Should the forum be closed on mondays?

[Memory]

I have no issue with the site being closed on Monday, or any day of the week for that matter, obviously so long as it's just for one day. It's one of the many things that makes this forum unique. I've never known any other website that does this.

[nemmoue]

I'm firmly in the camp on the other side of the river-- I love the monday closures and I think they should stay exactly the way that they are!  It's a reminder of the ephemeral nature of the internet -- in the end, it's just one face of the dice that is the world.  go outside and do something else!  go on another website!  it's more then a reminder to not be terminally online; it's a reminder that the internet itself isn't something that should always be available at your fingertips.  Making it read-only defeats the purpose!! 

[tarraxahum]

At this point the Monday closings are like a local place opening hours to me: I think "Ah, I should check out what's new on the forum", look at the calendar and go "Whoop, closed today, tomorrow then!". And honestly I agree with those who say that it gives a certain charm and, like, real-ness to the space.

However, I also very much see the archiving POV about being unable to access some info and such. From that standpoint, a read-only mode might not be the worst idea.

Definitely don't think that the forum should stop closing on Mondays altogether tho.

[Rrim0]

I'm all for having the site CLOSED a day a week, but I personally would like to change the day from Monday to another weekday between Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday.
My reasoning is very simple, arbitrary and egotistical (whoops): Monday is usually my free day and the day I can spend the most time online.
Having the site closed on Monday means I don't usually have time to participate at all. I sometimes briefly check discussions/lurk on other days, but I have almost no time nor mental resources to write. (Today is an exception since I'm on sick leave. Thank you, influenza-san!)
As a less personal point: as someone else already mentioned, having the website closed to the swatch time / UTC (?) timeline means that for maybe a large part of people the forum is closed since mid-Sunday onward. I'm on UTC +1 so it doesn't change that much for me.

On the topic of closing VS read-only:
I really like having the site completely closed on a weekday, as a reminder to "touch grass". This kind of break is sort of unique in the modern internet landscape and I think it adds to the charm of the forum.
I don't think having the forum on "read only" mode would have the same effect and, as Melooon alluded to, I don't actually think the goal of this specific forum is providing information (there's the wiki for that. We can work on expanding that). It's a social hub for people interested in the small indie web and all affiliated hobbies.
So yeah, the effect is like having the public plaza closed for a day so people can do whatever they want and not think of the "common interest" and come back later with renewed energy and ideas.

I love that! I just wish it was not on Monday, ahaha.

As for moderation issues: maybe redirect forum.melonland.net to the usual "IT'S CLOSED" page on the designated day for the common folks, but have a mean to make the forum accessible through another address to only people who need to work on it (I have no idea if this is easily implementable. It's just an idea)

[starbreaker]

I'm fine with the Monday closures, but it's not actually just Monday for me. Since I'm on New York time, the forum becomes inaccessible on Sunday at around 6pm EST and remains so until Monday at 6pm EST. Having said that, I'm OK with that; it's not like Final Fantasy XIV doesn't do everything on West Coast time, for example.

[bingus_baby]

I personally am in favor of the doors shutting every Monday. As someone who desperately needs to touch grass, I like that it forces me away. I feel like going read-only mode kills the purpose of that. The point is that it is like a real business that you simply cannot visit that day of the week. If you take a picture of that business you can look at that, or you can go read Yelp reviews, but it's not like you can just walk in and take a look around without buying something. The doors are shut, locked, lights off. For a forum, this has an artistic meaning to it and forces the nerds to go grocery shopping or something instead of being on the forum. Sure you can just go visit another site, god knows we all do, but as an artist I have to stand by Melon on this one. It has more meaning than just "Go away" once a week. Melon has said it himself, the site is more of an art project than a function over form forum, and while it's easy to forget that as we mostly associate it with the community and interactions, he is the artist and I have to respect his vision for the entire Melon Cinematic Universe. Although, I do like this democratic government we're forming! That's pretty neat to see! Let's just not make our own political parties to go with it lmao

[m1k3]

he is the artist and I have to respect his vision for the entire Melon Cinematic Universe

This is a good way to put it, although I do wonder if a forum fits into the definition of an art display.

Per Wikipedia:

From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications that manage user-generated content.

In other words, this forum software doesn't make much sense unless everyone is contributing content and discussions.

[m1k3]

the internet itself isn't something that should always be available at your fingertips

Careful what you wish for.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Yo.
Making it read only might be problematic when smb wants to edit their post; allowing edits opens somewhat room for manipulation.

Personally, I like the Monday break; makes it easier for me to keep my latent internet addiction () in check, but I'm sure I'd also manage if it would be open.

[rigel]

i'd say im a fairly new member so when i found out that the site gets closed on mondays, i was also thrown into a state of shock! i was miffed by that fact at the moment, however thinking about it now i'd say that i like how it's closed a day as it does encourage you to do something else. sometimes i spiral into a rabbit hole of endless pointless scrolling which doesn't make me feel good if i let myself overindulge in that, and i appreciate this forum for sort of preventing that, reminding you that there are other things you can do! also, i will never be opposed to anything that makes the mods' work much easier on their backs, that's a given

i don't think the site being read-only is a bad idea, though i do have to agree with the people that are advocating for it to be completely "shut down" for the whole day. i feel like leaving it open, even if you can't really do anything on it, still sort of defeats the intended purpose of keeping the site closed.

[akesi]

I'd definitely prefer to keep the Monday closures as is.

I echo the sentiment of a few people that closing on Monday isn't the best day for the closure to happen for me, but I kinda enjoy the inconvenience of it? The forum re-opening can become something to look forward to. The Monday closures feel like a huge part of the site's identity, and I'd miss that if it were gone. The routine makes the site feel more alive, even when it's shutdown, at least for me.

[Capybara]

I don't mind the Monday closing, although for me it's slightly odd since 1. My weeks start on Sunday and 2. Timezone issues, so the "Monday closings" are during the evening on Sunday and it ends up opening for me on my Monday. There were times when I came home from work on Sunday to check and was hit by the closing sign, but it's a minor inconvenience for me. I like the message of it overall, but I like the forum being read-only instead of closed completely.

[m1k3]

@Melooon The community has spoken and it looks like I'm in the 1/4 minority. 

I think probably at this point there won't be much of a shift from yarr to narr. Thanks again for getting community feedback!

I appreciate everyone's thoughts and insight - it certainly gave me some perspective! 

[Melooon]

The community has spoken and it looks like I'm in the 1/4 minority.

I think everyone said most of what I might have added along with quite a bit more!

For me the most interesting thing was how the votes came in; the first 10 hours or so got about 10 votes and it was perfectly 50/50 - I posted it quite late at night, so all of those votes were probably from people in the US. The vote only started to swing in the Yarr favour after Europe and Asia woke up. I know that's not much evidence, but it maayybe suggests that there's a cultural difference surrounding the idea of access to services

Read-only seems to be a popular idea; but it's maybe not technically very easy - and Cobra leaked the sneaky backdoor that no one is supposed to know about!

As for the day itself; Im not sure there's any way to fix that; we could change it to Tuesday, but I suspect just as many people would have personal reasons for not liking Tuesdays. And same with the timezone; It closes at midnight in Amsterdam (server location), we could change that to midnight in New York, or Tokyo, but then a different group of people would be bothered by it not lining up! Maybe we will just stop calling it Monday and rename it "The Mysterious Closed Hours"

It's nice to see everyone's analysis and reasons for liking/disliking it! Thank you for so many good responses and @m1k3 for suggesting it!

[m1k3]

I know that's not much evidence, but it maayybe suggests that there's a cultural difference surrounding the idea of access to services

That's a really good point and something I hadn't considered. Being from the US, I think I learned something about myself.

As for the day itself; Im not sure there's any way to fix that; we could change it to Tuesday, but I suspect just as many people would have personal reasons for not liking Tuesdays

I think you're right about that. There's probably no good solution because even if you could make it based on the user's timezone, there might be some confusion about reply delays between east and west folks.

Read-only seems to be a popular idea; but it's maybe not technically very easy

It may not be worth the effort, but the easiest method is probably a SQL update query. This could be done with a cron job that runs a script.