I want to go back to 2005

[Amy Carey]

:sigh: something on another post got me thinking about when I first started digi scrapping and i went to SBB to see just when I posted my first page. I started in 2003, but my "2nd" real digi page was uploaded there in January 2005. I think that was the year I REALLY caught digi fever. I had been collecting stuff and reading boards and thinking about it but not really doing it until 2005. By March I was on my first CT and I had so MUCH passion for it!! And everyone else did too apparently. I remember writing full descriptions in the gallery when I uploaded pages ... i've been reading them this morning and enjoying the trip down memory lane of both my life and my kids and my digi journey. The pages back then sucked of course, lol ... but all those memories and you could tell I really CARED about what I was doing. I still do care about the scrapping, and putting my best foot forward as a babe ...but remembering to take pics of the little things and carrying my camera with me everywhere ? not so much...some of that has faded. The whole digi community has faded. All the comments on those ugly ugly pages ...rofl.
There were so MANY comments and they were all genuine and more like discussion than "nice page" , "pretty page",....whatever. And I'm gulity of that myself. I don't know what my point in this post is really except that there was such a comraderie then. Really in my eyes the only place that still has that to me is here at SSD. Or that could be that I just only want to BE here ... I'm not dissing on other sites or anything I just want MYSELF to get back to that fired up girl that I was and I would love to see more of us embracing what we do in the building friendships and making memories for our families. I want to go back to the me I was then. I think I've left the "hell" (pardon the term) that has been my life for the past 18 months or so kill some of my fire and passion for the things i love..and this little romp down memory lane this morning has really got me thinking about what i need to do to change that and go back to being ME again. lol I don't know why I felt so compelled to tell all this here but I think maybe I have some kindred spirits here and wanted to just spill my guts about what I've been thinking. I have so much more love ih my heart now for those ugly pages again Am I nuts or does anyone else get what I'm saying?

[pewtertm]

I absolutely get what you are saying!

I used to go to several chats a week at different sites, and felt like I knew a good majority of the people in them. Lots of time commenting. And yeah, I would put big descriptions on my layouts...now it's rare that I put any at all.

I don't know if it's a change in time, pressure, or what, but I do miss the feeling of those early days.

[sprauncey1]

could.have.written.every.single.word (pretty much)

As I'm getting back into scrapbooking after a 1.5 or so lame-ness, I do wonder what happened to that fire I had back then? Are we all that much busier/is it because its not "new" anymore? Pondering but mostly so I can get some of my mojo and flow back! I do love this place and do think it is (one of) the last bastions of community and joy in scrapbooking!

[Paula]

ITA!

[Kjersti]

Maybe you should make a post on how to get the "fire" back!!!
I used to take 100 photos by noon.....now I haven't take a picture since Christmas

[Nettio]

I totally know where you're coming from. I've noticed this too.

I think part of it is the industry maturing and some of the new-ness wearing off but I also think people don't really push themselves the way they did in those early days. Part of it is again, everything not being as new and fresh as it was back then, but I also think part of it is due to templates being so commonplace that people don't feel that same drive to find their own style and learn like everyone did back then.

I know I remember being so intimidated by all of the amazing and creative pages in the galleries when I started in 2006 that I really pushed myself to grow and learn and improve as a newbie, but I don't see that happening the same way today since newbies can just grab a template and be "good" from the start. Not to say there is anything necessarily wrong with that but I do think we've lost a little bit of that competitive fire and uniqueness that pushed people back then. It was a lot more sink or swim back then.

As far as comments, I think it's a bit of a chicken vs egg issue. Everyone complains that they no longer get comments but when you ask if they leave comments, most people say no. I know I've definitely been guilty of that. In the beginning it wasn't unusual for me to leave 100 comments at a time and get 20-30 back but you rarely see that anymore. I think people became jaded with all the praise games, etc and overtime stopped commenting. It's sad.

Oh and I used to leave detailed explanations in my pages back then too, including journaling, etc, but people stopped commenting on it so I stopped taking the time to do it. No real point when you just get "nice layout" comments anyway - I figured no one was reading it, haha.

[Amy Carey]

glad to know I'm not the only one!! and now I really wish I had kept up putting more in my descriptions ...it kind of generated dialog I think and gave people more detail so they knew something else TO say besides "nice layout" lol. I'm gonna keep thinking and figure out what I need to do to get that ME back

[TheHybridMess]

I was thinking about that this morning. When I uploaded my P52 I would have explained that I started a week earlier doing a Xmas to Xmas book instead of starting on the first. Now I only put the supplies in the description. I think growth and globalisation of the hobby has a lot to do with it.

As for commenting, well thats trickier. Everyone wants comments so few of have the time to scour galleries. I remember when the unspoken rule was for every comment received, give one back. And when I open a gallery at a new site I still do that today but I am usually met with no feed back, so then I don't comment and do it goes on. It's sad that unless you play a praise game or have a following you'll receive no comments. Still, if I do play a praise game and follow the rules (say comment on the ONE before you) and get 5 comments back I will go and give 4 comments sometimes to the same people sometimes to others(KWIM). The worst is when people play the praise game and don't play by the rules.

[rach3975]

The early digiscrapping community was wonderful. I joined SBB in March 2004. SSD still has that feel (more in the forums than the gallery), but lots of digi sites don't.

I think part of the death of the galleries has to do with the rise of social media and how many more internet distractions there are now. The other thing is that there were so many fewer products back then. We created more of our own supplies, had to be more creative in reusing the same kits over and over, and relied a lot more on info and feedback we got on SBB to master those skills. Not to mention the lack of templates meant that before I started a page I'd go through the gallery leaving comments while I looked for a page to lift.

I still love scrapping as much as I did then, but I definitely don't participate in the community as much as I did then. In theory I'd like to get back to that, but in reality I just don't know. I have less scrapping time than I used to, and I don't know if I'd really want to give that time up for gallery surfing and commenting. Especially since it usually isn't reciprocated.

[Lindsay]

I agree with so many points people have brought up, but also when I think back, my kids were different. In 2005, I had a newborn and a 18-month-old, they were easy to plop down and do a photo shoot. I had my camera with me all the time because THEY were with me all of the time. Now, it's about stealing a quick shot when they aren't looking. They're out and about now, so I don't have a lot of picture moments these days.

Like others have said, time has become more of an issue. I used to spend hours doing admin stuff at ACOT, being active on boards, and scouring all of my favorite sites for cool layouts and posting comments. I would be up half the night just trying to keep up with everything and that took its toll. Even though I don't have as much time, I feel like I use it better. Twenty years from now, my kids aren't going to know if I used a template or not, nor will they care, but I'm grateful they're around to help stimulate the mojo and get those pictures scrapped rather than sitting in front of an empty canvas trying to find a burst of creative after a long day.