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Yes, Wazoo that will be quit a change.
And one that I do not look forward to seeing develop.

TPTB have never expressed any desire to help the "moderators" With nearly all communication being of the non-constructive criticism variety.

There are very few who have any idea of just how much work Wazoo actually does to keep the Forum, Wiki and the other user based tools running; and currently he is the only one that is an active participant that even as the ability to do so.

Thank you Wazoo for hanging in there as long as you have. You are a saint, but even a saint has his breaking point.

May you find peace in your decision.

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Moderator edit: added link back to original quoted data

Thinks for the edit. I could not quickly figure out how to make the link.

I do hope the moderators will be able to hang in there and keep the character of this forum a constant.

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Not sure what happened recently to cause this :huh:

Nor am I but FYI I saw the following "Announcements", "Request for Sample Bad spam"

I have received an e-mailed response to the prior query posted. However, ......

If I post the e-mail, I get yelled at, as permission to post it was not granted.

If I 'paraphrase' the content, I get yelled at as what I post "wasn't what was meant" ....

If I post only my own words, I place myself in the position of not being able to back up those words.

So here goes ....

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I would like to add my two cents and say "THANK YOU WAZOO!"

I am not a frequent poster in these forums; but I do like to read through the forums here because they are a great source of knowledge - I have learned a great deal here thanks to the efforts such as what has been put forth by Wazoo. It would seem to me that there is going to be a big hole to fill with his departure, as he seems to keep many of the squeaky parts oiled. I am gonna miss him.

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Nor am I but FYI I saw the following "Announcements", "Request for Sample Bad spam"
...That's a summary of some of the symptoms but Wazoo was able to weather those problems pretty much.

...Anything further on this should come from Wazoo rather than from me, IMHO.

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I've been posting here for only a relatively short time, but quite long enough for me to notice Wazoo's tenacity in dealing with questions, and his obvious diligence in keeping things mopped up and straightened out here. Thanks, Wazoo.

-- rick

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I want to add my thanks to Wazoo for his efforts at making this forum, a user-friendly space. Much of what he has done to make it so is behind the scenes in his work on the inner workings of the forum. Also, I don't know how we will manage without his expert advice on sticky technical questions.

And, I will miss him 'having all the fun' There aren't many people in this world who enjoy doing what they do with the evident gusto that Wazoo does.

Miss Betsy

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First of all .. many thanks for the kind words and support.

Much in deference to my normal mode of 'everyone gets an answer, as quickly as possible' .... this Topic has not been ignored, it's just that I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to actually reply ..... to actually explain a number of things, I'd have to go into describing myself, the usual way to do that would be to start relating some old war stories as examples. This is probably not the best place to try to do that ... and as most folks know, once I get started down that path, it's hard to shut me up <g>

If you've been around here for any bit of time, you'd probably noticed that I don't like to do most things in private. This is a public forum, available to help all folks with their SpamCop.net issues. You'll have seen that numerous issues sent directly to me via PM end up being placed 'out here' such that others could see the issue, hopefully jump in with a solution. I'll readily admit to not knowing everything, but caveat that with that I have not stopped learning things either. You will also have noticed about how open I am to a number of things ... I've admitted to screwing up and knocking this thing off-line for instance.

Folks talk about my "style" which is more driven by my background and the unusual life (?) I lead. Folks that actually know me wonder how anyone could spend so much time at the keyboard. No doubt many have noticed my typing skills suck ... actually more caused by the fact that I don't touch type, so it's a matter of plinking on the right keys as I go along, two or three fingers on either side of the keyboard .. problem is that I have a massive collection of keyboards that no longer have letters on the keys. Those permanenet-ink pens don't actually work ... as a matter of fact, I believe that some of the chemicals in those things are what have caused holes to develop in some of theses keys. Some now without enough surface area to re-ink the letters on them. Take this to indicate that I am at the keyboard, I am busy, busy, busy .... When I check in here looking for new traffic, there are times where it's really taking a break from something else. When I see something posted here, I'm not generally in the mode of wanting to spend 'hours' on composing a sweet, hand-holding, full of unnecessary crap, so I'll typically just try to get to the point, ask for more data, whatever .. short, quick, specific. This has led to a lot of folks getting upset becasue I'm a rude bastard. Oh well ..... One of the alternative views has always been that there aren't questions asked here that set around for a couple of years with no replies at all ... one of my pet peeves when trying to reseach other issues ....

When the Forum started up, there was much discussion about the need, the feasibilty, even the 'requirement' for this type of venue. Some regular newsgroup posters flat out disappeared due to their personal anger of the proposed change in support venues. When JT asked for volunteers to help Moderate in here, I didn't jump in, as I really expected to spend no time 'here' .... The catch was that none of the newsgroup regulars were offering any help 'here' ... Things started getting a bit much for just a single Moderator (JeffG) and JT asked me if I'd help out, based on my very visible 'presence' in here. Accepted that 'position' ....

At the time, the IPB support Forum was basically open to all, so I started doing reseach there to see if some of the issue with this Forum could be resolved. One of the issues was that the "Report this post" button sent notifications to just about everbody with a 'position / title" on this thing. One of the 'fixes' I had found required access to the Control Panel. It was to solve that 'notification' issue that initially caused JT to slide me into the Admin Group. Then came cause that I actually had to touch some of the code, and JT gave me access to the server.

War story #1 .. I once worked at an R&D lab. My boss was a retired Warrent Officer with the attitude of "get it done" ... His immediate boss ran with "if the Regulations do not explicitly state that you can do this, you can't" ... This guy's boss ran with "if the Regulations don't specifically state that you can't do this, what's the problem?" My position .. get things done in such a way that all three were happy with the results, not upset or "caught up in a problem" with the way those things got accomplished .... One hell of a learning experience!

So, there I sat with access to the application, the server, and all these things that could use some work. Asking JT for guidance, I was offered the go-ahead to start making changes, just make sure that I let him know what I was up to. Thus begat my 'control' of this Forum.

Add all that up, then add to that one of the reasons for so many of the 'extra' things found here .... specific things include the numerous attempted FAQ tools .... Basically, bad things started happening when I started working hard at developing a much more complete, current, and 'live' SpamCop.net FAQ My attempts at getting things changed, updated, added, fixed, whatever ended up rubbing some folks the wrong way. Over time, other attitude differences started showing up, causing even more friction.

War story #2: one Deputy took the time to post something important in here. The method used was to make a new post in each of the separate Forum sections. I wrote up a Moderator's guide on how to use the Anouncements function of this application, edited the Forum contents by delting those dozens of separate posts and making the single Announcement entry needed to then disp;ay that Announcement in all the Forum sections. Many moons later, a seconf Deputy advises me that the first Deputy was so ticked off at what I had done, the first Deputy would never post in here again ... all I can say is that this first Deputy has in fact posted here since, has never told me how upset my actions caused him/her, I still get e-mail replies from that Deputy ....??????

The actual current situation boils down to me trying to take something private, rather than to re-start/continue some of this 'difference of opinion' stuff that I believe had no place in the 'public' environment. I have been charged and convicted of abusing my 'authority' here by moving a post to a 'restricted access' Forum section (so as to allow continued discussion by the parties involved .. but again, privately)

Not a full story, probably also said too much. But, the situation in a nutshell.

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... I have been charged and convicted of abusing my 'authority' here by moving a post to a 'restricted access' Forum section (so as to allow continued discussion by the parties involved .. but again, privately)...
Which action was correct for the poor, innocent user who was the supposed focus of concern and whose problem erupted into an extraordinary and quite unnecessary by-play which certainly had no place in that 'venue'. The hypocrisy, with your supposed maltreatment of users on the one hand and the actual behavior of their self-professed savior on the other is quite stunning - and it is then cruelly compounded by the officially-supported charge of abuse by you!. My sympathy - the fact you are accustomed to public humiliation in the service of unworthy 'masters' in no way lessens the distastefulness of the spectacle.

Thanks for all the help and the (almost :P) insane efforts you have made in making this fundamentally-flawed thing actually function for the benefit of both SC and its users, all the while neither expecting nor receiving due credit or any sensible fraction of the public recognition rightfully due and overdue. Life was never meant to be easy, but nor was it meant to be hell. You go to a better place Wazoo - but hopefully we'll continue to hear from you in your 'civilian' capacity in times to come.

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Thanks for the update Wazoo.

It is too bad that the SpamCop Staff are unwilling to see/acknowledge just how much you actually do to support these tools without any payment for services rendered.

But that is apparently their "style" as the support they provide to the rest of the moderators is just as appalling (non-existant).

Our many "thanks" to Don for getting us to the place we are at today; two moderators having already departed, the rest heart broken as the only one we were able to turn to for support and guidance has

been charged and convicted of abusing my 'authority'
for doing what every single moderator would support as being a necessary action (even after the benefit of hind sight).

So THANK YOU WAZOO for being our guiding light and always willing to help. :wub:

We may not always have agreed with you choice of words or style, but we did always benefit greatly from your keen knowledge and what you brought to the table. No relationship is perfect. Every relationship requires give and take and benefits from balancing cost vs benefit (good vs bad).

From my perspective the scale sat at 99% to 1%, but apparently the 1% carries more weight in the SpamCop world than the 99%.

And the result? - everyone loses :( :angry: :(

:google:

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Thanks for the update Wazoo.

<snip lengthy but nicely-put post>

...Nothing to add to that (except for some things that wouldn't be much more than a rant -- Wazoo tread far too softly regarding the "straw that broke the camel's back" for my taste) -- well said!
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Just noting this day Wazoo reached 3,000 posts in the SpamCop Reporting Help Forum, his most active (oops, no, it was yesterday actually). Just a fraction of the 10,400 total posts (okay, I rounded that up by 1) but a testament to the service rendered here in direct assistance and the posts are certainly the least of it (compared to "running" the board and associated whitefella magic).

Can't be said enough - thanks mate.

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  • 11 months later...

...So I happily observe that the threatened action posted one year ago in "------>------> Latest and Current Announcements <------<------" labeled "This forum is in the process of undergoing some major organizational changes" has not happened! May I therefore assume that it won't (at least for the foreseeable future)?

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May I therefore assume that it won't (at least for the foreseeable future)?

Easiest/quickest answer ... I'm still too broke to make any major changes to my lifestyle <g>

It's probably been noted that I've slowed down a bit, yet ... am presently working on a Ubuntu 8.0.4 install here at the house, playing with a few applications to see what's needed for possible integration/use elsewhere <g> Much time spent on getting things to work on the ancient hardware involved here, so perhaps a better word would be 'distracted' at present.

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I know I am a new poster here, but have spent many hours looking through the forums and being helped by many people's experiences and many helpful replies, Wazoo's being the most plentiful!

I am saddened to see Wazoo suffer what he is going through, as I feel that the whole forum and indeed SpamCop, will be sadly depleted by the loss of such a valuable, knowledgeable and helpful member.

And Wazoo, a personal thanks for my own kick up the butt to make me step out of my cocoon of safety and learn something new. You can teach an old dog new tricks!

I wish you all the best in whatever the future brings to you

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May I therefore assume that it won't (at least for the foreseeable future)?
Easiest/quickest answer ... I'm still too broke to make any major changes to my lifestyle <g>

<snip>

perhaps a better word would be 'distracted' at present.

...Hmm ... I'm going with a guess that the gist of my question wasn't clear: I was referring to
It's apparently time for someone else to have all the fun ....
which suggested to me you were leaving us. I know it isn't the case that you're still here because you couldn't afford to give up the paycheck you get from so ably managing the SpamCop Forum! :) <g>
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...you're still here because you couldn't afford to give up the paycheck you get from so ably managing the SpamCop Forum! :) <g>
:lol: Not to mention the newsgroup subscriptions and archives and generally agonizing over and dealing with all the essential and associated stuff that nobody else has to agonize over because there's something like 31,667 cubic inches of Wazoo occupying that space which is obviously a far better use for it than the 23.166 gram-moles of air which might otherwise be there (1.395*1025 atoms - several tens of thousands of which are re-cycled from Caesar's dying breath, as it happens, but I digress). :D
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  • 4 weeks later...

..."Latest and Current Announcements" changed to remove the references to the "major organizational changes" that have not happened (and hopefully will not happen for a long, long time!).

...For reference, here is the content that was removed:

This forum is in the process of undergoing some major organizational changes

We regret any inconvenience you may experience due to these changes.

See also Announcement: Upcoming Forum changes and

Topic: Changes in support

Posted 22 Sept 2007

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"major organizational changes" that have not happened (and hopefully will not happen for a long, long time!).
For which we are all extremely supportive and thankful. Thanks for hanging in here Wazoo. You are the backbone of this user group. Any my many thanks to the rest who serve as the limbs and keep things moving forward. Dbiel
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