yea...finally found a free way back here

Were the hell have you been. I've tried to send a couple customers your way (been a while now).

Bob

ah it's been a rough year...had a heart attack in June '10...biz has been slow and Qwest killed nntp so it was a pain to get here and I hate Google's access. Today I found this free access so I can use my reader again.

yes!...send me biz!

you can always email me the address is munged but you can figure it out :-)

ont-email.me...

good to have you back its been quiet since Bass passed away

Hi Crash

Wuz wonderin where you went.

Heart Attack?

What happened? Wait, Don't tell me, I can guess.

You had to spend some money and you just couldn't cope .... right?

@dont-email.me...

RHC: Ironical isn't it that while RLB was here, the newsgroup was vibrant, sometimes quite thoughtful, but always controversial. Since his death, the newsgroup is a mere shadow of what it was before.

$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...

You conveniently forget all the political bile he posted especially n his final days, most of the time baiting other users to try making him look good

All the other regulars he drove off over the years, some because he went real world on them

How he spent over a decade slamming the same industry he was once part of

Either those burgers you had on your visit to Florida had some special ingredients or you seriously need an MRI. I do not miss him one bit and I imagine a lot of others here feel the same way.

The newsgroup is a shell only because most ISP's no longer subscribe to them, If you notice there's a lot more security-related postings these days instead of garbage.

It's definitely different. I see more older nyms posting now, so that's a good sign. ASA lives!

etfront.net ---

RHC: Mark, you're reading more into my statement than was meant. I don't deny he rattled a lot of people, and may well have done many mean things on the newsgroup - he just never did with me !. Lots of people seem to hate him for sure. Lets leave it at that !

I was simply stating that the newsgroup is so much quieter and less controversial since he left. Maybe it's because of what you say happening simultaneously with his passing - I really don't know why it is so much quieter.

He's gone and whether you loved him or hated him, that chapter is finished. I was indirectly asking (gotta learn to be direct with this group....) why people thought the newsgroup has changed so dramatically. Your answer (minus the remarks about RLB) is one reason !

I don't think irony has anything to do with it. I also don't think vibrant is the appropriate description of what ASA was. My description was ..... a cesspool out of which you could occasionally pick out diamonds. On that description, then yes ..... I can agree with you that it is a shadow of what it was before. However, way too many good people are gone and it is understandable why they would not think to return. You'll remember, I contributed to that end. Had I known that it would end the way it did, I certainly would have been content to wait. As the saying goes .... there are people that make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who don't know what the f*ck happened. I'm in the first category. I'm reasonable to a point. I've lived long enough to know what is reasonable and what is not. When a situation goes beyond all reason, I'm not a nice person .....anymore.

As far as todays condition of ASA, I think that Mark is probably right. The end of the source of ASA's long standing bad and controversial reputation just happened to coincide with the advent of Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other communication forums. and thus the lack of popularity of Newsgroups. You can go to just about any trade magazine, manufacturer, distributor ...... whatever's web site and join in a conversation about any aspect of this trade. All the magizines publish blog or forum correspondence in their letters to the editor columns .... so anyone can make his opinion heard or be considered, very easily now days.

I don't know if it's noticable or not, but every time I sense a prolonged lull in ASA, I try to pose a question that might raise some feedback or incite some posts. Sometimes it works. I might suggest that you try that also. ASA's demise is written on the wall. It's only a matter of time before it's only me and you left. And the last post will be ...... hey there sonny, do I know you ? Eh? whatchsay? Speak up?

OH the HUMANITY!

I say UP the revolution! Power to the peeps...long live VoIP...jeez did I say that?

Too many BBQ ribs :-)

I had one of those heart attacks that took me 8 hours to convince myself to drive to the hospital...once there I was in the cath lab within 20 minutes having two stents put in. I was lucky.

Good thing we have good insurance because the bill was quite hysterical.

I know what you mean. The bill could give you a heart attack.