I apologize for the ambiguity in the message that started this whole thing,
and I agree that it is ironic that it was missing context. I also
apologize for such a personal and negative message, but please allow me
explain. The reason I responded so negatively to you was that I read and
re-read the message that started this whole thing several things and I
honestly couldn't see how someone that read the whole thing could interpret
it the way you did. (It talked about forum-specific buttons and functions,
for example.) It appeared to me that you didn't read the whole message and
were attacking me without reason. In retrospect, messages that negative
never seem to do anything but tick people off, so what can I say. I'm
human.
The other ironic thing is that I DO have the ability to just send messages
to the forum, but allowed this message to go to the list because I thought
that the list would appreciate seeing the effort I was making at helping to
make things flow better. So there is no "problem with intra-site
communication."
I also never said that backup central or this forum/mailing list goes
unattended for weeks (or even days) at a time. I'm on it all day every day.
What I said was that I didn't see that this particular thread had responses
to it, as I wasn't looking for them. (Stickies don't typically get
responses.) I'm on the site every single day even when I'm on vacation, as
I'm that big of a geek, and I have help that I can call on when I need it.
AND my email address goes out in every single message that goes from the
forum to the list, and anyone contacting me via that address would reach my
BlackBerry immediately. So I don't believe that I'm being irresponsible.
As to the whole "commercial site" thing and whether or not I'm doing
something that nobody wants here, I remind you that this topic has come up a
few times over the last two years that I've been doing this, and the overall
opinion (with a few exceptions from people like yourself) was that as long
as I was adding value and not sending spam, then it would be OK. Every once
in a while there is a message that sets off the debate again, and when it
does I remind people of WHY I'm doing this and the value that it is
bringing.
Toward that end I did some queries of the posts from the last six months.
Of the 2510 posts to this mailing list, 168 of them came from the forum
(~6%). I then took a look at who was posting and can see that of those 168
posts, 131 of them were from 10 people. This shows me that while there are
a few "one-time posters," the bulk of messages coming from the forum are
from people that are actively involved with the community. This also shows
me that some active participants of this community prefer the forum
interface (some of which are IBM employees, BTW). I believe these voices
would be silent if we severed the link. AND I believe there are more like
them out there that find my site every day.
In addition, no spam hit the list during that time, due to the system I put
in place and the care that I have taken.
I do respect the right of people on this list to do what they want, but in
the absence of a dictator (list admin) telling me to just get the heck off,
I've been going with a consensus -- and the consensus seems to be that as
long as I'm adding value and not spam, that the link should stay.
If anyone else would like to discuss this further, I suggest we do it
off-list. There's already been enough messages on this topic.
My email address is curtis AT backupcentral DOT com
I apologize again for any inconvenience.
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