Gendo ikari
CommanderIkari
last online: 01/01, 12:44
Verified User (6 years, 5 months)
Long Term User
Shoutout0

Hey everyone, long time no see.

Seems like someone found a way to get the codebase of the entire original website, which is pretty wild. Feels like I'm a teenager again, the interface and everything feels completely identical. Looking at the most recent online users, some people I remember are on here, Doctor Ralph, Jebus, Sophie, etc, although it doesn't seem this place is as active as the old site, which makes sense. I only saw the email that got sent out today, since I don't often check the email accounts I made as an early teen.

As for myself, I went to university, graduated, and have since moved to China. I'm teaching English here, have been for a year and a half, and I'm considering going to graduate school to get a master's in economics someday.

In the days since help.com closed I've only stayed in touch with one person from here. I'm not sure if any of you remember baconator, as I believe his handle here was, but he's still around.

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Since writing this post CommanderIkari may have helped people, but has not within the last four (4) days.
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Replies (18)
Roccoflip
(48 minutes after post)
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Welcome back! ๐Ÿ˜„ We interacted on the old site a bit- I'm Rocco. That's cool you moved to China! I've always loved Asian culture. Paid a visit to Japan for about a month last year. ๐Ÿ™‚ I'd move there if it weren't for the huge population (Not much a fan of crowds) and China is even worse! ๐Ÿ˜‚


Unfortunately, the codebase for the original site was lost. A majority of the data itself got kept, reformatted, reformatted again, and is now stored at archive.help-qa.com (There's a lot of data and the server is small, so it's a bit slow.)

This site was built from scratch by memory, screenshots provided by a few different users (including a couple of old mods), and the web archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20080131224341/http...
It's entirely different underneath the surface, but built to look as close to the old site as possible, with a couple of tweaks and changes.

I believe you were friends with @~CaitherrA~, correct? She was around for a little bit. Maybe she'll come say hi. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Rockster160 invited 1 user .
Gendo ikari
(56 minutes after post)
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Rockster160 wrote:
Welcome back! ๐Ÿ˜„ We interacted on the old site a bit- I'm Rocco. That's cool you moved to China! I've always loved Asian culture. Paid a visit to Japan for about a month last year. ๐Ÿ™‚ I'd move there if it weren't for the huge population (Not much a fan of crowds) and China is even worse! ๐Ÿ˜‚


Unfortunately, the codebase for the original site was lost. A majority of the data itself got kept, reformatted, reformatted again, and is now stored at archive.help-qa.com (There's a lot of data and the server is small, so it's a bit slow.)

This site was built from scratch by memory, screenshots provided by a few different users (including a couple of old mods), and the web archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20080131224341/http...
It's entirely different underneath the surface, but built to look as close to the old site as possible, with a couple of tweaks and changes.

I believe you were friends with @~CaitherrA~A~, correct? She was around for a little bit. Maybe she'll come say hi. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Yes, I remember you a bit, not very well, I'm sorry, but it has been a long time. It's a truly herculean effort you've gone to, recreating it all from scratch, ultra props to you for putting this all together!

Yes, I remember being friends with her, seems she last posted two months before. I wonder if there's any way to coordinate things to get a sea of people all back at once, I seem to remember there being a facebook group with former members? I guess the true lifeblood of the site is random people googling though; that's how almost all of us found it originally, myself included.

I visited Japan too! It's so cool seeing a place after wanting to go there for so long, and being based in China has made traveling the rest of Asia much more doable.

Roccoflip
(1 hour after post)
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CommanderIkari wrote:

Yes, I remember you a bit, not very well, I'm sorry, but it has been a long time. It's a truly herculean effort you've gone to, recreating it all from scratch, ultra props to you for putting this all together!

That's quite alright. I've got a pretty poor memory myself. Mostly recognize your name, that you like anime, and that you were associated with the "group" with Cait, @HastaIguanaPianoman, @Pianoman91894, Nante, Baconator, Chicken(?), etc... (I'm sure I'm missing a few names)

Honestly, I never planned for the site to go anywhere. Just built it half as practice half because it was on my mind and I felt like I owed it to the community to try. People like it, so it's stuck around. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ But thank you. ๐Ÿ˜„

CommanderIkari wrote:

Yes, I remember being friends with her, seems she last posted two months before. I wonder if there's any way to coordinate things to get a sea of people all back at once, I seem to remember there being a facebook group with former members? I guess the true lifeblood of the site is random people googling though; that's how almost all of us found it originally, myself included.

That was the original goal. I made a post on that Facebook group, (One of them- not sure if there were multiple) and then- like you saw- sent out an email to the emails that were recovered. Unfortunately, again, like your case- many people have moved on from those emails by this point.
So it's a work in progress. ๐Ÿ˜„ The name isn't quite as good SEO-wise as the old one, but we've been moving up in the ranks on Google. The more people that are here/active, the higher we go. Sort of like the "need experience to get a job" type of situation.

CommanderIkari wrote:

I visited Japan too! It's so cool seeing a place after wanting to go there for so long, and being based in China has made traveling the rest of Asia much more doable.

Japan was amazing. I love everything about the culture. So much better than here/US. People respect each other, they respect the environment, stores/transportation/systems are set up well. Every aspect is better than here... Except the person/sq ft ratio. ๐Ÿ˜‚ As it is I'm the type of person that does my shopping at 2 am so I don't have to deal with crowds of people.

What's been your favorite place over there so far?

Rockster160 invited 2 users .

Hello.

I'm curious to know more of the tale of how you wound up in china. Pianoman's had his eye on a teaching position in japan (discussed it a bit in https://help-qa.com/posts/157-heyooo), and seemed practically compelled to dedicate substantial effort to keep up with the competition.
Maugre their relative physical proximity, to my knowledge china & japan are quite different in some ways, culturally in particular - how has the experience been so far (and how long)? How have you been faring vocationally, and environmentally (as in adjustment to the locale)?

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[quote]Test.[/quote]

T7oab4
(3 hours after post)
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hey @CommanderIkari!
I wasn't part of the old help but I'm very happy to see this online community grow! so a warm welcome back from me! hope to see you around!

Roccoflip
(4 hours after post)
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๐•อคอญอฅฬ‡๐•–๐•ฅ๐•šใ€‚(Yeti.) wrote:
Maugre their relative physical proximity, to my knowledge china & japan are quite different in some ways, culturally in particular

If this is pointed at me- didn't mean to infer that they are the same/similar. ๐Ÿ˜… Merely that I have an interest in all Asian cultures, despite their variance. Different aspects of each.

Rockster160 wrote:

๐•อคอญอฅฬ‡๐•–๐•ฅ๐•šใ€‚(Yeti.) wrote:
Maugre their relative physical proximity, to my knowledge china & japan are quite different in some ways, culturally in particular

If this is pointed at me- didn't mean to infer that they are the same/similar. ๐Ÿ˜… Merely that I have an interest in all Asian cultures, despite their variance. Different aspects of each.

No chiding was intended, rocco. I meant that from what I knew of ikari back in the day (little, admittedly), figured he'd be more inclined towards settling in japan than china, so there might be an interesting story behind that decision.

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[quote]Test.[/quote]

1581744157174 1581744149313 miss bot
last online: 03/19, 3:49
Verified User (7 years, 2 months)
Long Term User
Shoutout0
#
(11 hours after post)
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Welcome back! What took you so long to find us? Well, anyway. Glad to have you among the living.
[All them dead people stopping by was beginning to creep me out.]
Soco, e.g. Southern_Comfort

Gendo ikari
(12 hours after post)
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๐•อคอญอฅฬ‡๐•–๐•ฅ๐•šใ€‚(Yeti.) wrote:

Rockster160 wrote:

๐•อคอญอฅฬ‡๐•–๐•ฅ๐•šใ€‚(Yeti.) wrote:
Maugre their relative physical proximity, to my knowledge china & japan are quite different in some ways, culturally in particular

If this is pointed at me- didn't mean to infer that they are the same/similar. ๐Ÿ˜… Merely that I have an interest in all Asian cultures, despite their variance. Different aspects of each.

No chiding was intended, rocco. I meant that from what I knew of ikari back in the day (little, admittedly), figured he'd be more inclined towards settling in japan than china, so there might be an interesting story behind that decision.

I became more interested in China towards the end of university, and the cost of living in China is quite a lot lower than Japan, while the ESL salaries are pretty much the same.

soco wrote:
Welcome back! What took you so long to find us? Well, anyway. Glad to have you among the living.
[All them dead people stopping by was beginning to creep me out.]
Soco, e.g. Southern_Comfort

Glad to be back!

Kalinihta wrote:
hey @CommanderIkari!
I wasn't part of the old help but I'm very happy to see this online community grow! so a warm welcome back from me! hope to see you around!

Thanks, and welcome to the club!

๐•อคอญอฅฬ‡๐•–๐•ฅ๐•šใ€‚(Yeti.) wrote:
Hello.

I'm curious to know more of the tale of how you wound up in china. Pianoman's had his eye on a teaching position in japan (discussed it a bit in https://help-qa.com/posts/157-heyooo), and seemed practically compelled to dedicate substantial effort to keep up with the competition.
Maugre their relative physical proximity, to my knowledge china & japan are quite different in some ways, culturally in particular - how has the experience been so far (and how long)? How have you been faring vocationally, and environmentally (as in adjustment to the locale)?

Pianoman has his eye on Japan? Reading through his post, seems like he's going for the JET program, which is the best way into Japan. Seems he's not been on in months though, I wonder if he got in and he's in Japan now?

The longer version of how I got to China is that my university, like many, had lots of Chinese students, and I became friends with some, which sparked more interest in China. As well, I became online friends with some Chinese people. One of them was in Shanghai, which made me interested in the city. After graduating university I had an itch to go out and see the world and not just jump into some economics related job immediately, especially because I wasn't having that much luck initially to even find a job like that anyway. I did some online interviews, the ball started rolling, and a few months later I picked up my visa at the consulate in Los Angeles, and about two weeks later got on the plane and left everything behind.

The adjustment process wasn't as hard as you'd imagine, as in the first-tier cities of China it is entirely possible to live and work with no Chinese ability, and you can find bilingual Chinese people who are willing to help with anything that comes up. The pollution is definitely worse than the west, but doesn't bother me much. The crowds and the gargantuan scale of everything here are the biggest changes, but you become used to everything. The infrastructure, especially the transportation infrastructure of Shanghai is very developed, superior to my hometown. People are very nice, mostly, and the place has a real energy, everyone is going and doing something, there's money to be made and life to be lived. Culture differences don't really get in the way much, makes me realize how similar everyone everywhere is. The biggest barrier is the language barrier; Chinese is very difficult to learn though, and I've been lazy. I should apply myself more.[‌quote Rockster160]

CommanderIkari wrote:

Yes, I remember you a bit, not very well, I'm sorry, but it has been a long time. It's a truly herculean effort you've gone to, recreating it all from scratch, ultra props to you for putting this all together!

Rockster160 wrote:

What's been your favorite place over there so far?

Meiji Shrine was beautiful, huge and such an intimate, peaceful place tucked away in the midst of a huge overwhelming city. Passing under the huge Torii gate and walking on the wide path towards the temple with all the branches of the huge trees on each side completely surrounding and insulating you from the city was a great experience.

Ah, so it was a financial decision in part. That is prudent.

Thanks, didn't know about JET.
He seems to have gone on a trip to japan in dec - jan, however I know naught beyond this, nor desired to disrupt his busy schedule (as random stranger basically). Methinks that's one reason why many of helpcom's erstwhile younger audience hadn't returned - integration into life's routines. (Moreover, my first shout to rocco was literally what you said about lifeblood. :) )

It's awesome that you had so many foreign students in your university. Mine only had natives with whom I never connected deeply; had it been anything like the MOOCs I've been studying, it would've been a far more pleasant experience. I have had more in common even with the few americans encountered sporadically than pretty much every local I've met.

Just jumped on an airplane, huh? I couldn't imagine doing that, leaving my family behind. Weren't you scared? Have you been able to develop close associations since the migration?
Were you disappointed with this realisation of cultural pluralism / cross pollination?

By the way, isn't there a bit of a censorshi* thing going on yonder?

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[quote]Test.[/quote]

Gendo ikari
(23 hours after post)
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๐•อคอญอฅฬ‡๐•–๐•ฅ๐•šใ€‚(Yeti.) wrote:
Ah, so it was a financial decision in part. That is prudent.

Thanks, didn't know about JET.
He seems to have gone on a trip to japan in dec - jan, however I know naught beyond this, nor desired to disrupt his busy schedule (as random stranger basically). Methinks that's one reason why many of helpcom's erstwhile younger audience hadn't returned - integration into life's routines. (Moreover, my first shout to rocco was literally what you said about lifeblood. :) )

It's awesome that you had so many foreign students in your university. Mine only had natives with whom I never connected deeply; had it been anything like the MOOCs I've been studying, it would've been a far more pleasant experience. I have had more in common even with the few americans encountered sporadically than pretty much every local I've met.

Just jumped on an airplane, huh? I couldn't imagine doing that, leaving my family behind. Weren't you scared? Have you been able to develop close associations since the migration?
Were you disappointed with this realisation of cultural pluralism / cross pollination?

By the way, isn't there a bit of a censorshi* thing going on yonder?

I wasn't really scared, a bit nervous and surprised by my own daring perhaps.I've made a few good friends here, have a decent social circle. On the contrary, I think that cross-cultural pollination is mostly a good thing; if you see something you like from another culture, why not enrich your own by incorporating it? A lot of it is the sort of inevitable things that come with modernization and development, like the breakdown in the authoritarian nature of families, where they dictate your marriage, career, etc, and increasingly equitable footing of men and women. Sort of the same way that in the west, the traditional "Father knows best" "I just need to marry well", "I can't do what I want if it doesn't accord with what they want" thing went away, so it is in China. There's a generational gap in culture, expectations, etc. It's like the west, just a bit further back in time.

Censorship is around, but you can find out everything you need to.

12
(1 day after post)
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baconator lol

Dr. ralph club zps9ornptsl
(1 day after post)
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Welcome back Ikari. I was surprised Nante couldn't get hold of you. Who sent you the email? We've been looking for all the old members and sending out random bits and pieces to anywhere we think someone might be.

And yeah this place is slow but it's getting better. A big part of the old Help was the fact that people could randomly type help and get there... that train has left the station.

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CommanderIkari wrote:
I wasn't really scared, a bit nervous and surprised by my own daring perhaps.I've made a few good friends here, have a decent social circle. On the contrary, I think that cross-cultural pollination is mostly a good thing; if you see something you like from another culture, why not enrich your own by incorporating it? A lot of it is the sort of inevitable things that come with modernization and development, like the breakdown in the authoritarian nature of families, where they dictate your marriage, career, etc, and increasingly equitable footing of men and women. Sort of the same way that in the west, the traditional "Father knows best" "I just need to marry well", "I can't do what I want if it doesn't accord with what they want" thing went away, so it is in China. There's a generational gap in culture, expectations, etc. It's like the west, just a bit further back in time.

Censorship is around, but you can find out everything you need to.

Glad to hear you're getting along well socially.
I have some reservations towards this trend in the long term, but I suppose it's at least more accommodating than before.

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[quote]Test.[/quote]

Sherlock by olga tereshenko d9qdidc
(4 days after post)
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Welcome back! Just watch what you say and to whom while you are there!

8c4b2750 eacb 4bb1 8471 bb64a37cbd76
(1 week after post)
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Ikari is back. ๐Ÿ˜

Welcome! And sorry! Must have missed the email notice for the invite. I usually try to stop by and check in every once in a while. ๐Ÿ˜…

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Hello everyone!

Gendo ikari
(2 weeks after post)
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~CaitherrA~ wrote:
Ikari is back. ๐Ÿ˜

Welcome! And sorry! Must have missed the email notice for the invite. I usually try to stop by and check in every once in a while. ๐Ÿ˜…

Nice to see you again!

Dr. ralph club zps9ornptsl
(3 weeks after post)
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So when are we starting a new longest post post?

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