Ramblings
Greg - Boomtime, 45 Aftermath 3169 @ 12:04 PM
For a few years I accompanied a friend to the New York Rennaissance Festival to sell knives and armor. Those were great summers - exciting, exhausting, endlessly entertaining. As a natural recluse, it was a very different experience for me to be a part of the thriving community that lived behind the scenes there.
We'd set up shop in the dome and work through the week, desperately trying to keep ahead of the demand from the weekends spent hawking our wares. In between work, there was beautiful countryside to explore and many experiences alien to someone from the semi-rural south.
The thing that sticks with me most from those times is the end of each season. The hurried wrapping up in the last couple of weeks, the helter-skelter of everyone preparing to move on. The change of season to fall hung over the whole affair like an omen. Most important were the goodbyes in the last few days: That was, each time, when it came home just how much these people I'd been living and working with meant to me. There were always surprises in the goodbyes... Some people I'd barely interacted with, never gotten to know, I'd suddenly realize were among the ones I'd miss most. In some special cases, I think the feeling was mutual.
We all parted with the polite fiction that we'd all be back next year, that we'd keep in touch in the meantime. Knowing that we wouldn't all be back, and that we wouldn't all keep in touch. I did a little keeping in touch, but not much going back. In the long run, the only things left from that time in my life are a suit of armor, a few trinkets, and a lot of mostly bittersweet memories. In the long run, I didn't keep in touch. I'm bad about that.
Some of the memories from those final days have come to haunt me since blogshares ended; mostly happy but with some regret - things I should have done, should have said. Bonds with people that should have been made tighter so that the polite fiction of keeping in touch might have become true. Now as then, fall has come and is rapidly headed for winter. The first cold nights arrived shortly before the diaspora. I think this has all come to mind because while I knew that the end was (or might be) coming, I imagined that it would be more like those other endings... Known ahead of time, full of friendly partings, and with things left at least mostly finished. Instead, the show packed itself up and left us all wondering.
Boomtime, 45 Aftermath 3169 @ 08:43 PM
Thanks Greg for this wonderful entry, it expresses some of my feelings as well. I too knew the end was near but didn't expect it to come so sudden, without advance notice. Although the people I interacted with most, won't leave my online life, it's still a pity there was no room to say goodbye. I visited some people's blogs through BlogShares once in a while and didn't bookmark their blogs. Wonder if I can find them again. To be honest, wonder if I'll go through the trouble of trying to find them again as time is limited and the list of subscriptions to RSS feeds and bookmarks already seems endless. The memories of many pleasant hours remain and although I've know frustration and annoyance, I still consider it not to have been a waste of time.
Boomtime, 45 Aftermath 3169 @ 10:24 PM
Thanks for listening. I started to post several times over the last couple of days, but stopped when I caught myself getting whiny or critical. What I finally posted seems to express it best - for better or worse, it happened and it ended. Nothing to do but move on.
From here I'll start collecting the lessons learned. I'm already kicking ideas around that might eventually become something to fill a similar niche.
Prickle-Prickle, 52 Aftermath 3169 @ 11:30 AM
It is true, that the most impactful events tend to be the most sudden. Politeness and promises of staying in contact serve many well, up until the time when the bill becomes due...most find themselves short of spare change to keep up the infant friendship. Maybe since Blogshares is being given another lease on existence, you can find the time to secure the contacts you desire. If not, then thanks for the contribution you made to the experiment.
MLT
Sweetmorn, 54 Aftermath 3169 @ 10:42 AM
Well, there was more to the story, both before and after this was posted. I've given up trying to figure out how to explain it - too much background, most of which was confidential - and I'm tired of the whole thing. I'll simply say I was left feeling used and personally insulted.
That pretty much precludes going back even to say goodbye. But thanks for visiting, Michael. All the best to you, and maybe our paths will cross in another game. ;)
Sweetmorn, 54 Aftermath 3169 @ 11:46 AM
Your contribution (your tools) was highly underestimated. The simple yet highly helpful nature of the tools should have been given far more tx than I saw you receive. I believe certain folks were just too stubborn to accept that 2 very different games existed. I myself took a break a long time ago from highly active play to just watching the soap opera. Good luck, have fun and all that stuff...
MLT
Boomtime, 55 Aftermath 3169 @ 11:25 AM
Hi Greg.
Yes, it has been a great run at blogshares. I've made some good friends there too. Thank you very much for your contributions to the game and for your help to so many that played. Though the game has returned, it does not have the same flavor as it did previously. At least not for me.
But I do hold on to the memories of the game, the players, the real people behind the nicknames, the communities within communities.
Hope to see you around in the new game of blogshares currently starting back up.
Pungenday, 56 Aftermath 3169 @ 11:47 AM
Well, that's up to you, whether you want to give these new fellows a chance or not. I'm going to help them get started, but I haven't decided whether I'll stay or not. A lot depends on their attitudes, how they go about doing things, etc. I'm taking a wait and see attitude.
