Thread: Your Support
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Unread 09-24-2009, 08:15 PM
Rose Kelleher's Avatar
Rose Kelleher Rose Kelleher is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Maryland, USA
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Trying to collect information from other sites has made me appreciate Alex's steadiness over the years.

Other forums have gone defunct, or crashed and moved repeatedly, losing all their data each time. Nobody knows who's in charge of the technical stuff - or they do know, but whoever it is doesn't respond. Forums that use free hosting services are continually crashing, or out of service for days at a time without warning while software is updated; and when they're up, they're always bombarding you with advertisements.

We don't take much notice of Alex around here because he's quietly competent. The Sphere has suffered one or two crashes (that's inevitable), but as far as I know, no data has ever been permanently lost. When we want to revisit a Bake-off sonnet from 2004, all it takes is a simple search, and voila - http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=5608 - there it is.

Another thing is, people who aren't technical often don't appreciate what goes into creating and maintaining a site like this. They tend to dismiss it as "that voodoo that you do". Well, it's not voodoo. It takes time, effort and brains. With his skills, Alex can probably command a pretty good hourly rate even in this economy, yet he spends time on this site for free. That alone is a generous gift, independent of what he spends out of pocket.

When stuff needs to get done, most people are fond of saying they want to help. What that usually turns out to mean is "I'm willing to complain, dispense patronizing advice, contribute vague and/or redundant information, and generally pretend to be concerned, but I'm not willing to exert myself in the slightest, physically, mentally, or financially." Alex deserves better than that.
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