New and Improved with Title

I’ve always been PROUD to be an American… But today… I feel so much PROUDER! Also knowing it was our Virginia Beach Navy Seals that did the job… MAKES ME THAT MUCH PROUDER! God Bless America !!!

It is a good day for America and especially for New York City.

I know what you mean. The longer I live the more I realize that life just does not pivot around a single person or event. I am happy that the 10 year chase is over. I wonder if he ever once regretted doing what he did, having to live in virtual exile and see his country torn apart. I’m sure that’s not what he envisioned happening. He surely thought that he could somehow be victorious and conquer.I’m having some trouble in my own life with a person whose skewed thinking is destroying everyone around him, but he still thinks he’s RIGHT. I just wonder what the next big thing will be.

I’m glad it’s not just me, Abby, and E thinking this way… I guess only time will tell.

USA! USA! USA!

it was a good day! take care,

I know what you mean. Glad, yet, unsure, etc. I am so proud of of Navy Seals, though. You have a great day and take good care. bighugz. Oh yes, P.S. It is VERY nice to see a post from you!!!!! :*))) Have a great day, bighugz to YOU & YOUR Family!!!!!!!!! :*)

The cheering and flag-waving and celebration is something that makes me cringe. There’s a difference between justice and vengeance, and this feels very much like vengeance to me. Plus as it stands we only have someone’s word to take that he was killed at all. It all happened so quickly and until appropriate proof has been made public, there’ll always be an element of skepticism. (/conspiracy theory :P) As you said, in the grander scheme of things it won’t change anything for the better, and it might even open up the US to revenge attacks of their own.

I love it that you are intelligent and well written author as well as webmaster of THE MOST IMPORTANT WEBSITE EVER! (I am prone to dramatics, yessir, undoubtably.) I am overwhelmed with pride for our serviceman, and usually would never condone killing. However, bin Ladin was a powerful figure head, an imposing and charasmatic leader, and people are just drawn to solutions- even the WORST solutions- when they are delivered by a person like that. He just had to go. I feel very privileged to have been a peek inside your head. Me and 300,000 OD’rs…

I’m glad he’s dead but I didn’t cheer or do a happy dance. It doesn’t feel right to do that for many reasons.

Have a good day in the city. I too am ambiguous.

While I am glad that chapter is over, I know another one is just beginning. After serving 21 years in the AF, 10 of it after 9-11, we military members know that someone has already taken his place. Have a good day!

I am kind of ambivalent – surely he was a criminal and a terrorist, so I don’t have sympathy for him. But I doubt it will change anything – there are still other terrorists, other people who will take his place, still people (on both sides) that harbor hateful attitudes. Plus, no matter what, I find it distasteful to celebrate somebody’s death.

We all are proud that he has been finished. He showed all over the world to live in terror. Citizens of all countries are relieved to see this. CHEERS to all!!

Regardless of what you call it…justice…vengeance…distasteful….I’m *VERY* happy that that sorry SOB is dead. I’m also extremely happy that he was “buried” in the ocean (thrown in is more like it lol) rather than a “proper” Muslim burial with his head facing Mecca. Good riddance to a true worthless piece of trash.

Yeah he is dead I am just worried as to what/who is next ya know what other cockroach is next to take his place.

They should declare yesterday a national holiday JMHO!

I RC’d you on your own site xD Just b/c I’m so happy you’re back to writing!!!

I am extremely happy that it was done face-to-face by Seal Team Six and not remotely with a missile. Very proud. Be got what he deserved, hands down. Eric

I think it’s good he’s dead. Obviously he WAS a criminal. There’s no denying that. I don’t think it will change anything, though. A friend of mine said “racism, fear, hate, war, violence, and ignorance are all still very much alive”. I have to agree with her.

Great entry. I also think depending on how personally people were affected had to do with their celebration… my friend’s mother was killed in NYC on 9/11, and while I was living in Ohio at the time, a high school freshman, my dad was stationed at the Pentagon. He was okay, but we didn’t hear from him until more than 3 days after the attacks happened, so all my mother and I did for the rest of the week was fear for the worst. I remember watching media reports of people in the Middle East and elsewhere celebrating in the same manner we did last night, though they did their celebrating upon hearing the news that two of our most prominent cities (and the plane that crashed in PA) had been attacked, and there were casualties. Of course attacks are not going to stop. He was a symbolic leader of a much bigger organization. But for America, he was the very face of the evil that happened that day nearly a decade ago. Not to bring up a cliché, but I feel as if Americans probably felt similarly when Hitler died, and he died by his own hand. This was a military victory, literally and symbolically, that extends far beyond the U.S. ~Rachel

You’re still an American, even if you’re not jumping in the streets cheering and singing. He’s gone, that’s the end of that. We have much bigger issues to focus on now.

The news of his death only filled me with more sorrow for all the people who died in 9/11. My area was especially hard hit. I think tonight I will drive up to the memorial at Mt. Mitchell and just say a prayer for them.

Your thinking on this is spot on. bin Laden’s death, while nothing to cry about, is no cause for great celebration either. It won’t stop terrorist attacks from happening, and it does not bring back any of the lost. It’s better to remember those lost than to celebrate the death of one lunatic. His death is sadly irrelevant.

agreed it won’t make much difference in the grand scheme of things. but damn right … those navy seals (jsoc in general) are bad dudes. incredibly trained and balls out. when those towers came down, life changed. i’mglad they got him, face to face.

You pretty much summed up my feelings. There are plenty more where he came from and I’m sure they’re planning their revenge attacks. Nice to see an entry from you!

Martyring a powerless figurehead will absolutely not make anything better, for anybody.

“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” – Mark Twain Later,

the resurgence of american patriotism and the wild celebrations displayed in the media could reignite terrorist passions against your country though. I hope I am wrong. Thanks again for all you do here. hugs P

I haven’t figured out exactly how I feel about this news. I’m not a big fan of anyone being killed; however, I’m also not a big fan of terrorism. I didn’t cheer or feel a sense of relief of any kind knowing that he was dead. And, I don’t think it actually changes anything. Maybe even makes him into some kind of martyr for folks who already dislike America. Nothing about any of it feels “right” tome.

I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling this way. When I checked my facebook news feed this morning I was overwhelmed by what everyone was saying and cheering about. I wrote a post about my cat instead. Sigh.

At least one evil scum has been removed. Still, it’s a sad fact that there are always going to be other scum to deal with. G~

I was in middle school–I’m 25. Some of those college students could have been elementary kids then. That’s scary and sad that they will know nothing but a lifetime of fear.

I am so glad he is dead and killed by the americans. What puzzles me is why that cxountry kept him hid from us so long. They got lots of records from his hidout and maybe somehow we can end these wars.They got lots of information that will help us. Go American Navy seals go. Proud American

I completely side with you on this. There is no black or white–only gray.

AWESOME!!!… That’s PRETTY MUCH, IT RIGHT, THERE!!!… Ya know?!?… A DEFINITE SPLIT between “PATRIOTISM” *&* SORTA, “DISGUST” / “FEAR”?!?… Like, DIPLOMACY couldn’t HAVE WORKED?!?… Or, SOMETHING!!!… Ya know?!?… *&* THAT’S WHY YOU ARE THE D.M.!!!… AWESOME!!!…. Heh!… ;)… =DDDD… =/

HI, would there be any chance of someone taking 5 minutes to let me know what password I have attached to the diary I set up called “The artist’s way”? I have somehow stuffed up typing the password and there is a group of us waiting to start using the diary to work through the book of that name together. Thank you very much,

I have suspicions regarding the speed in which they disposed of his body…

The headline on one of the British papers today read ‘Bin-bagged’. Now that made me feel ashamed to be British. Over here, we are just glad Obama DID turn out to have a decent excuse for snubbing the Royal Wedding.

I think it speaks to the type of person you are that you are PROUD of the troops, but not necessarily completely and utterly rejoicing and reveling in the fact that he is dead. You’re right, this “war on terrorism” is much more than just one man now – as many ideas and causes become more than just one person. Unfortunately he may have just become a “martyr” in the eyes of his followers, and someone is surely waiting in the wings to take his place.

I guess now we’ll never know the full truth of 9/11. There are serious holes in the official version that are simply being ignored in the hope the questioners will go away. No plane debris in Shanksville or the pentagon, the way the three buildings collapsed as if intentionally demolished, and the eyewitness accounts- some on television video- steadfastly claim two key things- the “bring it down”call by the fire captain, and the first responder reports that the building collapses included a series of explosions, possibly caught on video. And yet, not a single government official has made an effort to explain these items. Why? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I’m hardly alone in my concerns, as there are numerous websites dedicated to finding the answers or at least putting the questions to words. I want to believe the government version, but I can’t. Too many contradictions in the storyline.

Just watched the news … all those time I was hoping it was him. And now hearing all those speculations and the newly news that Osama is still alive somewhere???? …. What the heck … Praying he is not!

Hmm…Morning!!!

I’m proud of our armed forces, and I have a feeling that this victory will boost President Obama’s approval rating in the presidential election amazingly.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the past couple of weeks….What I felt was…relief…sadness…somber..a lot of mixed emotions…never triumph, though. Justice isn’t always filled with happy feelings…I look forward to a world where people don’t think that war will fix anything, and lust for power is recognized as evil and tempered by self-discipline….where love rules the day…

It would seem that you have been hacked into once again. I have no interest in Mad Twin Films, and no access to that person’s diary. Nor am I Ashleigh bin Field. If it appears that either of us has left such a note, it can only be that someone who would silence either or both of us is having a bit of a tug at your beard.

Exactly. USA USA God bless America! It was just about time.

Have written the help desk. I want my credit or else I am gone. Betty

OMG. I am so glad I randomly decided to read this. It’s been a minute since this happened now. But I felt the same way. Like I was supposed to be overjoyed and just celebratory feeling. But I wasn’t. In fact I felt also like it might be wrong for us to celebrate his death. I’m sooo proud to be american. I’m a woman after all and just the fact I was born american gave me privileges and freedoms…

I know I would not have had in other countries (although I was born overseas) But the death of all our soldiers and the ones that came home with life changing injuries? The death of one person will not change all that. It’s been going on sooo long. And I can’t shake the feeling that the people who needed to know? Knew where he was all this time. And that spooks me. That our men and women had…

die over this ONE man. Are you kidding me? I’m glad he’s gone. But the war is not over my friends….

Though I do not believe in the death penalty or in violence, I can understand why so many people are very happy that he is gone from this earth.

what’s the matter, alma matter?

I’ve been reading entries about outages that have lasted for days around here… I’m assuming that’s related to the DNS server issues you had recently? An entry/update would be nice… I didn’t really even know there was a problem because I never experienced any significant down time. But I’m sure people who are complaining that they couldn’t access the site for days would like some reassurance that it wasn’t an OD server related issue.

Just dropped by to mention that lately I’ve been having some freeze-up times while in OD…anything going on that you know of causing it? Thanks, Michael.

Thanks for the note re my 97th birthday, Mr Diary Master. Hope to still be with Open Diary when I’m The Centenarian Surfer. Read all these notes. I think the terrorists are doing all the damage to us they can, and killing bin Laden face on was right. Our best answer is to work for a peaceful solution, but continue the war on terrorism and cutting off their financial and materials support. Theprice of freedom is eternal vigilance. Willy,of

Aaah, you Yanks. You have some bloody amazing notions.

Would it be too much to request that the ads on the sign-in page be a little smaller so I don’t have to navigate a damned minefield just so I can enter my username and password? This is ridiculous.

I get this entry when trying to post one Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ‘80004005’ Unspecified error /entrysave.asp, line 382

haaa. love american dad.

Didn’t come here to read old news. Came here to tell you I upgraded to a Galaxy Tab as tbe Blackberry is to hard to use with diary. Now back and find the keyboard doesn’t slid.up.for me to leave an entry. So I did the header and left a note. Even that way it is good to be home. Facebook is not good and here we have you and an excellent staff that has been on top of things quickly.

Hey Bruce, I sent an email to you last week about the alternate Blogathon being hosted here in hopes that you could advertise it on the front page so we can get as many participants as possible. I would really appreciate the support this year since you missed it last year. Please get back to me ASAP. Thanks. ~Cat Mommy

Excellent post.

Random question – if there’s already an answer floating around I missed it: What is the deal with the URL apple.opendiary.com ? I’ve found myself looking at it sometimes when in OD – sometimes when I follow a diarist’s link to a previous entry I find myself there (and I noticed late that I usually have to log in again). If OD is being mirrored that’s fine, but is OD being spoofed?

I have not been able to post an entry all day/evening. When I try, Im getting this response: “Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ‘80004005’ Unspecified error /entrysave.asp, line 382” Any help greatly appreciated!!

I’m wondering if they’re going to have Osama bin laden costumes this year at Halloween?

Probably the first time I don’t agree with your comments and views (but that’s all good). I find it interesting to read peoples reaction to what was (if it ‘was’) the shooting dead of an unarmed man. The world is bigger than one man. Such focus from anyone results in more bad than good in my view. But anyway, I like to hear how other people see things so thanks for posting whatyou truly feel.

Is OD getting ready to crash? I can click on my fav’s entries but they won’t load. Same thing happens with my own diary when I try to read an entry. This has happened all day long. I can write an entry, OD will save it, but trying to view it is another story.

Thank you x n id love to hear back from you if u can id b so excited 🙂

SUGGESTION: with these privacy settings, it would be cool to be able to sort of pre-view our diaries from what it would look like from a non od-ers perspective, a non fave, blah blah blah.. 🙂

THANKS FOR MAKING a beautiful website. Love Tammy Lynn

It looks like it’s time to update. It’s been a while.

random; AMERICAN DAD IS SO HILARIOUS! xD. not as good as family guy, though =P interesting entry, btw. i like the way you write =)

Did you go Fav’s only now that your admins are running an Open Diary “journal” to keep people abreast of the issues/concerns/fixes?

Hi Diary Master! Thank you for what you do. I was here before; now I’m back and happy to be back. Question: I can’t seem to change the colour of my page. Do you know why? (ie. the colour cursor does not move) Is this now a strictly OD Plus feature? Or, do you have an idea what the problem could be? ….

Happy Thanks Giving day to U and your Family members Dini..

Happy thanksgiving to you and your family. Hugs too.

I’d like my lifetime membership put back on my diary please.

It is a wonderful day. Merry Christmas to you and yours from us out here on the edge. 🙂

Hope you can find time to drop in to our OD holiday Open House.

this is Choices and i did something wrong and lost my password to Choices now i have to creat new obe under choices and do not know how to find my old friends betty neel

Where did the link for site news go? I send the news to the Help desk because I couldn’t find the link. I’d really like to have Twelve in 12 advertised again before January 1st.

I’ve tried posting entries since yesterday (1-2-12) with no luck. I can write the entry but when I click save, the entry doesn’t save. When I tried again, the first entry came up and wouldn’t save again. I tried writing a new entry with the same results. I then wrote an entry in wordpad and it let me copy and paste it but it still won’t save. This is very frustrating.

I decided to just start a new diary since I’m receiving no response to not being able to post in my other diary. I got the automated response letter with the ticket number in it and that was it. I didn’t send but one letter and when I needed to add more info, I did as the automated letter asked, I replied to that letter. It’s been over 24 hours. Continued in next note

The problem can’t be on my end or I would not be able to start a new diary and post in it, which I have successfully done. Now, an anonymous person gifted me with an OD+ subscription and I think the right thing to do would be to give them a refund for whatever time is left on that subscription, don’t you? I would hate to think that at least half of the price wasn’t used.

I also think it would be nice if someone, ANYONE would let me know that they have received this and acknowledge it. Thank you. I love this site, I really do, but the lack of a response really leaves me shaking my head.

Me again. It’s been 48 hours and still no response other than the automated response. Someone could at least send an email to say they’re working on the problem, couldn’t they? Hearing nothing makes me feel as if I’m being ignored.

Hi again! :*)) I am noting you on behalf of the above noter, whom used to be called Friday’s Child. She became unable to get into her O.D. She tried to set this aright with you and your staff. She received one e-mail back. Anyway, all that ensued is, that she finally decided to make aNOTHER O.D. This new one now, works fine and dandy. BUT, SHE HAD BEEN GIVEN A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION.She needs this credited to her NEW O.D. **Old O.D.=Friday’s Child. *NEW O.D. = Friday’s Child 7….. Please, she is a new friend and bookmark to me. She is very kind and nice. Please help her out, ok? Are you ok, B.A???? Please let us know you are ok, and please help my new friend, okay? Thank you. BigHugz, Lois,

i meant to mention this way back when. i guess i didnt see the point. it is now the 2nd time. anyway i had rolled my public diary over into a private diary. i blanked out my entry pages in the public diary and started filling the pages in. when i left od i rolled the new stuff into the private diary again, same titles, same dates as old diary. it overwrote EVERYHING. i lost my diary AGAIN.

it should have warned me. entries with same titles and same dates will be overwritten, continue – yes, no?? i had no clue until i was leaving and making sure my **** was safe. it was all gone. *sigh traumatizing for me. i know, its stupid.

*stupid to feel that way i mean

It’s now been 4 days and I still have not heard from anyone at OD about the issues with my diary. I’m still waiting, could someone please send an email to let me know that you’re away of the problems? All I have gotten so far is the automated email that says you should get back to me within 24 hours. Thank you.

It’s been 5 days now that I can not post an entry in my old diary. One of my favorites went in and also tried to post an entry but had no success either, so it’s definitely not a problem on my end. Not hearing from your staff for 5 days (120 hours) is unacceptable to me. I don’t mean to seem harsh but I do not like being ignored.

DAY 6 and still no response from anyone at OD. Are you guys ok???

It’s been a full week, 7 days now and I have heard nothing from anyone at OD regarding the problems with my old diary. What gives?

Day 8 and STILL no word from anyone at OD. I will leave a new note every day until someone contacts me. The problem is now fixed (by one of my favs) but the lack of response is still unacceptable.

DAY 9…still no word from you or anyone at OD.

Didn’t we used to have the ability to set each chapter to a certain privacy level? I noticed when I created my 2012 chapter that I didn’t have this option.

is there anyway i can retrieve my old diary that i deleted about 2 weeks ago? i regret deleting it, thanks!

Can you please stop the automatic sound with the adverts? This is the only website I frequent that uses it, and I find it really distracting. It makes me NOT want to buy a subscription, because I feel you’re trying to force me to do so.

Why am I suddenly getting links in my entries for ads and scams? I didn’t put them in my entry and yet there’s a bunch of them in the entry entitled The Girl Who Chased the Moon.

Why the radio silence?

You need to start communicating more when your site goes down. I might suggest you use the OD facebook site, that I can only assume belongs to you. Not cool.

The site was down for almost 14 hours yesterday with no communication from you or the Admins on Facebook, on Twitter and no update here when the site came back online. I stick up for this community but that level of service is unacceptable. How can our community respect you when there is little to no communication happening? We don’t need updates every hour, every half hour, etc… But SOMEacknowledgement would show that you care about this community.

Having joined OD due to losing my previous diary home at MDD, I can understand very well why it makes everyone so nervous when the site goes down for whatever reason. I’m just thankful we’re back up and running again today, and hope we keep on running as long as there’s a diarist out there to enjoy this place. I wasn’t even aware of the FB place I’ve heard about, if it is actually yours’that is. But if it is, I can say that being able to see a post there letting us know that things will be back to normal asap would sure bring a lot of comfort to someone like myself who lost so many faves/friends when they didn’t return in my diary site from before. But all that aside, I want to say thank-you for working to get us back online with all of our friends here at OD. Means the world to so many of us, and thanks for making that possible….Michael

Did you forget to tell us what was happening….on any site?

I happened to find OD’s Facebook page the other day when I Googled OD, hoping to find some word about what happened to-ohidunno?-TEN YEARS of my life! The last post on Facebook was from OCTOBER. I know you rely a lot on your volunteers (and I appreciate them), but YOU had to have known about this. Not communicating with us reflects, to me, a diary master who doesn’t give much of a crapabout his community. That’s pretty damned disappointing, considering how long some of us have been around. I know we don’t pay you big bucks, but we are invested in this place with a lot more than money, and we deserve to know what’s going on when this part of our lives collapses. All you had to do was to spend five minutes writing a Facebook post acknowledging those of us who are out here, uninformed and worrying if this is the time we’ll lose a decade’s worth of thoughts, dreams and experiences, forever.

how the heck do you get so many people leaving you notes. You are famous. 🙂 Yeah my husband is in the army and he didn’t have much to say after Bin Laden was gone. He just wished he’d done it himself.

How about taking JaSurMo off the front page? It’s February 5th.

Why are you not responding to anyone’s notes anymore? This is getting to be pretty scary for a lot of people.

I opened a help ticket on January 18 when I first started seeing an erroneous message that my LIFETIME subscription purchased in 2007 was going to expire. Here we are, a month later, and all I’ve received is the automated reply, and nothing has been done to resolve this. I’ve followed up six times between January 18 and today! This is ridiculous, and I’m not receiving a service I paid for.

People are indeed starting to wonder what’s going on here in OD world. No one has heard anything from anyone and we’re starting to wonder if OD is dying. Please update us!!

Where are you, DM? There are unpleasant rumours thundering around. I hope OD is not in imminent danger. I’ve been here a long, long time.

OD Master. Whats going on with the unanswered notes and lack of updates on the front page? Is OD going to shut down or something?

I felt bad earlier, when someone mentioned that you had not been responding to queries about PAYMENTS made to THIS site and *my* first response was, “It’s the DM. What do you expect?” and then someone else suggested that maybe something had happened to you. THAT was when I felt bad — when I realized MAYBE something had happened. But THEN I found you on Twitter and you’ve been tweeting your happylittle arse off with great regularity. So, I guess it IS just you, being you. Here’s a CRAZY idea. How ’bout you get yourself back over HERE and respond to the people who PAY YOU?! Or maybe we could all employ our honed Internet skillz and start reaching out to you at home? Would that be more productive? Seriously, Bruce. Grow UP, treat this site like a BUSINESS for once in your life, and be responsible to the people who PAY YOU MONEY. It is really NOT that hard.

How come your LinkedIn profile page lists your work history for Open Diary as this: Founder and Publisher OpenDiary.com January 1998 – September 2011 (13 years 9 months) What? Did you abandon us six months ago and we are just now noticing?

Without communications, we are lost. Thanks for letting us know what’s happening here and on Facebook. A way to feel we are not lost in the ether is all we have ever asked for. Hope you and your family are ok.

Why don’t you just sell the site to someone who actually cares about it? I bet there would be at least a few takers around here.