yeah, sorry to disappoint, i know it's a bummer. I didn't make the decision lightly, just so you know
buuuut, maybe folks can work out some kind of successor or alternative? there's a thread about it here:
Hey folks, in case you didn't hear, I've announced in this thread that StP will be closing its doors and going into an 'archive mode' (read-only) state at the end of 2023. While that has become a long thread of well-wishes and thoughts on the subject (which I definitely appreciate), I'd like to...
squattheplanet.com
I corrected the link (same one as above) thanks for pointing that out!
Boy, good question. Before I start, I wanna say that what I write below might come off as ragging pretty hard on the punk/anarcho/train hopping community, but really, overall, people have been amazing and StP has enriched my life in countless ways just as much as it's helped anyone else, and I'm thankful for my time here and I don't regret the two decades I've put into this project.
But, I am really, really tired. Not just physically, but emotionally, and mentally. I was looking into a way to port the website over to a new system and I just kept encountering highly technical hurdles at every turn, and it just kind of hit me; that I just don't want to do website administration anymore. There's SO MUCH involved behind the scenes that
no one knows about. It's all incredibly technical and I don't want to bore you with it, but it's a lot of work. The thought of running the 100th import test to a new system that gets borked, and fixing dmarc spf email settings for the billionth time, and a million other small things that need to be fixed just live rent free in my head. Even if it's not super important, it's always there, waiting for me to address and/or fix it. The thought of continuing to do it just made me want to cry.
The second thing is that we just get SO MANY newbies here. There's a constant flux of about 80% newbies and 20% people that regularly hang out in this community. I've known this was the case since the beginning, and I've always just accepted it as a part of running a website trying to help people find life alternatives. I've always thought of it as a river. Basically, most of the water is flowing into a pool in that river, and most of it flows out (the newbies) but there's a small portion (the regulars) that stick around in the lower whirlpools of water.
After 23 years of fielding newbie questions, I've just had my fill. I lasted WAY longer than I think ANY rational human being would (we have a list of ex-moderators as evidence to this). I'm just tired of people not using the search, asking the same questions over and over, and just begging (and sometimes demanding) to be given train hopping information.
Another thing, is the train hopping section. Who-boy, am I tired of that shit. I literally haven't train hopped since 2012, and that section continues to be my main pain point with StP and the underground traveler community in general. If it was up to me, I would have nuked it years ago (as i did once back in 2010) and never let it return, except for the fact that it does actually seem to help some people on occasion.
But, that said, it has been a
constant source of bullshit drama, to the point people have felt the need to attack me personally (literally going on smear campaigns, telling people I'm a pedophile and/or grooming women) and throwing pitiful death threats my way online. Usually, because someone was being racists/sexist/homophobic/transphobic and got banned from this site (incredibly common toxicity found in the train hopping "community"), and that bruised their fragile ego, so they set out to 'destroy my reputation' (yes, they literally told me this was their goal). All over some petty, pathetic, disagreement online.
All that BS just straight up
murdered any passion I used to have for the world of train hopping, something I did frequently for over eight years of my life (2000-2008) and used to enjoy quite a bit.
And, of course, then there's StP being known to everyone as the 'train hopping website' despite all my attempts to downplay that culture (including adding likes/posts requirements, blocking it from google indexing, requiring an account to view that area, etc). This stigma has never left the StP name, despite train hopping being 10% or less of all the available methods for underground travel.
I think my biggest disappointment in this community was simply the fact that
so few people were willing to help me run it. I've pretty much begged users for countless years to help me with anything from moderation to server management to finances.
Now, to be clear, there is a very special list of people who are exempt from that above gripe. The few mods we HAVE had, and the folks that donated money to the site (some of which gave significant sums of money) are fucking GODS in my book, and I can't put into words how much I appreciate their help.
But, the reality of pretty much anything related to StP was that, if I wanted to see something become a reality, it was up to me to do it. This includes things like the Dirty Scouts Jamboree and just about any other project I've ever tried to get going through StP. I'm tired of taking the lead on every thought/idea that I think people would benefit from. Again, I'm just exhausted in that regard. I want to team up with other folks on their projects and not be the leader anymore.
But anyway, this has been a bit of a ramble.
@borek921, you asked me what I was
hoping for.
I guess I was hoping for some semblance of the anarchist community I experienced between 2000 and 2010. That was a pretty great time for anarchists, punks, travelers, etc in general. There was SO MUCH going on. Gatherings, festivals, book fairs, shows, you name it. There was always a reason to travel to some amazing event like Slaughterama, Best Friend's Day, Death Fest, The West Coast Hobo Gathering, Rainbow Gatherings (back when they weren't shitty) or an anarchist conference somewhere.
What I was hoping for was to bring some of that back and create a better sense of unity in the traveler/anarcho/punk community. Swapping useful information and having people that would come back to StP to add to the trove of useful information here, instead of
just taking from it. Where people would come back and post detailed stories of their travels with awesome photos to inspire others to do the same. Where we are all helping each other out and actually living what we preach, creating alternatives, and just generally making the world a better fucking place. I miss that.
I'm not sure exactly what happened. I mean, maybe
the green scare killed off what was left of the anarchist spirit. Maybe it was social media just turning everyone into shitheads and generating this 'fuck you pay me'/'me first' mentality. Either way, it just feels like most people are trying to take care of themselves, without a lot of consideration for anyone else. I just
don't feel the sense of community in any subcultural movement the way I did back then. I definitely feel we've all fallen farther apart rather than come closer together.
I can go on and on, but hopefully, you get the idea. The only thing I feel like I can do in this situation is walk away from it and hope someone else picks up the torch in some other form. If not, well,
it's not my job to carry everyone else any more (I have other goals in life I want to pursue) and everyone's just going to have to either go without or step up and create something new.
I sincerely hope that doesn't come off as me being nasty, that's not my intention. I just need to move on for my own mental health. I would love to participate in or help someone build something else like StP in the future, but I cannot be the only person/leader of whatever that project might be. I'm just tapped out in that regard.
