Thanks for the flowers, Chris and Allan, but ... no thanks! Apart from any other issues, people, I simply don't have the time at the moment. Most of the time and energy I spend in the virtual world is taken up by the blog project I started around a year ago. This entails me producing around two posts per week (each with 1.500 words + of original content) and it uses up most of the personal resources I have available. I have to earn a living too, and I have a good life beyond cyberspace which I'm not prepared to condense more.
Sometimes I wonder if ME hasn't outlived its attraction for many of us who were involved at various stages in the past years. I know that some of the reasons for me beginning my blog project and significantly disengaging here had to do with personal dissatisfaction at the format of Google Groups and Minds Eye. This is not meant as a criticism - it is rather a statement about my own personal development and journey. I've always thought that ME got most of its energy from a continual influx of new, beautiful minds coming into the mix - this provides the stimulus necessary for those here to remain engaged. In the past two years or so, I've observed this as becoming less and less, which has also led to many of those who contributed extensively moving on. I think much of this probably has to do with the development of social networking on the web in recent years - new people just aren't surfing around on "Groups" and getting involved the way they used to. For many potential new participants, the "Groups" format simply isn't sexy enough. In retrospect, I think ME took a major hit from the "Gravity" thing - even if Gravity/Convo didn't turn out to be what many of us had hoped it would. But it enticed many regular contributors out of this pond into another ... and then they moved on further. A completely normal development in my view. ME has already shown an extraordinarily long half-life in virtual terms. I still get all ME posts through e-mail. I even read some of them, though I confess to reading less in recent months. I think Chris's new "obnoxi.us" project may have a better chance of becoming something like what ME was two or three years ago, but with all the whistles and bells the current technology offers (which isn't there in the Groups format). So - as the Saduccee (John Cleese) said in "The Life of Brian," "... and I want this to be perfectly clear... " I am not prepared to devote any more time and energy than the minimum I give at the moment to ME. And I don't care if I get stoned as a result ... :-) Francis On 26 Apr., 05:56, Chris Jenkins <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear that I've had little to no > time for all things Minds Eye. I did what I could to help grow the group, > and expand it into other venues, but honestly, I think it's time someone > else took over the top reins. I know that will be a contentious conversation > given some of the conversations and conflicts around here regarding > moderation, but I think it's fair to put the top level of control in the > hands of someone who is actually currently working to make the list better. > > I don't know any better way to do it than to be democratic. I'll take > suggestions, via this thread or personal message, and the name I get the > most of will get the spot. I don't care if you want it or not...if the > majority of folks here find you to be fair minded, then they'll trust you to > hand it over to someone else. Who knows, perhaps there will come elections, > an official Minds Eye president or some such thing...ok, well, probably not, > but you get the idea. > > This list has never been about hierarchies, but the fact is, someone at some > points in time has to make difficult decisions, with the good of the group > in mind. It's an utterly thankless job, and no matter what you choose, there > will always be folks who find you to be a fascist prick for making that > decision. > > As an aside, for those of you who remember when DubiousProfundity.com was > the dedicated website for this list, you might be interested to know that > I've revived the new concept here:http://obnoxi.us. Feel free to > participate, if you like. > > Enough with the formalities. I'll start. My vote's for Francis Hunt.
