The Crypto Twilight Zone is gone?

[318WOZ]

I don't post in the Forums often at all, but I just tried to go to the Crypto Twilight Zone, and it's not there anymore. All I got was "Error". I actually gasped when I saw it.

"The temple bell echoes the impermanence of all things." -- opening line of The Tale of the Heike (which I cannot claim to have actually read)

[admin]

Some say the Twilight Zone still exists, and will reveal itself in mysterious ways... let's see who finds it first. ;-)

[Deanna48]

You should check out the chat box. Several members have commented on this!

[318WOZ]

I've seen the Chat Box before, but I've never commented there. It must be distinctly better than social media like Facebook, given that there are no advertisements and memes, but I guess I'd feel like I either had to constantly check it or risk missing things that people said there. That's probably a silly feeling, because I'm evidently missing everything that people say there anyway. Thanks for pointing it out.

[oddcouple]

I've ended up in what I call the John Adams zone about 200 times, but I didn't know there was a comment thread.

[Deanna48]

I actually avoided the chat box for quite a while after I joined the site thinking it would be some weird, dark place, LOL. It's really just a running dialogue like you would see in any group text message.

[Synonymous]

Hi All,
I wrote to Stephen the administrator and this is his reply about the Crypto Twilight Zone:
"Sorry about that! We had to upgrade to a new system this week and a few code changes were required, one of which apparently killed "The Twilight Zone". I won't be able to bring it back as it was before but I do still have the comments saved in the database and may be able to bring it all together in a forum thread or something similar in the future.
Thanks for playing!
Stephen"
Hope we'll see it again someday.

[LLapp]

Hi All,
I wrote to Stephen the administrator and this is his reply about the Crypto Twilight Zone:
"Sorry about that! We had to upgrade to a new system this week and a few code changes were required, one of which apparently killed "The Twilight Zone". I won't be able to bring it back as it was before but I do still have the comments saved in the database and may be able to bring it all together in a forum thread or something similar in the future.
Thanks for playing!
Stephen"
Hope we'll see it again someday.

That's going to be the longest Forum thread of all time! The Zone was basically a chat box with all entries maintained, and it went on for, what, nearly 3 years? Longer?

[pickleball]

Baron Baron Baron, please bring back the Zone!! the first time i played it i left a comment, this site will never be the same, sadly, met many funny, witty , charming and interesting souls that i lost today. again , please Baron try your best

[hrossa]

Oh, that's so sad!! I hope Admin finds a way to restore it. A forum thread would not be the same. Part of the fun was getting there accidentally, and part was welcoming new people who wondered what had happened, where the heck they were. And it was great to chat with the regulars! I'd check on it every couple weeks.

[318WOZ]

I have always found this site fascinating, not just because I enjoy the puzzles but because of the comments sections. There is an array, of unknown but seemingly limitless size, of small forums that we can't intentionally access but only happen upon at random, and in these forums we manage to hold disjointed conversations, with either serious thought or often a healthy dose of merry wit. Sure, it's not always pleasant talk, but to randomly re-enter a conversation started years ago serendipitously can make for quite a treat.

That being said, after enjoying those conversations for a long time I was delighted to find one that occurred by accident and that we could, through various tricky methods, return to. Even though it wasn't, in a sense, much different from forums all over the Internet, this one was special. It was fun, too, because it was a place where seasoned adults participated in playful imaginary parties with a wealth of fanciful foods. And the partygoers essentially all wore masks, given that we mostly only know each other by screen names. It was a place that shouldn't have existed but was, while it lasted, a real delight. On my way out of the Crypto Twilight Zone, as it vanishes into whatever electronic portal it came from, I will grab a glass of sparkling cider and raise it in a toast. Stephen, if you read these posts, thanks for the site.

[skeeter]

I, too, will miss "Crypto Limbo" in its original form. I haven't been there lately, but I enjoyed the times that I was there -- having our virtual food and drinks and partying. What great fun.

[LLapp]

318WOZ, that was a lovely toast to a magical virtual meeting ground. It really was magical, starting with the opening entries which I have read many times. That opening felt just like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and trying, ever so politely, to understand the new world she'd fallen into.

[admin]

Some say the Twilight Zone still exists, and will reveal itself in mysterious ways... let's see who finds it first. ;-)

[Synonymous]

Nice tease, Stephen!!! :-)

[Deanna48]

And the race is on!