Eulogy for a Newsgroup

[kiya]

We live for words
And die for words
Principles we can afford
When all our Brothers turn to Lords
Whose side are you on?

"One By One", Chumbawamba

rasfc is no longer on my side. Hasn't been for years, really, but I've never been good at this whole getting out of a relationship that's going bad thing.

I have been there for nearly a decade. As I just posted:

I have been here since November or December of 1999, which is nearly a third of my life.

I have completed, with the assistance of this place, two novels, a number of short stories, and gotten started on several more.

I met a lover here.

I made many friends here over those years, and remain in touch with quite a few of them.

I have laughed and worked and enjoyed the cleverness and gotten my rasfc pin and my Nancybutton that says "Asked and Answered" in honor of R*ck*ds (which made TNH sit down vehemently, once upon a time) and all these things.


It's hard to face that it's dead.

I don't know what to do. I'm going to have to sit with this one for a good while, I think. But I also think I'm starting to say goodbye.

One by one, the ships go sailing in...
One by one, the ships go sailing out....

Comments

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

I mourn it too. For me, it died when Mary went away, and in the end, she got away for much more serious reasons than the dickheads, but that was the impression I got at the time.

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

Why did hse go ? I learned a great deal from talking to her. I was so excited to discover she was on rasfc. I started reading it soon after I'd finished 'Ash'.

[kiya]

I think the last straw was Friedman.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Her pain medication stopped working. She basically dropped out from everything, including her closest friends. She was supposed to be GoH at Eastercon in IIRC 2003 and canceled at the last minute.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. I kept hoping for ages that she'd reappear on rasfc. I hope she's okay.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It's not that I'm not on your side, but I haven't had time or inclination to wade through mountains of arguments. Besides, I've had enough. The most prolific posters are deeply entrenched, seem to have all the time in the world on their hands, and for the most part are people I have no interest at all in engaging in. Of non-LJ posters, the only one I will miss is Julian, but that's the price I have to pay for no longer having to endure the rest.

I'm really hoping we'll be able to keep some discussions alive on 9and60ways (or elsewhere), but rasfc, as a group, is no longer a place I feel comfortable in, either.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Having left the group some time ago, prompted by zeborahnz's post, I just went and had a browse around there in Google groups.

There is virutally no writing related content there at all.

I know it wasn't perfect in the past, but I learned so much, and thankfully it's still archived. Only yesterday I dug out Pat Wrede's Cinderella as novel or short story to use as a handout (duly acknowledged) with my creative writing students.

There is no point in me trying to contribute to the mayhem it has become. There are too many people there that I would avoid in face-to-face situations, so I have no wish to battle with them online.

I do still miss the old rasfc. LJ and the Open University writing forums provide certain kinds of interaction, but I owe so much to rasfc -- including my current job! -- that I feel sad that it's descended to such a state.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

It really is the end, isn't it?

I'd suggest mourning rituals if they feel appropriate.

[kiya]

Welp, I've posted my goodbye post too, now. I'll mourn later, I'm getting married tomorrow.

Text of goodbye post:

JF <julian@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> wrote:
> Why do we bother with the bullies and the dull and the
> disruptive? Because rasfc is worth it.

Was once worth it.

Yesterday, I wrote half a post about some worldbuilding in a work nominally in progress, stopped, and deleted it. Because the worldbuilding included race, class, and geopolitics, you see, and it exhausted me just to imagine what wild nonsense would come of it once the Usual Suspects got hold of it.

When I started reading rasfc, it required no killfile; it was years before I started one here, and that was after pleading with the poster in question to learn some basic netiquette. Now, I can download headers, see new posts in rasfc, and it turns out that there's nothing here to read, because it's just the Usual Suspects arguing with each other.


Once upon a time, this was a place where people were able to mention their various quirks and at least inspire someone to come up with a new variety of alien. Amiable flirting in cinquentas. Trying to decipher Graydon for fun and profit. Serious breakdowns and analyses of word nuances, how to write alien perspectives, how to write, say, a main character whose sex is unknown, looking at reflections of social things in writing, and similar meaty subjects.

Now, it's a place where quirks like objecting to bigoted language are mocked and my mentioning that I'd had a conversation with my boyfriend provoked a giant haranguefest. Where there's a *reason* I heavily police my own posts to see if there's anything that might plausibly cause an explosion, especially when I don't feel like I have spare resources to waste on the near-inevitable - which means that, for example, I don't make posts about the forces that led to the colonisation of a particular planet in my space opera, or look for help resolving the romantic issues of my secondary protagonist who happens to be a cursed bisexual pooka.


The corpse may still twitch when it gets enough of an electric shock, but it's dead.

I, for one, shall be going while I still have the strength to mourn.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I wish you all the best with your wedding; better to look forward than back at this point in time.

[dubiousprospects.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

An excellent decision.

May the wedding be entirely joyous!