Hello good people,I hope everyone is well,and doing well a we near the end of the first month of 2024!!

Apologies to everyone,i just realised that the group had reached its maximum limit of posts,so noone was able to post,i've no idea how long it was like this,as i've been absent of late!!

I've had to delete a fair amount of posts,mainly from years ago,non UK 60s/70s psych and pop posts,neo psych posts,and other bits and bobs to make it so people can post again!!
So apologies if its been your posts that have been deleted!!I certainly deleted quite a few of my own that didn't have many views or no replies!!

THE QUESTION NEEDS ASKED:SHALL WE KEEP RZ 2 RUNNING?

I wanted to also say that the fees for running this forum,end in middle of February,i feel WE CAN'T expect Andy to shell out to keep it going again,as he has done for years,it's NOT fair on him,particularly that fees have been hiked up!!

THANK YOU ANDY

Andy has been gracious enough to keep RZ going for years,but lately in the last couple of years like MANY other discussion groups like this,theres been vey little discussion or action,so it's time to ask,shall WE let this forum pass away into the ether land,and come to the conclusion that maybe it's had its day as things like Facebook give options to set up groups?

MEMORIES

This has been a fantastic forum,and MUST be one of the longest surviving examples on the internet,as it started as RZ and then relaunched as RZ2 as the "old"forum got invaded by toxic,unstable lunatics.......anyone remember these days?

This forum has had some marvellous people take part through the years,some who are no longer on this dimension,and there has been some great discussions,some with real passion,but mostly ALWAYS civil,not like social media where its a free for all,with so much vitroil,hatred and division.

AN OASIS OF MUSIC

This has always been an island to get away from the crazy hectic high pressured world we live in and the crazies who inhabit that world!
To talk about what we ALL had in common,our love and enthusiasm of mainly 60s/early 70s UK psych,early prog,folk,folk rock,glam,mod,freakbeat and some plain and some weird old pop!!

WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN NOT!!

We very rarely mention or approached politics on here,and that was fantastic as in todays world politics is an absolute divider of people,i'd rather we concentrate on what we have in common rather than what we DON'T,or point out differences between people,and be able to talk and interact on things WE have in common,and here it IS music and the love for past decades,that many of us didn't see or partake in as we weren't born!!

THE DIE HARDS

For some time it's been the same group of people who have kept interacting on here,some from the very early days of RZ,but many have have vanished over the years,leaving the die hards to talk about stuff!!

People like Downunder Greg,Music Professor Paul M,The lovely Gent Phil,Globetrotting Joe McF,Martial Arts Psycher Mark K,The NOT a King Richard V..........

FREE COMPS FROM GOOD PEOPLE

Today i looked over ALL the posts,and it made fantastic reading,there really has been a lot of knowledgable and helpful people on here,and this forum MUST have been one of the first to make our own private compilations,with artwork,liners and sent them via snailmail for FREE,even internationally,just to share the music,this was well BEFORE the technology we have now where it can be sent via email.I DIDN'T know any other discussion group that did this at that time!
That was an exciting time,as it was ALL new!!

CARETAKER

I've been a kind of caretaker of this forum for quite a while,though i'm a very hands off type of bloke,maybe too much so,and through periods of ill health,i've NOT been as attentive as i could have been on here,or took part as much as i should have,but i'm NOT one for pushing people to take part,as as far as i was concerned this group was run by us ALL for OUR fun and entertainment,with NO pressure or hassles!!

Unfortunately there will ALWAYS be ego maniacs,who will attempt to cause hassle,as i discovered last year,a very unpleasant person,who COULDN'T take criticism,attempting to throw his weight about,with legal threats aimed at myself and at this little forum.......i thought what a horrid sad little man with a bruised ego,i just laughed.....but at the same time i was like who the f...k needs this crap?
Thankfully people like him didn't frequent here much through the years.

So please let me know what you think,shall we keep this place running,or shall we put it to bed?

Hi Stuart. Many thanks for keeping rz going.

I appreciate whoever got it back up and running again. Cheers.

Hi Stuart

Regarding lack of recent posts I thought it was due to member apathy so thanks for the explanation. Hopefully peeps have been sitting on news and views and there will now be a plethora of posts (ever the optimist).

I agree that Andy shouldn't carry the expense any longer. Perhaps we could crowd source funds to pay for another year. 20 peeps @ £10 would likely be enough. Perhaps folks would be wlling to pledge a small amount via this thread. I'd gladly pay a tenner to keep it going... only 19 more to go. Not sure of the exact deadline but hoping we can act in time to save RZ.

PPP

Hi Stuart, thanks very much for your and Andy's efforts to keep RZ going and for clearing out a lot of old posts to make more space. RZ is a digital dinosaur in some respects but it has a lot of history as you have pointed out in your post. I was just thinking of the Sweet Floral Albion 'zine that was partially birthed via RZ for instance and of course all the comps now neatly archived by Mark Kupsz. The thing about RZ is that it will go to sleep for quite a while, almost hibernate sometimes until someone prods it and berates the inactivity. This often wakes up the old sod and posts start to happen again. As per Mark K's suggestion, I too am willing to chuck in a tenner to crowd fund it for another year. There are lots of people who use this site who cannot afford to do that I know, so no pressure on anyone but I think the site is still worth keeping if possible. I for one like the fact that you can just slap a post on it without having to go through digital protocols like some internet masonic gatekeeping ritual. Of course as you say Stuart, there are some who abuse this, but by far, it is a useful resource and musical drop in cyber cafe for many. It is easy to emphasise the emotional over the pragmatic here which is why it would be worth at least exploring the crowd funding option for another year at least. If there aren't enough pledges to do it then that decides it anyway. In this age of AI and social influencers, we are the quill pen and ink pot of social media but I rather like that!

A belated happy new year to all RZers

PM:relaxed:

yes huge thanks to Andy and Stuart Ive actually met Andy a very nice gent and nearly met Stuart but i think he wanted to see a young lady if my memory serves me right
Hopefully the group will continue