It could be that this thread may be the most boring one you'll encounter, and it will mean nothing to you. But at least it will be therapeutic to me; so here goes.
When I was young, about 10 years old, the neighbors that had lived next door since I was a toddler decided to move to a neighboring town. They took with them their son the same age as I. This was new to me. I'd never known life without Victor, and he was as a brother. That hurt! It was a heartbreaking time seeing them climb into their car and ride off for the last time. Time took care of the empty feelings, but the memories still remain.
Fresh out of high school my best friend with whom I'd ran with since the 7th grade, married. Of course things changed as he adapted to married life. Hey, it wasn't so bad. I still had schooling to do, and gals to pursue. But then, when he and his wife decided to head to California to chase their dreams, this Oklahoma boy was on hand to see them off as they drove away. Hmmm... it sort of put a lump in my throat. Saying goodbye hadn't got any easier.
Since then it's been brothers, parents, and friends. Some goodbyes were said without a word spoken back, as it was a final goodbye, from which there could never be another meeting in this world. It never gets easy.
A few years ago I formed a group on the internet, picking up friends one at a time, with a mailing list called Philosophies of Higher Consciousness. It ran on the then popular service called eGroups. It was a good arrangement. The members could receive an emailing of each posting, or could follow each on the web on eGroup's servers. Each posting was preserved for referral and reference. The members counseled me, i counseled them, and we all learned from one another, sometimes publicly and sometimes privately. As far as single forum groups and mailing lists go, it was all that a list owner could hope for. eGroups protected the addresses of the members, so there was no fear of spam. What little commercialization that occurred on their site was so non-intrusive that I don't even really remember much of their sponsors. Then a new chapter started. eGroups was purchased by Yahoo.
Yahoo had all along groups they called clubs. They insisted that their intentions to merge eGroups with their clubs would be to the benefit of both their clubs and the eGroups mailing list members. Of course, if you've ever visited the now operating Yahoo clubs, you know that the site, their mailings and nearly anything associated with them is infested by ads of every form imaginable. If you click on a message you even get a new page of advertising and you still had to click "continue" to move on to the next page and to your message. Participation of course dwindled, as the commercial spirit of Yahoo doused the spirit of participation from the members.
Let me tell you about the email arrangement with Yahoo's clubs. The owner of a group submits an email address through which all "utility" operations of the group are conducted. Any email addressed the owner of a Yahoo group is immediately forwarded to the group owner's email address. Some spammers learned of this, and spam began a gradual increase. Well, this I could handle; it was just a bit of filtering. Then came Chris.
Chris Pirillo is a very intelligent and successful writer and founder of a group of newsletters called LockerGnome. I highly endorse them, even though Chris and I have found ourselves in mutual disagreement on several occasions. Any mention in his newsletters is the same as receiving mention on Slashdot, and the sheer magnitude of response is near the same. On this occasion, I once again contacted Chris on the devastating results of his actions. What he did was offer some advice on a means of avoiding spam by setting up a moderated Yahoo group, and multiple addresses within the group to handle mail in different manners. Along with it he advised that any mail sent to the owner of the group could not be filtered and should be sent to an address you ignored. It would work to a certain extent, unless you actually tried to use the Yahoo group for what was intended. Needless to say, it seems every spammer in the world took note. Filtering became a huge chore, and picking out legitimate mailings regarding the actual group became a monumental task.
At the beginning of the month I advised all within the group that effective Nov. 15, the group "Philosophies of Higher Consciousness" would cease to be and the group would be deleted. I advised them to download any of the postings they wanted to keep.
Today, I deleted the group. The group itself had become near useless, except for the information archived there, and especially the friends gathered there. For now it's another goodbye. Even though I've never seen most of them face to face, there is an attachment that's developed. The pain is the same old pain. The friends, even though through a virtual medium are not just virtual friends. They're as real as any friends have ever been. It doesn't get any easier.
Now, you're probably wondering, what is the purpose in the long and wordy posting? As I said, it may be boring; but it's therapeutic to me.
Saying goodbye doesn't get easy.
When I was young, about 10 years old, the neighbors that had lived next door since I was a toddler decided to move to a neighboring town. They took with them their son the same age as I. This was new to me. I'd never known life without Victor, and he was as a brother. That hurt! It was a heartbreaking time seeing them climb into their car and ride off for the last time. Time took care of the empty feelings, but the memories still remain.
Fresh out of high school my best friend with whom I'd ran with since the 7th grade, married. Of course things changed as he adapted to married life. Hey, it wasn't so bad. I still had schooling to do, and gals to pursue. But then, when he and his wife decided to head to California to chase their dreams, this Oklahoma boy was on hand to see them off as they drove away. Hmmm... it sort of put a lump in my throat. Saying goodbye hadn't got any easier.
Since then it's been brothers, parents, and friends. Some goodbyes were said without a word spoken back, as it was a final goodbye, from which there could never be another meeting in this world. It never gets easy.
A few years ago I formed a group on the internet, picking up friends one at a time, with a mailing list called Philosophies of Higher Consciousness. It ran on the then popular service called eGroups. It was a good arrangement. The members could receive an emailing of each posting, or could follow each on the web on eGroup's servers. Each posting was preserved for referral and reference. The members counseled me, i counseled them, and we all learned from one another, sometimes publicly and sometimes privately. As far as single forum groups and mailing lists go, it was all that a list owner could hope for. eGroups protected the addresses of the members, so there was no fear of spam. What little commercialization that occurred on their site was so non-intrusive that I don't even really remember much of their sponsors. Then a new chapter started. eGroups was purchased by Yahoo.
Yahoo had all along groups they called clubs. They insisted that their intentions to merge eGroups with their clubs would be to the benefit of both their clubs and the eGroups mailing list members. Of course, if you've ever visited the now operating Yahoo clubs, you know that the site, their mailings and nearly anything associated with them is infested by ads of every form imaginable. If you click on a message you even get a new page of advertising and you still had to click "continue" to move on to the next page and to your message. Participation of course dwindled, as the commercial spirit of Yahoo doused the spirit of participation from the members.
Let me tell you about the email arrangement with Yahoo's clubs. The owner of a group submits an email address through which all "utility" operations of the group are conducted. Any email addressed the owner of a Yahoo group is immediately forwarded to the group owner's email address. Some spammers learned of this, and spam began a gradual increase. Well, this I could handle; it was just a bit of filtering. Then came Chris.
Chris Pirillo is a very intelligent and successful writer and founder of a group of newsletters called LockerGnome. I highly endorse them, even though Chris and I have found ourselves in mutual disagreement on several occasions. Any mention in his newsletters is the same as receiving mention on Slashdot, and the sheer magnitude of response is near the same. On this occasion, I once again contacted Chris on the devastating results of his actions. What he did was offer some advice on a means of avoiding spam by setting up a moderated Yahoo group, and multiple addresses within the group to handle mail in different manners. Along with it he advised that any mail sent to the owner of the group could not be filtered and should be sent to an address you ignored. It would work to a certain extent, unless you actually tried to use the Yahoo group for what was intended. Needless to say, it seems every spammer in the world took note. Filtering became a huge chore, and picking out legitimate mailings regarding the actual group became a monumental task.
At the beginning of the month I advised all within the group that effective Nov. 15, the group "Philosophies of Higher Consciousness" would cease to be and the group would be deleted. I advised them to download any of the postings they wanted to keep.
Today, I deleted the group. The group itself had become near useless, except for the information archived there, and especially the friends gathered there. For now it's another goodbye. Even though I've never seen most of them face to face, there is an attachment that's developed. The pain is the same old pain. The friends, even though through a virtual medium are not just virtual friends. They're as real as any friends have ever been. It doesn't get any easier.
Now, you're probably wondering, what is the purpose in the long and wordy posting? As I said, it may be boring; but it's therapeutic to me.
Saying goodbye doesn't get easy.
