thanks jaqui ;) the medication and coffee do help me focus

My dear Satan, welcome to the Photoshop Forum, and thank you for taking an interest me and the forum itself.

Let's try and address your questions one-at-a-time...

1. Your IM to me:
   ... first we should go even "further back in time" to the when another member (pstekky) created an entry for the now defunct "Are you up for the Challenge".

in that thread, (do a search on "Jazz challenge" [not my spelling error, it's in the thread title...] the forum if you're interested) Hoofdcommissaris states "...You should shoot a message to retrocity (he tried to get it off the ground and is the moderator who is able to get that page updated). It seems hard to find enough people to flex their creative muscles in the Photoshop Forum. Most of the time it seems like an 'ask & run' kinda forum..."

TAKE A LOOK AROUND, what type of threads are posted here?? have you bothered to "search" through the archives to see what has been attempted and what has not?? I worked over the backroom pages and added the challenge in hopes to drive up some creative input from the members. that was short lived because most members don't come to the PS forum to be challenged, they come to find an answer to their question and then they take off to other forums. For those that do "challenges", we have a "Challenge Forum", we also have a pretty active "Monthly Challenge" in the 2D forum (i see you've entered there)

let's go back to you first question (your IM to me)... if i may post it; you said:
"Instant Message from Satanimus: Hi, could you tell me if there's some specific reason for the Photoshop forum challenge not being closed or changed,or indeed whether there is a reason for the forum to have apparently lost it's Mod'?
Hear from you soon, thanx."

...so let's answer it now... "...if there's some specific reason for the Photoshop forum challenge not being closed or changed" What! someone actually went to the backroom and saw the challenge??? had i known anyone even bothered looking around i would have been more diligent in updating but since it had been nearly a year before anyone even brought it up... i have other things vying for my time...

and for the comment:
"...or indeed whether there is a reason for the forum to have apparently lost it's Mod'?..."
ummmmm according to my "time-card", i've been here EVERYDAY. i do not feel the need to answer EVERY thread or message, as our very talented and knowledgeable members have often helped provide solutions to any issues.

but the real answer as to "why" i didn't answer your IM, i didn't really care for your tone and my mom said if i can't say anything nice, not to say anything at all ;)

still all-in-all, welcome to the forum and hope to see more of your PS work.

:)
retrocity

ps: ask jaqui how the challenge in the "vector" forum went!!