Looks like Bad Hair Days is either in for a hiatus, or perhaps the phoenix that is xeney.com is about to burst into flames prior to its next incarnation.

Boy, I hope this forum stays open. Beth, I have no idea what it costs, and no talent for thinking of clever topics that both encourage people to post and avoid the embarrassing intimacy of many 3WA threads. I just have the sense that we ordinary participants could pitch in to keep this page open, even if xeney.com is going down again (for a while). Anyone else interested in pitching in to keep the forum going? Can we talk about how to do that?

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

Answers

[Making the post show up on the new topics board. Yes, I'm pimping my own post. Is that SO wrong?]

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

I'm willing to help out. I need this forum. believe it or not, talking with total strangers about off the wall and crazy things keeps me sane! let me know what I can do.

beth, best of luck figuring out whatever you are dealing with. I'll be thinking of you! :)

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

This forum is free. So that wouldn't be a problem. But without the journal I think it might die off anyway. That's what I've seen on other forums for journals.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

Anyone can set up a forum at greenspun and it's free, that's the beauty of it. Most of the work is in getting rid of spam or harrassing posts, which you have to do by hand because you cannot block people. And there's work in getting people there and keeping them there; I speak from experience since I have a greenspun forum that nobody has ever posted to. The group-run ones (now including the Squishy consortium and Rob/Dana) seem to be more successful of late.

I do hope this forum keeps going, in one form or another, it's been a wonderful thing Beth has done, in several formats, but if it doesn't, I suppose we'll all manage to find the next watering hole. I've been finding them since the '80s.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

I have a hunch this forum will die out without a journal to go along with it, but I have no plans to close it, and I'll keep reading the posts.

Last month I spent some money to register xeney.net, and I bought some forum software to install there, but we never had time to put it together. Maybe I'll hit J up during his spring break, which is in two weeks. I don't know whether/when the journal will come back, and I don't know if anyone cares about having a forum, but it does seem like a waste of money not to do it.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

Sounds like you're volunteering for a second (third?) job, Tom! I'm sure many of us will cheer you on (from the bleachers, of course- I'm the guy with the can of Skoal in his shirt pocket . . ).

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

I'm not too worried about this forum, although naturally I'm worried about Beth, although I know some things should not be spilled out to all and sundry. (There was something major that happened just after Jamie's death that I've never talked about explicitedly in my journal either, for reasons I hold as sufficient. I told a few extremely close friends by email, no more. I assume Beth's reasons are equally private.) Yet...

I've seen Beth quit before.

Maybe this is the final time. If so, it's her right. Yet forgive us if we hope this is NOT the end. That, like before, in a few weeks she might change her mind.

I'm not saying it is. It's her perogative to quit any time she wants, and she owes us nothing. I'm just saying what I ...hope.

Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001

I for one hope the forum stays alive. However, it might help if it was easier to get to. I just bookmarked it, but it's not really linked off the main page anymore.

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

Add my vote to the 'I'd like to see it stay open' crowd. Unless, of course, it is too large a time suck, and too much of a committment. Forums tend to need the loving hand of a moderator - and Beth has always been the best moderator I've ever run into - or they die and/or disintegrate. I would like to be selfish and ask Beth to stay on as our beautiful hostess, Twinkie. Even if she doesn't let us call her "Twinkie."

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001

Yeah, I worked my way into it today to see Survivor stuff, and (*sniff*) there were no new posts!

I wish Beth well, no matter what.

-- Anonymous, April 03, 2001