clambering into the lifeboat
No, I really, really don’t think OD has finally hit the iceberg and it’s slowly sinking as the band plays The Last Waltz. Or whatever it was the band played. I’ve been here a long long time, and this is a recurring theme. OD goes down for a few hours or days, there is no communication regarding what the hell is going on, Bruce has vanished into the ether, the rumor mill runs rampant. Then OD reappears, and we all back up our diaries. And Bruce resurfaces and apologizes or doesn’t and life returns to normal. Outside of the Great Hacking Incident of 2004, no real damage is done. The Great Hacking Incident WAS disturbing and I lost quite a few entries, including a couple that really were important to me, but hey, it taught me to be more conscientious about backing up. Or not – – after this most recent outage I thought, "Oh, dear, I better back up my diary!" and discovered that I hadn’t backed up since last March. Oooops. Well, I haven’t written that much since last March either, but still.
This time the outage was very short, but the panic is running much higher since Bruce has been gone forEVER and his LinkedIn account says he worked at OD through September 2011 and apparently he was talking about things that had nothing to do with OD on his Twitter account. This is all second-or-third-hand knowledge – I haven’t been stalking Bruce personally. And apparently considerable numbers of ODers have paid for their subscriptions but haven’t been credited, and some lifetime subscriptions have suddenly expired. I could swear there was a notice about issues with Paypal accounts AGES ago, but I could be wrong about that. And I’m sure I’d be more alarmed than I am if I had a lifetime subscription that suddenly expired. And annoyed. And even though he has reappeared, his entry didn’t exactly inspire a whole lot of confidence in the future.
ANYHOW, I do have a point, which was not to recount all the problems that OD has been having, as I’m sure we are all saturated with that knowledge. And well versed by now in all the YES IT IS NO IT ISN’T YES IT IS NOT IT ISN’T YOU SHUT UP NO YOU SHUT UP arguments for and against Bruce and his mode of doing business and his vanishing acts and his history and the likelihood of OD being here longer than any of us are vs. the likelihood of it winking out before I hit "save" on this entry.
My point is that I don’t think OD is on the verge of vanishing (although I did back my diary up!) BUT I do want to help spread the word that another diarist here has her own backup plan in the event that I am wrong and this site we all adore does go poooffff. There’s an email list and she’s actually bought a domain. (I don’t know her but some of my friends do). If you would like to get on the Lifeboat Mailing List, click the link. She swears email addresses are secure. If you don’t believe her, use your "signing up for stuff" address. There’s also a super-secret Facebook group, in which you do not have to reveal your OD name if you don’t want to. If we’re FB friends and you want to be added, let me know. (I have nothing to do with that either, other than being a member– but I can ask for them to add people).
I hope I’m right about this all just being a precaution, but hey, precautions are good. Backup plans are good. And I don’t want to go anywhere else and try to start anew. Although I did just sign up for Tumblr. Which I have yet to make a post in because I don’t quite get it. If you want to be Tumblr buddies, leave me a note because so far all I have are weird random people like The New Yorker and a bunch of pretentious photography blogs. Pinterest is a lot more fun but no actual writing.
So. Let me go hit save and see if OD is still here…..
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Problems have usually been fixed by the time I find out about them so I don’t really worry – but this time I did and reserved my place on the lifeboat. Should OD go down and the lifeboat activated, perhaps I’ll change my name to Molly Brown.
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I haven’t signed up for the lifeboat. I just don’t think I feel a need to do that. I believe that we can all get back together if we need to, and it will happen or it won’t. I have tried to gift my niece OD-plus on three separate occasions, and it didn’t work at all. My Plus is about to expire, and now I don’t know whether/how to renew it! I like Eriu’s note.
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I’ve got my seat booked in the lifeboat as well just in case but sincerely hope I won’t need it!
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“SHUT UP NO YOU SHUT UP” LOL! Yes, precautions are good.
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gotta have a backup plan…. just in case. i joined the lifeboat… just in case. i really don’t think od is going away but you just never know. take care,
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i am laughing. and wishing that bruce would sell OD anyway.
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I suppose because we do all meet up here that talking about what is going on here makes sense. And I was thoroughly annoyed this last outage that there was no posting on Facebook or Twitter to reassure us that there was someone in the wheelhouse. It seems the DM sort of confirmed that no one home at present idea in his post. I’ve been thinking about Tumblr. I’ll let you know if I go there. The only folks that actually interact with me on my rare appearances on Facebook are folks from OD, which I find fascinating. Have you tried Google + yet?
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Always good to have a contingency plan.
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I’m on the lifeboat, too! Take care,
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From what I understand through reading the DM’s entries, OD is fine. It seems to me all he’s saying is OD doesn’t make enough money for him to devote his full time efforts to it — he had to get a job. As we all know, a job means he won’t be readily available 24 hours a day to play with — I mean, address the concerns of members on — OD. It’s a good idea to know where the lifeboats are, but it’s not a very fun cruise if you stand next to them the entire trip.
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We will always have Pinterest.
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I finally backed up my diary. I added my email to Lifeboat. As long as I have a place to write, I am happy.
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Ok, I am nokorose over on Tumblr but I can’t figure out how one leaves comments. Let me know if you are able to find me.
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RYN: wow I didn’t know it was a book. so now I am going to amazon…. thanks! I loved it too.
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ryn:Yeah it is all very geeky. very challenging when one is tired…thanks though. I be following you now too.
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Oh and exactly the same thing happened to me on the five times I tried the help widget. I guess they are all too busy being cool in New York to put up an FAQ or something. Tonight at Powell’s I saw this fun with Doctor Who Tattoos book. I kid you not. It was on sale for like $2.50 and if I wasn’t so postaphobic I swear I would have bought it and mailed it to you.
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ry tumblr note, yep. I can see your note just fine. You need to put up a post so I can note you back. 🙂
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RYN: “Give Yourself Permission” became a New Age-y catchphrase a while back, and fed into the entitlement and narcissistic mentality that prevails today.
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I just shake my head. Like, Folks, it’s an ONLINE DIARY, not an acute care hospital! Servers go out now and then. So you don’t get to natter on OD for a day or two. And if Bruce decides to take his life back and end OD, our lives will not terminate. Perspective!
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RYN: thank you – I have the same problem!! Funnily enough I was thinking the very same thing re the writing space last night and measured the table thinking I could shift a bookcase downstairs and get shelves above the table but the only available corner’s not big enough unfortunately. It’s a pretty tiny room all told. Nikki’s fine with the table staying up until the baby’s born thoughand said if she wants to watch telly she’ll just do it downstairs so we’ll see how that works out. To be honest I tend to only use it during the day on the days I’m not working and at weekends – at night I go on the pc so it might work in fine.
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Thank you thank you thank you! I’m so excited!
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I’m glad the o.d. drama has subsided, but I’m equally glad that there’s an alternative if ever need be.
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RYN: oh we had Romper Room as well – apparently there were quite a few versions all over the place! Did the exact same thing though and it was such a thrill when your name was read out – I really thought she could see me! (Of course being named Margaret it was common as muck so she ‘saw’ me quite often I think ……) Good grief – I went on Wikipaedia because I couldn’t remember the name of who hosted it in Scotland and came across this related to the Northern Ireland version: ‘Romper Room was the name given to the Lawnbrook Social Club where the Shankhill Butchers would take their victims to be tortured and murdered’!! Lovely!
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If OD goes down, I’ll pick a new site or go back to wordpress, but don’t think I care to share info with people I don’t know. RYN: Limbaugh is a direct result of the new societal practice of flinging wild accusations, regardless of truth. I just thought he deserved some of his own medicine after setting the womens movement back 500 years.
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