Excessive posting? ... Interesting.....

[Tiki Tom]

I think even e-mail is slowly fading into the sunset.
These days I probably use WhatsApp or text messaging more. Of course, I’m retired now. Maybe e-mail is more of a workplace thing.
Don‘t ask me; I’m old and irrelevant.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Holy Wow! Nice to see/hear that all is well (as expected and hoped for) as well hear from you. Your presence has been greatly missed. Too many have left the Lounge, but it is still a pretty nice place to visit When time allows.

I've noticed a lot of people that were part of the fabric here seem to be MIA. I pop in and read posts once in awhile, but just don't have a whole lot to contribute these days. Collecting vintage has come to a crawl with the other trappings of life taking a front seat to hobbies.

 

[LostInTyme]

It seems to be the same across the board. Many forums that I belong to, are now less busy than a few years ago. I too, use them less and less. Perhaps, it has something to do with the times we are all living and experiencing. Bigger things are afoot, and the climate has changed both on a World Basis, and within our own communities. I still like to have a place where I can go, for awhile, to get away from all the craziness. This is a nice refuge and pretty-much a safe haven.

 

[Edward]

I think even e-mail is slowly fading into the sunset.
These days I probably use WhatsApp or text messaging more. Of course, I’m retired now. Maybe e-mail is more of a workplace thing.
Don‘t ask me; I’m old and irrelevant.

As things sit currently, I think you're probably right. I know I've certainly fallen out of the practice of using email much at all outside of work. Within the office, there are younger members of staff trying to push the use of the direct messaging facility on Teams as an alternative to email now. I am now semi-deliberately cultivating a reputation for being hit and miss about responding to DMs; Teams is great as a phone replacement - I vastly prefer the video chats over phone calls, and I could have cried with joy when they got rid of our desk phones. I do, however, despise the idea of having yet another text communications service that I'm expected to check regularly...

I've backed down and am using Whatsapp for work, though that's under review given it has made me 'visible' elsewhere. Much prefer Signal to that, but hey ho.

With social media as we've come to understand it - Facebook, twitter and such - rapidly falling out of fashion with the under 40s, I think we may well see traditional email making a comeback. For hobbyists interested in any depth and accessibility, traditional forms will continue to matter: even FB groups are not a credible replacement for an architecture like this. Fine for quick info in a transitory way, but good luck ever finding it again after more that a few days.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

As things sit currently, I think you're probably right. I know I've certainly fallen out of the practice of using email much at all outside of work. Within the office, there are younger members of staff trying to push the use of the direct messaging facility on Teams as an alternative to email now. I am now semi-deliberately cultivating a reputation for being hit and miss about responding to DMs; Teams is great as a phone replacement - I vastly prefer the video chats over phone calls, and I could have cried with joy when they got rid of our desk phones. I do, however, despise the idea of having yet another text communications service that I'm expected to check regularly...

I've backed down and am using Whatsapp for work, though that's under review given it has made me 'visible' elsewhere. Much prefer Signal to that, but hey ho.

With social media as we've come to understand it - Facebook, twitter and such - rapidly falling out of fashion with the under 40s, I think we may well see traditional email making a comeback. For hobbyists interested in any depth and accessibility, traditional forms will continue to matter: even FB groups are not a credible replacement for an architecture like this. Fine for quick info in a transitory way, but good luck ever finding it again after more that a few days.

This is a change that I do not care for myself. I own a business and it's frustrating to me when I have employees and customers that try to reach me through Facebook messenger, texting, e-mail, messages through my invoicing system, my personal accounts, etc.

I feel a lot of time is wasted just trying to remember who contacted me from where.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I've noticed a lot of people that were part of the fabric here seem to be MIA. I pop in and read posts once in awhile, but just don't have a whole lot to contribute these days. Collecting vintage has come to a crawl with the other trappings of life taking a front seat to hobbies.

I haven’t posted in this thread in a long time. There was a time when this was the FL “chat room”. I still post here though I tend to be on FB and now Reddit more.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I often read the name "Reddit", in the last years.

So my question is:
Should I know about it? Is it anyhow relevant? Or just another "fashion-trend"?

 

[Edward]

This is a change that I do not care for myself. I own a business and it's frustrating to me when I have employees and customers that try to reach me through Facebook messenger, texting, e-mail, messages through my invoicing system, my personal accounts, etc.

I feel a lot of time is wasted just trying to remember who contacted me from where.

Quite so. You end up either on all the socials or none of them. As the networks have themselves become news items in recent years, not always in a positive way, and the market has fragmented, it has become the case you either have to choose which is the best marketing tool, or to commit to an awful lot of time keeping up with them all. I've noticed a lot of businesses I've followed are increasingly ditching or at least markedly rolling back on their facebook presence in favour of Instagram. Quite a few have dropped Twitter altogether, though I don't know if they're on BlueSky (which seems to be the main place people move on from there); I've briefly dabbled with it, but like Twitter back around 2009 when I briefly tried that, I find the format too limited to produce anything of particular interest.

The EU Digital Markets Act (a companion piece to the Digital Safety Act, which seeks to put some level of regulation over unlawful and problematic information on social media) does have a provision in it which requires relevant services which offer direct messaging to ensure that this is cross-compatible with other such apps. Same as email is, really. I wonder if that might be the way forward. I currently also use both Signal (for family) and (very reluctantly, for work) Whatsapp. I would be very happy if those were cross-compatible, such that I could benefit from the much better, more private Signal while still communicating with those using Whatsapp. I see no reason why this wouldn't be technically possible, but obviously it's gonig to be hard to persuade the techbros to get on board as they're all about monopolisation given the profitability thereof. It'll be interesting to see how successful the EU is with this oging forward.

I often read the name "Reddit", in the last years.

So my question is:
Should I know about it? Is it anyhow relevant? Or just another "fashion-trend"?

It's like a sort of forum but very generic. There are lots of subreddits dedicated to different types of information, with their own moderators - some more tightly moderated than others. I've look in on it here and there when it comes up on a general web search, but never signed up. Ultimately, I don't like the interface. t feels too primitive, and there's a lot of toing and froing where you can read so many replies to each post before the 'see more' link takes you to another page, then you have to loop back to get to the other answers in the thread. I believe it also doesn't present you everything in chronological order - at some point, as I understand it it does a Facebook style 'Most Relevant' approach putting some answers to the top ahead of others, which I can't be doing with. One of many reasons I'm radically reducing my use of Facebook in the hope something similar-but-better comes along in due course is its increasing micromanagement of the information I get to see. I originally signed up to use it as a source of information I wanted - now it's not only filling my feed with well over half of it being stuff I've not selected as things I want to see, but even when I get a post I want to see it presumes to decide which responses to it are ones I might find "most relevant".

I dabbled with Quora for a bit. It's quite good for in-depth discussions, but I deleted it when it became too much of a timesuck. Also, like Reddit and other open forums you can't really lock down anything with any sort of privacy, so it's very 'public'. In the end I went scorched earth with it and deleted my account. I've not been inclined to go back since.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I haven’t posted in this thread in a long time. There was a time when this was the FL “chat room”. I still post here though I tend to be on FB and now Reddit more.

I miss the days of the FL Chat Room - I was shocked to see how quiet this thread is.

I often read the name "Reddit", in the last years.

So my question is:
Should I know about it? Is it anyhow relevant? Or just another "fashion-trend"?

I feel like Reddit has its purpose, but I don't spend a ton of time on there. Mostly, if I have a specific question.

Quite a few have dropped Twitter altogether, though I don't know if they're on BlueSky (which seems to be the main place people move on from there); I've briefly dabbled with it, but like Twitter back around 2009 when I briefly tried that, I find the format too limited to produce anything of particular interest.

I tried Twitter when it was the hot new thing and felt the same way. Very limited format. Maybe it's my age, but I'm still one who prefers Facebook. Seems the most versatile.

 

[Leather_nube]

I’ve ditched twatter when Mush took over. Many have moved to bluesky, the new academic hangout it appears. Tried Mastadon which is good in theory but really difficult to glean info fast with all the different servers. Also no Facecook or instagramme, don’t wanna be the product of data collection and don’t need to support Sugarberg monopolizing the net further.

Signal is ok. Reluctantly use whatsupp, I can’t get all of the older people I want to be in contact with to move to signal without actually doing it for them. Don’t do Reddit, but do look for info from time to time.

I might be outta touch with the world. Ha

 

[LostInTyme]

And I thought I was the only one who called him Leon Mush...........

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have an anagram for him that works just swell. In any event, I'm proud to say I've never used Xitter in sny form. I had to set up a Facebook account for radio stuff I'm still involved in, but I try to minimize any engagement with its seamier aspects, and within a week of joining it I already had half a dozen people blocked.. I've lost track of how many have joined them since.

I ended up looking at Reddit when something came up in a search result, and I started poking at it with the sort of curiosity one experiences when discovering an intdeterminate dead organism washed up on the shore. The few reasonable conversations seemed to be buried under armies of s**tposts from aging 4Chan kiddies. There's a women's subreddit I find mildly interesting, although reading it makes me realize just how old I really am. No interest, however, in ever actually joining it. I have enough grief in my life now.

We added Slack at work a few years back, and it has its value when you have, as we do, people spread out over different buildings. But I don't like its lack of real privacy, or the fact that it lacks the permanence of personal email. I make a habit of saving private conversations that might be necessary to review at some future time as text files dependent upon no app or cloud.

Finally -- good to see you back, Tom. Always like to see one of the old guard resurface if only for a visit.

 

[Edward]

I miss the days of the FL Chat Room - I was shocked to see how quiet this thread is.

It ebbs and flows a bit, but certainly quieter now than we were when I first wandered in around 2007. It's the same across what we might call the "Vintage [20s-60s] scene" more broadly. I've seen a lot of events and suppliers disappear, or move on to another period. People come in and out. Eras go in and out of fashion. I think our preferred eras are going through a quieter period now in terms of casual interest. Kids now don't have a direct link to the War, or the 50s, or whatever. The average 18 year old in Britain and Ireland today has grandparents who were born in the 50s and came of age in the 60s. Time marches on. I've noticed the WW2 era crop up in a few more popular films of late, though, and there's a BBC push behind their Rogue Heroes series. In eighteen months or two years I believe we're due the Peaky Blinders movie, which if it's a hit will raise more interest in the later 30s onwards (the point where, I believe, they'll pick up the story from the TV show). Rumour has it there may be more if that does well - including murmurings of a prequel focussed on the Shelby Brothers' trench experiences with the Small Heath Rifles.

I think it will all come back round at some point - at which stage we'll likely see a new influx of younger enthusiasts - but it'll take some sort of popular movie or television franchise to spark it. Hell, a TV ad is credited with sparking the 90s swing revival (Gap Khakis) - I just hope to goodness this time round it doesn't create quite the same breed of lindys that ruined many's a good jive night a decade later.

Another thing I think might be all to the good, for all many vintage enthusiasts bemoan it: the increased casualisation of dress standards post-pandemic. For SO long the old sixties trope about suits being for "the man" has dragged out. Jeans and a poloneck, and whatever else the techbros are wearing now, is still being sold as somehow rebellious, yet it has long been the very uniform epitome of conformism. Now that has spilled over from the tech world and gone mainstream, well... I think people will finally cotton on that it's rebellious to wear a suit. And many people get tired of wearing what they have to wear for work on their own time. I think that's all grist to the mill for a comeback for more dressed-up vintage styles. I've seen it happen - I remember twenty odd years ago some of the students at the university wanting a black tie ball. The students, who rarely wore anything "formal" were really keen on dressing up; the academic staff, who in those days still felt some need, despite not wanting to, to dress up a bit to teach, very much did not fancy the idea. One of our people now is a retired practitioner who was previously a partner in two huge London firms, globally recognised, and he takes a childlike glee in not wearing a tie now. What we need is for the casualised office to make people like him feel that way about jeans!

 

[Jon Crow]

I think even e-mail is slowly fading into the sunset.
These days I probably use WhatsApp or text messaging more. Of course, I’m retired now. Maybe e-mail is more of a workplace thing.
Don‘t ask me; I’m old and irrelevant.

Tom I still use my email, I still have a old Hotmail account, but the wife encourages me to use WhatsApp haha

 

[Jon Crow]

I’ve ditched twatter when Mush took over. Many have moved to bluesky, the new academic hangout it appears. Tried Mastadon which is good in theory but really difficult to glean info fast with all the different servers. Also no Facecook or instagramme, don’t wanna be the product of data collection and don’t need to support Sugarberg monopolizing the net further.

Signal is ok. Reluctantly use whatsupp, I can’t get all of the older people I want to be in contact with to move to signal without actually doing it for them. Don’t do Reddit, but do look for info from time to time.

I might be outta touch with the world. Ha

Twatter, glad I'm not the only one who calls it that, I have arsebook as does the wife and family, but I've been in jail a few times on there haha mm

 

[Jon Crow]

It ebbs and flows a bit, but certainly quieter now than we were when I first wandered in around 2007. It's the same across what we might call the "Vintage [20s-60s] scene" more broadly. I've seen a lot of events and suppliers disappear, or move on to another period. People come in and out. Eras go in and out of fashion. I think our preferred eras are going through a quieter period now in terms of casual interest. Kids now don't have a direct link to the War, or the 50s, or whatever. The average 18 year old in Britain and Ireland today has grandparents who were born in the 50s and came of age in the 60s. Time marches on. I've noticed the WW2 era crop up in a few more popular films of late, though, and there's a BBC push behind their Rogue Heroes series. In eighteen months or two years I believe we're due the Peaky Blinders movie, which if it's a hit will raise more interest in the later 30s onwards (the point where, I believe, they'll pick up the story from the TV show). Rumour has it there may be more if that does well - including murmurings of a prequel focussed on the Shelby Brothers' trench experiences with the Small Heath Rifles.

I think it will all come back round at some point - at which stage we'll likely see a new influx of younger enthusiasts - but it'll take some sort of popular movie or television franchise to spark it. Hell, a TV ad is credited with sparking the 90s swing revival (Gap Khakis) - I just hope to goodness this time round it doesn't create quite the same breed of lindys that ruined many's a good jive night a decade later.

Another thing I think might be all to the good, for all many vintage enthusiasts bemoan it: the increased casualisation of dress standards post-pandemic. For SO long the old sixties trope about suits being for "the man" has dragged out. Jeans and a poloneck, and whatever else the techbros are wearing now, is still being sold as somehow rebellious, yet it has long been the very uniform epitome of conformism. Now that has spilled over from the tech world and gone mainstream, well... I think people will finally cotton on that it's rebellious to wear a suit. And many people get tired of wearing what they have to wear for work on their own time. I think that's all grist to the mill for a comeback for more dressed-up vintage styles. I've seen it happen - I remember twenty odd years ago some of the students at the university wanting a black tie ball. The students, who rarely wore anything "formal" were really keen on dressing up; the academic staff, who in those days still felt some need, despite not wanting to, to dress up a bit to teach, very much did not fancy the idea. One of our people now is a retired practitioner who was previously a partner in two huge London firms, globally recognised, and he takes a childlike glee in not wearing a tie now. What we need is for the casualised office to make people like him feel that way about jeans!

Apparently 60s reenacting or role-playing it is a ' thing ' now also

 

[Edward]

Apparently 60s reenacting or role-playing it is a ' thing ' now also

It's inevitable, really. The Mod and Rocker scenes still exist here in London. The former tends to ebb and flow with fashion ime, while the latter is more consistent. But then when you look at the trappings of the two youth movements, both at their peak circa 1960-64, the rocker look is one that ages very significantly more gracefully than skinny suits and scooters, which might be one reason why you see many more aging rockers than aging mods.

With the generation controlling the commercialisation of popular culture being so invested in the sixties here in the UK since, well.... probably the sixties, I'm only surprised direct sixties revivalism isn't more of a thing. Here in the UK particularly, where "The Sixties" as a commercialised nostalgiafest divorced from any real history is what "The Fifties" is to much of the US.

 

[Jon Crow]

It's inevitable, really. The Mod and Rocker scenes still exist here in London. The former tends to ebb and flow with fashion ime, while the latter is more consistent. But then when you look at the trappings of the two youth movements, both at their peak circa 1960-64, the rocker look is one that ages very significantly more gracefully than skinny suits and scooters, which might be one reason why you see many more aging rockers than aging mods.

With the generation controlling the commercialisation of popular culture being so invested in the sixties here in the UK since, well.... probably the sixties, I'm only surprised direct sixties revivalism isn't more of a thing. Here in the UK particularly, where "The Sixties" as a commercialised nostalgiafest divorced from any real history is what "The Fifties" is to much of the US.

I agree Edward, and you see a lot of aging rockers here too, I'm more in the rocker camp especially if our concert lists are anything to go by,