Interesting.

Ze, I always thought you looked at the public forum as a sort of social experiment. Something that would feed your creative urges and everything that went with it: anger, love, joy, sadness. Over the course of time that I participated in this section of the forums there was some pretty heavy stuff that went down, yet you remained neutral, or relatively neutral.

Suffice to say I was surprised to come here and witness such an extreme reaction -- whatever happened, and I'm glad to say I wasn't witness to it, must have been huge.

At least I hope it was huge -- that you didn't lose your objectivity that cobbled together this community in the first place. Something to think about.

Let me bastardize an old saying: If we delete our past, we are bound to repeat it. The history of this board, ugly or pretty, created a foundation of users who were pretty dedicated to you. And most of that dedication came out of a respect for you (whether you believe that or not) and the freedom that you gave them, here -- for better or worse.

So there was a deletion issue. So you take away those abilities. It seems simple enough. What I know of Zen, she's not malicious. A wino, yes. Malicious, no. :p It kind of makes me sad to read her singled out here, when so much has gone on in the past.

But do you wipe out nearly five years of history? Hrm. There's some ugly ugly stuff on here that I would love to see gone forever, but now I'm not so sure it isn't a lesson for me to re-read and learn about myself, and grow.

Public figure or not, what makes you you, is your ability to reach out to virtual strangers and embrace them. And that means doing so, warts and all. It's the foundation of your celebrity.

Eh, what do I know? I probably haven't had enough coffee and am not making a whole lot of sense. It's early.

I can tell you that when I came back, when I decided I wanted to come back, I didn't step foot in this forum because I knew what it would entail. I was happy playing in the fiction area, with my own little bucket and shovel and enough water to build a beautiful sandcastle.

thank you h.fox for putting my thoughts into words.
you are brilliant!

:)

and ze, i'm really sorry you've had to put up with sh*t
on your own forum, but thank you for creating it and
keeping it going. it's given a lot of people a lot of
pleasure for a long time, and, as fox says, has the
potential to do so for some time to come.

;)

Oh, nononono...I wasn't trying to complain, pfp. I love this place! :D

I was just trying to make it known that nerves were being frayed and that tempers were rising out of control. Luckily, pearly voiced it much more eloquently than I did, and things went back to somewhere near normality.

Sorry if it came off like me whining about my low post count. I would never intentionally do that. I like being the noob, to some extent.

;)

Ze - ti amo and thank you! :)

Gives me the 2nd HUGE happy today! (The other was passing my first talk on an international conference a) alive and b) with quite some kudos)

i'm going to be deleting this thread - mainly because i can't seem to unstick it, and things have changed a bit since it was first posted.

check box, scroll down, unstick thread?

no?

Thank you, ze - I really appreciate this. You're a right decent chap. :)

Hi anna! *hug*

ahhh yes.

I think it's a good idea to delete it too because, "things have changed a bit since it was first posted".

let's not let this pass unnoticed.

congrats on surviving!

^Yay Stephi!

B'bye thread! Don't let the door hitcha on the way out!

Que?! :confused: (There were other circumstances in the G'bye thread or?)

You the same Brightpearl, you know the one I really liked :(

If this is about CJ - he's yours (as far a person whether real or virtual can 'belong' to somebody), no issue for me!

Thanx :) Phew, one or two millstones fell off my breast! Was totally scared when I read the list of the other speakers and all...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
:D :D :D

OOOOOOkay. I was referring to the fact that Ze said he was going to delete the thread, and I was going to be SO happy to see it go, because it turned a lovely gift to Frieda into more backbiting.

Desperately sorry for any misunderstanding! I should have typed a line between my congrats to you and my goodbye to the THREAD.

Deepest, hugest, most sincerestest congrats to you, dear Stephi! I am still the same brightpearl.

Alright, a misunderstanding - no issue either! Good you're still the Pearl I knew!

:)