A tough decision

Pantry members,

It is with mixed emotions I must report to you that The Butler’s Pantry will soon reach its end. It has been a fun 4 years, but all good things must come to an end.

I did not reach this decision lightly. Several factors are involved:

First and foremost, I do not have the capability of maintaining this forum anymore. After the move last autumn, I was unable to get any kind of high speed internet where I live, which has forced me to tether through my cell phone. It’s better than nothing, but it isn’t a solution.  At best I have a slow internet connection which makes it extremely difficult to post updates and virtually impossible to post pictures, and the situation is not likely to change soon. This leaves the burden of the forum to a handful of others, and they have busy lives of their own. It isn’t fair for them to shoulder the burden for all of us, particularly me. As forum owner, if I cannot be the leader in maintaining the site (through no fault of my own, but still) I will not continue to leave the brunt of the responsibility to others.

Secondly, and nothing against Gerard Butler, but interest in him and his fandom has waned to almost nothing – not just for myself, but most of the active members of this forum as well. Some came here without even being a fan; they simply joined for the camaraderie. It’s hard to devote oneself to the responsibility of running a forum when you are a fan – even harder when the passion is gone. And before the rumors on some other sites get started, no I am not “mad” at Gerry, disappointed in him, nor do I dislike or hate him. I will still watch his movies when they interest me and hope the best for him. But the interest in him outside of his career is not something I really care about anymore. It ran its course and had its moments, but people change and with that change interests change too. That’s a natural and healthy thing.

Which brings me to the most important part:  I thought about completely deleting the forum, but that’s a big and very permanent decision.  Once this forum is deleted, it cannot be brought back. This means all of the posts will be gone, the pictures, the articles….everything, and a lot of hard work and effort went into it. Another other option (a much safer one) would be to archive the old stuff and start fresh with a new format - not actor centered, but member centered.  The last option would be to stop where we are, keep the forum as it is, but not update the site any more. I could lock down the parts of the forum regarding Gerry and leave the other parts open for posting about other stuff, or I could leave everything open where people could post an update only when they felt like it. I could include a disclaimer or something on the site for members that visit here and don’t know the situation.

I'm open to suggestions...

Several things ...

Thank you Donna for reaching this decision. I don't believe it has been an easy passage but it is a necessary one. I'd also like to thank Dallas for her enduring efforts to provide us with news updates. Both ladies have been and will remain vital to this Forum.

It is a clinical fact that Gerard Butler no longer holds first place in the interest stakes for most regular members and posters here. Guests may be looking for information on him and his movies/holiday exploits but who really knows when their presence doesn't translate into direct communication of their intent. Anyway, they can look elsewhere for that information. I will continue to be mildly interested in him but certainly not to the extent of the past.

Long term members here have evolved into cyber friends through a genuine interest in each others' lives, not a common interest in GB. We post more in the Chat threads than in any other listing and that tells you something right there. It is very important to me to not lose contact with anyone here and I would hope you all feel the same way.

Therefore, it would be my strong suggestion to shelve Butler's Pantry and make it "Our Pantry" - a combined Forum with everyone as a Moderator/Contributor. Threads can be divided into Galleries, Topics for Discussion etc just as they are now. There would be no news updates unless it was on a topic/theme you are interested in and people would have the option to contribute more as individuals ... a share in the process so to speak. Consideration would need to be given to new membership and basic guidelines but I see it as a possible and excellent option to what we have already started to build. Gerard Butler might become a minor thread on Our Forum!

... if he's worthy of it.

Ditto on Dallas.

How about just "The Pantry"?

Having come to these same thoughts and feelings a couple of years before you, DK, I totally understand how you feel. You go girl!

I do hope that we can continue to keep SOME sort of forum or group, tho, so that we can all continue to stay in contact with each other. And, like Nay said, GB might pop into the conversation every so often.....or not.

You do what you need to do, and thanks for starting the forum in the first place and maintaining it all these years. Thanks also to Nay and Dallas and anyone else who took all the time and effort to keep up with the Gerry news. It sure isn't an easy task!

Love you ladies!!!!

"The Pantry" sounds perfect.

I was never a big GB fan, but I would hate to lose contact with my dear friends here.

"The Pantry" sounds good. It's where people go to get food and drinks, the necessities of life.

I think you should archive the current forum, make it read only. Start a brand new forum, with a large banner or button or something that leads to the archived forum. The current Pantry is very scattered. I have a hard time trying to find certain posts or pictures because things are posted in too many areas.

Start a new more streamlined forum.

Have a topic area for general chat, which will probably have one large chat thread, occasionally closed and new thread started as now.

Have a topic area, and I do mean ONE, dedicated to Gerard Butler. That way everything new about GB will go into the one area as threads, without subtopics. If someone wants to post stuff about a movie, start a thread with that movie name, and everything about that movie goes in there. All GB travels can go into one thread. All magazine ads, photoshoots, articles can go into one thread. It will be so much easier to search through those than going through topics and subtopics and more topics and more subtopics. Maybe that's just me.

You can have a topic area for people to post things of interest that are more than "hey look at this" couple of posts in general chat. Maybe other actors, hobbies, things someone wants to post and not have buried in a long chat thread.

Thank you Donna for having this forum and having us. And thank you Nay and Dallas for all of your time and effort, too. I love having a place, albeit virtual, to drop in whenever I feel like, especially when things aren't perfect, and visit with all these good people.

Thanks everyone for posting your ideas and opinions. I was purposely not doing anything for a week or so to give others a chance to post their thoughts here.

Of course the next step will be to reprogram and reformat, which is a job in and of itself. Give me some time.