The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by Bobko  

Joined: 13 Mar 2017 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 14 hrs ago
Threads: Total: 28 / Live: 24 / Archived: 4
Posts: Total: 2227 / Live: 2151 / Archived: 76 		From: New York
Speaks Polish?: Y
Interests: reading, camping

Displayed posts: 2175 / page 15 of 73
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Bobko   
30 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

If OpenAI didn't skim all the data on this forum and Polanda for free, you could one day sell the data set for a model to train on. It wouldn't be much money, but you could produce a bot with exquisite knowledge of Poland.

But this train is past, the data has already been collected - for free.

The value is in the domain name, and what could be done with it.

Forums are coming back amongst the kids :)
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

I agree with PAK there's nothing business-wise about this site that presents itself as something to invest money

The domain name alone represents something interesting. If you own this place, you can do all you ever wanted with it. We're not talking crazy sums, but what one might spend on a used car, heh.

People don't use forums as much, but that may be temporary. This forum is in dire need of change. Many things could be easily implemented which over a 12-18 month time frame might bring 10,000s of recurring visitors.
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

@Bratwurst Boy

I will support this forum myself if everybody wants to be a little flower that can't act.

Then your forum will be Russian - how would you like that?
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

I think the Admin should hop onto this thread.

He's been such an enigmatic presence for so long, but now it's time for him to help guide people towards the best solution.

Our admin seems to be shy.
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

Yes, cheers for PolAm - but these guys worked for twenty years...

They deserve more than just giving it to somebody for free.

I appreciate PAK's offer, but I would love more for this to belong to nobody and be supported by its readers/writers.
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

one-time-little-bit won't help in the long run..

The admin tells me it's not so much - $200 a month.

$2,400 a year to keep this place belonging to all of us.

Don't have to say goodbye to everyone.

Don't have to live with JR owning this forum (which would be the death of it anyway).

It's not much. One guy with money, could easily close a quarter of that, for the price of his annual news subscriptions. Others can send $5-10 or whatever makes sense.
Bobko   
29 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

The owners changed the announcement a bit, perhaps in reaction to our bantering here.

Now there's this:

"We don't want to ask users for raising money, but if we by any chance receive a certain amount through sponsorship, patronage, or advertising that would cover the professional administrating and moderating cost for another year or more, we'll be able to assign a trusted person to the role and continue the site as is."

ADMIN: PLEASE POST PAYPAL LINK!

I'll send you a little bit.
Bobko   
27 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

it's not my decision...

They said they want it to keep going. They're just tired.

Don't go, I'm sure something will be worked out. You, AntV and Kania are my best buds here, along with Grunnie and Novi.

In the end, if it closes - I would even miss Paulina.

Pawian and Lena too, for sure. And Maf, and CMS, and Ironside... everybody!

But still not JohnnyReb.
Bobko   
27 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

gonna miss you guys and gals

Where you going man?

Hopefully they can hand it over in one piece to someone... don't say goodbye - I will cry!
Bobko   
27 Jul 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [339]

The owners are selling the website, as explained in a little banner on the top left corner of the main page.

First of all - an enormous thanks to them, for doing this for all of us over the past years. A special place is reserved in heaven, for the people that could police this wild forum.

I think their work allowed hundreds of people to discover their ancestry, and allowed thousands of others to make friends or find work.

Adrien's funeral was another instance where this platform played a big role, as I'm sure was the case in many other instances.

So big round of applause to the owners!

Now regarding my proposal. I think if it's a reasonable sum ($10-30K), the existing members might be able to foot the bill. But that doesn't mean the website should go to whoever has the funds.

I think the forum should go to who loves it most, and the others should help with finances.
Bobko   
26 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

An album of 100 colorised photos

These photos are crazy. Wow!

Regarding staged photos... it's not even the fact that a guy is standing sheepishly with a pistol - it's the heroic camera man!
Bobko   
25 Jul 2024
News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]

@Alien

Connected with working too much, or not having any place to live, is urbanization.

The rate of urbanization is the best predictor of what will happen to birth rates.

When people move from the regions to the big cities, birth rates always plummet - without exception.

Cities are not optimized for starting a family.

Religion doesn't play a very meaningful role, despite what may seem.
Bobko   
25 Jul 2024
News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]

@pawian

What's also surprising to me is that the supposed laziest people are the ones that work the most. The champions are Poles, Russians, and Greeks.

Portuguese also work a ton.

In America there is also the stereotype of the lazy/sleepy Mexican. Then you look at how much the average Mexican works, and it becomes clear they are one of the hardest workers in the world.

Why do you think this happened?

Because you robbed Ukraine of its demographic future? Haha
Bobko   
25 Jul 2024
News / Poland's demographic, migration & fertility rate disaster [34]

I just read a piece about Poland's demographic woes.

During these first six months of the year, Poland's birth rate has dropped by more than 9% compared to the same period in 2023. Poland's effective TFR is now 1.1 births per woman. One of the lowest in the entire world....

Some reasons for this, in charts below.

In brief, the reasons are that Poles work more than almost anyone else (Russians too), and don't have anywhere to live.

An absolutely insane percentage of Poles live at home with their parents well into their mid 30s.

I bet millions of Ukrainians moving in, has not made it easier to find housing.


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Bobko   
23 Jul 2024
News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [634]

You make an interesting point on disgracing Russia.

Despite American and British pressure, France really insisted on punishing and "disgracing" Germany after WWI. The French wanted blood, and her friends acquiesced.

We all know the results.

Humiliating somebody, is a dangerous idea. Just like on the street, you need to know who you are dealing with.
Bobko   
15 Jul 2024
Food / Panga Fish (available in Polish stores); I'll never eat it again. Alternative? [68]

Nope, Tilapia is one of the most eaten fish in Poland because of its availability and low cost

Do you just key into Google, "what is the most eaten fish in Poland?", and then come here?

I actually have no opinion on whether or not you have ever been to Poland, or if you have any relation to Poland whatsoever... but posts like these make me suspicious.

For what it's worth, I don't have anything to do with Poland either (other than grandpa being killed there, and a few drops of dna). My family and friends think I'm suffering from some form of mental illness, because of the time I spend here.
Bobko   
12 Jul 2024
Life / Clothes and Fashion Polish style - then, now whenever! [25]

Your granma ever called you "urod"

Thankfully, no.

In the literal sense - "urod" means an "ugly man". I suppose you could say it about a thing or animal too. Like, «этот Мерс пиздец урод» - "this Mercedes is f*cking ugly".

If you say it about a woman, it's "urodka".

In everyday life it doesn't really mean someone is ugly, but rather that someone is somehow morally deficient. Rude, selfish, deceitful, etc.

The word for beauty is "Krasota".

Poland was a kind of a window to a somewhat freer world

Absolutely. In another thread, some kind of Kania thread, I already posted about Orda jeans, Pollena cosmetics, and the hilariously named perfumes Być Może!
Bobko   
12 Jul 2024
Life / Clothes and Fashion Polish style - then, now whenever! [25]

At my grandma's place, I used to see old Polish fashion magazines, with a very intriguing name - "Uroda".

In Russian, "Urod" (урод), means an ugly person, or a type of moral degenerate.

I don't know why my grandma had to have fashion magazines from a language she could not understand - but I gather there were not many fashion magazines in the USSR.


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Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

russia wants to recreate the USSR and subjugate all countries around it

The game is in play, and the results are yet to be determined. Let's see who comes out on top.

Given that the West has a population at least seven times larger, and an economic potential at least 20X the size - you would think this would be a quick affair.
Bobko   
10 Jul 2024
History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

dominate countries with superior culture

Yes because Russian culture in the 19th century was inferior to Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Finnish culture.

When nobody wanted to listen to you in Paris, London, Geneva, etc - you could be a professor in Russia.

What a terrible tragedy.