No more updates to the GIMP Hall of Fame

[ZootieZootZoot]

I always LOVED getting a Hall of Fame ballot. I've been a BDSM enthusiast for decades and always considered myself pretty knowledgeable, but reading through the dozens of biographies on the ballot I always found something new and interesting that I was never exposed to before. I know that it must have been a huge effort to put together, and I sincerely appreciated it.

The issue that I always had was in coming up with 10 selections for people who I considered "Hall of Fame" worthy. Maybe I took it too seriously, but I didn't want my selections to become just some model who I happened to like. It was difficult coming up with that many people who made "significant contributions" to the field. I could usually come up with four or so, and them fill in the rest as best as I could. I think that maybe you might have seen me returning a form with just the minimum number of selections and interpreted that as disinterest or apathy, but it was actually the opposite.

Regardless of that though, thank you for putting it together in the first place. It was always a highlight of my year!

[Ganemede]

Agreed, a great shame, and thanks for all you have done up to now. I'm guilty of not contributing to general threads more, I would offer to help but limited access to internet is a big limiting factor for me..

[La Reine Margot]

After 7 years of creating and then updating the GIMP Hall of Fame, I've decided to step down this year. Last year's update was met with mostly silence from the members here, and to be honest, I don't really think most people care about it anymore. And behind the scenes, just getting members of the voting committee to turn in their ballots was the worst it's ever been last year, even after getting assurances beforehand that they were willing to participate.

There is one way we can keep it alive for 2024, but it's going to require someone with enough initiative to grab the reins and put in the work to update the ballots, contact the members, tabulate the results and create new hall of fame plaques for the site. I'd be glad to work with you and help you out in any way that I can.

We have a good hall of fame here; I'm proud of the page and I would love to see it continue, but I doubt there's anyone here who would be willing to take it over. In fact, I don't even expect to get much of a response to this post. Silence appears to be the rule here anymore, rather than the exception.

https://ralphus.net/special/halloffame/

My two cents.

It would be truly sad to see the GIMP Hall of Fame go. As it would've been tragically sad for the entire GIMP site to go.

Amy first and then myself, worked to keep it going and after the truly horrible events that you are all aware, we practically took the responsibility to keep it going, that includes the financial part, which has to be kept going month after month.

The format we're using now opened a pandora's box. Although we can see how many people visited one particular thread or post, we don't have a way of knowing how people feel about the posts... we just don't know, unless people comment on them and extremely few do.

Thus, the great GIMP Hall of Fame page appears to be ignored.

We could find a way of keeping it going and also knowing how people feel about the nominations and the votes and so on.

I'm sad to say that I'm not knowledgeable enough about everyone involved in GIMP productions, art and so on. I know many, but not all. I could help keeping it going with some additional help, of course. But I could make an effort... IF.

But it is important to know if there are enough people here interested.

Are there? Does anyone care?

The format we're using now give the impression that each thread has a particular following. Those into the Mature seem to be the more active.

The keepers of the flame, me... the least popular. One comment a year is kind of in the lowest level of popularity.

Which makes me feel like... is it worth it? The less interest in what I have to say, the less inclined I'm to work on this... and that lack of interest might lead to considering just discontinuing the effort.

Just saying.

As an example, there's another forum I'm active in where there are daily discussions about our films, Seditiosa is the one commented about these days. And when I don't post there for a few days people wonder and comment about my absence.

I can disappear from here and no one wonders whether I'm still alive. I basically know Ralphus' frustration and perhaps I'm to blame for setting up a thread format forum.

There are a few ways of solving this problem. We could return to the old format, where ALL the comments are in one page, it would require a new set up, and the current forum would be closed and archived as is.

Another way of dealing with this issue is if we merge ALL the threads and comments into one giant one. So everyone will have to read everything is posted.

Or we keep this going and add likes loves, buttons to the posts but that means setting up the page in a more professional and expensive way, in which a lot of nice things would be possible, like embedding videos and things like that. But that would mean we cover the costs, which are in the neighborhood of 200 extra bucks to what we already put in.

The way I see it, the GIMP forum has grown beyond what it used to be, with so many threads that it is difficult to pay attention to most of them, so people tend to go to the one they like the best. It becomes a community within a community.

Some win, some lose. Some leave.

A new anniversary is coming up. I would change the look of the forum or just go to a standard look that does not require any work on my part.

The question is where do we go from here when we enter a quarter of a century of GIMP


Let's think about that.

[La Reine Margot]

The point was made. Oh well. Time to move on. The GIMP Hall of Fame a relic from the past.

[Ralphus]

My two cents.

It would be truly sad to see the GIMP Hall of Fame go. As it would've been tragically sad for the entire GIMP site to go.

Amy first and then myself, worked to keep it going and after the truly horrible events that you are all aware, we practically took the responsibility to keep it going, that includes the financial part, which has to be kept going month after month.

I'm grateful for that. It's not really my site anymore since I know longer pay for it. Thus, you took over the reigns and rebuilt it in a more modern format. It's not something I had the knowledge to do on my own.

The format we're using now opened a pandora's box. Although we can see how many people visited one particular thread or post, we don't have a way of knowing how people feel about the posts... we just don't know, unless people comment on them and extremely few do.

That's not exactly exclusive with our site. We've always had issues with apathy here, even with the older, open freestyle format we had before. Since we've become more compartmentalized where every comment requires opening a closed door via a topic thread to see what's inside, it's even more frustrating when people won't even say Happy Anniversary or comment about the new Hall of Fame update. Thus it looks like it was a lot of work put in for a mere smattering of feedback.

Thus, the great GIMP Hall of Fame page appears to be ignored.

We could find a way of keeping it going and also knowing how people feel about the nominations and the votes and so on.

I'm sad to say that I'm not knowledgeable enough about everyone involved in GIMP productions, art and so on. I know many, but not all. I could help keeping it going with some additional help, of course. But I could make an effort... IF.

But it is important to know if there are enough people here interested.

Are there? Does anyone care?

I think the short answer is no. We had a myriad of replies to my original announcement saying they appreciated the Hall of Fame but they were 1) Too old or 2) not knowlegable enough about GIMP history to take it on. That's curious to me.

I'm 61. I'll bet I'm around the same age as many of you, probably older. I've seen a bit, but mainly from my particular era.

Do you guys think I'm a GIMP historian? I'm really not. I do remember the days when bondage porn came in magazines and then VHS tapes. I just like researching the history and finding old treasures that were before my time. I don't really know much about the more modern stuff because even though the picture quality is sharper and it's easy to access, most of it doesn't appeal to me. Thus the origins of the Hall of Fame, since I think it's important to remember the great artists of yesteryear.

But I don't know much about some GIMP artists, even less about GIMP writers, and even not a lot of commercial bondage performers. A lot of the people on the ballots were nominated by others. To do a Hall of Fame properly, we really need a good mix of contributors. I've been doing it myself and it's harder and harder to want to keep going when it appears that no one else really cares. All that does is increase my apathy to the point where I decided it wasn't worth it anymore.

I didn't expect anyone to offer to help out. The fact that it's been 3 weeks since I made my initial post with no one stepping up just proves my guess was correct.

The format we're using now give the impression that each thread has a particular following. Those into the Mature seem to be the more active.

Yeah, I look at that thread and shake my head. 2700 replies to a thread where people post pictures of geriatric old women and guys spew out their fantasies about what they'd like to do to them. To each their own. Maybe because all the young women of today have tainted themselves with tattoos so they're no longer appealing.

The keepers of the flame, me... the least popular. One comment a year is kind of in the lowest level of popularity.

Which makes me feel like... is it worth it? The less interest in what I have to say, the less inclined I'm to work on this... and that lack of interest might lead to considering just discontinuing the effort.

Just saying.

Personally, I don't read any of the Red Feline section of the site because their films don't really do it for me. Too much fake whipping and fake blood. That's only me, though. I know your productions have their own following.

I can disappear from here and no one wonders whether I'm still alive. I basically know Ralphus' frustration and perhaps I'm to blame for setting up a thread format forum.

"Blame" is a strong word and unfair in this case. You did what you had to do, moved the GIMP into the 21st century, instead of the quaint old dinosaur we had before. There really was no other option.

There are a few ways of solving this problem. We could return to the old format, where ALL the comments are in one page, it would require a new set up, and the current forum would be closed and archived as is.

No, we're not going to do that. This is where we are. We're not going to go back and make things less convient to post.

Another way of dealing with this issue is if we merge ALL the threads and comments into one giant one. So everyone will have to read everything is posted.

I don't know how you would do something like that and still keep the topics individualized.

Or we keep this going and add likes loves, buttons to the posts but that means setting up the page in a more professional and expensive way, in which a lot of nice things would be possible, like embedding videos and things like that. But that would mean we cover the costs, which are in the neighborhood of 200 extra bucks to what we already put in.

Likes buttons would be appreciated, but not if it's gonna cost you big bucks. The embedding videos thing is a dream, but I thought we had issues with storage space here?

The way I see it, the GIMP forum has grown beyond what it used to be, with so many threads that it is difficult to pay attention to most of them, so people tend to go to the one they like the best. It becomes a community within a community.

Some win, some lose. Some leave.

With the old format, I read everything. With the setup now, I read maybe 5% of the site tops. It was why I hesitated for years about making the board threaded, with the entire site a series of closed doors, and my fears about it became a realization. But it is what it is. This is the way modern sites look.

The point was made. Oh well. Time to move on. The GIMP Hall of Fame a relic from the past.

Exactly. No one really cares enough to keep it going. Unless a miracle steps up, I have my answer.

[frog]

I have read all the comments re the death of the GIMP Hall of Fame. I did not reply before, because it is hard to say goodby. I can fully understand Ralphu's frustration and his decision to close the Hall of Fame, precisely on the year this site will be a quarter of a century old. I will miss receiving the ballot for this year's edition. I will always remember my surprise when Ralphus first invited me to participate in the voting. It was then that I realized the amount of effort he put into the whole process. I learned a lot about directors, artists, and actors that I had no idea about, thanks to the list of links and the blurbs he included for the balloting. It's a pity that the demise of the HF is largely due to the unresponsiveness of the participants and lurkers of this forum. But that has a long history and it's probably a characteristic of the medium. In most of the forums I know hardly anyone makes extensive or well thought out comments. It's all the like and love or hate buttons, a knee jerk reaction that hardly requires thought. In any case, it was a fun and instructive ride while it lasted.

I was all set to nominate some of my favorites this year:
Ashley Lane
Fuka Nanasaki
Rylinn Rae
Paul Naschy

In any case, here is something to celebrate the 25th.