BII/SGN Clarification -- Open Letter
Okay... Not even sure how to start this. Not even sure I should. I've wanted nothing more than to avoid some sort of dramatic quagmire. Not sure that's what we're walking into here, but who knows at this point. I've stated several times recently that I want BP to avoid the sort of drama and bickering that has gone on in the past in regards to issues like Buckshots, BNuts, SZ, etc.
However, it's obvious that I need to clear the air on the genesis of the Alan and BII/SGN issue.
Some months back, I was faced with a decision. DiHard had crossed one too many lines, and most of the core people here at BP felt he needed to go. I sat down and talked to DiH about this, with the intent of trying to explain why I was going to ban him. During the course of that conversation, he told me that DiHard was a character he had become too spun up in. That he felt DiHard was what people wanted, and that it was really not him at all. He felt horribly that it had gone so far, and wished he could do it all over.
So, I suggested he do so. I heard what he had to say about his connections, how much he enjoyed pursuing them, how much he wanted to bring to BP, and that he wanted to let his true personality show. So rather than ban him, we decided he would retire DiHard -- both the name and the personality, and restart as Alan. Alan would be active on the site in a more positive way, would be less offensive, would bring something back to the community that he claimed he loved so much.
When I made the decision to give all this a shot, I did it against the wishes of some people who were important to both me and the site. A couple guys who were key players in the early development of the site, and guys whose vision we still enjoy as a standard in an important area of BP. But, arrogantly, I felt like I could keep it all under control. I felt I could keep Alan focused on the Rumor Mill, out of Recruiting, and that BP's community would benefit from the new layer of information and internal involvement.
Alan's enthusiasm is sometimes a wonderful thing, and sometimes it also can cause problems. Before I go forward here, I want to make one thing abundantly clear -- *I* am responsible for things getting out of pocket, *I* put everyone in this situation. Some toes were stepped on, some people were plainly disrespected, and ultimately were just sort of slapped in the face. After over a year of hard, unrelenting effort and giving, they were on many levels having their area of focus usurped, and were facing a situation where they were being unwillingly associated with an approach and vision that ran directly against much of what they believed in. The end result was they left the site. Which in of itself (their leaving) as massive a loss that was, wasn't the biggest tragedy. I believe BP has to be dynamic, in the sense that people can come and go, but the community itself lives on. What was more tragic, was that they left feeling (appropriately and understandably) betrayed and disrespected, I had indeed let them down, and I've carried the full load of responsibility and guilt for that, they deserved FAR better. I asked them to bear with my experiment, I asked them to just blow off antics and ride out the exercise; and the truth was I was asking too much. It was a burden they were willing and able to carry, but one they shouldn't have had to. Sometimes a broad focus makes you miss some important details, and I did along that way.
But I'm off topic here, the point is to come around to BII.
I felt that my Alan situation would go one of two ways. That either it would be a bust, and he would end up getting banned anyway, or that he would really come into his own, and eventually move on to his own site. I pushed that latter notion with him early and often. I knew that he wanted to try and partially or entirely support himself with the rumors and recruiting insight, and I also knew that I was unwilling to compromise my "no ads, no commercialism" stance. When it was suggested that an area of BP be created that would carry both of those elements, I reinforced the "new site" concept firmly.
As you all know, I haven't been around much this Summer. Without going into great detail, I have a lot of issues coming to a head, and this is and has been a difficult period with a lot of upheaval. It's not over yet, I honestly don't know where I'll be watching this upcoming season from as I type this. Also don't know how I'll hold up to getting there. I say this only to explain why I haven't been around much.
During a long period of my absence, Alan went ahead and took the steps to start his own site. He sent me PMs here and there talking about how it was going to be a perfect compliment to BP, just a subscription site with the best insider info on the net.
Fast forward, and what BII/SGN is, is BuckeyePlanet2. It is a mirror image of this site, in almost every meaningful way. I'll be honest, I felt slapped myself when I first saw its rebirth. I knew they were switching to vBulletin, I knew they were going to use some of the same hacks, but I didn't know that it was going to be a copy of BP down to the simple disclaimer down at the bottom. LloydSev was brought in by Alan to set things up, and they used BP as a template, duplicating almost everything here in form and function. They even browsed through my Terrible Twos thread, and made some of the upgrades there. Bigger avatars, for example. The goal was to make BP, but under a different banner, and with a subscription area.
I can see the rationale behind this. I mean, if they can usurp BP's position and userbase, then that's an instant community that they can draw a subscriber base from. I honestly don't know if this is their goal or not, Alan has told me in a couple PMs that it is certainly not -- but let's face it, any reasonable person can look at the two sites, and have to wonder what the point of two of the virtually same creature is.
BII/SGN does not compliment BP, it's a complete and somewhat convincing doppelganger. This has left a lot of really outstanding people over here feeling confused, threatened and disrespected, and rightfully so.
We (the admins, senior mods, and mods here) have been approached with questions like; "are we shutting BP down", "is Clarity getting kickbacks to move the community over to a new group", "are the core contributors going to move over to the new site", "is BII the next step in BP's evolution", etc.
There is a *ton* of confusion out there about it. So here I am. Potentially creating the very quagmire I wanted to avoid by speaking honestly and openly about all the facts and circumstances -- but doing it because I don't want to repeat a mistake I made before, the one where friends of mine, and core members of our contributing community end up having to walk away from our little project here. God knows, I do not want to create drama and/or hard feelings. This is pathetic, but I literally don't have the energy for it right now. I know that people who have developed new loyalties to BII, based on promises of income and/or unprecedented exposure to the Buckeye program, may well feel stung by what I have, or have had to say here, and I can only say that I hope they'll look past any perceived slights, and try to appreciate that sometimes openly airing out an issue, and being public about problems, can still be a healthy thing.
BII/SGN is designed to make BP irrelevant. It's designed to leech the community from here to there. It is not, in any way, complimentary.
Whether this is innocent, or some sort of nefarious scheme, I have no idea. Different people have different takes, I'm trying to not concern myself with the 'why', and rather focus on the 'what now?'
My take thusfar is that BP has something that NO other site could just steal. And that's an empowered, energetic and vibrant community of fans. Fans who know that this is their home to decorate and manipulate as they please. BP is *NOT* "Clarity's Site". It's YOUR site, and his site, and hers, and theirs, etc. This isn't a line. It's not a pitch or a tool. It's how this place HAS to be in order to be of real value to us. As I said before, it has to be a living organism where parts (people/staff) can come and go. Bucknutty and Buckskin86 move on, and LordJeffBuck, Wadc and Highstreet step up. Highstreet moves on, and LordJeff, Wadc, and others carry forward seemlessly. Somewhere out there, someone else is thinking about or ready to step up. We'll get a PM or an email saying "I've been thinking about doing X, Y and/or Z, would that be cool with you?" My response will be as it always is -- yeah, run with it and let's see what comes of it. We need to be liquid, dynamic, and in a perpetual state of live tinkering and improvement. I've drawn this parallel before, and here it is again. We're the open source Buckeye site, where, when someone comes up with a brilliant notion for a great new feature -- they either suggest it and someone runs with it, or they run with it themselves, or a group gets together and implements it.
You can't steal that, you can't take away the feeling of community we have around here, you can't simply usurp the sense of ownership that a lot of people have here, and more people need to get.
I may be naive -- but I don't think Alan, or ANYONE over at BII/SGN, is overtly trying to lessen BP by presenting a near exact clone of it. As these people came from BP, I believe they still appreciate it as a family, and I choose to believe that their current implementation of that site just comes from their appreciation of what BP is, and how it functions. It's easy to like something so much, that when you create something new and different, you borrow themes. In this case, certainly more than themes were borrowed, they've created BuckeyePlanet2.
Will it stay that way? I have no idea. I know that Alan is trying to find his way over there, trying to form a vision for the future of the site. I would personally like to see it as a purely subscription based inside info area. No dicking around, news and perspective from a distinctly insider-level of access, in exchange for your dollars. The type of place that focuses on one thing, and strives to do that better than anyone else. A site like that, would own the commercial level competition, or at least could. A site like that would indeed compliment BP. Indeed, it would compliment all the sites in the greater community (despite eating into the reach of the other two commercial sites), and bring something to the online Buckeye community that it doesn't already have. But that's MY vision for what BII should be. It's not necessarily anyone else's. As things stand now, BII/SGN's vision is to be everything. To be viral and community-driven like BP, to be a Housteauesque "wink" and a nod towards subscriber areas like BN. To have access to inside info and rumblings the way Conley and BSB used to. To be wide spectrum focused across sport lines like the O-Zone.
But to be all of that, in the shape, form and function of BP.
The truth is I felt a bit like I had been kicked in the gut when I first saw the "new" BII/SGN. But I wanted to avoid controversy and problems, so I sent off fairly quiet and subdued notes to LloydSev and Alan to express my concern, but to do it as non-confrontationally as possible.
I still wish to avoid controversy, drama and hurt feelings. But my first responsibility and obligation is to BP, and definitely to the core group of people here at BP who make it what it is. Staying silent, asking them not to provoke drama, suggesting we just ride it out and hope for the best -- all the while fielding questions and PMs from users who want to know what's going on -- eh, it was just the wrong way to approach it. So here I am.
Guys like 3yards get on and spend hours every day updating news and keeping the admin side of things turning -- not because they'll get money or access down the road -- but because they genuinely love bringing something back to the community they draw so much from. osugrad21 takes on more than he should have to in my absence, even shields me from some problems when I'm not 100% -- not because being an admin is some sort of ego boost, not because he expects to make anything from it, but because he shares the almost utopian concept of a living community that I hold so important. That's two examples, but look around, I could literally go on and on and on, listing people who have stepped forward in different areas, and instead of just enjoying what BP has to offer, they choose to bring more to the table. That is how and why BP is (in my eyes) a raving success. I couldn't possibly care less about traffic numbers. If there's an exodus of users someday for any reason, as long as 'the core' is here, BP still stands as my home online. Not because I founded it, not because I'm involved with shaping it, but because this is my other family.
That can't be copied.
I support BII/SGN. I hope it's successful, because it's an opportunity for Alan, and some other people over there, to do what they love. That's an outstanding thing. I mean to help them any way I can. I think there's a lot of potential over there. Despite voicing my concerns, and sharing my perspective, I don't want to cast them in an unfavorable light. BII/SGN is in NO way directly affiliated with BP. It is not AT ALL a part or an extension of BP. But the people driving it have all been part of BP in the past, and I hope most or all of them will continue to be in the future. I think their current implementation of BII was a mistake, but that's my perspective.
The bottom line is that BP is going nowhere. We are just going to keep doing things our way, and let that take us where it will. There will always be bumps along the way, and I just need to bear in mind that, in the spirit of the approach we have to the BP forums, I'm better off speaking openly about issues, than just silently feeling upset and/or betrayed and hoping it will just all work out.
I believe that, with good intentions, and under pressure to roll something more impressive out, BII/SGN just said "BP works, let's present that as a starting point". Believing that would satisfy those they needed to, and provide a good starting point. The problem with that is that BII should be an entirely different species. It's apples and oranges, and while mirroring BP may have been an easy solution, it's the wrong foundation for the type of building they want to create. What I'm saying is, I don't think they meant it, or want it, to be a slap towards us. They don't want to steal from BP, or take over. Not most of them, at least.
Unfortunately I also believe there is a lot of doubletalk over there, internally. I think things are said in one light, and then other things are just done in another. I think some are saying what people want to hear, and that others are hearing only what they want to. These are all BII/SGN issues though, not BP issues.
I don't want anyone to come away from what I've had to say here feeling poorly. At the end of the day, I just felt like I had to be clear about everything, open about everything, and head any more questions or discussions about intent, the future, etc. off, and let people know where I stand.
I hope we'll find a point in the future where BII/SGN stands on its own and *does* compliment BP, all the while bringing something fantastic to the community. I think everyone would like to see that. And where I can assist towards that end, I will.
--edit--
One final note. This is not about BII/SGN 'looking' or 'feeling' like BP. It's about intent and direction. A question of focus. The concerns people have are based upon SGN being sold to us as a site exclusively dedicated to insider information, focused on and dedicated to that point of interest. Instead, it's been launched as BPplus. All encompassing, same forums, even a few more. Same features. Same direction. Even an opening pitch about community, despite the giant mention up top about the $49.95. Because people care about BP, they don't want to see it compromised or threatened.
The goal of my ridiculous long post here is to AVERT drama, not create it. Prevent misunderstandings and misconceptions.
This is NOT a case of a bruised ego on my end, BP isn't a vanity site for me, on the contrary, I try to take as low a profile as possible. I've always said that if BP ever found itself to be irrelevant, I'd quietly shut it down, and do so with a smile for what we accomplished. So don't feel like I'm mobilizing the troops, or creating some sort of defensive posture. Just airing out the issues. I suspect 90% who read this will come in total unaware that there's an issue at all. That's good, exit feeling the same. :)
Okay... Not even sure how to start this. Not even sure I should. I've wanted nothing more than to avoid some sort of dramatic quagmire. Not sure that's what we're walking into here, but who knows at this point. I've stated several times recently that I want BP to avoid the sort of drama and bickering that has gone on in the past in regards to issues like Buckshots, BNuts, SZ, etc.
However, it's obvious that I need to clear the air on the genesis of the Alan and BII/SGN issue.
Some months back, I was faced with a decision. DiHard had crossed one too many lines, and most of the core people here at BP felt he needed to go. I sat down and talked to DiH about this, with the intent of trying to explain why I was going to ban him. During the course of that conversation, he told me that DiHard was a character he had become too spun up in. That he felt DiHard was what people wanted, and that it was really not him at all. He felt horribly that it had gone so far, and wished he could do it all over.
So, I suggested he do so. I heard what he had to say about his connections, how much he enjoyed pursuing them, how much he wanted to bring to BP, and that he wanted to let his true personality show. So rather than ban him, we decided he would retire DiHard -- both the name and the personality, and restart as Alan. Alan would be active on the site in a more positive way, would be less offensive, would bring something back to the community that he claimed he loved so much.
When I made the decision to give all this a shot, I did it against the wishes of some people who were important to both me and the site. A couple guys who were key players in the early development of the site, and guys whose vision we still enjoy as a standard in an important area of BP. But, arrogantly, I felt like I could keep it all under control. I felt I could keep Alan focused on the Rumor Mill, out of Recruiting, and that BP's community would benefit from the new layer of information and internal involvement.
Alan's enthusiasm is sometimes a wonderful thing, and sometimes it also can cause problems. Before I go forward here, I want to make one thing abundantly clear -- *I* am responsible for things getting out of pocket, *I* put everyone in this situation. Some toes were stepped on, some people were plainly disrespected, and ultimately were just sort of slapped in the face. After over a year of hard, unrelenting effort and giving, they were on many levels having their area of focus usurped, and were facing a situation where they were being unwillingly associated with an approach and vision that ran directly against much of what they believed in. The end result was they left the site. Which in of itself (their leaving) as massive a loss that was, wasn't the biggest tragedy. I believe BP has to be dynamic, in the sense that people can come and go, but the community itself lives on. What was more tragic, was that they left feeling (appropriately and understandably) betrayed and disrespected, I had indeed let them down, and I've carried the full load of responsibility and guilt for that, they deserved FAR better. I asked them to bear with my experiment, I asked them to just blow off antics and ride out the exercise; and the truth was I was asking too much. It was a burden they were willing and able to carry, but one they shouldn't have had to. Sometimes a broad focus makes you miss some important details, and I did along that way.
But I'm off topic here, the point is to come around to BII.
I felt that my Alan situation would go one of two ways. That either it would be a bust, and he would end up getting banned anyway, or that he would really come into his own, and eventually move on to his own site. I pushed that latter notion with him early and often. I knew that he wanted to try and partially or entirely support himself with the rumors and recruiting insight, and I also knew that I was unwilling to compromise my "no ads, no commercialism" stance. When it was suggested that an area of BP be created that would carry both of those elements, I reinforced the "new site" concept firmly.
As you all know, I haven't been around much this Summer. Without going into great detail, I have a lot of issues coming to a head, and this is and has been a difficult period with a lot of upheaval. It's not over yet, I honestly don't know where I'll be watching this upcoming season from as I type this. Also don't know how I'll hold up to getting there. I say this only to explain why I haven't been around much.
During a long period of my absence, Alan went ahead and took the steps to start his own site. He sent me PMs here and there talking about how it was going to be a perfect compliment to BP, just a subscription site with the best insider info on the net.
Fast forward, and what BII/SGN is, is BuckeyePlanet2. It is a mirror image of this site, in almost every meaningful way. I'll be honest, I felt slapped myself when I first saw its rebirth. I knew they were switching to vBulletin, I knew they were going to use some of the same hacks, but I didn't know that it was going to be a copy of BP down to the simple disclaimer down at the bottom. LloydSev was brought in by Alan to set things up, and they used BP as a template, duplicating almost everything here in form and function. They even browsed through my Terrible Twos thread, and made some of the upgrades there. Bigger avatars, for example. The goal was to make BP, but under a different banner, and with a subscription area.
I can see the rationale behind this. I mean, if they can usurp BP's position and userbase, then that's an instant community that they can draw a subscriber base from. I honestly don't know if this is their goal or not, Alan has told me in a couple PMs that it is certainly not -- but let's face it, any reasonable person can look at the two sites, and have to wonder what the point of two of the virtually same creature is.
BII/SGN does not compliment BP, it's a complete and somewhat convincing doppelganger. This has left a lot of really outstanding people over here feeling confused, threatened and disrespected, and rightfully so.
We (the admins, senior mods, and mods here) have been approached with questions like; "are we shutting BP down", "is Clarity getting kickbacks to move the community over to a new group", "are the core contributors going to move over to the new site", "is BII the next step in BP's evolution", etc.
There is a *ton* of confusion out there about it. So here I am. Potentially creating the very quagmire I wanted to avoid by speaking honestly and openly about all the facts and circumstances -- but doing it because I don't want to repeat a mistake I made before, the one where friends of mine, and core members of our contributing community end up having to walk away from our little project here. God knows, I do not want to create drama and/or hard feelings. This is pathetic, but I literally don't have the energy for it right now. I know that people who have developed new loyalties to BII, based on promises of income and/or unprecedented exposure to the Buckeye program, may well feel stung by what I have, or have had to say here, and I can only say that I hope they'll look past any perceived slights, and try to appreciate that sometimes openly airing out an issue, and being public about problems, can still be a healthy thing.
BII/SGN is designed to make BP irrelevant. It's designed to leech the community from here to there. It is not, in any way, complimentary.
Whether this is innocent, or some sort of nefarious scheme, I have no idea. Different people have different takes, I'm trying to not concern myself with the 'why', and rather focus on the 'what now?'
My take thusfar is that BP has something that NO other site could just steal. And that's an empowered, energetic and vibrant community of fans. Fans who know that this is their home to decorate and manipulate as they please. BP is *NOT* "Clarity's Site". It's YOUR site, and his site, and hers, and theirs, etc. This isn't a line. It's not a pitch or a tool. It's how this place HAS to be in order to be of real value to us. As I said before, it has to be a living organism where parts (people/staff) can come and go. Bucknutty and Buckskin86 move on, and LordJeffBuck, Wadc and Highstreet step up. Highstreet moves on, and LordJeff, Wadc, and others carry forward seemlessly. Somewhere out there, someone else is thinking about or ready to step up. We'll get a PM or an email saying "I've been thinking about doing X, Y and/or Z, would that be cool with you?" My response will be as it always is -- yeah, run with it and let's see what comes of it. We need to be liquid, dynamic, and in a perpetual state of live tinkering and improvement. I've drawn this parallel before, and here it is again. We're the open source Buckeye site, where, when someone comes up with a brilliant notion for a great new feature -- they either suggest it and someone runs with it, or they run with it themselves, or a group gets together and implements it.
You can't steal that, you can't take away the feeling of community we have around here, you can't simply usurp the sense of ownership that a lot of people have here, and more people need to get.
I may be naive -- but I don't think Alan, or ANYONE over at BII/SGN, is overtly trying to lessen BP by presenting a near exact clone of it. As these people came from BP, I believe they still appreciate it as a family, and I choose to believe that their current implementation of that site just comes from their appreciation of what BP is, and how it functions. It's easy to like something so much, that when you create something new and different, you borrow themes. In this case, certainly more than themes were borrowed, they've created BuckeyePlanet2.
Will it stay that way? I have no idea. I know that Alan is trying to find his way over there, trying to form a vision for the future of the site. I would personally like to see it as a purely subscription based inside info area. No dicking around, news and perspective from a distinctly insider-level of access, in exchange for your dollars. The type of place that focuses on one thing, and strives to do that better than anyone else. A site like that, would own the commercial level competition, or at least could. A site like that would indeed compliment BP. Indeed, it would compliment all the sites in the greater community (despite eating into the reach of the other two commercial sites), and bring something to the online Buckeye community that it doesn't already have. But that's MY vision for what BII should be. It's not necessarily anyone else's. As things stand now, BII/SGN's vision is to be everything. To be viral and community-driven like BP, to be a Housteauesque "wink" and a nod towards subscriber areas like BN. To have access to inside info and rumblings the way Conley and BSB used to. To be wide spectrum focused across sport lines like the O-Zone.
But to be all of that, in the shape, form and function of BP.
The truth is I felt a bit like I had been kicked in the gut when I first saw the "new" BII/SGN. But I wanted to avoid controversy and problems, so I sent off fairly quiet and subdued notes to LloydSev and Alan to express my concern, but to do it as non-confrontationally as possible.
I still wish to avoid controversy, drama and hurt feelings. But my first responsibility and obligation is to BP, and definitely to the core group of people here at BP who make it what it is. Staying silent, asking them not to provoke drama, suggesting we just ride it out and hope for the best -- all the while fielding questions and PMs from users who want to know what's going on -- eh, it was just the wrong way to approach it. So here I am.
Guys like 3yards get on and spend hours every day updating news and keeping the admin side of things turning -- not because they'll get money or access down the road -- but because they genuinely love bringing something back to the community they draw so much from. osugrad21 takes on more than he should have to in my absence, even shields me from some problems when I'm not 100% -- not because being an admin is some sort of ego boost, not because he expects to make anything from it, but because he shares the almost utopian concept of a living community that I hold so important. That's two examples, but look around, I could literally go on and on and on, listing people who have stepped forward in different areas, and instead of just enjoying what BP has to offer, they choose to bring more to the table. That is how and why BP is (in my eyes) a raving success. I couldn't possibly care less about traffic numbers. If there's an exodus of users someday for any reason, as long as 'the core' is here, BP still stands as my home online. Not because I founded it, not because I'm involved with shaping it, but because this is my other family.
That can't be copied.
I support BII/SGN. I hope it's successful, because it's an opportunity for Alan, and some other people over there, to do what they love. That's an outstanding thing. I mean to help them any way I can. I think there's a lot of potential over there. Despite voicing my concerns, and sharing my perspective, I don't want to cast them in an unfavorable light. BII/SGN is in NO way directly affiliated with BP. It is not AT ALL a part or an extension of BP. But the people driving it have all been part of BP in the past, and I hope most or all of them will continue to be in the future. I think their current implementation of BII was a mistake, but that's my perspective.
The bottom line is that BP is going nowhere. We are just going to keep doing things our way, and let that take us where it will. There will always be bumps along the way, and I just need to bear in mind that, in the spirit of the approach we have to the BP forums, I'm better off speaking openly about issues, than just silently feeling upset and/or betrayed and hoping it will just all work out.
I believe that, with good intentions, and under pressure to roll something more impressive out, BII/SGN just said "BP works, let's present that as a starting point". Believing that would satisfy those they needed to, and provide a good starting point. The problem with that is that BII should be an entirely different species. It's apples and oranges, and while mirroring BP may have been an easy solution, it's the wrong foundation for the type of building they want to create. What I'm saying is, I don't think they meant it, or want it, to be a slap towards us. They don't want to steal from BP, or take over. Not most of them, at least.
Unfortunately I also believe there is a lot of doubletalk over there, internally. I think things are said in one light, and then other things are just done in another. I think some are saying what people want to hear, and that others are hearing only what they want to. These are all BII/SGN issues though, not BP issues.
I don't want anyone to come away from what I've had to say here feeling poorly. At the end of the day, I just felt like I had to be clear about everything, open about everything, and head any more questions or discussions about intent, the future, etc. off, and let people know where I stand.
I hope we'll find a point in the future where BII/SGN stands on its own and *does* compliment BP, all the while bringing something fantastic to the community. I think everyone would like to see that. And where I can assist towards that end, I will.
--edit--
One final note. This is not about BII/SGN 'looking' or 'feeling' like BP. It's about intent and direction. A question of focus. The concerns people have are based upon SGN being sold to us as a site exclusively dedicated to insider information, focused on and dedicated to that point of interest. Instead, it's been launched as BPplus. All encompassing, same forums, even a few more. Same features. Same direction. Even an opening pitch about community, despite the giant mention up top about the $49.95. Because people care about BP, they don't want to see it compromised or threatened.
The goal of my ridiculous long post here is to AVERT drama, not create it. Prevent misunderstandings and misconceptions.
This is NOT a case of a bruised ego on my end, BP isn't a vanity site for me, on the contrary, I try to take as low a profile as possible. I've always said that if BP ever found itself to be irrelevant, I'd quietly shut it down, and do so with a smile for what we accomplished. So don't feel like I'm mobilizing the troops, or creating some sort of defensive posture. Just airing out the issues. I suspect 90% who read this will come in total unaware that there's an issue at all. That's good, exit feeling the same. :)
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