Hi Gig,

Allow me to opine on why swaps have, or at least appear to have, become passe'. As you identified, some swappers have passed away. Many, and I mean most of the early swappers from this site, appear to no longer participate here, and I go back about 12 years with FAOL. As evidence, I can go back through the 2 dozen plus swaps I was involved in here and I'm sure 90% of the swappers are gone from this site. Over the years swappers got tired of getting 'invented' fly patterns by participants. Some of us participated so we could get quality patterns for replicating and the 'invented' stuff was considered junk. Yes, life happens and sometimes swappers have emergencies that delay their tying. However, nuts like me would rather learn about those situations and suggest the swapper leave the swap rather than keep everyone else waiting. Then there were other swappers who simply 'forgot' or didn't respond to reminders or answer emails. Maybe people simply got tired of swapping? Again, just my opinion, $ costs have nothing to do with the lack of participation.

Maybe someone will come up with an interesting theme and draw a crowd. I'll keep checking and see if someone identifies one that interests me But I don't see enough interest in swaps anymore. Maybe 1 on 1 swaps will be the new methodology?

Allan