rob is closing this board, eh?!

figures -- he's sucha frickin jerk!

...

...wait a tick...

[...rassamnfrackin...]

them rumors get around, eh?

so. anywho. izzis board closing? huh. thats a frickin great question. but it aint yours for me.

its mine for you.

c'mon over here. sit down. let robbie tell ya a story.

once upon a time, i didn't have a legion forum. i was perfectly happy with my non-legion-forum-including board, frolicking (frolicking!) from board to board without a care or a worry.

then, i saw a buncha people in need of a new home. they weren't necessarily my friends -- in fact, many of whom had uttered quite an unpleasant word about me in the past, allbeit in a ridiculously informal and unknowing manner. buuuut, i saw the situation they were in, and figured i could help out as best as i could.

[who, me?]
(y'gotta make that *ping* noise as the halo pops in. please.)

so, lots n'lots o'new people were invited here, to these boards. then more people. then more people. they created, oh, 6... maybe 7 million posts in the comic book forum, most of which weren't comic related (not that i really care, mind you. not here.).

then, came the requests. the moderator add-ons. the headlined topics. the polls. the 50 trillion legion avatars to edit and upload. finally, and most importantly, the additional, personal forum, just for them.

i think i followed thru purdy nicely on my end.

at that point, we hadda buncha crazy yet happy legion fans doing and saying whutever the heck they wanted in a forum completely free and random, just like they asked for.

then, in the span of just a few hours, when i was out doing my "real world" thing, many of these happy people realized exactly what "free and random" means.

see, as a moderator for half a decade now, i'll letcha in on a lil secret: seems almost no one wants freedom of speech. what people want is freedom of their speech. its a distinct and clear difference, but not one many will accept or admit.

anyway, because of this horrible, heinous, monstrous, absurd, and other-bad-words "attack," lotsa people got pissed and/or fed up, and left, never to return.

i even awoke the next morning with the pleasure of receiving quite a few nasty emails, and, just for kicks, some personal attacks on other message boards because of my awful actions. ( [eh?] )

just makes a guy all warm n'tingly inside. [humina humina]

...

now, i aint perfect. in fact, im far from it (just ask my folks!). im putrid, short, and justa tad fugly. and, as of 10:30 this evening, i've been drinking! takin it a step further, its a safe bet to assume i aint even that nice.

but in this lil case here, i'm profoundly confused.

everything .... everything that y'all legion... ers. ... legion... people ... asked for, i gotcha. yer own place. unlimited text. uncensored conversation. a buddy list. private messages. yer own custom avatars. yer own moderators. everything.

y'asked, y'got.

and, lemme just add here, with a sad, puppy dawg face, this here thing yer readin and/or typin on aint free. i don't get paid because you join these boards. i don't win prizes. i was never on "the price is right," i did not play "plinko," and i did not walk off the showcase showdown with one o'them big novelty checks.

i'm not even a legion poster!

so, outta this whole ordeal, i got nuthin.

in fact, if you wanna take this a step further, i LOSE stuff. i gotta shell out the money for this message board program. i gotta pay for the domain name it sits on. i gotta pay for the server its hosted on. i gotta pay for the bandwith (web traffic) y'all make at any given time.

and before y'all go gettin "anti-rob" agin', lemme just point out, i dont mind any of that, at all! its my choice to do it, and i chose to do it. most of y'all are nice people, so it works out just dandy for me. in fact, i kinda like havin my own lil cyber village. robtopia is a peaceful, happy town.

all that said, i hope y'might understand why i might see all this as a lil bit bothering. i handed everything over then had my hand stepped on, fingernails pulled, each individual finger bent backwards, one at a time, then fed to a dog.

then the dog took the hand to a cliff and dropped it over the edge.

then the hand landed on jagged glass.

then the glass was revealed to be explosive glass, and my hand blew up.

thats a sore hand.

but, gosh darnit, its a welcoming hand.

and, even after all the crap and nonsense and over-reacting (you read it, i typed it), its still a welcoming hand.

i left the board here. i helped the clean up process. i helped the rebuilding. i did my best to re-invite some back and calm the waters and make those who remained as comfy as possible.

and i'll keep doing that as long as there's a reason to.

so, once more, izzis board closing?

much like smokey says about forrest fires, only you can prevent the closing of this board.

i have no reason to close an active board. i have no reason to shut down a community. i never have, and i never will.

if you guys want this board around, well then you better damn well act like it, soldiers! like i've said time and time again, i gave ya this place. the forum is a present just for you guys.

its your board.

prove it.