All Things Must End

I've written many articles for useless-knowledge.com and was a forum administrator for that site for a while. But all things must end - here is a copy of my final forum post:


Welp, this is it, my non-sappy tootles “letter”. I can't say I didn't have some fun at the site, or that I was attached for a while, or I that had a few sparks of interest which made me return after my many vacations from this place. Right now, I'm getting bored, but that certainly isn't the only or even the main reason for my departure as I write about below.

Writer after writer has left. There's no one to debate with at the forum, apart from shadowy non-people, lol – even their aliases have aliases. Even their pets have aliases. Hell, even their pets have aliases who have aliases!

Some of them post fake compliments meant to encourage me to write articles, and some of them attack me in an attempt to get a “debate” going. Many others cling to and compliment our Imperious Editor, lol, making me think that he's behind many of them. But I don't really know, nor do I care...I do care that managing all of this takes more time and energy than I want to expend. Some of the forum changes I enacted were meant to have the real people outnumber the fake people, but that can't work without the support of the Editor, especially if he's behind many of the ghosts.

While folks like Brooks or Tom Pain or Thomas Keyes and others used to attack my ideas about liberalism or racial harmony or humans in space, this new “crowd” calls me fat (and most of the real people/writers don't post, or barely post).

Oh sure, it's fun for a while, the fat stuff, lol. Fun like hanging out with children on their own terms but it doesn't have the deep, adult, fulfilling kind of intellectual fun that I came here for. I have kids, and I spend lots of time with them, but I don't come here for that kind of enjoyment...at least with kids, you can teach and enlighten them while also playing with them, which merges nicely the needs of the child AND the adult, but I digress – hey, it's my last post, so I'm entitled to some babble ;)

Besides, this current arrangement can't work and can only lead to bad things for the site overall. How can the “leader” of the forum have such fundamental disagreements with the Editor, lol? That's a recipe for disaster. I no longer have the ability to communicate with the Editor, as he may turn my emails into posts against my wishes.

I've actually modded some of his posts, lol, for being insulting in the “respectful” section. Yet, he DOES have administrator rights under a different name. How long before he starts to delete my posts? After all, his recent management of the main page has shown that he uses his “power” to vent personal frustrations. He's upset that Thomas left the site, so he colored him pink, lol. He was upset with Pain's reaction to the tampering with his article, so he colored him pink. Now, he's upset with me, so he colored me pink, and enlarged my name.

Anyone can objectively see that this is untenable. He's a paid employee, I'm not, so I have to go. I can't “win”, so to speak, nor do I want to try in this kind of environment.

In fact, I won't even post a main page article about leaving because I don't want it to be tampered with and present something to the world that I had not intended. Of course, the Editor could turn this into a front-page spectacle in any case, which is of course part of the problem here. And like I said, I don't intend for this be a sappy, angry, departure. Most people that “leave” do so quietly – they just stop writing. Besides, I don't leave with hopes that the site fails, nor will I encourage others to leave, or to not return, etc.

My next act will be to ban myself at the forum. I suggest that Matt or Steve change the forum password promptly. It's been about three months, so it's time to update my so called blog :) - I'm going to put a copy of this there and email it to the mods and a few others. That way, if anyone inquires by email and/or if this post gets deleted or changed, there will at least be some “record”. Amazing what you have to take into consideration when you write for an impartial Editor who uses his power in biased ways, both personal and political...

I just had a thought – if this does make it to the front page, that would be a violation of UK rules - that whole exclusivity thing that got Ken Hughes in trouble - perhaps that fact will ensure that this won't make it to the front page? If it does, my respect for the Editor and how he proceeds will fall even lower.

Thanks for letting me play, Matt.

Tootles ;)