Will be about 11.30 or so before the feeds are back up. Sorry, I was
somewhat distracted with another matter. Server 2 is offline!
Hmmm....I donīt really know. I doubt anybody does. It would take a lot
of work to find out, I doubt itīs worth the time and trouble involved.
No interest to me as I earn nothing from any of these things anyway. I
am comfortable enough, and I donīt need to do anything at all. I just
canīt afford some of the things I would like to do. Not really
important I suppose. All this is just a hobby for me. Since my wife
died I donīt view many things as particularly important anyway.
Mostly I use the internet itself, Usenet is only a branch of it, and
losing importance every day. Although it is actually being propagated
more than it ever was, and on to the internet proper. Also I donīt
think many dyed-in-the-wool Usenet users even know what is going on
outside their habitual terrain, or how Usenet itself has changed with
its relationships and internet connections. Indeed, all this recent
upset was basically caused because a forum was feeding ROFFT posts and
somebody got uptight about it. Totally superfluous of course, there
are probably hundreds doing it.
Fortenberry is just an idiot really. There are plenty on Usenet it
seems, although I have never used it much, only a couple of fishing
groups, but not for a while, and some are more or less defunct now
anyway. Doesnīt really matter much what he calls me, after seeing his
rants nobody with any sense will take him seriously anyway, and I don
īt care about the others!
I was a bit surprised to see so many
anonymous posts, there must be quite a few people reading this stuff.
I was also a bit surprised that there were so few e-mails. At one time
I got dozens, and occasionally hundreds, even after only a small
change.
This also reflects the changes on the net. There are literally
thousands of sites now, and forums, so the whole thing is fragmenting
again, but even so more and more information is being disseminated.
More and more machines go on line every day, and a large proportion of
the present generation, and those to come, are computer literate when
they leave school. There are even kids now who have never seen a
"normal" camera, or could do without a calculator or a mobile phone.
The web is also changing, Microsoftīs virtual monopoly and
stranglehold on many things is broken, open source software is now
often better than the commercial stuff, and people are seeing a lot
more things as "common property".
There is a lot more info available now, on all sorts of things, at one
time it was hard to obtain. Also, I have never bothered with any
"Bells and Whistles", just basically my own work, and info. I do have
some nice books and graphics up now, and I have a huge collection
still to go, but I donīt really know if i will bother. My target was
10,000 pages, and various fly displays which I was going to dress, but
since I started doing it there are other huge sites and libraries
where the stuff is freely available anyway, so I don't have an
"exclusive" on most of it any more. Not much point in my dressing a
load of flies I will never fish anyway. I only really use a few
patterns now and I have boxes full of them. No idea what to do with
all the materials either, I have enough for ten lifetimes, I suppose I
can sell it. Same goes for the gear. I gave loads away, but I still
have about a hundred rods or so, and all the other gear as well. I
gave a huge box of lines to the local club for beginners etc, along
with a lot of other stuff, reels, and all the usual paraphernalia.
Also gave the Japanese hooks away, about 200000 all told, I just don't
need the stuff anymore. I have a few thousand still and that will last
me now, no matter what I do.
Donīt know the Rick guy as such, I think he was the same one who was
posting **** about me on two other boards, but I donīt know for sure.
Same name, but there are doubtless thousands of "Ricks" on the net.
Doing a search on "Mike Connor" will also turn up hundreds of them,
whereas at one time it would only have turned up a couple. The sheer
volume of information precludes misuse for a lot of people. Who cares
which Mike Connor has been called a queer on Usenet? If anybody ever
did!
I really have no idea why these people even bother posting on a
fishing forum at all. They rarely if ever post anything about fishing.
One may only conclude that they are here for the bickering, probably
see it is as entertainment, I honestly donīt know. This isnīt really a
fishing forum anyway, over time the off-topic stuff has taken over,
lot of US politics, and stuff like that. May be absolutely riveting
for them, but it just bores me to tears. One of the reasons I stopped
reading the group for a long time. This was quite a nice place once,
at least for me it was, on reflection it may not have been quite so
pleasant for some others. Regardless, one can not go back, one must
move forward.
Anyway, I will probably just taper off and disappear from this group
altogether. I just donīt like anybody getting the impression I
"knuckled under". Bit silly I know!
Why should I care what these
people think at all?.
I have already deleted ROFFT, which was actually my main if somewhat
desultory interest here for a long time, and I hardly ever bother even
looking at the UK groups any more, there is rarely anything on them
about fishing. Mostly spam. Completely new things are rare anyway, and
not always so brilliant anyway, I find myself musing more on older
books and such, trying to discern what it was like then, when there
were lots of fish, and what the authors thought about these things.
Doubtless technological and other aspects will continue to improve,
but at the same time the environment and the actual fishing is
declining apace. No idea what will eventually happen, I canīt even
hazard a guess, but I imagine things will get worse before they get
better, if they ever do!
So the server is reinstated, you can upload at any time, the password
is *************** case sensitive! You can change it after logging in
as admin. Donīt forget your password!!!! I canīt recover it if you
do, it is encrypted in the data bank. If you forget it, you will lose
all your data, as a re-install is then required.
Ciao! See you at the wedding!
Mike