Okay, as some of you may have noticed my whole forum plan is falling to bits. And with that massive failure I am also inclined to quit the whole blog thing. It’s an emotional thing really and I know I have to think things through for a bit before actually quitting. The blog does have a steady following, thank you for that, so unlike my forum I am not completely talking to myself. But I have come to terms with the fact that it will not be the great success I would have liked it to be and the effort I put in isn’t really weighing up to the reward I get out of it anymore. I was wondering why the whole forum thing means so much to me and it’s not really that hard to understand, it’s more than just wanting attention.
To explain it all I will have to take you back in time. When I was a young, well younger, lad and internet was not as common as it is today I was a member of the Iron Maiden BB (that’s bulletin board, though at the time it already was a forum) 
though the music wasn’t really my thing anymore the forum was all kinds of awesome and I spent hours a day there (on a dial up connection, imagine my phone bills). We were a tight knit community and I met some really great people there, among who one of my great loves (Thrice loved) Some time later I came to the After Forever forum, again I spent many hours there, this time on a broadband connection, and if it wasn’t for the people I met there, especially my wife, I might not even have been here today. We became a group of good friends in real life as well, meeting at concerts and festivals and visiting each other all over the country and though it ended in a weird way I still look back at that time with a smile on my face reaching from ear to ear. 
Some time ago I joined my wife on the Twilight lexicon forum (yes Twilight), where I once again met some great people, many of who I still see posting daily on facebook. And even though I left the forum, I had some problems accepting the rules they had there, I still regard the lexilly (lexicon family) as some of the greatest people I know online. So thus far forums, or fora, have been places for meeting great people, making awesome friends and sharing bits of your life. And silly me tried to recreate that. Off course I should have known that without a band or book or even anything remotely interesting I would not be able to draw in people. Maybe forum posting is becoming somewhat outdated with all the new social media like facebook and twitter out there. But I hoped.
And now that hope is almost gone, I have become somewhat more realistic. I did some remodeling and editing, trimmed down the forum and for now I will let it be. I have one last card up my sleeve to try and instill life in this forum and I will launch it today. The first person to reach 150 posts on my forum will receive a free Crowley Toth Tarot deck.
That’s right…
A FREE CROWLEY TOTH TAROT DECK
For the first person to reach a 150 posts on nltarot.forum2go.nl
Single word or emoticon posts, copied or double posts and posts containing little more than just a quote do not count. This contest will run till the end of may.
If this works out and the forum will come to live and become the awesome online place I envisioned it to be, I will do something like this again, if it does not, I will pull the plug end of May. So as it has always been, it’s up to you.
though the music wasn’t really my thing anymore the forum was all kinds of awesome and I spent hours a day there (on a dial up connection, imagine my phone bills). We were a tight knit community and I met some really great people there, among who one of my great loves (Thrice loved) Some time later I came to the After Forever forum, again I spent many hours there, this time on a broadband connection, and if it wasn’t for the people I met there, especially my wife, I might not even have been here today. We became a group of good friends in real life as well, meeting at concerts and festivals and visiting each other all over the country and though it ended in a weird way I still look back at that time with a smile on my face reaching from ear to ear. 
A FREE CROWLEY TOTH TAROT DECK 
