Post by Brad Nelson on Jun 15, 2019 9:10:20 GMT -8
Here's my concluding post at StubbornThings (which is no longer online) in case you missed it:
Watching approximately 25,000 files stream by your eyes during a complete backup of this site is a little like watching your life flash before your eyes.
That backup that I did this evening took several hours and I by no means was glued to the monitor the whole time. But I was glued enough of the time to read many of the file names — from old to new — being copied via ftp from the Dreamhost servers to my computer hard drive.
It’s been almost six years since the inception of StubbornThings. That’s a lot of time and a lot of files. A lot of words. A lot of stubbornness at times.
There surely was stubbornness on my part as I took up this task — a task ill-defined at first and, really, to the end. I just picked up the baton and wanted to see where it would go. I had a vague idea that if you offered basically what was a free hosting, posting, and editing service to writers that you could gather together a small, but significant, demographic of advanced amateurs. These would not be writers and thinkers by profession but by avocation. And it would all blend into a kind of warm-fuzzy right-leaning kumbaya of good souls.
Glenn Fairman and Deana Chadwell are excellent examples of the type. They are good people and are not snowflakes. That is, they can take a little criticism and not shirk off like shrinking violets. Some others could as well.
Not that we dish out criticism. I’ve tried to be very even-handed. I wanted to facilitate a sort of conservative/American clubhouse where (hopefully) I could just sit back, push the right buttons in the background to keep things going, and just be amazed (again) at what the heartland type of Americans can achieve.
With all the insane (literally) pressures on this nation from people wishing to tear it down, I was sure the cavalry would charge in — or at least enough horses to give a fair imitation of a Right Brigade. And for a while there, we had a lot of horses. At one point I was posting, on average, about three articles a day, often more.
But I got worn down. And, surprisingly, it wasn’t by the tech problems in the background, although those sometimes got serious…serious enough to consider just chucking it all. But I eventually worked through them, but not with the help from my web hosting company. If I had a problem, you could be pretty sure that they would determine it was my fault.
So when doing this kind of stuff, you’re pretty much on your own with the help (and it was always a huge help) of various users out there posting advice on various forums and web sites. Without them, I never could have done this.
What began to wear on me — and if memory serves, it was ‘round about 2016 — were the waves of negativity. Many of you remember Donald Sutherland from “Kelly’s Heroes.” He was always going on about “the negative waves.” It got to the point where I was posting articles and not reading them. Everyone was parsing ad infinitum the same stuff. I’m not sure what I really expected of this place, but I knew I didn’t want to stew in the juices of negative waves.
So I set a standard: Writers, write about what you are materially doing to change things for the better, or what someone else is doing. There will be no more posting of articles that simply endlessly sift through the same sand.
It had become paralysis by analysis. And endless bitching. And that pretty much ended this place as a going concern. The writes skedaddled. Their true motivations perhaps having been exposed. I bitch, therefore I am.
But many of the writers I am quite thankful for. I’m not going to list them. But I will say, I learned a lot about human nature doing this site. The first thing I learned is that everyone wants to be a part of something, but very few want to do the work.
Second, I learned that it’s not just Progressives who are snowflakes. Again, not naming any names, but I was well aware that many quite good writers went away when they encountered even the barest of valid criticism. I think some of them were snowflakes. But I’m sure many of them expected to be the smartest person in the room and found out they were not. Their egos were bruised.
For the record, Glenn was always the smartest person in the room, as I often said, so don’t worry about it. That sort of takes the pressure off. But having a birds-eye view, it was a phenomenon I didn’t expect.
The third thing wasn’t really a surprise. I’ve spent enough time on Facebook and various forums. People are a mob out there. And especially regarding what I refer to as “anti-social media,” all this stuff now plays to getting online and doing little but venting. And StubbornThings had become for all too many people a free place to vent. And many couldn’t even be bothered to pay for the privilege of doing so.
But many did donate. That surprised me. But what also surprised me was that repeated and generous donations came from a very small core of people. (I’m talking about you, Tarzwell.) Money was never an issue, although I didn’t mind having the costs deferred a little. But, in retrospect, I can see now that mooching (as Dennis Prager notes) is a human proclivity. If at all possible, people will opt for something for nothing.
So it’s very fortunate for my own sanity that I was in this for things other than money or appreciation. I did like the tech aspect of it. And being an amateur writer, this was obviously a vehicle for that. But, god knows, it wasn't for my ego. If you look at the site, you don’t see any gold-plated bathroom fixtures meant for my glorification. You’d have to dig a little to find out who the administrator of this site even is. And that’s the way I wanted it, sort of a Three Musketeers, all for one, one for all, sense of spirit.
And a few lived up to that. Most did not. Ultimately, for me, the site no longer was uplifting. I hung on for a while…probably longer than I should have. But now is the right time to move on. It was an experiment I learned much from. But it’s sad, too, because it doesn’t feel like we built anything permanent or achieved much of lasting value.
For now, I’ll be going to an all-forum format over at my new site, Reviews&Things. You’re all welcome to come join me. I will have a much smaller technical role. People can post what they want, when they want. And, believe you me, it was not rare that someone at ST would send me either a totally amateurishly bad article and expect it to be published, or threw together a couple paragraphs (if that) and expected me to treat it like a serious article.
I rolled with the punches and rarely made a stink. That wasn’t my job. Still, I’m sometimes amazed at people. What I want is to be amazed in a good way. There are so many interesting, inspiring, and just downright creative stories and observations that people can transmit through the written word. I live for that. But many don’t. They just want to bitch or analyze something to death. No thanks. Been there, done that.
But I do thank all those who made the effort. And effort is the thing. Any conservative ought to appreciate the fact that all the good traits we value are almost always a process of filtering out the vulgar (the common) and aiming for the better (if not the outstanding). It’s about the desire to improve, to not be overcome with ego and “self esteem” and assume that whatever one vomits out of one's mouth is on par with Shakespeare.
Work for it. This was central to this site’s existence, giving an avenue for good writers to become better writers. Some did. (Steve, I’m talking to you.) But, alas, it’s that old conservative rule: If you get it for free, you’re not going to appreciate it.
At the end of the day, I’m left to sheepishly admit to Mr. Kung that I cannot conquer human nature. But I still believe in aiming high, in trying to encourage others and foster the best. But I also know this will be someone’s else task now in the conservative sphere. I was initially inspired to do this site precisely because the consecrative sites had become so horrible. Note to self: They still are.
Best of luck to one and all. We’ve certainly had our share of fun here. I’m not sure of the exact date when I will be shutting this down, but it may be sooner rather than later. Thank you all for participating.
Watching approximately 25,000 files stream by your eyes during a complete backup of this site is a little like watching your life flash before your eyes.
That backup that I did this evening took several hours and I by no means was glued to the monitor the whole time. But I was glued enough of the time to read many of the file names — from old to new — being copied via ftp from the Dreamhost servers to my computer hard drive.
It’s been almost six years since the inception of StubbornThings. That’s a lot of time and a lot of files. A lot of words. A lot of stubbornness at times.
There surely was stubbornness on my part as I took up this task — a task ill-defined at first and, really, to the end. I just picked up the baton and wanted to see where it would go. I had a vague idea that if you offered basically what was a free hosting, posting, and editing service to writers that you could gather together a small, but significant, demographic of advanced amateurs. These would not be writers and thinkers by profession but by avocation. And it would all blend into a kind of warm-fuzzy right-leaning kumbaya of good souls.
Glenn Fairman and Deana Chadwell are excellent examples of the type. They are good people and are not snowflakes. That is, they can take a little criticism and not shirk off like shrinking violets. Some others could as well.
Not that we dish out criticism. I’ve tried to be very even-handed. I wanted to facilitate a sort of conservative/American clubhouse where (hopefully) I could just sit back, push the right buttons in the background to keep things going, and just be amazed (again) at what the heartland type of Americans can achieve.
With all the insane (literally) pressures on this nation from people wishing to tear it down, I was sure the cavalry would charge in — or at least enough horses to give a fair imitation of a Right Brigade. And for a while there, we had a lot of horses. At one point I was posting, on average, about three articles a day, often more.
But I got worn down. And, surprisingly, it wasn’t by the tech problems in the background, although those sometimes got serious…serious enough to consider just chucking it all. But I eventually worked through them, but not with the help from my web hosting company. If I had a problem, you could be pretty sure that they would determine it was my fault.
So when doing this kind of stuff, you’re pretty much on your own with the help (and it was always a huge help) of various users out there posting advice on various forums and web sites. Without them, I never could have done this.
What began to wear on me — and if memory serves, it was ‘round about 2016 — were the waves of negativity. Many of you remember Donald Sutherland from “Kelly’s Heroes.” He was always going on about “the negative waves.” It got to the point where I was posting articles and not reading them. Everyone was parsing ad infinitum the same stuff. I’m not sure what I really expected of this place, but I knew I didn’t want to stew in the juices of negative waves.
So I set a standard: Writers, write about what you are materially doing to change things for the better, or what someone else is doing. There will be no more posting of articles that simply endlessly sift through the same sand.
It had become paralysis by analysis. And endless bitching. And that pretty much ended this place as a going concern. The writes skedaddled. Their true motivations perhaps having been exposed. I bitch, therefore I am.
But many of the writers I am quite thankful for. I’m not going to list them. But I will say, I learned a lot about human nature doing this site. The first thing I learned is that everyone wants to be a part of something, but very few want to do the work.
Second, I learned that it’s not just Progressives who are snowflakes. Again, not naming any names, but I was well aware that many quite good writers went away when they encountered even the barest of valid criticism. I think some of them were snowflakes. But I’m sure many of them expected to be the smartest person in the room and found out they were not. Their egos were bruised.
For the record, Glenn was always the smartest person in the room, as I often said, so don’t worry about it. That sort of takes the pressure off. But having a birds-eye view, it was a phenomenon I didn’t expect.
The third thing wasn’t really a surprise. I’ve spent enough time on Facebook and various forums. People are a mob out there. And especially regarding what I refer to as “anti-social media,” all this stuff now plays to getting online and doing little but venting. And StubbornThings had become for all too many people a free place to vent. And many couldn’t even be bothered to pay for the privilege of doing so.
But many did donate. That surprised me. But what also surprised me was that repeated and generous donations came from a very small core of people. (I’m talking about you, Tarzwell.) Money was never an issue, although I didn’t mind having the costs deferred a little. But, in retrospect, I can see now that mooching (as Dennis Prager notes) is a human proclivity. If at all possible, people will opt for something for nothing.
So it’s very fortunate for my own sanity that I was in this for things other than money or appreciation. I did like the tech aspect of it. And being an amateur writer, this was obviously a vehicle for that. But, god knows, it wasn't for my ego. If you look at the site, you don’t see any gold-plated bathroom fixtures meant for my glorification. You’d have to dig a little to find out who the administrator of this site even is. And that’s the way I wanted it, sort of a Three Musketeers, all for one, one for all, sense of spirit.
And a few lived up to that. Most did not. Ultimately, for me, the site no longer was uplifting. I hung on for a while…probably longer than I should have. But now is the right time to move on. It was an experiment I learned much from. But it’s sad, too, because it doesn’t feel like we built anything permanent or achieved much of lasting value.
For now, I’ll be going to an all-forum format over at my new site, Reviews&Things. You’re all welcome to come join me. I will have a much smaller technical role. People can post what they want, when they want. And, believe you me, it was not rare that someone at ST would send me either a totally amateurishly bad article and expect it to be published, or threw together a couple paragraphs (if that) and expected me to treat it like a serious article.
I rolled with the punches and rarely made a stink. That wasn’t my job. Still, I’m sometimes amazed at people. What I want is to be amazed in a good way. There are so many interesting, inspiring, and just downright creative stories and observations that people can transmit through the written word. I live for that. But many don’t. They just want to bitch or analyze something to death. No thanks. Been there, done that.
But I do thank all those who made the effort. And effort is the thing. Any conservative ought to appreciate the fact that all the good traits we value are almost always a process of filtering out the vulgar (the common) and aiming for the better (if not the outstanding). It’s about the desire to improve, to not be overcome with ego and “self esteem” and assume that whatever one vomits out of one's mouth is on par with Shakespeare.
Work for it. This was central to this site’s existence, giving an avenue for good writers to become better writers. Some did. (Steve, I’m talking to you.) But, alas, it’s that old conservative rule: If you get it for free, you’re not going to appreciate it.
At the end of the day, I’m left to sheepishly admit to Mr. Kung that I cannot conquer human nature. But I still believe in aiming high, in trying to encourage others and foster the best. But I also know this will be someone’s else task now in the conservative sphere. I was initially inspired to do this site precisely because the consecrative sites had become so horrible. Note to self: They still are.
Best of luck to one and all. We’ve certainly had our share of fun here. I’m not sure of the exact date when I will be shutting this down, but it may be sooner rather than later. Thank you all for participating.
