Information shared is history saved. (2024)

Joined: 8 years ago

Posts: 137

Good morning all,

It has now been a week since there was any activity on this board. Surely there is some news about the few steamboats operating today or our river heritage worthy of discussion? Is this a valid reflection of the interest level of folks in our shared experiences?

The rivers still flow. People still enjoy being along and on them.

Keep your steam up!

Russ Ryle

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1667

*RE: "Sharing history/Letters from home*
Afternoon, Steamboating colleagues,
Thanks to Russ Ryle for jolting me awake. Russ right that "Information shared is history saved." Steamboats.org has dropped off more than a little. I always regarded any and all history and other postings like letters from home. I'm one who hits 'SAVE' or 'COPY' adding many great postings and pictures here to my groaning files and my dusty boxes.

Many have moved to FACEBOOK for news, postings and nothing wrong with that. Getting steamboat news, history, happenings out one way or the other appreciated. Franz has done fine work in offering his .org site to all of us. Things do wax and wane with me confident new posters and posting may arrive. One 'reason' offered by a few [Not me] has been the seeming halt with news, work for the long languishing DELTA QUEEN. More than a few congressional reps have reported, "Little to nothing in letters, E=Mails calls for the DQ effort now." Is this right? No doubt newer news does appear on FACEBOOK. I admire FACEBOOK but don't have an account or access of my own here leaving that to other family members. Today my E=Mail brought again the reminder invitation for the great Howard Steamboat Museum weekend with period costumes etc. Sounds great but I'm tied down here with chores, family, house contractors. Should be a fine affair and I wish it well.

I heard the recent big weekend for the CITY OF BATON ROUGE affair was a spectacular success. I did see, thanks of forwards, the photos, videos with sound fealturing Judy Patsch, Barbara Hameister, S&D Editor David Tschiggfrie. Really great stuff! Once again I must have snoozed or didn't see it on FACEBOOK. Nothing was said, posted here, was it? Summer is here. Cheers to all!

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 3907

Plenty going on, Russ

But sadly I don't have time to double post. While I don't care for Facebook, it does allow one to post a lot of pix at once. On .org I can only post one at a time from my iPad, so I've chosen to put them on Facebook first. And as said, there are more interested parties on Facebook than on here, or at least it seems that way. It does get discouraging to post on here and then to get no responses or even views of the postings. I was in New Orleans May 16-20 and did no Live from the Levee postings on here for the above 2 reasons. There were postings and pix on Facebook. Then I was busy last week getting my 'museum' cleaned up for the out of town visitors who were coming in for the CITY OF BATON ROUGE celebration on Saturday. After that, the first trip of the year on the TWILIGHT was Sunday/Monday and now I am trying to get home things like cutting grass, weeding, vacuuming done before heading to Peoria tomorrow for the Midwest Riverboat Buffs weekend. I also had church payroll to do, handicaps for two golf leagues to figure, and of course golf to play twice. Once I get back from the Peoria gathering and get the weeds under control, I will try to post from the various river activities I just mentioned. But this site, due to no fault of Franz, is just not as easy to post pix and info as is Facebook. If you've followed .org for long, you know I've posted many threads and pix. I appreciate the threads you've posted Russ, and I didn't respond because I'm not engineering-saavy, and I don't post just to be posting. It is sad that there isn't more on .org, as it was and still is a valuable steamboat/river resource. Sorry for the diatribe. but you and Dale just hit a nerve with me as I am inundated with work before heading to Peoria....

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1165

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 3907

Lack of DQ postings

David, when the owners won't post anything or let people know what is going on, its hard for the little people to find much to say. And to say the same thing over and over to the same choir is often counterproductive. One must also be careful not to be overzealous in the cause. Last weekend was the celebration of the rechristening of the CITY OF BATON ROUGE. To preach the DQ on that occasion for which Capt. Kevin and Carrie Stier had spent thousands of hours and dollars was not appropriate. While the owners may be doing things behind the scenes to get the exemption, the fact is it LOOKS like nothing is being done, at least productively, and to keep beating the drum is like beating a dead horse right now. Sometimes silence is the better choice for a while, (which is what the owners are doing.)

Joined: 8 years ago

Posts: 137

re: Information shared and saved

Thanks for the postings to this thread. Please keep it going. I really appreciate having this subject centered site on which to more securely chat, discuss, and share information. I sparingly use topic specific boards when appropriate to my interests.

I am like many of my generation - not on Facebook. Also, I do not twit :). Social media sites are commercial ventures run to mine your personal information for the benefit of others. Google and Yahoo are worse.

A threaded site gives us the ability to search an ever increasing archive of relevant information. Please take the time to add your knowledge to this collection. As I ask my aviation friends, "Please share your knowledge and memories with others before it 'Goes West' with your passing."

Keep your steam up!

Russ Ryle

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1667

*Postings wax and wane*
Steamboating colleagues,
Judy, David and Russ on the money with their observations above. If it wasn't for Judy, I wouldn't have known beans about Steamboats.org until she showed me/us in Marietta at S&D. I'm sure Russ and I didn't mean to pull any whisles on the above in a negative way. Yes, I languish also with FACEBOOK in spite of encouragements.

Judy has a busy schedule and many interests also. I heard ALL good thing, viewed her talk at the recent CITY OF BATON ROUGE celebration in tandem with the TWILIGHT. Well done.

I've also had a 'strange' year with double eye cataract, lens surgery last August. Then hit with the kidney stone big as Jupiter in September. All fine until a month ago when I was hit with excruciating pain in both legs after my gym session. And it didn't get better. Now I'm hit with sudden degerenerative arthritis in my hips with double cortisone injections in surgery to buy me time. I had a cane and walker here but never had to use either. I'm feeling much better, able to walk, go up and down stairs, do lawn work and weeding--but I'm on a slow bell just keeping AHEAD on about half steam. I hope this staves off for a longer time what I know is down the road--possibly double hip replacements. Hey, this gettin' old not for sissies. Hope you ALL are well. Cheers!

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1165

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1453

Russ, I will join the others in my appreciation for your postings here. I am another one who does not repy/pist if there is nothing to add or if I simply don't know.

Yes, Facebook does give us another opportunity to connect with folks who share our interests. There are several riverboat and river related sites on there, all good. While we all know FB mines our data, there is nevertheless good stuff there and it seems more people. That's neither good nor bad; I don't know Russ, but I personally know just about everyone else here on dot.org. I only deal with personal friends on FB on my own age, but see quite a number that I do not know personally on the river related sites on FB.

There's room for all. Just don't get discouraged when there's not an immediate response to a post on here!

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1453

I will also say that dot.org activity is not what it was in its heyday, and I think another thing that has to do with that is the DELTA QUEEN is not running. Many who posted on here when things were "hot and heavy" were passengers or crew members on the DQ, and now that she's not running that sort of takes that away.

Some who post here are interested in history, etc., and we still have some postings in that regard, but one prolific poster in the history department who is no longer with us is Alan Bates. These things, combined with ease of FB posting and some not being aware of this forum are the chief reasons there is less activity here than in the past.

Joined: 11 years ago

Posts: 83

Lack of Activity

This website really helped develop my interest and research of steamboats, and has definitely contributed to my passion in history, as well. As for me, I haven't posted in forever due to lack in development over the DELTA QUEEN, and I am not one to post on a topic I know little about (which is many of the things discussed here). My interest in steamboats and the times I visit the website does vary by the time of year and how busy I am, but I think that, even with the lack of consistent activity lately, steamboats still have a root in many peoples' lives and hope for the future should not be lost.

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1453

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1667

*.org postings/History/Categories*
Steamboating colleagues,
Thanks to Marcus, Bob and others for their insightful observations, postings above RE: "Information shared is history saved." Since this topic appeared, I've received a few private E=Mails from 'lurkers' I've encouraged to reboard, chime in. Granted many have moved to FACEBOOK for one reason or the other and there's certianly nothing wrong with that. I note some FACEBOOK postings influenced by postings on Steamboats.org but not given credit.

Franz originally set this up devoted more to 'Save the DELTA QUEEN' issues but added other categories when Carmen and he saw the interest with mounting discussions. I always keep track of posting statistics in each category:
'Save the DELTA QUEEN' at 510
'Steamboats & History' at 1,871
'River Talk & Cruises' at 2,224

Obvious many conversations/dialogues overlap speaking to each other as the topics cross on the above three. Even at the height of the 'Save tee DELTA QUEEN' issue we still have but 510 and that's saying something to me. There have been lamentations over lack of clear information from the current DELTA QUEEN operation and, possibly, for good reasons. Again, from a business and legal point, no private for profit operation has to share anything with the public other than what they wish being "private for profit...outside the public domain." Interesting also that a number of present congressional representatives report, "Little to no" communications to us regarding the DELTA QUEEN initiative." What's going on here I ask? Again, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 3907

Original .org

Dale, I think .org started with general things and then Franz added the specific Save the DQ category, because we've been posting long before 2008.

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 1667

*"Original .org/How long now?*
Judy, you're right and I can't recall now the years but no doubt we could dig back on the .org site with first postings. I didn't get tuned in [i.e. 'hooked'] until you had your lap computer on showing us at S&D's annual meeting years back. How long it existed before that unknown to me.

It certainly has grown, changed since then for sure. Strange to be in the middle of one of the oceans, in a foreign country and able to type in, pick up Steamboats.org. Now FACEBOOK world-wide. The real challenge in some countries using a local computer or in a computer coffee shop etc. is that the key configuration to type not the same as here. It ends of with the 'hunt and peck' along with strange letter and symbol configurations. What fun. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Joined: 18 years ago

Posts: 3907

November 2001

The message board started in November 2001 according to the archives. This version started in May 2006, which is what will show as when we became a member even if we were on earlier.

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