We're going to talk about something without really talking about it, if you catch my drift. We can't talk about it because it's against forum policy. It's against forum policy because I fucking well knew what I was doing when I wrote
this, pardon my French. I wrote
that [same link; don't bother clicking again] after being frustrated almost unto death with the undead, defined here as 'Guests'
1 and their sometimes messy ectoplasmic aftermath.
It's not really fair you know. I go out of my way to make it easy for members to climb the stairway out of this digital heaven if it's lost the pearl from its gates or they just need a break and what we'll call incentive. So guess what, it comes right back and bites me on the ass. It would be ever so easy to flip a switch and remove that escape route as many other admins do; or play the ferryman if only to afford myself the opportunity to global erase all the little black tombstones
2 as I escort my passengers across the Rubicon,
3 perhaps conducting final exit interviews on the quayside to first determine who's itching for a Grand Gesture.
Blame the software blame my idealism "if you love
(a bit strong but don't stop me now) somebody let them go" blame human nature. This is the way it is: people leave the forum and despite the bonus commandment in the form of a request they often leave me completely in the dark for my pains, if seldom clueless. That's well and good and I don't really mind but don't they realise
there's a price. The price is they've left the forum, geddit? Did I not write "clean break" in English?
If you're going to go, go, and stop reverberating around the place taking up residence in the blue and white acoustic tiles and the PM underground (which can only happen if people stop grieving or grumbling at those tombstones and accept them as artifacts usually retained for purposes of continuity in this vast archive). Now I realise a ghost can't truly accept responsibility, so
everybody else is going to have to. We must bypass the first four stages, ja?
I don't care if some may think it's a ghost because it died a bad death. They can't possibly know all that needs to be known about these things to make an informed judgment. If by a miracle they do, they'll have to accept what I've accepted long ago: there's nothing to be done about it. Life's a bitch and then you disappear and yours truly picks up the tab.
One more thing. It's about the
mods. I'm pretty damn careful about who I choose. A little
brompton birdy tells me they took "sides". Now I'm a peace-loving vegan but I have no problem shooting that birdy clean out of the sky. Trust me, trust my mods. If you don't then the future's not so orangey. Haven't I laid my administrative soul open time and again? Haven't I done enough to prove myself by now? For God's sake, by
now? Did I mention that the mods were ignored in
that thread? What was
that all about? Don't answer, just don't do it again to whom it may concern.
This thread is
[or was] unlocked. Which means you can reply if you can play this game. I'd rather you didn't because this is meant to be a historical document and not a running sore. I'd rather you didn't because it's very tricky and somebody may get hurt and sadism doesn't float my boat. If that doesn't deter you than heed this: Be extra careful about what you post. There will be no exegesis. There will be no He said She said. There will be no Specific Examples. There will be no
What is Sam
smoking? because this forum is a refuge for eccentrics and that includes me. There will be none of these things because I will do the humane thing and blast them out of the sky like that birdy if they start circling. Special rules apply to this thread because it's that kind of thread. Capeesh? Oh and welcome to spring.
1 - This doesn't appear under the person's name as it used to, and
2 - the names of the departed are no longer black in most places.
3 - He was on a boatman's holiday from the Styx.
on edit at the end of the forum:
I'm perfectly aware that some of this applies to me, too. I made my own grand gesture when I left. It is different when you're an admin. It was more sad than grand, anyway.