letting go, moving on
Strange things have been afoot at the Circle K.
The Dead Cities forum, the one where I quoted the “Artist’s Pledge” created by kick-ass author Matt Stover, has undergone a lot of changes over the past few months. Hell, the thread where Matt posed that pledge to the lot of us doesn’t even exist anymore because of a thread purge.
But some other crap has come up on the boards during the past month, more than reinforcing the feeling that I’d begun to get long before… that the board wasn’t the same place as the place I’d come to enjoy visiting and reading and contributing to, and it was time for me to move on.
Boards change when the people revolve in and out; that’s to be expected, and even encouraged. But when all of the “senior” members start leaving and not coming back for various reasons, and talking to a lot of the newer members is like trying to have intelligent conversations with drunk fraternity boys, well, expecting the same previous levels of civil discourse and disagreements is near impossible.
Combine that with having the history of the board wiped away on a whim, including long discussions on writing, philosophy, martial arts, and even bartending involving published authors and the resident wise souls, well… what was my main reason for staying?
So, I’ve decided to say goodbye to a forum that I’ve been a part of in three different incarnations, going back to 1998 or 1999… I’m not sure how long it’s been anymore. I just know I picked up a whole lot of books on the suggestions of a number of those people (many of whom also left the board long ago), and my library is far better for it, just as I know I have a handful of friends from there that I will always remember with both a mischievious grin and a heartfelt smile.
My travels through there were likely the catalyst for me getting a gig doing reviews for Fantastica Daily, which led to a really nice situation with the Dragon Page Talk Radio shows… a fun situation that is about to take a big step up.
So, for a lot of reasons, it’s time for me to let go of Dead Cities, and move on. Bye, guys. I’ll see some of you at WFC 2005.
Oh, and yeah, I’ve been real busy with that gig over at The Dragon Page. That’s why I haven’t been updating here as much as I’d like to this month. But I did get to arrange interviews with Scott Bakker, Kage Baker, Kelley Armstrong, Ben Bova and many more authors to come.
