Should the forum be closed on mondays?

[candycanearter07]

While I don't like the forum closing, I do agree that it can be confusing for people who don't expect it, especially if they don't know about @swatch time. Maybe you could include some countdown/progressbar on Sunday to display when it will shut down, and one on the closed page to display when it reopens? Also having the closed page redirect to the forum page after the timer runs out would be nice, or like a link back to the forum.

[Melooon]

Maybe you could include some countdown/progressbar on Sunday to display when it will shut down, and one on the closed page to display when it reopens? Also having the closed page redirect to the forum page after the timer runs out would be nice, or like a link back to the forum.

Done on both accounts ^^

Also also login systems, profiles and private messages should now be accessible on Mondays ~ if you try to login to access the everyone site it SHOULD work! (Untested )

[renyoi]

I think maybe its important to remember that the purpose of inconvenience is not to be convenient! 

The forum closes on Monday because its an inconvenient day; its deliberately an impactful day to close.

but it doesn't close on monday for everyone. sometimes it's closed on sunday night for people. if the purpose is to be as inconvenient as possible, why not close on friday or saturday instead? it seems like maybe you chose a weekday for a reason, but if time zones mess with that too much, why not switch to a day that is a weekday for everyone?

at least then the level of inconvenience would be the same (or as similar as possible) for all users 

[devils]

Yes, but maybe make an exception for useful pages (or at least feature them elsewhere). There have been times where I wanted to access the frame-link script on a Monday and it only being on this forum is a bit of an inconvenience.

[nintendowii99]

but it doesn't close on monday for everyone. sometimes it's closed on sunday night for people. if the purpose is to be as inconvenient as possible, why not close on friday or saturday instead? it seems like maybe you chose a weekday for a reason, but if time zones mess with that too much, why not switch to a day that is a weekday for everyone?

at least then the level of inconvenience would be the same (or as similar as possible) for all users 

I agree with this, I think it should either be a weekday for everybody or a weekend day for everyone. This is why I suggested Wednesday. It's in the middle of the week so weekends shouldn't be impacted. I get the idea behind the inconvenience, but I wish there was more transparency as to why Monday was chosen when it overlaps with a weekend night.

It seems like the goal is to have the site be closed on Mondays, but as many have stated, the time zone the site uses makes it overlap with Sunday evenings which interferes with usability. If the purpose was for the site to be closed on Sundays, then I'd understand the pushback, but it's not. So why not move it to a different weekeday?

[candycanearter07]

Hey! I've been thinking about this some and I came up with a potentially really silly idea to both lock it down and give some level of interaction on mondays:

what if the site was "frozen" every monday?

so, like my idea is that the site would be semi read-only, like you can still write post replies but they're basically saved as a draft. then when it hits @0 Tuesday, every post written on monday gets sent at the same time? maybe they could be colored differently or marked somehow to note that they were written in a freeze, and like maybe you can only write one message per thread? if you dont want it to be a avalance of new messages, you could alternatively have it stagger sending one message per user every 10 minutes or so until the queue is done, as long as they still appeared before the posts made tuesday.

again, this is a really silly idea and im fine if its not accepted but it would be nice to have a slow day to catch up on messages since im bad at letting a ton of unread messages pile up :>

[Còbra!]

Hey! I've been thinking about this some and I came up with a potentially really silly idea to both lock it down and give some level of interaction on mondays:

what if the site was "frozen" every monday?

so, like my idea is that the site would be semi read-only, like you can still write post replies but they're basically saved as a draft. then when it hits @0 Tuesday, every post written on monday gets sent at the same time? maybe they could be colored differently or marked somehow to note that they were written in a freeze, and like maybe you can only write one message per thread? if you dont want it to be a avalance of new messages, you could alternatively have it stagger sending one message per user every 10 minutes or so until the queue is done, as long as they still appeared before the posts made tuesday.

again, this is a really silly idea and im fine if its not accepted but it would be nice to have a slow day to catch up on messages since im bad at letting a ton of unread messages pile up :>

Ooh! I love this idea! I second this!
In old forums that have closed down, you can still view them through the Internet Archive. Heck the Yesterweb forum has been closed for over a year and you can still view it in read-only form.
I know the Internet Archive was recently attacked and that has shown us a world without it, but hopefully more people will create their own archives and decentralise internet preservation.

Point is, you can read many forums closed long ago, so why not here?

[Loebas]

Hey! I've been thinking about this some and I came up with a potentially really silly idea to both lock it down and give some level of interaction on mondays:

what if the site was "frozen" every monday?

so, like my idea is that the site would be semi read-only, like you can still write post replies but they're basically saved as a draft. then when it hits @0 Tuesday, every post written on monday gets sent at the same time? maybe they could be colored differently or marked somehow to note that they were written in a freeze, and like maybe you can only write one message per thread? if you dont want it to be a avalance of new messages, you could alternatively have it stagger sending one message per user every 10 minutes or so until the queue is done, as long as they still appeared before the posts made tuesday.

again, this is a really silly idea and im fine if its not accepted but it would be nice to have a slow day to catch up on messages since im bad at letting a ton of unread messages pile up :>

I third this. But make the forum entirely read-only.

So the useful and important posts are still visible to someone who is coming from a search engine, and happens to visit the forum on monday. But make it read-only to give the moderators a little rest. Which was the entire point of closing the forum anyways.

And "close"* the forum on Sundays instead of mondays. So the moderators get their well deserved weekend.

*With closed i mean turning the forum in read-only mode in this context.

[Memory]

flat out closing is further than what is really neccesary. it's up to the individual to moderate internet usage, not the owner of a forum. closing can also hurt discoverablility. if surfers of the web stumble upon the forum on a monday, they might just leave without revisiting any time soon. keeping the site read only still gives mods a breather while also still allowing the site to be discovered. first-time visitors probably won't make an account and post on the day they discover the site anyways.

[b-lly]

I like the forum closing but I also like the idea of having a read only mode so I propose a silly compromise:
you can access the read only mode by nicely asking Ozwomp to let you in because you reeeally need to see something. he gives you access only for a limited amount of time, and when you're inside the theme is different like a closed luna park. the gifs don't move, the screen is dimmer, some decorations have been put away... after the time runs out Ozwomp takes you back to the entrance, and if you try to enter again he tells you he can't let it happen twice in the same day

[fancypengy]

As others mentioned, it seems like having a read-only forum once a week is a good compromise for everyone. It gives the mods a chance to step away for a day and not worry about new posts being created. There could still be the nifty closed page but maybe have a link on it to proceed to the forum if desired?

I like the forum being closed on Mondays for all the reasons people have mentioned- the charm, a reminder to take a break, giving a break to the moderators. I think the idea of it being read-only would, for me, take away from the "reminder to take a break" idea because a lot of my forum time is browsing anyways, and the break aspect involves stepping away from the internet's constant info overload if that makes sense. I really like the idea, if y'all do decide to switch to read-only, of still having a closed page with a link to continue. So there's my input! 

[Memory]

I like the forum closing but I also like the idea of having a read only mode so I propose a silly compromise:
you can access the read only mode by nicely asking Ozwomp to let you in because you reeeally need to see something. he gives you access only for a limited amount of time, and when you're inside the theme is different like a closed luna park. the gifs don't move, the screen is dimmer, some decorations have been put away... after the time runs out Ozwomp takes you back to the entrance, and if you try to enter again he tells you he can't let it happen twice in the same day

+1
this is a really cute idea

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I agree with keeping it closed on Mondays. Apart from reasons already mentioned by people who have their thoughts better put out than me, I personally think not everything has to be handed to the user in a silver platter. I think this is a issue that permeates a lot of things: storytelling, videogames... homogenizing everything leads to lack of identity, inability for something to stand on its own. Plus it's a small obstacle with a purpose, a sort of memorial to all things lost due to the incessant tides of time: it's not there just because 

[NoxidKin]

I'm happy with it being closed on Mondays but I understand why some people might not be.

It reminds me of Ready Player One, where they decide to close the Oasis one day a week.  I always thought that was horrific!  People really really relied on that for important services and in some cases their entire lives.  Some people just aren't able to "touch grass", it'd be like shutting down the entire internet for a day, the world would collapse!

But...  Melonland isn't the entire internet.  Themes of personal balance and wellbeing are important to the site.  And if someone really does need the internet, well, most of the internet is still there.

I just ran into it for the first time this Monday, and I mostly just found it cute.  IDK though, is my personal enjoyment of its' cuteness worth possibly upsetting someone else?

I don't dislike the idea of having a partial shuttered version available, but if its for a limited time then I'm not sure it really solves the problem.

[wolfkitty42]

Personally, I like it a lot. Places in the real world close a few days each week. I don't think it's a bad thing that Melonland takes a day off as well.

It's nice. I feel like so much of the internet is begging you to stay on it, to be there as much as possible- The more time you spend on a site, the more ads you can see, haha! It's really, really nice to have a forum that subverts that by having mandatory downtime.

Plus, I think it's nice to be used to regular downtime. When websites or services go down, it can be a big event. I feel like it's cool to  be used to downtime in case Melonland ever experiences any outages.