So....what does everyone do for a living?

[Lucifus]

Hi Gotwoot,

It's been a very long minute.....I'm just curious what you all have been up to, I see that a number of folks on my friends list are still active posters and viewers of anime.

Can't help but notice how quiet the forums have become though as a long time lurker haha.

Any original GotWooters still out there? Hello, can you hear me now?

[David75]

Welcome back from the shadows.
You could start by telling us what you do for a living
Home automation and some electricity here.

[Lucifus]

The light it burns.

Thanks! Is that your day job or like personal home improvement hobby? That's pretty cool David (avatar hasn't changed I see); I haven't dabbled into any home automation beyond the standard functionality that comes with smart homes, though I have managed to upgrade nearly all outlets & lights to smart ones and ran a new outlet/light post or two.

Currently a jack of all trades Analyst/Sys Adm for a financial company in FL.

Any plans you know of for GotWoot to evolve into it's next form?

I'm curious if others share it, but I kinda have this existential dread where I measure my lifetime / relative age by whether or not GotWoot is still gonna be around the next time I click on my bookmark LOL

Are there enough regulars to breathe new life into GW or do we just let it fade away into the abyss with a whimper? Are my fears unfounded and she's alive and kicking?

[Buffalobiian]

Long time no see Lucifus.

I work as an emergency doctor in Australia, probably gonna specialise into that. I like intensive care as well but dual specialisation is a lot of work and I don't know if I want to do that right now. I quite like radiology as well but not getting on the program and slowly losing interest has steered me here.

I'm watching less and less anime as time goes on I think, and it's partially due to there being some sort of mental "hurdle" for me to try a new show. If a trailer or poster interests me I'll try it. The biggest draw is actually the studio making it, or word of mouth (eg gotwoot posts) praising it. Otherwise, the easiest thing for me to do is to watch sequals to stuff that I've already seen (Attack on Titan is pretty much the only show I'm watching this season, for example now that Kimetsu no Yaiba has finished up).

It's partly lack of time due to work (COVID has kept me busy), games (Elden Ring is taking up so much time lol) and partly just getting old and lacking energy I think. I remember a time when I'd watch EVERY show each season for a few eps before finally culling down to 15 shows a season or something. This was just after highschool or so.

As for the forum, Complic8 made a post some years ago I think. The general gist of it is that he can financially maintain the status quo for now. New forum registrations have been stopped because it's just spambots overloading the system and we have no good way of addressing the issue. It's just old blood here now, and there isn't any new content reaction (sub groups) to pull in new people either. Reddit seems to be the current "discussion place of the internet". I read that, but I don't post. It's hard to keep track of, and here I can actually put a personality to the username.

Talking about personalities, I found that it's always interesting when there's a controversial poster around. Previous examples include BoC, Animeniax, Abdula and Arkangel. I'm pretty sure Ark's actually dead. He was really active on IRC then nothing. Currently it's mostly MFauli taking the controversial stance.

When the forum ultimately dies Comp mentioned that he'd just archive the site or something for nostalgia's sake.

I daresay the IRC chat is probably more active than the forum (if I go by "characters sent per 24hrs"), but it's more general banter and topic-of-the-day type stuff as opposed to thread-like discussion. TV shows, movies and US politics seems to be the main topics there.

Y has been asking for years to bring that chatroom over to Discord instead. We haven't listened to him.

[shinta|hikari]

Software QA Engineer in MN, working remote.

Damn, Ark died? Must be all those muscles burdening his heart.

I've dialed down on anime simply because I've seen such a ridiculous amount of it everything is almost derivative. I still watch those that aren't.

I spend a lot of time reading VNs, mostly Japanese ones as they come out. I particularly loved the nostalgia-trip Tsukihime remake was. Planning on getting into Elden Ring after a Hawaii trip with my wife. Spending more than a week with her exclusively will buy me about 2 weeks of mildly interrupted playtime as I cheese my way through FromSoft's magnum opus. I will probably play Grisaia Phantom Trigger vol 8 when winding down from frustrating boss fights. Marathoning Horizon Forbidden West is what landed me into this Hawaii trip in the first place.

Just got a puppy a few months ago. A yorkie we named Mr. Darcy from P&P. I hate dogs. Demanding, needy, noisy, filthy, and EXPENSIVE. Good thing my cat Akira beats the snot out of it daily, except the dog thinks it is winning... Got a few new neighbor friends from my apartment building, who my wife loves hanging out with.

Just got my permit to carry so I can buy a .22 pistol for target shooting fun. Not really something I'm too into, just something new. Flavor of the month, as it goes for me.

Life is looking pretty good, at least compared to the shithole it was a year ago when my best friend, who I consider a beloved brother, randomly died from a possible embolism or something. We will never know since he didn't get an autopsy due to his wife's family's wishes.

Such is life. Highs and lows. Mostly mean and average.

EDIT: I don't expect Gotwoot to die anytime soon. If there's anything consistent about old-timers like us, it's the fact we stick around long after our welcome is overstayed.

[Death BOO Z]

a few years back a switch careers, from the "doing whatever" track to software development. last june i finished my contract with the bootcamp company and looked for a job on my own. so in octoboer I started working in a security company, where i develop tools to manage cloud security.

it's alright, money is good. people are nice.


personal life is still a mess.

edit:
as for the future of the forum, maybe facebook will crush and zuckerberg will be thrown in jail, and the internet will revert back to the early 2000's. but probably not.

[David75]

Thanks! Is that your day job or like personal home improvement hobby? That's pretty cool David (avatar hasn't changed I see); I haven't dabbled into any home automation beyond the standard functionality that comes with smart homes, though I have managed to upgrade nearly all outlets & lights to smart ones and ran a new outlet/light post or two.

Day job. Not what I was aiming for. Was an engineer in automotive then medical industry.
Got serious health problems for over 5 years, job was over... Had to pay the bills, worked as an electrician with far too much qualifications, even for the manual part of it to my surprise !
Then quickly got jobs around home automation and the likes.
I now have many customers that pay me for things that seems easy to me, but they can't have done by anyone else.
Maybe because I have both the engineer's knowledge and the electrician knowhow.
Job pays the bills and more so it's ok afterall.

[Lucifus]

So here’s a pitch…

It seems to me the general populace of GotWoot’s loyal pillars are all intelligent capable technically savvy to a sufficient extent.

I know myself and my wife could develop such a project even by ourselves…..

But could we not adapt and develop / design a new GotWoot?

I know people don’t like their cheese moved but there are definitely means of preventing spam/bots nowadays.

I’m not sure we’re at a point to take on all the financial burden paying for another sites hosting/ssl certs/domains yearly like complich8 (give us a year or two to get filthy rich lol) or he could potentially weigh current annual cost vs projected annual cost and take over.

But every other technical & design aspect we could handle pro bono…including organic SEO and handling spam/bots to open up to fresh blood.

Beyond monthly cost, the only other hurdle would be what does GotWoot 2.0 provide that will bring in the users we want to see?

Just saying…. Evangelion Episode 34 - “We can rebuild him” Pro Bono GotWoot 2.0 Shall Not Die
__________________________

End pitch,

Sorry to hear about Ark if true; he’s been offline on his steam account that I have for 8+ years now…

@Bill, I’ve watched less and less anime over time simply due to as mentioned by Shinta above, the derivative nature of most anime content compared against the vast quantities of anime long since consumed dulls the enjoyment of most new shows; as well as just focusing my efforts on adulting and being a provider for my wife whose been pretty much very sick for the near entirety of our marriage of 4 years and heading for more costly/risky surgeries in June.

I still watch gems when released and keep up with AoT myself and have tempted my wife in enjoying them as well lol.

I’m playing a lot of Elden Ring myself; truly one hell of a game. Video gaming at its finest with the exception of its solo player experience despite having “needlessly convoluted and separating multiplayer” capabilities.

Kinda hard to get your wife into playing it with you if you die and have to refinger yourself and go through a ritual ceremony just to assist her…every…single…time… >.>

Reddit may be the go to spot, but there’s still plenty of opportunity to draw in users with similar interests…people are always interested in more unique personalized; online communities, you guys and myself wouldn’t be here otherwise after all this time.

Funny Buffalobiian, I remember the strong personalities and the subsequent advent of the Flaming Pit being the beginning of the end of GotWoot’s golden age. That was my impression as a young adulescent, threads everywhere with red vs blue stances & remarks remarks with interesting moderation, lol.

@Shinta, got my concealed permit a number a years back but ultimately ended selling my Ruger to my brother and not renewing. The peace of God be with you.

We bought a house by a nature park and have a pair of rabbits that have free roam of house and land; trying to live the more simply live; get all kinds of birds and animals come up asking for food lol. Just have to watch for opportunistic coyotes.

I’m sorry to hear about that man; whatever our differences I empathize and have compassion for your plight. Nothing could have prepared me for the experiences I’ve grown through witnessing the challenges my wife’s had to bear; all I can say is we’re made of very strong stuff. I’ve kind of let a lot of personal attachments go and try to take life day by day and enjoy each moment in as much peace as I can muster. Stress is no bueno.

@DBZ,

One moment at a time man, that’s all it takes

@David,
I’ve always had an internal faith/understanding in myself and my place in the world, existence, God or reality that each moment provides for itself, which has allowed me to stay calm and have clarity in the most dire of times when everyone’s running around like a chicken.

At the end of the day, we are our own worst enemies me thinks. Understanding of ourselves and the world shapes our desires, which gives rise to our thoughts and actions, which influences our fears. Fear & take root in me at times but for the most part, I’ve come to enjoy peace and birdsong and the simple things while they last.


@all, serious about intro pitch though, is the thought / endeavor worth considering or of no interest to the peeps?

We’d take our time on turn around time but really the only roadblocks I can formulate are monthly burden of cost likely to be in similar range as what complich8 is currently paying to maintain, and a focal point/content meant to draw in a semi targeted audience.

[Buffalobiian]

Elden Ring Solo play is a weakness? I've been playing offline man to avoid all the damn troll messages and loading times lol. Maybe I'll play PVP when I'm done with the game, but I've never been competitive in games that require gear.

As for the site, I don't know how much technical knowledge or work is required to move this to vBulletin 5 or something. It might be doable. As for new content, I don't have any ideas for any and honestly don't have the drive for it, but if you guys do go right on ahead.

[woofcat]

These days busy working as a Senior Product Manager for a technology company doing software used by lots of interesting organizations.

I wish we could one day bring the internet back to personal forums, blogs, etc. Back when the internet wasn't so uniform. However it seems Facebook, Discord, Reddit, etc have swallowed almost all online communities.

[Assertn]

iOS developer working at Uber. Started in 2021. Mostly working with sensor data, especially GPS. If you see a button on the right side that shares your location with the driver when he's approaching, that's a project I helped with.

[Janice]

I was an operations manager in a call center for 10 years. I resigned two years ago and started stock trading full time. I have nearly 100% free time, but the income is... inconsistent, especially in this market.

I was an editor for GW Subs for several years and active in the sub group IRC, but never too active on the forums. I check in every few months to post in the Berserk manga thread or make a random comment. Actually, I've followed these forums regularly since about 2003. It's a bit strange for me that I have known some of you for nearly 20 years, but you have rarely heard from me.

Anyway, I think spending so much time editing scripts ruined my enjoyment of anime. I used to watch nearly every new series, then it became only the series I worked on, and now I literally only watch MHA and read the Berserk and OPM mangas. I'm so casual it hurts ugg =(

[David75]

I remember you Janice

[neflight86]

No one told me there's an entire forum outside of General Anime...

I used to work IT in finance (never will you see more burnt out, contemptable people than IT for credit unions/banks). Nowadays, thankfully I am a systems analyst for a municipality, and couldn't be happier, thanks for asking. I hope GotWoot stays around for a long spell.