I want our old forum back

Snow!!!!!

and a firm handshake from me.


I hope he's got some good poker games set up for you.

Well said, RG, and very true.

While I can kind of see this from the Droid folks perspective (they were wrenched from their cozy little forum into, well, here).

I don't see where you're coming from, though. Had these folks shown up on their own and started posting about Droids, would you have even cared?

When the ESL folks came here from China, did you think you were deserving of some sort of "sensitivity"?

It's the Internet. People from all over the world have access to this site, and ask all manner of questions.

Ha! As if.

I constantly cultivate my patience, and I'm continually amazed at how calm and reasoned you are with people complaining about something they get for free.

Yah this is miserable. Co convoluted, filled with people who A) dont care about our topics, or B) clutter it with irrelelvant comments. It's bummer to see it go...guess i'll have to rely on Verizon Wireless for all my help now, and that does NOT thrill me.

OK. Here’s where I was coming from.

We put a lot of value on community here & that’s what’s made so many of us so committed to this site. Often the in the past, the community has been consulted in advance on changes to the site. For example, there’s been a recent lengthy discussion here, initiated by Robert, about our thoughts on threaded forums, or other features of the site. We have also, in the past, been informed about changes that are about to occur at A2k. It’s a feature of this site I’ve always liked & appreciated. It’s been one that has kept me committed to A2K. It's made me feel valued as a member. If you like, I’ve made a personal “investment” here, like many other members.

It is not so much that I object to the Droid folks’ presence here. None of us have any “rights” in that matter. Robert is the site owner & that’s solely his decision to make. No argument. It is more about processes with me. I don’t believe, in this particular case, we had any consultation “rights” It is just that I think it would have been less bewildering (for both A2Kers & the Droid people) if some explanatory announcement had been made early in the piece. There was quite a deal of fanfare about the large increase in membership numbers, yet no explanation about who, how & why. (Once again, A2K was absolutely not obliged to do this, it’s just a practice that I’ve valued & grown used to here.)

I had no knowledge of what was happening “behind the scenes” in the merger of the two sites until Robert told me, as part of our conversation on this thread yesterday. I had no idea that he was actually the new owner of the Droids site. I take on board his explanation that the merger had to happen quickly, for business-related reasons - therefore it was not possible to inform members of both sites in advance. But I do believe, that once the merger had actually occurred, it would have saved considerable confusion & angst for members of both groups if there had been more information provided. And avoided a bit of “online friction” between members of both groups. (Once again, no obligation to inform. It just would have made the situation a lot clearer & more comfortable, that’s all.)

As I see it, 300 new members, all belonging to an existing single-issue group, is a different matter entirely to individual ESL students posting from China, or anywhere else. Most times when I log on here, there are fewer than 300 participants online at any one time. So, not so surprisingly, my perception was that the nature of the A2K community was about to change in a big way. It is now also clear, from Robert’s posts during our discussion, that there will be more such mergers in the future & A2K will continue to grow bigger & bigger. And that some of us may not like the changes. However, these are solely Robert’s decisions to make.

Sorry this has been such a long response. But I do feel the need to explain what my concerns were.

Robert, If you are reading this while on holiday (I do hope not!). I’m really sorry that that I posted while you were under such incredible stress. You’d been posting up a such a storm on A2K for days, I had absolutely no idea of your other “behind the scenes” activities until your posts yesterday. Have a good, refreshing break.

I am on a visa trip, not holiday (I have never had a holiday) so I'm doing a bit of work. When I am posting a lot on a2k, that usually actually means I am working on a big a2k project that is keeping me on the site all day, but I get how it may seem like a more leisurely thing without that perspective.

Anyway, I want to apologize to you for losing my temper. I understand how it wasn't immediately apparent to you that the droid import doesn't really impact a2kers very much (though it obviously impacts them more) and the basics of what you are saying is something I agree with. Communication can help.

What I should have just done is agreed and said I would do the best I can. And that is what a better customer service oriented person would have done and it's why we need to find someone like that for this role. I am the least apt for this role in my company, and it doesn't make sense for me or for a2k for me to continue occupying it.

This will die down, they are trying to welcome you and are going out of their way to go to topics they would usually ignore.

For the more social droid forum users this helps, for others it hurts. I get how hearing stuff like "what is a droid" can make you feel totally out of place, but that is happening because the current users are trying to check out the new folks.

Later on, they'll just ignore all the topics and the droid topics will be less droid-noob.

I hate this place. Bye.




































Sike

Sike?

lllllllllllllllllll



bye

sike

llllllllllllllllllllllllllll




oh gosh, I should stop thinking out loud a? <waves to Tico>

sigh....





































this kind of thing isn't exactly helpful

Do you need manure for that ?

Thank you, Robert.

And I just want to say that my comments to you were not meant to be hostile. I'm very sorry if they sounded that way.

(And I thought you were having a rest now!)

(yeah, it's like fone...)

Whoa! Is that necessity or habit, I wonder? That's pretty tough...we've known you, what, 10 years now? You've never had a break? Awful if it's necessity.

I was looking at the winter olympics a bit, and seeing you really enjoying some extreme sports!

Aw, I think he would croak if he had to take a real vacation.

Yeah.

It doesn't seem awful to me, I don't like doing nothing, that is the worst thing I can think of. When I did the corporate gig I did a2k in my spare time, and when I took vacations it was working vacations to build the software (it took a couple years, and Nick and I would work after hours, weekends etc to do it).

Then when I quit that life I became my own boss, so my productivity ebbs and flows. I don't take vacations but there are times I may not work much for a week (like this week).

So this was a light work week due to visa trip, and I did a little tiny bit of work at Nick's house between shooting the ****, eating out and playing poker.