________  ________  ________
   2018-03-12                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   Surprisingly, I  am  not  dead, I do have  /        _/         /         /
about a half dozen post started that I  just  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
can't bring  myself to  make the  effort  to    /        \/        \/    /   \
finish,  though.  I  don't know  what that's   /        _/         /_       _/
about.                                        /-        /        _/         /
                                              \________/\________/\___/____/
   So   some   changes   were   made  around
gopher.club  that  caused  a  little  stir  among the  SDF  gopher  users  and
rightfully  so,  some users' gophermaps  wouldn't work at  all when  trying to
access them via  gopher.club after the change. My space  was  a  bit messed up
too, though thankfully for the most part kept working, just  a few = whatevers
broke - I now know this is a gophernicus specific itemtype.

   A few prominent  SDF  gopher/gopher.club  members  have now  moved  or  are
looking to move to  their own spaces which is bittersweet, I love the SDF  but
also like the idea of a wider gopher web... a world wide web, as it were.

   One thing that I have been turning over in my head for the last week or so,
since resolving my VoIP drama and that resurfaced yesterday is  the discussion
around  support from SDF, using ANNOUNCE and engaging the  community in change
which, while I do agree is not necessarily something I want from SDF.

   Now hear me out, haha.

   The story with my VoIP, which I'm sure a lot  of people are sick of hearing
about, is that it looks like when I activated it I was assigned an extension I
shouldn't have been and couldn't  receive calls. Now I don't  know shit  about
shit but did  my best to try and  troubleshoot,  thought it  was  my voicemail
because I could receive calls from maint, assumed it was something I was doing
wrong etc but got nowhere. Asked for help a few times and got silence. It  was
frustrating  and  it  wasn't  until  nydel pointed  out that  I shouldn't have
received the extension at all  that I  conceded it and deactivated/reactivated
for a new extension.

   My initial reaction was  fuck this is stupid, if Admin or  someone who knew
this shit just  said straight  up that it's fucked and  I  have  to get  a new
extension then that would be  cool but instead I sat on a busted extension for
like six months, trying to fix an issue I couldn't actually fix.

   I  cooled down pretty quick though, I  figured I don't  pay much for access
and it is a weird hobby site so if  I  wanted a proper service I should  use a
proper  provider,  etc.  Then this  thing with  gopher  happened  and the same
frustrations bubbled up but this time I found myself wondering whether support
and transparency was even anything I actually needed from SDF.

   I know SDF tries to shrug off the notion that its a "retro" experience, but
with their BBS roots and 30+ years active there will always be that element to
their appeal and,  when  I think about BBSs transparency and support  are  not
concepts that come to mind.

   Back in those days the boards I visited were run by kids barely older  than
me and everything on the whole board subject to their  whim. If they wanted to
change something  they rarely  broadcast  the  change and asked for  feedback,
they'd  just  mess with it and if the  board had to come down for this or that
reason (or because their mom  just shut the machine off or pulled the line out
hahaha) then it came down.

   There's no denying the SDF is larger than any bedroom BBS  could ever  have
dreamt  to be but  in my opinion it  still  occupies the  same paradigm so, at
least for me, the tolerance for that kind  of thing carries over pretty easily
and I'm not sure I'd want it any other way.



EOF