Matters Lionistic

For those not in the know, perhaps I should explain that "Lionistic" is a word used as an adjective to describe matters relating to the International Association of Lions Clubs and is not intended as a synonym for "leonine" although, for all I know, it might well be. Anyway, to matters Lionistic.

Way back before anybody had coined the phrase "social networking", possibly as long ago as 11 or 12 years, I stumbled across a site that was a forerunner of Facebook and Twitter. It was a message board run by a Californian Lion. I haven't the foggiest idea how I found it, but I quickly became addicted, along with a good number of other Lions around the world. We used it as a discussion forum for serious matters to do with Lions Clubs, as a means of exchanging ideas and as a place to indulge in idle banter.

In the fullness of time, the organiser (the name "Lane" rings a bell but whether this was a surname or forename I can no longer remember) decided to change the format of the message board quite dramatically. The result was far less user-friendly and led to another Lion, Milt from Los Angeles, setting up a new board to which nearly all the regulars migrated. After a while, Milt became somewhat disillusioned with the volume of banter (I think he was probably paying for the amount of use the board received) and decreed that only serious matters should be discussed. So yet again we migrated, this time to a board established by an English Lion, Paul from Birmingham. He, too, eventually decided he was no longer interested and closed "the Coffee Shop". I considered that there were benefits arising from the use of a message board of this type, one of which was the making of new friendships. As an example, this is how I first "met" Uncle Skip whom I am now pleased to call my friend and whom, along with the charming Grandma Skip, I have subsequently met face-to-face on a couple of occasions. After some trial and error, I eventually set up the most recent Lions' message board so that folks could meet Under the Pier, as I called it. However, I think the time is fast approaching for us to abandon ship. The tide is rising Under the Pier and we have been largely submerged by the dreaded F/B. The volume of messages posted Under the Pier has dwindled, as has the number of people who even just drop by. I really think the board has outlived its usefulness and before too much longer I will close it down.