So sad - pccrafter messageboard community is gone

Seems that the messageboard community forums of pccrafter.com are no longer online. Tis a sad day for "Me". It was those forums that really brought the "net" out in me. Most of the folks who do visit this tiny corner of the blogosphere - my blog, know me (LibMary) from those pccrafter forums.
It was back in 2004, that one of my web pages - a listing of links to free printables was being overwhelmed from traffic from the pccrafter forums. My then free website, kept exceeding its bandwidth because of the visits I was getting. So I traced the link to a message on the pccrafter forums - and began to look around the place. I kept seeing the same questions being asked...How Do You Fill a Blank Template with backgrounds and graphics, and also How Do You Remove the White Surrounding JPG graphics. These questions were something that I never had much of a reason to think about, but I was fascinated by how helpful and friendly everyone was in trying to help each other out. I also noticed that the gals seemed to share a special bond with each other. They told of their daily happenings, asked for prayers, told of their joys, showed photos of their crafts, and opened their "houses" (you pccrafter ole timers will remember when folks got "houses" on the MSN site) for us all to visit.
Now at the time in 2004, I had already been buying the amazing graphics collections from pccrafter and had joined the Monthly Hug Club in 2003 (discontinued as of Dec 2010 when they released their last Club selections) - but I collected graphics/clipart as a hobby. I did signage for the Library I worked in, but really didn't do much else with all the stuff I bought. I just fell in love with it, and had to have it, and it was a bargain, and it didn't require any "room" in my house, only on my hard drive....that's my story and I'm stickin to it!
So I didn't consider myself a "crafter" like so many hugsisters were, but I did understand somethings about computers and software programs. As I worked in a Hospital Library that had a computer lab, and had been working with software programs and computers since about 1986..so if I ever felt I could help out with an answer - I would offer up my "How I Do It" posts and threads.
Lots of gals over the years found my help - helpful - and the seeds of friendship were sewn forever into the fabric of my life. I learned a lot from them as well so it was a 2 way or 100+ way street between us all.

When my sweet Paul passed away suddenly on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in April 2008, I sat at my computer that evening, still in shock, but knowing that I needed to connect with my "hugsisters"...and let them know I needed them to pray for me. The response was overwhelming and still stirs my emotions today. Those women are soooooo special and I'll probably never meet most of them in person, but I know them very well.

Lynne, a.k.a. Blondemoments a hugsister, gave us pccrafter sisters a gift last Dec.
She opened a new messageboard community. We all felt that when pccrafter announced that they were discontinuing the Hug Club, and not renewing some of our favorite artists contracts, that things might be winding down for pccrafter as a clipart business. So Lynne thoughtfully "thought" ahead and created a Plan B / Backup Plan for the "Community".

The new Hugsister forums aren't quite the same as the pccrafter forums, but they already have 600+ registered users, and things are Humming :-).
I still help out with posts that I think I can offer something to someone in the way of information etc. Or I offer up links or resources I hope others might enjoy discovering. Come on over if you haven't registered yet and see what we're all up to:
http://z15.invisionfree.com/HugSisters/index.php?act=idx

I'm sure that folks will keep knocking on the pccrafter forum links, out of habit, and also hoping that they can find "lost" threads or the tons of information, tutorials, links, photos etc etc that the place had garnered over the yrs. But at the moment - it's all gone. I don't have a crystal ball, so don't know if pccrafter will repost the messageboard again. They did have an issue with folks who used any other Internet Browser than Firefox, not being able to login and post on the forums, an ongoing issue since January 17. So maybe, just maybe they took down the messageboard and community link to it - in order to "fix it". If it does appear again, I will "edit" this blog post.