learning sub-Reddit has a lot of great threads, but it doesn’t quite have the community and long term discussion content cohesion and development as this forum. I’ve been reading over there for a while, but didn’t get around to posting anything until a week ago. But my post has been queued for moderation for over a week, even though the automated message I received said it would be moderated within 48 hours. I sent a follow up message to the mods, but no reply. I’m sure the moderators over there are great, but I’ll also be sticking around Chinese-Forums. 
 

Roddy, you and the high-volume posters here have helped lots of people in their Chinese learning over many years. Long live the forum under the new administration!

[geraldc]

Oh my! I haven't visited here in a while. This forum helped me so much, kept me entertained etc. That really was a big a change at top. Good luck @roddy with whatever it is you want to do!