The Daily Grind

Massive thanks to those who recently sent me emails of support, plus to those who don’t need to `cos they express their support in other way.  Though the whole thing is ridiculious and without merit, it’s extremely disheartening to know that someone is actively trying to ruin your career and a web site you have spent four years of your life developing.

I did receive even more email at the same time, though on a different vein.  However I’m quite comfortable with the current state and size of my dick, so thank, but no thanks.  I get dizzy as it is.

@_; ^{– I bet you’re not happy with how underused it is.}

This is a fun read.  Honest.

It all started on Tuesday morning (my time) when I read my morning mail…

I knew I’d get another reply, somebody really had something to get off his chest…

See!  Evidently we had to have this out, and by this stage I was happy to oblige.

Remember kids, once you’ve initiated contact and have had your say, it’s ok to block your ears and go “nah nah nah can’t hear you!” Dob `em in to your parents if they try to retort!

Interesting, though blunt, insulting and clearly fed up, there I was still trying to explain stuff.  Idiot.

Mr Dawe then sent an e-mail to the GM & BGM of the company I work at.  The e-mail was sent to an information address as to get past my ‘defences’ (which wouldn’t be hard, I had none).

The e-mail accused me of sending abusive and insulting spam.  It detailed my name, my e-mail address, the bandwidth, visitors and hits from the site, accused me of running a ‘dedicated server’.  The e-mail went on to accuse me of suspicious activities, implied I was stealing from the company, stated I was in violation of my network’s acceptable use policy (which I wrote part of).  If that wasn’t enough it also claimed RPoL contained p*rn*gr*phy (I’m not getting that word indexed by search engines!).

The e-mail was clearly an attempt to get me fired and the site shut down, not just an “I’m getting Spam” complaint.

Fortunately, without any prompting from me, the Business Development Manager reported the e-mail to SpamCop, and after a brief chat with the General Manager, he requested I block the offending e-mail account from sending mail to the Perth iX network.

It was a good try, and though it could have had catastrophic effects for RPoL and myself, all in all it was a failure.

I don’t really think I need to detail my thoughts on Mr Dawe.  Besides, I think words would fail me.

Messages of appreciation can be sent to thomas_j_dawe@yahoo.com.

@_; ^{– …}

My faith in humanity has been restored.

No, wait, I’m wrong.  It’s all gone to shit.

Once more friendly users have struck.  Those who demand a mile but won’t budge an inch.  Those who cry unfair while managing to be insulting.

It’s a finely crafted skill, I’m convinced of it.  People can’t be this pathetically successful at … well, being so pathetic.  It must be something people actually plan out and do rather than just successfully stumble upon that winning irritating formula again and again.

It does really make me wonder why I bother to run a web site, and the biggest driver behind continuing is that I’d be letting a lot of people down if I quit.  I know there are a lot of silent but happy users, and the crap it is often briefly punctuated with periods of enjoyment; either stemming from vocal grateful users, good RP’ing, or implementing a particularly nifty or well received feature, but when the shit really starts to get me down, the one thing that stops me chucking a hissy fit and throwing in the towel is all the users, and that’s kind of a sad state to be in.

It also makes me wonder where I get my patience from, and why I don’t ban more people more often.  Why I insist on try to explain this to users, why I persevere with trying to be helpful to those who just won’t accept any help.  My patience amazes me, but I’ve got to impress someone, no?

No, I’m 31.

Rather than going elbows deep into the code for RPoL today and yesterday I’ve instead been wresting with this thing `ere.  After a long, bitter and hard fought struggle with HTML tables I’ve surrendered and can’t get the thing to do what I want, so I’ve done the same thing a different way.

Code wise you can now all add in your thoughts, which will make a pleasant change from my lack thereof.

Of course I don’t need to threaten you with ‘be nice’ etc and mention the fact I can remove it at a moments notice, or force posting to be done via a RPoL account.

@_; ^{– I’ve got your IP address right `ere, chum.}

Really, clues should be handed out at birth.

I’ve been coding my own web site for over three years now, I’ve been in the thick of IT for over ten.

^{toots trumpet} I’m not one of those computer people that decided “hey, there’s a few bucks to be made here, stuff this gardening gig, let’s try this computer thing stuff” either.  I actually enjoy (well, used to…) what I do and I’m bloody good at it.  I got one of those clues allocated at birth; not only for real life, but for computing as well. ^{stops tooting}

So why do people insist on doing stupid things like creating multiple accounts when it’s expressly forbidden, part of the ToU I would add… as much as I hate having the thing there… as much as I hate having to refer to it.

^{Begin reminiscing} I remember a time when nobody did anything stupid (glares at Snufkin; the sole exception) and there were no moderators, the was no ToU.

Then moderators had to be added as people started to get stupid.  Yes, stupid.  Typing stupid things, doing stupid things.

Then I thought I better add the Terms of Use.  Not because I thought I needed one, but it’s an unfortunate by product of this day and age, every one wants something for nothing, so I thought it was best if I covered my arse… and by doing that covered RPoL’s (which doesn’t look as good as mine, I might add) so that it’d be around from one week to the next.

Then I had to start writing banning routines… I could already ban accounts, but now I had to start coding it so I could ban IP’s, or blocks thereof… or accounts/IP’s from forums to give people a ‘get in line’ prod.

Then I had to start actually referring to the ToU.  Then I had to add to it and expand on it.

Then people starting bitching about moderators. “You’re stupid” they’d post.  We’d delete.  Not only did they get upset that they’d been moderated, but they were outraged we didn’t explain to them why.  Maybe I should start breeding my life-clue and IT-clue… I could hand out the little baby clues to the less fortunate.

And the latest is I had to add more text to the ‘Create an Account’ screen, so people might get it through their thick skulls that even tho I provide RPoL as a free site out of my good graces (oh yes) they better start bloody behaving.

I swear, if people paid they’d behave better.  But no, it’s free, so let’s piss in the pool… or poo on the couch… whatever way you’d like to phrase it.

Oh yeah… ^{End reminiscing}

So anyway…

What, you don’t think your bolded purple text in every post you do is so common that I won’t pick it out as something you do?  Do people think I can’t look through web logs and cross reference IP’s?

Do people think their logins aren’t recorded?

And who’s fooling who when you claim it was your third cousin twice removed that posted, not you.  Even though it was the same style, the same annoying purple text.  Apparently they snuck on… for 8 hours!

But really, come on now!  If you’re going to make multiple accounts, at least don’t insult everyone’s intellect by deciding that “BSmith” would be a tricky alternative when your normal account is “BobSmith”.

Or course, random numbers on the end would fool anyone.  So tricky I don’t know how you manage to remember your login name!

The breeding program commences…

Sammy the snail says:

@_; ^{– Shove off south you stupid snots}

… The potty mouthed bastard.