Hot and humid.\u00a0\u00a0 ‘Natch…\u00a0 as it has been with little relief.\u00a0 But that’s Houston in the summer.<\/p>\n
An observation.\u00a0\u00a0 8 more hours in the day to do things did not mean I got things done.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, what happened, what has been learned?<\/p>\n
1700 daily posts, with differing topics and amounts of effort over the course of more than four years.\u00a0\u00a0 Over 12000 comments.\u00a0\u00a0 When I last bothered to add it up, I figured over 1.5 million words on mostly prepping related stuff, mostly here but also in comment sections across the web.\u00a0\u00a0 Add a few more hundred thousand since then.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That’s\u00a0 a graduate degree, maybe two.\u00a0 That’s a dozen novels, maybe more.\u00a0\u00a0 At 8 hours a day (while doing other things, and spread out across the day) it’s 13000+ hours- well past the mythical 10K hours needed for mastery, and I didn’t start from zero with the skills.\u00a0\u00a0 All that is just to say that I’ve been doing this for a while now.\u00a0 In another year, I’ll have the same number of posts as Bob (in this iteration of the site).<\/p>\n
When Bob first asked me to contribute, I was flattered, and a bit nervous, but also, it wasn’t that different from posting long comments.\u00a0\u00a0 I liked it as I like sharing, teaching, and I think the material was and is important.\u00a0\u00a0 When Bob suddenly got sick, I had the access and the desire to help keep the doors open, so we’d all have a place to wait for him to get better and return.\u00a0 So I did.\u00a0 Barbara and Bob were both well aware of what we were doing here.\u00a0\u00a0 When Bob passed, and Barbara wanted to keep the site going, I was flattered and a bit awed that she let me continue, asking me to do more than just ‘open the door’ in the morning.<\/p>\n
I felt a strong sense of duty as well, but I wasn’t just a caretaker for a memorial site, I felt a strong duty to contribute, to build on the knowledge, to keep the site as a living growing evolving site, so that new people could and would discover all the great stuff here, and the great group of people who hang out here.\u00a0 The depth and breadth of the knowledge held by this group is astounding.\u00a0\u00a0 I felt, and still feel a strong sense of conservator-ship and I regularly re-read old posts and old comments to keep the continuity of tone and focus.<\/p>\n
It’s Bob’s site.\u00a0\u00a0 He brought most of us here, and the environment he fostered kept most of us here.\u00a0 I’m flattered that some people have\u00a0 joined us since I started daily duties, and have chosen to keep coming back and to contribute when they can, or to ask for help when they needed it.\u00a0 It’s inevitable that as I became more comfortable in the role, and had the ever increasing number of posts, that the daily blogging part of the site, the heart that is Daynotes Journal, should come to reflect me more than Bob.\u00a0 I hope that the style and tone have continued to reflect what readers and commentors enjoyed coming here for.\u00a0\u00a0 I have made a conscious effort along those lines.<\/p>\n
It was therefore quite a shock to discover that someone who I thought I understood seemed to\u00a0 think little of everything I’ve done and tried to do for the last 4 plus years.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a certain troll.\u00a0 I don’t actually care about him at all, only the disruption he causes.\u00a0\u00a0 But the stress on the system caused by the troll led to the revelation and it kinda blew my mind.\u00a0 How could I be so blind?\u00a0 Was I wrong about other things too?\u00a0 Why the F was I spending 8 hours or more a day on something that didn’t matter?<\/p>\n
So I closed my browser and walked away.<\/p>\n
It was a busy couple of days.\u00a0 School is starting today, new school for one kid, last year of Middle of the other.\u00a0 Friday was the 4th anniversary of my father’s death.\u00a0 Saturday was my non-prepping hobby meeting, and the last chance to plan for our yearly swapmeet\/tradeshow\/annual meeting which takes place in two weeks.\u00a0 Plus all the normal things and FINALLY making some progress with contractors at the BOL.<\/p>\n
It was hard to stay away.\u00a0 I realized I miss my friends.\u00a0 I miss sharing ideas and the stuff I’m doing.\u00a0\u00a0 I miss the collegiality, the conviviality of the group.\u00a0 I’m in the habit of thinking “oh, that’s something I can build a post off of”, or “oh, that story will get people talking”, or “holy cr@p that went badly, someone will enjoy hearing about that mess….” but I had no outlet for it.\u00a0\u00a0 I also missed hearing about what you all were up to, what was happening in your lives.<\/p>\n
I realized that the site is a labor of love, as well as a duty.\u00a0 I realized that there were LOTS of people who do think what I’m doing and trying to do has value.\u00a0 Barbara assured me that she is one of them and wants me to continue.\u00a0 So I will.\u00a0 The past few days have been longer than I’ve ever been away from the site, even as just a reader, since long before I started posting.\u00a0\u00a0 I read through the past days comments and I’m gladdened by what I saw, people communicating and hanging out, sharing, and helping.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you to those of you who reached out privately too.<\/p>\n
So, I will continue to feed my addiction by coming here every day and sharing my life with you, and sharing in yours as well.<\/p>\n
To make that happen, I have reassurance from Barbara that Bob wouldn’t have tolerated the sort of disruption that we’ve seen lately.\u00a0 Anyone who claims to love Bob, or the way things were, has no standing to cause disruption as that is the OPPOSITE of what Bob would have wanted. \u00a0\u00a0 I have Rick as a partner on the technical side.\u00a0\u00a0 And I’ll deputize anyone willing and able to make things happen if that becomes necessary.<\/p>\n
What does that mean?\u00a0 I’ll do whatever is needed to preserve the tone and atmosphere\u00a0 here as it has been for the last decade.\u00a0\u00a0 It means that there might be some ‘rough and tumble’ as we are all (to the best of my knowledge) adults and sometimes adults have exchanges that they later regret.\u00a0 We’ve had those in the past and I expect we’ll have them again.\u00a0 I think everyone knows how to disagree without being disagreeable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It also means that most of us should “assume positive intent” when reacting to each other (as has been the case for almost 190K comments).<\/p>\n
That does not apply to trolls.\u00a0 They have demonstrated negative intent consistently, repeatedly, and willfully.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One will be deleted on sight.\u00a0 The other has acted in bad faith by my reckoning but has the tiniest sliver of possibility left.\u00a0 I have technical reasons to think they are not one in the same despite 90% or more congruence.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m putting him on notice here.\u00a0\u00a0 Do not push this.\u00a0\u00a0 If your whole story isn’t a thin tissue of lies then you know how to behave here.\u00a0\u00a0 Failure to do so will just prove your bad intent and ill will and we will all delete you on sight too.\u00a0 And that goes for any new trolls too, we’ll assume bad intent and just delete them.<\/p>\n
For reasons that are wider than this site and what Rick can easily do, blocking trolls a priori has challenges.\u00a0 Therefore, Rick or I, or one of our deputies, will delete offenders and their comments as soon as we see them.\u00a0 I don’t want to leave even a note in their place, as that is disruptive too, and takes more time and effort than is worth spending on it.\u00a0 If there isn’t any interaction with them, removing them won’t leave anyone else scratching their heads wondering what they missed (hint)… and it may be that if I’ve deleted the original comment, I might <\/em> delete the reply, especially if it quotes the original.\u00a0 Unless it’s particularly clever, then I might leave it.\u00a0 I’ve said before that I don’t need reasons other than my whim, and several of you have affirmed that.\u00a0\u00a0 If you make a reply and I delete it too, please don’t take it personally, I’m just trying to reduce the value of attempting to disrupt us, and the rewards he receives for doing so.\u00a0\u00a0 I definitely don’t want you guys competing for the cleverest response to a troll.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 Engage as little as possible, and know it might all vanish.<\/p>\n If the trolls come around, our response won’t be seamless, but it will be final.\u00a0 Have patience as we work on it.<\/p>\n It has been my honor and privilege to continue walking the path that Bob started on, and I expect to continue doing so for some time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n nick flandrey<\/p>\n (oh, forget about the drama and get back to stacking!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hot and humid.\u00a0\u00a0 ‘Natch…\u00a0 as it has been with little relief.\u00a0 But that’s Houston in the summer.<\/p>\n An observation.\u00a0\u00a0 8 more hours in the day to do things did not mean I got things done.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, what happened, what has been learned?<\/p>\n 1700 daily posts, with differing topics and amounts of effort over the course of more than four years.\u00a0\u00a0 Over 12000 comments.\u00a0\u00a0 When I last bothered to add it up,<\/p>\n