Choose Costa Rica!
Dedicated to those who love Costa Rica, or who would like to know Costa Rica better. Feel free to exchange experiences about living in Costa Rica, travel information, ask advice, give advice, and voice your opinion (as long as it is about Costa Rica).
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The Costa Rica Bulletin Board is going into retirement
(A long and probably boring explanation follows. You might want to skip it.)
Almost eleven years ago, when Internet was relatively new, I was experimenting with constructing web pages using raw HTML code. The only available web page programs were so primitive as to be an annoyance. As an experiment, I coded the Costa Rica Bulletin Board. Back in 1996 there were almost no public forums or message boards for those interested in retiring or going into business in Costa Rica.
At first, the forum was intended for readers of my book, Choose Costa Rica. A way of keeping current with Costa Rican news and developing events that might affect expats living in Costa Rica or moving to Costa Rica. The first visitors knew about the bulletin board only because they saw the website listed in my book.
That was before the days of Google and other high-tech search engines that allow instant access to any kind of information you needed. This was before the day of on-line newspapers and free high-tech bulletin board systems. Before DSL and satellite. When dial-up was your only option, and a high-speed modem was 28.8 Kbps! (I fondly remember the exciting day I upgraded from my 14.4 Kbps modem! I thought, what will they come up with next?)
The bulletin board started off slowly. Sometimes no more than a half-dozen messages in a week. Visitors tipped off friends via e-mail, and messages began appearing from newcomers. Every time a newcomer became a regular, I was delighted. Then, early search engines, such as Alta Vista, Gopher, and others began listing the bulletin board when someone typed in "costa rica." Traffic picked up considerably.
This was both good news and bad news for me. I was pleased to see the bulletin board becoming successful, being of help to those interested in communicating with others with the same mind-set. But it also became a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating chore. Especially as spammers, trolls, and hackers became more expert at causing problems. I would sometimes wake up in the morning to find a hundred porn messages that needed to be removed, and to ban their ISP numbers . I felt I had to check several times a day to see what was happening and clean up the scene, take down abusive posts, try to settle arguments, searching for and removing multiple offers for viagra and porn websites. All of which took time from my work schedule, and interfering with publishing deadlines. Not to mention the criticism from my wife (who never did understand why I spent hours cursing at a computer instead of working on something I was being paid to do).
Some years ago, I made the observation on the bulletin board that I was going to close down the forum because of the time and headaches required to keep it going. (Actually, I did shut down for a few days.) I received a flood of e-mail pleading that I not do that, as well as a couple of offers to buy the bulletin board to use as an advertising medium.
One e-mail was especially welcome -- from a bulletin board regular who offered to act as administrator and moderator. That seemed to be the perfect solution. I can't tell you how much that helped. I felt as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. Over the years "Smudge" has made life much easier for me by sharing the work. Another set of eyes. Some of you may have guessed who Smudge is, but my understanding is that he prefers to remain anonymous.
Recently, Smudge's residency was approved, so he'll have to be spending at least four months a year in Costa Rica, probably with a slow dial-up connection. Therefore it will be impossible for him to do very much in the way of maintaining the bulletin board. This conveniently happened at the same time that I decided to retire the overworked bulletin board.
I know I'll get offers to replace Smudge as the keeper of order and maintenance supervisor, but at this point, that's out of the question. I just want out! And I don't care to sell the website, or turn it into an advertising forum.
To be perfectly honest, the main reason for discontinuing should be obvious. This bulletin board has become increasingly irrelevant. Let's face it, because it's a fact. Today a Google search will turn up who knows how many bulletin boards on Costa Rica. And good ones. The unique need that our forum filled is no longer unique. It merely duplicates what is already available. In my opinion, there is room for only so many websites offering duplicate services. Excellent sources of information, all of them. This one won't be missed. Just for starters, you have the ARCR Forums, Costa Rica Living, and many others.
I have to admit that I do this with a certain amount of sadness. Over the years, I've made several good friends via this bulletin board. Friends who have visited Sherry and me, both at our Costa Rica home and at our California home. And we have visited them in their homes. From reading the messages and answering only when I thought appropriate, I feel as if I know many of you very well. I tried to keep my posts to a minimum to avoid influencing the direction of the conversations.
To be honest, the bulletin board hasn't been all work and frustration. Or it would have disappeared long ago. The truth is that some aspects have been downright enjoyable. It's been fun watching visitors' messages change from those who were curious about Costa Rica . . . eventually making the move . . . then answering queries and passing along their discoveries to other curious newbies. The next step was fading away as they settled into their new life styles. Their places on the forum were soon filled by the next wave of adventurers.
Something that really hits home is when we run into those who mention that my bulletin board helped them make the decision to move to Costa Rica. How it enabled them make friends with those already living here, thus building a support group before packing their belongings for the move. I'm sure that yet others discovered, from reading the bulletin board, that Costa Rica wasn't the place for them after all. Which also was a valuable lesson for them.
I want to thank all of those who participated in this forum in the past, and especially those of you whom I consider friends. In some ways, that includes almost all of you. I like to think so, anyway. Our paths could easily cross some day in Costa Rica.
