Also, I recall running it by here to make sure I got all my facts straight, and you folks were truly helpful in that regard.
reference for the lurkers:
Hey all! I didn't know where else to post this in the forums, so I chose this one. Anyway, I'm getting ready to publish a Topic Article on Cracked.com (yes, THAT Cracked, as in Cracked Magazine) about large squid, including the Humboldt, giant, and colossal varieties. Anyhoo, since...
tonmo.com
What really happened was the great online writers crash from a few years ago, when so many websites started to go under (CollegeHumor, FunnyOrDie, et al.). Cracked was one of the few that remained, but it was left a shell of its former self. Cracked bounced back and forth between one corporate owner after the next, each of which didn't know jack **** about comedy.
Sad stuff, and I'm all too aware. TONMO was truly amazing in the mid-2000's. Social Media sucked all the life out of the room, although they connected everyone on a much larger scale. So some good and bad came with that... quite bad for the likes of TONMO, though, because all our traffic went to, shall we say, more shallow cephalopod interest groups which are adept at collecting "likes". Also, forums USED to be THE place to go and interact with others, engage in some small talk, whatever. FB and Twitter pretty much took all of that away, leaving some thin gruel in our own forums as far as dynamic personality and friendly interactions go...
TONMO has always had a policy that requires seed posts (those which start a thread) must be about cephalopods (except for our Supporters forum), but when social media is the first place people go for conversation, it doesn't leave much left for our forums. Still, since our info is so rich, and we have amazing contributors on our staff and in our community, and also since there is still so much left to learn about cephalopods, we are still here. A bit of a shadow of our former selves, but still here... And I'd say stronger than we were a few years ago.
I'm straight-up proud of the relationships made on TONMO, around the world. People like
@OB got to partake in an actual colossal squid (
mesonychoteuthis) dissection, highly publicized, simply due to interactions made here. The
ALCES crew (
@Tintenfisch,
@GPO87,
@Heather Braid) all met each other, and
@Steve O'Shea, here on this forum. Many folks don't stop by anymore because of the availability of other platforms for collaboration and reach, but it still blows my mind that some of these people moved their lives to the other side of the planet (NZ) to launch their careers in cephalopod study, and it all germinated right here.
There are many more interactions, like
@DWhatley's numerous mini-cons, and
@Colin and
@Nancy paired up to author a much-cited
book on keeping cephalopods.
The relationships I've made for myself are irreplaceable. The TONMOCONs are incredible experiences, it's so thrilling to meet up with the people I've been interacting with for so many years -- and the content is among the most advanced research available, coupled with impressive student / intern presentations, and that of hobbyists. It's all quite special.
And I couldn't have done it without the support of the great folks at TONMO! (Well, my squid writings, anyway!)