Does anyone come here anymore?

[Reply #40 on:]

Ah, but when will the PEEL collective burn down everything it loves in the private Discord, only to rise from the chaotic ashes with a new, even more exclusive version of itself full of chatbots to whittle away precious minutes of our time?

I check in when I remember PEEL exists. And whenever new things happen. Then I get nostalgic and sappy; every time, I realize how much I miss everyone's beautiful, intelligent wit and how much it feels like home here. My mind is a darker, stupider place without you guys.

What was I talking about again?

Edit: New page fiend. Two in two days' time!

[Reply #41 on:]

I just joined this site today but it definitely seems pretty dead. When was it at it the height of its popularity?

[Reply #42 on:]

When was it at it the height of its popularity?

During my time here, I reckon 2011-2013 was the absolute peak. I have to admit, I really miss those days; there was a strong sense of community and the regular activity made it a really interesting place.

PEEL might have been even more active during Futurama's original run, but one of the veterans would have to confirm that.

[Reply #43 on:]

That was probably the peak of the internet in general. Forums are sadly a real thing of the past and the Futurama Reddit really doesn't cut it.

That said, stick around. Things will get a lot more lively here once season 9 starts going out. Then probably dead again. Then livelier when season 10 comes out. Then dead again. Then livelier for season 11. And so on.

[Reply #44 on:]

Well until Futurama is finally dead for good.  And honestly, I cannot really blame people for mingling back when the show the forum is about is on the air.  But even outside the show's time on air, activity still ebbs and flows.

Though, just for fun, here are the number of posts per year:

2000    2684
2001    23098
2002    63481
2003    238027
2004    209951
2005    153741
2006    130886
2007    86052
2008    90111
2009    88463
2010    74455
2011    119596
2012    69900
2013    71982
2014    24411
2015    12041
2016    5460
2017    5612
2018    2906
2019    1040
2020    3317
2021    1565
2022    600
2023    3418
2024    139

And for those PEELers with a data gleam in their eyes; yes, I can further detail it down to per second level (but also in between seconds and years).

[Reply #45 on:]

Wow. I was expecting mere anecdotes but now my mind is being blown with good ol' raw data. It's astounding how active PEEL was after Futurama's initial cancellation as well. I guess the internet was a different place back then.

2014-2016 is the most depressing drop. 2020 tripling the previous year is interesting. Could it be Covid? USA election discourse? Discussing the leap year?

[Reply #46 on:]

We need more leap year discussion, that's for sure!

[Reply #47 on:]

Thanks for the data, Svip.

I don't recall enough detail to be specific, but I think a good portion of the gradual decline was due to people spending more and more time on massive social media sites and less on smaller niche sites, and also due to the rapid migration to smartphones and away from desktops to access the internet.

At least for me, accessing Peel on a phone is painful, but perhaps I'm a minority: I was walking across a parking lot with Randi once and she was navigating parked and moving cars while simultaneously composing a Peel post with both thumbs a blur of speed. She was typing as fast on her phone as I could type on a keyboard.

There;s also the fact that the bulk of Peelers were growing up and having more responsibility and less free time overall.

Also, my recollection is that the former administrator wasn't just ambivalent to the development of a mobile Peel app, but actively worked to sabotage efforts of others to create such an app. I suspect that the availability of a Peel phone app would have kept a lot of people from drifting away.

2020 tripling the previous year is interesting. Could it be Covid? USA election discourse? Discussing the leap year?

The politics thread was pretty busy as I remember, but I'm leaning to covid being a significant reason, both in terms of people being cooped up and having more time for Peel, as well as Peel being a bit of comfort/stress relief.

*  edit  *

I'd bet that at least a quarter of the year 2000 posts were made by Randi as she tried to stoke the site and get people interested, but that data may be lost forever because of the first(?) PEELocalypse.

[Reply #48 on:]

Remember when people spamming used to actually be a serious problem? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[Reply #49 on:]

I used to post a bit on here around 2005-06 under a different account. I remember what a hive of activity it was.
I'm not sure exactly why I randomly decided to re-join a few days ago.
I guess 'cause of boredom, and social media actively trying to drive people away with excessive advertising and "recommended" posts.
But I also don't have much to say, so rejoining was probably pretty pointless.
But hello, anyway.

[Reply #50 on:]

Welcome back! Peel is like Hotel California: you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave

Did you go to any PEELathons back in the day?

[Reply #51 on:]

Well... to be totally honest... I was kinda awkward back then and never was quite able to feel like I fit in or connected with the other posters. But it was still fun coming here to read new posts and join in on all the fun games. I'd like to think that with age and maturity I'm slightly less awkward than I was back then. Thanks for the warm welcome  (plenty of room at the hotel Peelifornia... )

[Reply #52 on:]

I'd bet that at least a quarter of the year 2000 posts were made by Randi as she tried to stoke the site and get people interested, but that data may be lost forever because of the first(?) PEELocalypse.

Only her posts that were in the old Offtopic.  The rest should all still be there as far as I know.

[Reply #53 on:]

Though, just for fun, here are the number of posts per year:

2011    119596

I think it may have been in the summer of 2011 that I made upwards of 100 posts in a single day, so active were the forums (and hyperactive was my brain). Ah, good times...

[Reply #54 on:]

2011 was the year I joined, and I definitely remember it being a lot spammier (mostly in a good way).

However, 2012 is the year I made PEELing my full-time job, on account of me not having an actual job. You know, the type that pays. With money. So yeah, I made a shit load of posts then.

[Reply #55 on:]

Ah yes- I was incredibly depressed in 2011, so I was here all the damn time. Instead of working on my PhD. Boy, does life do weird shit to a person. And, no, I really don't think I would ever try to do a PhD again.

[Reply #56 on:]

Ah, so that's what PhD stands for. PEEL heals Depression.

[Reply #57 on:]

I didn't realize that so many of us joined the site in 2011. The internet felt so much larger back then, now I probably spend most of my time on 4 websites

[Reply #58 on:]

2011 is when I joined too.  I guess the CC revival really attracted a lot of new members.

[Reply #59 on:]

2011 is when I joined too.

There's just a one-day difference between us, too!

[Reply #60 on:]

IDK, I only recently signed up. This was the most active server, and its helpful that I like its retro look. I never signed up for fansites in my teen years, mostly because it was unaccessable to a young disabled me.

That's a good question, though.

[Reply #61 on:]

Well, glad you made it here eventually, digijem1! It's been pretty quiet since the burst of activity following the most recent Futurama revival but I hope you stick around and get to know the folks who still drop in.


It was late 2010 for me. And way too late, dammit! I'd seen bits of Futurama but had never really watched it. Shortly after I'd sat through a couple of full episodes on late-night TV I was searching something Futurama and got hits on this wretched hive of scum and villainy message board called "PEEL". Shy and introverted or not, I joined and started looking around. And as a veteran of the Psychic Wars the early dial-up BBS socializing and fledgling publicly accessible internet, I was way too sensitive and abrasive. Many thanks to Fazeshift for slapping some sense into me.

For some odd reason people here accepted me and I started to grow up. Met my first Peelers in person in 2012 (Zoidberg227, futurefreak, LeiaPadme77, and a few others. Now I'm a Peeler forever. PEEL is not a place, it's a people, and I've made good friends for life here.

[Reply #62 on:]

I joined in the early 00's when I first got the internet, good times!

[Reply #63 on:]

We need more leap year discussion, that's for sure!

Today is a fine day for a leap year discussion :p

Re: join dates, I only got here recently (mildly noteworthy in that I signed up while the sign up form was nonfunctional :p )

[Reply #64 on:]

I couldn't even manage to sign up when the sign up form was functional.  I just had the site admin make this account for me.

[Reply #65 on:]

I see if this place is still alive and it is.

[Reply #66 on:]

I can't be the only person who forgot their password for 13 years...

[Reply #67 on:]

I can't be the only person who forgot their password for 13 years...

I can't believe it was the same password from 20 ought years ago. I changed it once because I think someone knew it, and then I reverted it back to the original one it seems!

[Reply #68 on:]

I don't trust password managers so I keep an encrypted password file. As long as I don't forget the password to the password file I ought to be OK

And remember to keep it updated 

[Reply #69 on:]

I just don't change browser.  My Firefox remembered my WikiPEELia password after 14 years, no problem.

[Reply #70 on:]

Yeah, I still run FF for 99.44% of things, but occasionally do fresh OS and program installs on the rare occasions I get a new laptop.

[Reply #71 on:]

Laptops are for when you're on the go, I still keep a desktop at home.  My Firefox on my desktop doesn't change when I get a new laptop.  And I have changed Linux distribution over the years, but I've kept my /home partition, including moving it from a HDD to an SSD.

But this also means, there are some sites I cannot access on my laptops, because I cannot be bothered copying over the passwords.

[Reply #72 on:]

Fair enough. I also tend to keep my /home partition when upgrading, but despite having a number of PCs around the house and garage I've used a laptop as my main machine since around 2001 or 2002 and haven't had a desktop machine since then. The current laptop moves from the coffee table (dedicated 24" 1920x1200 monitor) to my WFH area (20" 1600 x 1200 dedicated monitor) to the headboard of my bed (yes, another dedicated monitor, 35" 3440x1440).

I was about to say that if I were doing heavy-duty dev work and needed more processing power than the laptop's Intel© Core™ i7-8550U I might build a desktop, but that's not true, as I'd likely put together a beefy headless workstation, stick it in a closet somewhere, and just remote into it as necessary.

Eventually, I expect that most people will use their phones as their main computing devices and mostly access them using VR, with devs and sysadmins perhaps using wireless keyboards. But fate is strange and it's difficult to predict social and technical trends. Always in motion the future is.