So while we're all here... how are you?

[Syneryder]

Since a lot of us are logging into the forums today, I thought this might be an opportunity to say hello to other FQ forum members we haven't spoken to in a long time!

While we were discussing the outage on Twitter, I noticed some of us have been here for 20+ years, and FQ people have a really diverse range of websites. It's been years since I checked into these forums regularly! But I think I still remember some of the names I saw on Twitter from these forums. And I definitely remember some of you from the mid-2000s! Apparently that Last Word thread kept going even until 2019?!!

For my part, I'm back in Perth, Australia, and still making my Photoshop plugins like I was years ago. But for a few years I was visiting Europe every year for the Eurovision Song Contest (yes, the one Will Ferrell made a Netflix movie about) & got involved in that scene. I even helped organized a Eurovision nightclub in Australia & we flew in artists from Europe to Australia to perform. This was all before Australia got invited to join - sorry Europe, you've got my weirdo friends to thank for Australia crashing your party!

My FQ site is namesuppressed, 20 years on.

Would love to hear what you're all up to these days. Hope everyone is doing okay during these strange times.

Randall, are you still around? I miss your fuzzy lion avatar.

[Mohawk]

I checked the 2 FQ twitter accounts I know of yesterday but never saw any activity/updates. Where on Twitter was their a discussion?

[Syneryder]

Originally Posted by Mohawk

Where on Twitter was there a discussion?

I meant from FQ users finding each other by searching Twitter for tweets containg FutureQuest as a keyword. I think Greg Eppich was the first. But there were other customer replies on the one official tweet post that got through before Twitter's email 2FA apparently blocked them.

I know comms is going to be a topic (and it should) but I hoped this thread might be for discovering other FQ customers & their sites. When I was browsing those tweets yesterday I was also reading about what each of those tweers do. Like @GFJ_Official apparently sells Goods From Japan, and I thought that was pretty cool.

[hobbes]

:waves:

Just popping back in a year after moving on to disable forum notifications after getting the outage alert. Looks like not much has changed :(

Wishing everyone well!


PS(A):
https://facebook.com/futurequestnet/posts/
https://twitter.com/FutureQuestNet
https://twitter.com/search?q=futurequest&f=live

Ignore:
https://fqstatus.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/fqstatus

[Syneryder]

Originally Posted by hobbes

:waves:

Hobbes!!! Yay, the other fuzzy avatar!

Sorry I missed your farewell before (and I'm not sure if you'll see this), but I'm so glad you ended up stopping by and posted that link again. Reminded me a bit of Jerry Maguire's mission statement, the reasons we start businesses and who we aspire to be. I think I've forgotten some of that over the years (the internet is a different place now) & your post was a good reminder to me.

Thanks for the years of posts and conversation & the general reminder of how awesome Calvin & Hobbes is

[Mohawk]

That was me (Gerg7836) but I never saw any of the follow-up replies.

(We sell snow groomers!)

[Monty]

I retired after 39 years, almost 4 years ago. In March, I got called back in full time and have been working ever since. Recently, I got elected President of the Campground Club where I keep my travel trailer that's right on the beach in Galveston, Texas. Thanks to all the storms this year, our beach dunes got washed away, so I really do have a nice view of the Gulf of Mexico now. My youngest is going to become and DVM in May from Texas A&M. I have one more semester to pay for and then I will get the biggest raise I have had in 8 years.

We recently rode the Tail of the Dragon in NC to TN. I did it on an antique trike I restored and it was quite the adventure. We had to iron butt it out of NC to get back Texas and miss the latest hurricane. That turned out to be a good decision, but 13 hours pulling two trikes at 75 MPH was a long drive. It was an excellent adventure, one I will never forget.

I am still webmastering after all these years. One of my sites just got big enough to sell some banners on this year, so it's paying it's own way. We recently had a big site gathering on the beach in Sargent, TX and had a blast.

I hope everyone is doing well.

[Press]

i'm great if i could only get my email....working on a big deal and can't get contact emails, etc....would be nice to get this fixed before the end of the business day

[squillo]

Hey Syneryder I was one of those on the Twitter thread and it was fun seeing your old handle over there. Likewise, Hobbes (and Monty), it's great seeing you post a reply since I learned lots from you back in the day.

With all the skills I honed on FQ, I took up a full-time position at a large academic institution about ten years ago where I was responsible for just about every internal and external system of its flagship department. With no commensurate authority to make it manageable, however, I bowed out to start work on a pet project a couple years ago only to run into an unexpected funding issue (to put it lightly). So I'm kind of at a crossroads now, trying to decide whether to pick up web clients again, pursue a different project, or try my luck on Kickstarter. I'm hesitant to take on new clients because in the past they never wanted to leave and I'd like to remain open to other opportunities.

I have also become a lean mean running machine over the years and triathlete age-grouper.