Okay, so… we don’t need to worry about the usual hosting fundraising this year, because you guys contributed so much last year that we’re covered this year and next year as well.
I have something different I’d really prefer to get community input on, rather than making arbitrary decisions. Don’t worry, the site’s not going anywhere and neither am I. But this might make you a bit sad in places.
Cheezland has existed for an extraordinarily long time for a website, over eleven years and counting. We’ve lost a lot of Cheezpeeps in different ways, and a lot of furbabies have crossed the Bridge.
And that is making it complicated for me, when I’m setting up classiclols – which mostly is what I use these days. Using classiclols isn’t a problem in itself, but more and more, I’m doing lols of heartbabies that have crossed the Bridge, which I might or might not even know for sure. Different people have different feelings about that. I’m trying to keep Cheezland a safe space, and dropping by and seeing a heartbaby you miss, or that you know someone else misses, or a constant series of heartbabies, or whatever, might not do that.
I don’t know what to do about lols from people who have crossed the Bridge, either. I don’t want to feel like I’m trying to erase anyone, but I don’t want the people here now feeling sad. And there are people we just haven’t seen in ages.
General ICHC lols from Cattails, peregrin, AngelAndz, and Maryh Cookie, along with a substantial number from Karen, catslave1, and others, have been keeping the site anchored around the lols and caption-mes of actual furbabies here present and past. I’m treating those as fair game and not worrying about them too much.
But I’d really like to know how everyone feels about me using lols, generic or own-furbaby, by people who are either no longer stopping by or have gone to wait with our heartbabies, and me using lols of known, named cats and dogs and whatever who have crossed the Bridge for sure or probably have but we don’t know.
I’m sorry if this seems minor, but it’s making setting up posts for the next day rather uncomfortable sometimes, while I try to make judgement calls with no idea how anyone else feels about it or if anyone else sees it as important at all.
Thoughts please?
I can just not use lols or 12:00 caption-me pics unless I have 1) new pics, 2) classiclols of furkids that we know are still around (Roo, Nizzie, Johnny…) or 3) heartbabies that are from the more remote past (Josie, Nemo, Timmy…) and/or that I have clear permission to keep using (Baby, PJ, Archie…).
I can choose not to use lols or pics from Cheezpeeps who used to hang out here but don’t anymore, but where’s the cutoff point for that? We have a few people who speak up once in a while (ginacuccu when her heartbabies are posted, Cygnia if I show Mystery/Shadow/Dashiell or any caracal, turtlol when life allows, CatBurgh now and then…) and others we haven’t seen in ages (nicewitch, Upfi…) And does that mean anything they did, or only ones with their own furkids? There are several people I consider to have withdrawn all consent when they left, but a lot just sort of stopped dropping by. And I don’t want to make anyone cry by using Lungdoc lols, so I haven’t been.
Or, I guess, I can just keep using whatever I happen to find and try to keep it reasonably mixed and not too repetitive?
I don’t want to decide this on my own. I’m sorry. This is complicated and emotional and honestly, I don’t know what to do with it.
Yes it can be sad to be reminded of cheezpeeps who have passed, but at the same time, it is good to be reminded of their humour – I’m thinking of Lungdoc in particular who we miss with sadness, but remember with gratitude and affection for his fun comments.
It is said that no one is truly dead as long as they are remembered. That is how I feel about using pictures of deceased furbabies or peeps. And it can give me a wistful smile, wishing they were still with us, but it is also great to know they are still remembered. I would vote to use pics and captions from anything you have in the inventory.
When I see pictures of my late great Smokey and Pippin in classicLOLs, they make me smile. And, when Mystery and Dashie cross the Rainbow Bridge (may that be a long time coming), when their pics pop up, they’ll make me smile too.
I give consent for my pics to stick around <3
Not having had my own kitteh for 60years (had to leave Timmy with family as Husband was not a kitteh person) I don’t feel qualified to comment on how those who have kittehs in the meadow feel – I believe that noodle is happy to see her departed companions remembered.
Yes indeedy. Love to see them.
I agree with all of the above replies. I smile at the memories of those we have loved and lost. Thank you for keeping this site going for so long.
I don’t comment anymore but I am here multiple times a day. I love seeing my heart kittehs.
As CatBurgh says, I agree with all of the above replies.
Although I am just a lurker here, seeing the heart kitties and peeps make me happy, so please keep them.
An excerpt from a poem by Maya Angelou:
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
For myself, I am happy to see all the animals and re-experience the humor of those who have gone on. In my belief they are still part of our community. Yes, there is a brief sadness that they are elsewhere now, but there is joy in having known, and loved, and shared laughter and connection with them. I need to be better about creating new lols (can never seem to get the program to work on this site), but I never mind seeing classic ones. And seeing the ones from departed friends helps us remember them.
My suggestion would be a general announcement to the community that if anyone does not want lols with their Rainbow Bridge animal posted, to please let you know. Or if someone has just sent a fur baby to the Bridge and wants to ask for a few months without seeing them on the site, they could do that. I suspect enough of us like being reminded of old friends, skin and fur, that you are safe with the default being to go ahead and post.
I do love seeing my gone babies and LOLs by cheezfrends that are gone like Lungdoc.
Keep the memories alive is good. I love seeing my hart kittehs and to poit poit a la lungdoc.
I love the heart babies. We must never forget.
I have only been lurking with an occasional comment for some time, but definitely come to visit regularly.
I keep meaning to send you more of my old posts from that other place, and photos of my past and present furbabies. While I miss my furbabies who have crossed the bridge, I still love seeing them again and again.
Well, that seems pretty unanimous. Okay. I’ll do that.
I’ll try to keep the notes about [heart-kitty] up to date as much as I can, but since I don’t always know, I may miss those. Thank you for not calling me crazy for being worried about this.
Cygnia, sorry I listed a “Shadow” as one of yours, I’m usually better at remembering who belongs to which furbaby. Oops.
Bomome, there’s no such thing as “just a lurker!”
Shepmom, good thought and I’ll work on an announcement, and make sure that when I offer a memorial I ask about withdrawing posts until they tell me otherwise or something. As for making lols, 1) don’t feel guilty, it seems to be not a common mood these days and 2) there’s nothing on this site to do them here (I can’t even begin to code something like that!) but if you do get inspired, send me the pic and text and any instructions and I can do it in a very few minutes, if you don’t want to look for other sites. Puddy_tat is using imgflip.com judging by the watermark.
MarthaV1, I have all yours, I tracked down your account on the old site. They might not all have made it to cheezpeeps from cheezland when we moved, I need to find/make the time to get back there and chack for lost posts, but I did get them.
And just hugs in general for everyone!
Love all of you! While there are any Cheezpeeps coming here, I will do my absolute best to make sure the site is here with posts coming up regularly! I may not be talking much lately (struggling a bit with anxiety/depression/insomnia stuff and the complicated health of Jackie, my mom, my dad, and both furkids, while trying to keep writing and turn some into casual audio books and other writing-related stuff…) but I am always around and always listening and I’ll do my best to help with anything!
It always gives me a buzz to see LOLs of my lot – am really missing having kitties but we have (hopefully) a lot of work to do on the house to make it suitable for us if as we get older and more likely to have to live on the ground floor so we’ve taken to hard decision not o have more till the work is done. And I really miss Lungdoc’s LOls. I guess you can see where I’m going on this!! <3 <3 <3
Personally, I have no objections to seeing lols with the kittehs i used to live with. I had to re-home them before moving house, and lost touch with their new hoomans, but it’s almost certain they will have crossed the bridge by now, as they would be in their mid 20s otherwise.
I can think of one person who backed off from being round here after kitteh crossed teh bridge. If a particular person asks you not to use pictures / lols of a particular animal, either short term or longer, then it’s fair to respect that, but otherwise i’d say carry on.
And again, unless a loved one / relative has asked you not to use lols / content created by a person who has crossed the bridge, i’d say carry on – part of keeping that person’s memory alive.
I do sometimes wonder if this it too small / closed a community, and aware that the supply of new lols seems to be going steadily down. on one paw we don’t want trolls / spammers turning up and causing trouble. But on the other paw, is a closed community (that some people will inevitably drift away from for one reason or another) entirely healthy?
It seems to be common that when an online community comes to an end or goes bad in one way or another, that it’s hard to get back what was there. If the ‘original’ place stays (even if it’s not as good) then some people stay loyal to it, some people will go off and set up an alternative – think there were 2 or 3 not-ICHC sites (one seems to have fallen off the interwebs), and some people just back off and keep in touch with the people they know on farcebook or whatever. I’ve seen similar happen with a couple of other online communities. Blargh.
I’m not sure what the answer is.
As far as community size and activity (sorry this is long)…
It’s natural for communities to change and evolve, and for members to leave and new ones to join, in the real world or online. It is, like I said, really extraordinary for any community website to last for as long as ours has, as opposed to a commercial one or a massive social media monster. Sadly, community websites are an anachronism on the modern Internet. Most communities just cluster on the big social media sites instead, which lets individuals be members of multiple communities all in one place (one for lolcats, one for photography, one for crafts, one for the local area…) The days of niche forums and chatrooms and all are, sadly, virtually gone – there’s no money in it. This seriously reduces the odds of anyone new joining us here. When a specific community goes through an ending or massive change, the individuals usually are still on the same platform with other friends, although it’s still often painful to go through. (I recently had a conversation with someone about exactly that.) I’ve tried now and then, when I’ve met people I thought might be interested, to invite them here – usually they express an interest and then never get this far. This is a specialized website they have to make an effort to come to. That makes it harder for busy people who have gotten used to everything being in one place and to counting on notifications on phone apps.
It’s not a new thing, just a continuing trend. I created the original site, the one that just happened to be up when ICHC pulled the rug out from under us, in a desperate hope of building a middle ground between there and the people who had already moved to Facebook, before we all lost touch. It honestly never worked very well for that, and it got worse once I stopped spending time on FB and asking for permission to grab the pics they posted there.
Cheezland splitting was, well, unfortunate. But the number of lols I use that come from old ICHC accounts has always been high. There was a time I got more new material, but it has never outweighed the “generic” lols by Maryh Cookie et al. I started using classiclols more because I ran out of those than because I wasn’t getting enough new subs. (Which isn’t to say I don’t LOVE getting new subs!)
So whether it’s healthy or not is probably irrelevant. If no one new is interested in coming here, then I can’t think of a viable way to change that and attract new people. It’s a small old-fashioned site in a back corner of the Internet, determinedly keeping the bells-and-whistles down to a minimum to make it load quickly and easily on any device without using much data (and also because I am really not qualified to be a website admin), with a user base that I’m pretty sure leans hard towards retired or getting close to it, talking about our lives and furkids and about lolcats (which are now part of the concept of “memes” which are absolutely everywhere). I can’t realistically see us having a lot of charisma on the modern Internet. There are still people who don’t like social media (like me) but it’s hard to find them because, well, avoiding social media and conventional online hangouts. I think basically, we’re just us, the stubborn holdouts who just want to stay together and keep doing what we’re doing! Maybe we’ll still be here when the spell of social media wears off (the fiasco with Twitter is helping with that) to remind people about other ways to do things.
Thanks for all you do, Prysma! I too appreciate all of your efforts. I love seeing pictures of heart-kitty Niki, and one of these days you’ll get photos of our younger basement kitty Vincent. Gracie is still around, hopefully for a few more years yet.
luv yu Prysma and all the cheezpeeps!
Big hugs to all the Cheezpeeps!
I am a tad late, but I agree with all the previous comments.
Furthermore, I give my permission for you to use any and all of my submissions – past, present, and future.
Also, OHAI adn boops tu awl teh cheezpeeps!!!!
HUGS!!!!
It sounds as if we’re mostly – or all – on the same page. I like seeing my heart kitties featured, and if I see a LOL from someone who is no longer with us, it gives me a little pang, but a nice memory.
I do need to make more LOLs. I have tons of kitty photos, and sometimes a little too much time on my hands. I just keep forgetting. I’ll add it too my list of things to do in the new year (organizing photos is another one, so those two will go hand in hand).
A big thank you to Prysma, and boops and holiday cheer to everyone!
I have followed Cheezland for a long time and occasionally comment. This place and the cheezpeeps are woven into my life now. So, undying gratitude for Prysma’s excellent work in keeping the community going. I agree with the consensus that posts with heart kitties, and from heart cheezpeeps, can have a moment of sadness, but the pleasure at seeing them again is worth it.
Please stay safe and healthy, dear cheezpeeps, and hug your fur friends close (if they are in the mood). Happy holidays and I will see you all next year.
Prysma, what is the easiest way to caption photos. I have a android phone and tablet, a chrome book and use chrome on my PC.
Send me the picture and the exact text you want (tell me you want it as a lol!) and any other instructions if you want something specific? I have graphic software I use to make my book covers so I know how to do at least reasonably simple things on it and make them look good. (It’s called GIMP, it’s free, and I’ve worked out a fast series of steps to add captions so it only takes me a minute. I’d write out a tutorial but I don’t think anyone else uses it…)
Google Photos has an option to add text – on a phone/tablet, choose the pic, tap on “Edit” and then look sideways until you see “Markup,” choose “Text” and type what you want, tap “Done,” and move it to the right place. But that doesn’t allow options for font or size, as far as I can tell.
Or search for “meme maker” and pick one, like imgflip.com (which puddy uses) or canva.com (same site is used by authors I know for book covers – it looks like it might have a Chromebook app?) or whichever one you like. I haven’t tried them so can’t say much about them but they should be a lot like ICHC’s captioning system.
You might (probably do) have something like “Paint” which would be a very simple graphics program you can use to add text, possibly with limited option but probably fairly simple. Or there are almost certainly Android apps for making memes.
So, ummm, the “easiest” way on anything is whatever works best for you? But there are lots of options.
I have a very old version of Photoshop which I find very good. It is not free and Puddy says my version may stop working in the near future. I tried GIMP but couldn’t understand it – too used to Photoshop!
I could easily write out exactly the steps I use to caption pics if you want or need that.
It’s hard to get used to different programs. I spend an enormous amount of my time with word processing software open. I’ve been using an open-source (free) office suite called “LibreOffice” (especially “Writer”) for so long that I get completely confused by Microsoft Office/Word or Google Docs and I can’t find anything!
I uses GIMP for photo editing (and occasionally creating ‘shopped’ images for other places) – I’ve got used to it, but all programs are different and it’s what you gets used to.
having said that, sometimes a program does an update that changes how everything works (it took me a while to get teh hang of MS office when it had big changes some years ago) – and some of us were using computers before windows and icons and mowses and so on…
I has Libre Office at home and MS Office at work, and occasionally have difficulties when I can remember how to do something in one but are using teh other.
imgflip which Prysma mentioned for adding a capshun to picshures are at https://imgflip.com/memegenerator – teh ‘upload new template’ button (near top right) allows you either to upload a picture that’s on your computer, or teh link to one that’s already on teh interweb – for teh latter, you need teh link for teh image, nawt teh whole page – in firefox, it’s right click on teh image and ‘copy image link’ (it’s similar in other browsers but nawt sure of exact term) – although some websites disables this so you can’t, but if they does that then you probably should nawt use that image…
I stopped by (as I sometimes still do) and felt I should also comment. I love seeing lols and pics from/of those who have gone on before us and it is good to know that we haven’t forgotten them. Prysma, thank you for all the hard work you do. Give yourself major props for your time and effort; it is truly appreciated. I am in different circumstances in my outside life than I used to be and I don’t have the time to visit as often as I used to, but I always feel like I”m visiting friends when I do come here. And it is good to see reminders of those we remember.