Facebook is where most of our users are

[rouble]

Facebook and other centralized social platforms such as Discord have dried up the user base of most independent forums like this one.

If you'd like to engage with other club members you're encouraged to join our Facebook group found here: https://facebook.com/groups/ArkansasCanoeClub

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I remember the days when this forum was filled with paddling trip reports during the wet season locally and with reports for western and eastern rivers during the drier times here. On weekends that the Mulberry was up, "Ten At The Bend" was a thing where anybody interested in paddling would just show up at Turner Bend around 10 AM and everyone would work out a plan. In the off-season, there were funny posts and stories, observations, and witty banter from the likes of Kenny Peerson (RIP), Davidbob, and many others plus the antics of the Red Boat Fleet and Team Stupid.

I never see any of that on Facebook, I don't think the Facebook format is conducive to it but I also think that the social inclinations of younger paddlers is different. It seems that Whitewater School is well-attended every year but I have no idea how new paddlers continue after that. I imagine that everyone now just has a private circle of friends they paddle with but I don't know how (or if) new paddlers break into those groups.

There's a Japanese phrase, "mono no aware" that roughly translates into melancholy about the impermanence of things and that's often what I feel thinking about the ACC message board of the past and the ACC in general, sadness that things aren't like they used to be. Nonetheless, I'm happy that I got to experience some of the "good old days".

People change, times change, technology changes but the rivers just keep rollin' along...