Printer-friendly versionYes, Topshelf is down for a while. There's nothing I can or will do to put it back up until Erin decides that she wants to put it back up again.
Bob Arnold
BCTS is down for a while
Submitted by Admin on 2009, October 31 - 5:05pm
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If
If I understood?
Topsy
Mostly Harmless
Topsy
Mostly Harmless
Huggles and positive thoughts
for Erin.
Winnie
Thanks for everything Erin
Please take all the time you need Erin. I wish i was closer and I would offer a shoulder for you. Anything i can do just name it. Hugggggggggs
Brandie
No BCTS server issues
In answer to one question, there are no issues with either the server or the software that runs the site. Other issues related to other things are involved though.
I also screwed up and just accidentally deleted some other comments to this thread that I had intended to approve. The damned approve and delete buttons are too close together when I feel like crap. Might be the start of the flu since the H1N1 stuff is pretty heavy in my area right now. Unfortunately no shots have been available for the past couple of months.
Bob Arnold
Erin down, site down?
It was ten years ago that Mindy, the founder of Fictionmania, got fed up with the sniping and decided to cancel the site, and a number of us (the current "Task Force") leaped in to collaborate and try to save it, and did. And a year ago that FM's overburdened server went down, and again the Task Force -- people with day jobs and RL concerns including family deaths -- rallied to find alternatives, and did, though it took months and months. Erin may feel disheartened for whatever reasons -- her privilege. I don't know her at all, though she honored me by putting my earlier stories onto the original BC when I most needed encouragement, and I honor her and am grateful for that. She performs a service for us all in maintaining the site, and it can be arduous, yes.
She performs that service for readers. They ALWAYS include a proportion of brats of all ages, people with free-floating hostilities who love to flame anonymously, and can be insufferable, but go with the territory, like all the insufferable people I know in RL and ignore as best I can. But most readers -- a vast majority, never post anything. My sense from hit counters and comments is, five hundred to a thousand people read for each one who posts a comment, and at most only one in four of those who post do so, as Erin says, to "snipe". That's barrels full of good apples, decent people, many needy in that their own self-esteem as T*s is reinforced by knowing that others share their fantasies -- as mine once -- tossed out because of a few bad apples.
But there are not only good apple readers. There are the writers who appreciate her and have learned to depend on her maintaining her site for years and years, who write for the site and depend on it for access to readers she provides. They're being let down. And they ain't done nuthin but labor to please themselves and others, and too rarely -- as me now -- declare gratitude to Erin for giving them those others. Yes it can be thankless. But it isn't, really, the good will created by what Erin does is mountainous! We all know that. I hope Erin knows.
We can all regret she feels bad, for whatever reasons (and they may have nothing to do with this site at all -- I don't know her mind or temperament). But not maintaining the site -- as a self-indulgence? really? -- spreads that unhappiness across thousands of people who ain't done no wrong at all. It renders the efforts of all her writers futile. And that's ... well, not desirable. Erin, come home!
Guess all I can do is
Wish Erin the best. We appreciate the work you put into a friendly place to post and read.
BCTS Downtime
If anyone deserves the time off to mourn a lost one, It is Erin. I would assume that BCTS is like her child that this weekend of all weekends is too much to handle in her grief, thus she put her child to bed for a short time so that she may deal with her own personal issues at this moment. No words I say will make what she may be feelng any better, thus I will simply leave a note of silence for her.
Beverly Colleen
Well wishes
You have my best hopes and wishes Erin.
Big Hugs!
Grover
Plan? Ain't got no Plan!
"Beyond Thunder Dome"
Erin has a difficult task at BC, I wouldn't want her headaches
I remember from past incidents Bob here has had more than his share of bad days as well. The difficulties at a busy site like BC must be much greater even with her crew of volunteers..
Running and moderating a web site cannot be easy and with BC's great success comes great difficulties.
Jesse, I sound like the creator of Spider You Know Who.
I don't know if illness, outside web attacks or another *flame war* was the cause but clearly Erin is stressed.
I wish her well and that she will turn BC back on as she has kindly done before. I grieve hearing of the anniversary of her loves death. I hope she can find solace in time. My late older sister Ann would have been 54 on October 29th. I still cry on occasion thinking of her passing December 31, 2005 and of my mother's passing earlier the same year. Take some time to remember your lost love, Erin. I wish I could help but we all must grieve alone, ultimately.
And you keep well too, Bob. Having been around for the Hong Kong flu -- in 1968 I think? -- you may have some natural immunity to an H1N1 but the shot would be nice.
Stay well all of you.
John in Wauwatosa
But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine)
Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)
But you're not a scientist. Surely you believe in all this superstitious nonsense. (MAD Magazine) Could be worse, could be raining. (Young Frankenstein)
*HUGS* for Erin
I wish there was away for her to just put the people who seem to cause issues into a "timeout" for a week or so. Maybe that would teach them to be nice and treat the site and its authors with the respect they deserve. I am a everyday reader of BC but seldom post my thoughts in stories as I think they are all well written.
Just my 2 cents sorry if I am harsh its PMS!!!!!!!1
Well Wishes
Thanks for the BC update. Our well wishes and hugs for Erin. Bob - thanks for all you do. Get well. pere
Bye bye for now...
....trying to manage anything this big is difficult under the best of circumstances, even with all the help. Couple that with the anniversary of the death of a loved one, I think I can manage for a while without the site. Sure it's disappointing; I have managed to cope with some major physical and emotional issues due in no small part to the relationships I've made, but I can still write, as evidenced by this note, and I still can contact friends via email, albeit without the ease of private messages. What I can't do is post, which is okay, since it's really all about what Erin has asked over and over, with a supreme amount of success; most everyone is kind all of the time, and everyone is kind most of the time, but the occasional mistake in judgment; hitting the send button microseconds before realizing it might be better left unsaid or said differently...I know I might...that's a big if...be patient enough to deal with it. But when you're dealing with what she's dealing with today, it just isn't worth the effort, as her note made clear. She's hurting, and that alone gives me the patience to endure until she's ready to open the site. As much as I feel at home at BCTS, I also consider myself an invited guest, and that being there is a privilege, not a right, so I'll wait...reluctantly and probably feel sorry for myself in the process, but she's a dear, and deserves the benefit of our kindness and consideration. Love you all...and love you, Erin! Andrea DiMaggio
yo quiero taco bell
Sounds like the Chihuahua Dogs are snapping at each others ankles again.
Bummer I was browsing for new stories! :(
Take your time Erin. You deserve a break today.
HUGGELS
ChrisW
Geese how cliché can I be! Guess I'm hungry need to eat dinner...
"We are the Borg," "Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us."
"Resistance is
BC is Back Up
Really, it was just a bout of depression, which I've been struggling with since about June. I needed a day off where I would not have to worry about was someone saying something in a blog or a comment that would hurt someone else's feelings. I've fallen down on the job a few times lately in not removing things I thought might cause a problem -- and sure enough, some of them did.
Ten years ago, give or take a week, I started BigCloset as a website for LGBT fiction. Within two weeks, Mindy announced that FM would be closing in December. I offered to take over for her and Lainie Lee began moving stories, with permission, from FM to BC. Crystal was doing something similar with StorySite, originally just a showcase for her own stories. Eventually, the Task Force took over for Mindy but last year, after a six-month outage, Mindy had to come back to rescue FM again.
I think I know something about how she feels. :)
I spend 20 to 50 hours a week running BC and my volunteer helpers spend about the same. Last year, when both Crystal's and FM were down, Bob and I were putting in 60 to 70 hour weeks, each, keeping BC running on its own antiquated server. With editing help from my volunteers. After two upgrades, we got it stable and have had no more hardware problems.
BC was down for less than seven hours. I took a long drive by the ocean that Jeannie loved and I ate dinner in one of our favorite restaurants, Lou's Red Oak BBQ in Fountain Valley. I feel better.
Thank you to everyone who expressed their support, especially to Bob.
Hugs,
Erin
It's 2115 west coast time
It's 2115 west coast time and TSBC is back up. I sincerely hope Erin got the time she needed.