Grumbling!

[I. J. Parker]

This site has been practically dead for the last week and barely breathing for months now.

Given that plus the fact that I'm practically the only one to check in several times a day and post whenever possible, I was very unhappy to find that I was shut out and had to re-register. What's up with that, Daniel, especially since the sign-up is complicated and requires knowing the owner of the site?

 

I.J.

[Dan L. Coleman]

That happened to me once, couple years back. Had to re-register. I also tried to make a donation a few months ago via PayPal and it wouldn't go through. Least I don't think it did. Doesn't show up on my bank account.

[Andrew Drummond]

I do check in daily, but have found little recently that I feel competent to reply to.  However, IJ, I can say that viewing your post (from the UK) it is date stamped as posted on Dec 3rd, 2013 at 1:20 am.

[I. J. Parker]

? What does that mean, Andrew?

[Eric Christopherson]

Well my excuse for not commenting lately is I had a daughter born this week. Her name is Annabel. It's an old Scottish name (I can trace my roots back to Scotland circa 1066 when my ancestors arrived in Great Britain from Normandy with William the Conqueror). I first heard the name upon reading Edgar Allan Poe's second most famous poem.

On Ingrid's larger point, I am surprised there isn't more discussion here given how many readers and writers of crime fiction there are in the world. If they don't chat here, then where?

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, lovely!  Major congrats and best wishes!  A little girl with such a pretty name! Lucky you! (except you probably haven't been getting much sleep).

And yes, I wish we'd chat more about mysteries or crime novels or whatever.

[Jackson Burnett]

Congratulations, Eric!  Best wishes to you and your new daughter.

[Jack Getze]

Congratulations, Eric. Good luck with all the parenting.

[Kerry J Donovan]

Congrats Eric - look forward to loads of sleepless nights and nappy changes. 

I feel for you, mate. 

[Dan L. Coleman]

But I do know what you mean, I.J., about this site seeming so dead frequently these days. Have to think of ways to spark more interest. I've gotten to where I plug it on my FB page occasionally. We each should plug it everywhere we can, generate more activity maybe.

[I. J. Parker]

Facebook isn't one of my favorite places. In fact, I'm no good at that sort of social communication. Maybe we just need to throw out a new topic now and then.

[Dan L. Coleman]

Incite folks, yes.

[Caroline Trippe]

Hello again. Speaking of absentees.... Funny that today I happen to check in, Ingrid,  and see your post about inactivity. I don't have any great excuses myself except for being busy at my studio, so I'm not in front of the computer as much as when I'm at home,  and we did have a trip in November. Then it was Thanksgiving.  Things do get quiet over the holidays. And the "season" has only just begun!  Many distractions for a lot of folks. 

Not long ago we had a discussion about the lack of interesting topics. Just to see if I could liven things up  I tossed something out, but after a few responses, it ended up "dead in the water" so to speak. At least I think it did.  Maybe it wasn't actually that interesting a topic anyway. 

Perhaps most of the interesting topics have been discussed over and over again, and have been exhausted? Is that possible?  Honestly, I'm having trouble coming up with anything "new" to talk about. At least anything that would generate an ongoing thread. Actually, I haven't even read any "new" mysteries lately---I tend to read the same writers over and over. It's not that I want to talk about particular writers, especially--just ideas. 

Of course quite a few people only want to talk writer's shop---and that's OK, since this is a forum for mystery writers, after all---but as a mystery reader I don't have anything useful to contribute to that sort of thread. Well, I tried! :))