What happened to everyone?

[CREEXHP70LED]

And yet... no one over here seems to really care

I used to like BLF more, but now I spend more time here. I have been here for about 15 years or so, just lurking... and I am sure I forgot a few passwords and user names over the years, so I wrote it down this time. LOL.

I don't see anything rude or bad about the moderators here at all to be honest. The biggest thing I hear is the whimps over there complaining about it. Go figure.

 

[orbital]

+

The original CandlePower bouncers

 

[ven]

I love it here, its one if not the! all time fav forum full stop. Members, mods, admin, together this is simply not only the best flashlight place to be, but overall one of the best forums. It is like a 2nd family no question.lovecpf

I think beamhead is spot on, come winter(fall) things pick up a bit. Dark nights, poor weather out, bit of netflix and CPF to help with SAD. I know i get far more use out of my lights come that time at home anyway.

 

[TheJLew85]

And I'm still here! I don't post often either but spend quite a bit of time reading the HDS thread. And WTS...

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I think the light landscape has changed so much since this forum was in its infancy that we have gone from eating baby food and starving for steak to having a smorgasboard at our hands. There used to be a hunt and waiting for a light that was good enough to get the job done but these days it is more about just finding lights already available. It is akin to getting a gun or bow and arrow and going out to hunt down a wild beast vs going to a restaurant and looking at a long menu and deciding what to order. I used to enjoy reading the extensive reviews comparing current lights with each other but it is to the point there are several generations of those lights with so many new lights with updated emitters on the market you need people with actual jobs full time keeping track of offerings now.
I'm more into threads that discuss the usage of lights and stuff than trying to talk about actual individual lights because there is just too many decent choices to cover a situation these days.
I agree with Beamhead in that darkness does encourage folks to come here..... and look for lights and huge darkness like massive power outages caused by storms and such will get a lot more interest.

 

[idleprocess]

BLF and FB took over. As we all know they do not speak kindly to the strictness here over at BLF from the moderators. That is just the truth.

Facebook seems to be more instantaneous gratification, photo-centric. Zuck having an interest in not presenting the same material to you twice, it's bad for serious conversation.

My impressions of BLF are that it has taken on a large fraction of the technical discussion around flashlights and the membership strikes me as being more international, however I don't sample either enough to make a definitive claim.

 

[Obsessed]

Holy cow posting here for the first time in forever. Man this place has changed so much...

The CPF marketplace merged apparently? I had way more posts over there.

 

[bykfixer]

Fakebook started out a place where zuckerby could pick up chicks. Yup it was begun as a dating platform.

I use it to keep up with a few friends who don't detest the place and prefer not to chat via emails. It's got its virtues if you carefully navigate it. Serious knowledge is not one of its virtues. Thank goodness forums like this one still exist.


Many forums went the way of the video rental store. Yet not because of fakebook, instra this or that, but in most cases just a basic lack of interest in the subject matter. In one case the bulk of the daily and frequent users were all occupied playing some video game online. King of Thrones or something. Some just moved on. Seasons change for some.

 

[Sam Bryson]

Yeah, lots of people are involved in FB right now. They are spending lots of time there. They are joining in different niche related groups and posting there regularly.

 

[Monocrom]

Screw Facebook. That place is boring. :tired:

 

[Toohotruk]

I'm still around...I don't post as much as I used to, mostly for the same reasons listed earlier by others. I look at my lights and think about how many $100+ flashlights I have (a LOT of them, more than I want to count), and about newer lights and if they're that much better than what I already have, and the answer is no IMO.

I think the explosion of great lights in the mass market took away lot of what CPF was about to me back then...I would come here and learn about lights that blew away anything you could buy on store shelves, so it was exciting that I had insight to something the vast majority of humans had no clue about. I would buy lights that were amazing at the time...they weren't sold in B&M stores, they were pretty much cutting edge technology and now you can buy comparable lights at least lumen-wise, at Walmart for $20.

At this point I just enjoy the lights I've got, with the odd purchase here and there, usually because of the material they are made of (like copper or brass), more than by sheer output alone. I find myself carrying the same lights most often, like my trusty beat up Fury, and my original 10 yr old trusty really beat up Quark 123 (10 YEARS!?!?), my really beat up 12 yr old 6p, etc. and most of the others sit there. I try to rotate my "out to dinner/weekend" EDC lights, and there are MANY of them...these are lights I really prefer to keep in nicer shape, including my old kinda beat up Ti quark 123 (remember how exciting it was when David was designing and building these things, giving us little hints about design, LED bins, etc?), but as far as getting too excited about newer stuff, it just doesn't happen for me very often.

I still keep up on subscribed threads and every now and then, browse through the main page, or the Marketplace, but I definitely don't post as much as I used to anymore.

 

[Cyclops942]

I'm still here, too, and my membership goes back a ways.

I am spending more time than I used to over at saberforum [dot] com, and I'm using my hard-won knowledge of LEDs, Lithium-Ion batteries, and high-quality chargers to help educate aspiring Jedi and Sith over there on matters of safety and quality. (I'm also drooling over the selection at UltraSabers [dot] com, trying to figure out which of the many lovely hilts will be my next purchase.)

I tried FB, and as others have said, I prefer the forum to the CPF group on FB. I haven't even signed into my FB account in several months. The discussion here is more carefully thought through, and more carefully researched, I find. I also have relationships with folks on here that I wouldn't recognize on FB, because I know screen names, not IRL names. I also appreciate the moderation that happens here, even though I've invited a few Moderator_Slaps myself over the years.

I never posted a LOT-- heck, check my post count, and balance that against over 18 years of membership, and you'll see that. So for me, I might have slowed down my posting a bit, but I'm still here pretty often.

 

[raggie33]

i think of most of you as famiy

 

[dano]

+

The original CandlePower bouncers

I'm third from the right!

 

[moldyoldy]

my first time logged on in a long time. Just as guilty as many other members reading but not posting.
for me, there are too many other events and challenges to pay attention to, no matter in the US or Germany.

Just returned from almost two months in Europe and about 3 months on travel total.
Yes, the length of some of my trips are challenging the 90 days in 180 days limit in the Schengen State Visa-free agreement.
there are ways around that limit, but those require other compromises. however, not quite ready for those, er, adjustments.

with active on-demand baby-sitting of 4 grandkids in one family and one 4yr old in another family, both near Nürnberg I have no time for any flashlight forums.
Fortunately although this Grandpa is getting moldier and oldier, but I am still able to keep track of 5 kids at once, all less than 10 yrs old!

Plus which Germans continue to not be very appreciative of high-output flashlights, or maybe I am living in the incorrect location along the Main-Donau Kanal!

My main reason for reading - not posting - in BLF and TLF and CPF is to keep track of flashlight developments.
Once in a long while I purchase a new light.
My latest acquisition is the FW3A - some slick programming in that light!

back to the topic: I do like CPF - well run and moderated!
I appreciate the discipline in CPF and the consequential reduction of 'sausage grinding' that otherwise I would have to skim and dive thru if the subject was pertinent for me.

Thank you to CPF, and especially Greta, but also to the moderators for maintaining protocol!

 

[archimedes]

Always nice to see an "oldy" back and posting

 

[callmaster]

Been a while since I even logged in, I was here originally for the drama free flashlight and battery discussion but things changed fast and hard during the years that I was here.
The other thing that changed was China, high lumen, pretty decent lights for next to nothing these days. Hardly feel like spending the hundreds and thousands on customs anymore.

Plus, I've got more important things to worry about these days at this stage of me life.

Great to see the rest of you guys still active though!

 

[raggie33]

I woke up one day and could only speak chinease .. then I looked in the mirror and I was a ostrich . Long story short don't assume the mushrooms in ya yard are safe to eat

 

[Nyctophiliac]

Arc flashlights brought me here (via Pocket lights. Com and Flashlight reviews. Com). Led lights with useful outputs. Incandescent lights would never be surpassed, would they. Would they??! Boy O boy, we've seen some stuff. Still new wonders to behold (white lasers are my current 'wow' lights.

Used to be the first thing I looked at after booting up the 'puter. Bought way too many lights, too quickly to appreciate them all. But I' ve made so many friends here.

Still buy lights from time to time. Still EDC at least three at once. Still read here with the rest of you.

Great place.

 

[harro]

Same here, although not from the 2000 - 2005 join era. Things evolve and things change, that's just part of life. It might be fun for a bit, to gulp down that 3 month old cask wine, but there's nothing like sipping a fine 15yo double malt scotch on a Saturday night. I add one or two lights a year, now, not just buy randomly. I'd guess a lot of members that have moved on, have probably done so, several times, through the latest and greatest crazes. That's ok, to each their own. I am certainly happy to keep revisiting that fine ' old scotch ' and enjoy my lights.

Hmmmm, I hope that makes some sense.....:huh2: