As a longtime member of this newsgroup (ARBR) I believe I am entitled to a
few musings about what the group has been, what it is now and where it is
perhaps going.
The glory days of Usenet are long gone. I think I may have gotten in on
just
the last of it about 5 years ago. But even then Usenet was in a serious
decline from what I can gather. ARBR at that time had many members, but it
had become more a chat room than anything else. Like all chat rooms, a few
had taken over the group and determined pretty much what was getting said
and what was not getting said. It was all about Bush hatred, America
hatred
and yes, even Israel hatred of all things.
I got rid of all the offending liberals in a couple of years at which
point
the true s***bags came out of the woodwork. It then became a contest to
see
who could be the most scurrilous and outrageous. The group became replete
with trolls, stalkers and we even had a member here who liked to post
verse
about piss, **** and ****. After much name calling which exhausted
everyone
except for yours truly, the group has now become quite desultory and is
only
hanging on by a thread.
I do not think ARBR can last much longer. All unmoderated Usenet
newsgroups
degenerate to chat rooms unless moderated by someone as Great as Myself.
Chat rooms can go on forever of course, but then they are no longer
newsgroups. I can already see ARBR becoming another chat room, but this
time
with myself as the chief chatterer. I do not want that as that is where I
came in 5 years ago. When you see something come full circle, then you
know
it is time for you to leave.
I will only stick around for awhile longer to make sure that Tom Sherman
does not ever become the chief chatterer again like he was in the bad old
days. His unreconstructed liberalism brings out all the hatred in me. Only
an unreconstructed conservatism (libertarianism) brings out a greater
hatred
in me. For god's sakes, find the middle ground and maybe we can all
somehow
survive our own worst instincts.
Regards,
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota
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