@BillW,
I'm sure you're right about all that, Bill. Abuzz was becoming very erratic, perhaps even anarchic, in the weeks leading up to meltdown. But as that was the age of spin-offs, one would think The Times could have found an alternative to closing it down. I wonder what happened to all the Abuzz staff? I believe there were 40 or more folks attending to the bells and whistles.
Actually my reply to ehBeth was a tongue in cheek reminder of the time I had a computer glitch which prevented me from logging in to Abuzz. I had just started a new thread "The Silver Dollar Saloon is Open for Bidness." Then as the first patrons moseyed in, the glitch reared up on my PC and I found myself out on the street lookin' tru the swingin' doors. Merry Andrew most kindly took over as barkeep (cum referee, as needed.) Apart from complaining about the pay, he did a fair enough job, I reckon. Bidness was brisk.
Meanwhile, I could read all new postings, even those on other threads, but I couldn't post a thing myself. My only recourse was to email Andy who, being a prince to a beggar, posted my messages. It was all a hoot, in hindsight.
After a week or so, I was again able to log on but no sooner showed up than all my customers decided they'd had enough and hied over to Lola's Coffee Shop to sober up. I flatly refused to go and continued to post on the saloon thread, occasionally replying to myself.
BTW, there wasn't really a face on the barroom floor, pertickerly not Jason Cry's. Otherwise I couldn't have given a drink away.