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!
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