________ ________ ________
2018-03-12 / \/ \/ / \
/ __/ /_ _/
Surprisingly, I am not dead, I do have / _/ / /
about a half dozen post started that I just \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
can't bring myself to make the effort to / \/ \/ / \
finish, though. I don't know what that's / _/ /_ _/
about. /- / _/ /
\________/\________/\___/____/
So some changes were made around
gopher.club that caused a little stir among the SDF gopher users and
rightfully so, some users' gophermaps wouldn't work at all when trying to
access them via gopher.club after the change. My space was a bit messed up
too, though thankfully for the most part kept working, just a few = whatevers
broke - I now know this is a gophernicus specific itemtype.
A few prominent SDF gopher/gopher.club members have now moved or are
looking to move to their own spaces which is bittersweet, I love the SDF but
also like the idea of a wider gopher web... a world wide web, as it were.
One thing that I have been turning over in my head for the last week or so,
since resolving my VoIP drama and that resurfaced yesterday is the discussion
around support from SDF, using ANNOUNCE and engaging the community in change
which, while I do agree is not necessarily something I want from SDF.
Now hear me out, haha.
The story with my VoIP, which I'm sure a lot of people are sick of hearing
about, is that it looks like when I activated it I was assigned an extension I
shouldn't have been and couldn't receive calls. Now I don't know shit about
shit but did my best to try and troubleshoot, thought it was my voicemail
because I could receive calls from maint, assumed it was something I was doing
wrong etc but got nowhere. Asked for help a few times and got silence. It was
frustrating and it wasn't until nydel pointed out that I shouldn't have
received the extension at all that I conceded it and deactivated/reactivated
for a new extension.
My initial reaction was fuck this is stupid, if Admin or someone who knew
this shit just said straight up that it's fucked and I have to get a new
extension then that would be cool but instead I sat on a busted extension for
like six months, trying to fix an issue I couldn't actually fix.
I cooled down pretty quick though, I figured I don't pay much for access
and it is a weird hobby site so if I wanted a proper service I should use a
proper provider, etc. Then this thing with gopher happened and the same
frustrations bubbled up but this time I found myself wondering whether support
and transparency was even anything I actually needed from SDF.
I know SDF tries to shrug off the notion that its a "retro" experience, but
with their BBS roots and 30+ years active there will always be that element to
their appeal and, when I think about BBSs transparency and support are not
concepts that come to mind.
Back in those days the boards I visited were run by kids barely older than
me and everything on the whole board subject to their whim. If they wanted to
change something they rarely broadcast the change and asked for feedback,
they'd just mess with it and if the board had to come down for this or that
reason (or because their mom just shut the machine off or pulled the line out
hahaha) then it came down.
There's no denying the SDF is larger than any bedroom BBS could ever have
dreamt to be but in my opinion it still occupies the same paradigm so, at
least for me, the tolerance for that kind of thing carries over pretty easily
and I'm not sure I'd want it any other way.
