I really do wish good fortune to all the good folks in Austin who have made my trips there more enjoyable. I will be sending some individual notes to people as well, but I wanted to post this for those I might forget to write to. You have a nice city, and I have many fond memories.
I also hope those of you on here get through the dark times that have infested the board recently. The Mata Gang and his clones/aliases/pals/hired thugs shoot at the Little Ricky Gang and his clones/aliases/pals/hired thugs every day it seems—and of course the LR Gang then conducts their own retaliatory drive by with impunity. And with no regard for who is caught in the cross-fire.
Sad. Austin was a nice forum with a variety of posts, many interesting. Now it is a wasteland resembling Mogadishu or Beirut. The personal attacks and name calling have sunk almost to the depths of the Politic forum, and it seems to be accepted by the mods as the new norm. Just as in economics the bad money drives out the good money, so to this board has succumbed to the lowest dredges of attacks and hostility. Too bad. But boards go through a predictable cycle: interesting posts bring in more members, which drag in the gangster wanna-bes. The gangsters start attacking anyone and everyone who disagrees with them, and if not squelched they get louder and more belligerent. Angrier and more the arrogant bully. They drive away people who actually want civil discussion—which is what has happened to the Austin forum.
Sometimes the trend can be reversed. Sometimes it spirals down into the muck and becomes irrelevant. Anyone remember when Bigdoggy.net actually had things worth reading? Then the gangs started to take over and now it is comatose. Three people have posted on the general board there in the last six weeks. TER isn’t there yet, but it was headed the same way—the jury is still out as to its full recovery and future.
Of course the current bombastic Austin posters don’t think anything is wrong. They see that there are fewer people pushing back on their attack posts and they decree that is “good”. Every petty despot thinks that way.
What do I suspect will come from this post? Not much. Many of the good folks in Austin have already given up reading/posting here. The gangs will invariably respond with “you don’t understand us macho Texans”, and a few others will chime in with “you are repetitive and useless”. But the data on what ois posted, and who is active, says very differently. [And contrary to the beliefs of folks like KR and LM, their disapproval of my posts does not ruin my self-esteem, nor my day.]
Merry Christmas all. I will peek in here in a few days (or few weeks), hoping to see if things improve. But I am not holding my breath.