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Name: Keno
E-Mail: keno@fairpoint.net
Subject: A long strange trip nears its ending...
Date: Tuesday, December 05, 2017
Time: 4:30:20 AM
Remote Address: 66.36.114.222
Message ID: 312702
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 312702
This is a very important notice, and it is 100% for real.
As we now enter Gasland’s 20th year of being around, this one will be its last.
I realize most of you reading this don’t wish to hear this news, but the time has come to make this announcement, that Gasland’s ending (at least on keno.org) is near and will happen in one year’s time… well, in the next 13 months, in January of 2019, one month after its 20th birthday takes place, unless somebody wishes to take it over for me on another domain.
I started up the Land of Gas back in the first week of December of 1998 and I had no idea just how popular it would become in a matter of just a few weeks, nor did I know that it would become the Stones longest running message board on the net and run into becoming a 20 year job for me as its webmaster.
The main reason I started this board was not only because the Stones first official board, “Stonesworld”, was closed down a few months before, but I was about to start up my Stones polls and felt a new board would be a great place to talk about them, as the Stones old newsgroup, which was already by late '98 a total wasteland full of bad/sick people that no sane or good persons would ever what to know or communicate with, sure wasn't where I wanted to talk about my new polls. Now today, with the Stones weekly polls almost over (only 42 weeks to go), and I myself (like you) growing a bit older with each passing day, well I'm really enjoying my retirement and I'm ready to add more free time to it.
Whereas Gasland is a place to have fun for the Stones fans who either lurk or post here, for me it's really been mainly a job, and it's time for me to give that job up, and I would be lying if I haven't been counting the months till I can do just that. Yes, I had decided this past summer that I had enough of running this joint and needed to let it go once and for all. The weeks that I’ve also been counting are how many are left in the Stones weekly poll, and I figured since Gasx3's official 20th year anniversary is gonna be just after that time, well, sometime after that will be a good time to close the door on yet another part of my once very busy working life. One thing I have found in my retirement is… unlike some people …. I like being retired very much!
Please don't take this next bit personally, but I'm tired of being the police officer here for everybody, along with being the Land of Gas's mayor, and I'm tired of running this place now after almost 20 years have passed on by, and I think most other normal people would be tired too at this point if they were in the same situation. Saturday was Gasland's birthday and the joint has now been around for a full 19 years, as we enter into its 20th year. So I'm going to have about one year left of running this joint, as I would like to see the full 20 year marker reached here. After that it will be retirement time for me, as this is one of my 2 last real jobs left that I still do regularly.
I've actually wanted out of being the board's webmaster for some time now, as some of you know. About 3 years ago I tried to set that up, where another person would take over most of the work here, and 2 Gassers offered to help me out on that. But because of how the board's old admin is set up, I couldn’t get that arrangement to work out, so I just kept running the joint by myself. But even with Gasx3's continued large readership (aka lurkers), we have seen a drop-offs in post here - directly because of me not looking for new posters and making it hard to bring in new ones by making the signup for a new password a harder than normal pain in the ass to go through. One has to really want to post here to get a password, and that in turn brought in less new Gassers.
Now, Gasx3 could still go on if somebody wants to take it over 100%, which would include paying the monthly fees that are involved, and doing all of the work I used to do. But, if one thing is going to happen for sure, Gasland won't be a part of keno.org any longer (other than the board's archives will all stay here where they always been), so a new domain (or an existing one outside of this domain) would needed to be started to support it and the new webmaster would have to be totally committed to running this board - for what is very low – really no, pay.
So I figured it was time now to let everybody here know what is up on my end with plenty of notice time to all of you. If anybody wants to take over running this board with the Gasland name, they will have an instant busy board to run. Of that lost posting traffic here that I just noted, I think that at least half of it could easily be brought back. The half of Gassers who we lost to the newer social media places like Facebook and Twitter, well I believe those folks are lost for good.
But that's the thing about Gasland, and something that I'm proud of. This board was started up before the term “Social Media" even existed or was used to describe what we Gassers helped start on the Web. This joint may not have been the very first Stones web board, as the short lived Stonesworld was, but that joint didn't last too long and Gasx3 was its replacement. Gasland became the busiest Stones board on the web and stayed that way for a good 10 to 12 years, a place that even Mick Jagger read, and things stayed that way for many years, and we all saw a lot of interesting things take place here in it's now almost 20 year run. But all good things must come to an end sooner or later, and I would be lying if I said I expected to be running this joint for 20 years’ time when I started it up. But it was started by me mainly to help get my domain’s Ongoing and Weekly poll system off and running, then it turned into something much bigger, and all of you lurkers and posting Gassers along with our former past Gassers, made the board what it turned in to and what it is today. So it never was just me alone who made this joint happen, all of you did, including the lurkers, who made this place what it became. I thank every one of you for that!
So yes, it would be cool if this joint could continue as it is - with the same look and feel, and same posters (plus some new ones, too!). I already know that would work, an instant successful board that is just moved to a new home on a new domain, with the very same name and Gassers posting. Normally in a situation like this, somebody would just sell the name and its contents, etc., to another, but the price to take over the Land of Gas is zero dollars, as long as the board stays the same with the same old format that most here love. So if you are interested in taking over Gasx3, do drop me a line, as right now we got a lot of time till my time here running the joint is up.
If nobody does want to take over this place, then it will pass away when I retire, other than again, the old archives will always be around to read. Plus the Stones do have 3 other long running boards that will (I hope) continue on, and I know our Gassers and lurkers would be welcome at any one of them. Some of you are already posting at these other boards already, anyway. So while the closing of Gasx3 is now a year away, it doesn't mean there has to be an ending to all the cool friendships we have made throughout the years. Perhaps in the last 6 weeks or so that this place is still alive, I just might open up the board to how it all used to be, with no passwords needed, so old Gassers who no longer have a password could drop in one last time to say goodbye, along with some of our long time lurkers, too, who could make a onetime post while still being looked at as lurkers, and whom have been as important to this place as our posters. But we will see what takes place in the last few weeks here in time, and while it would be cool to see a new webmaster take over this place, it doesn't have to happen, and I'm not gonna push it, either, other than to let everybody know that I'm open to that happening if that should be.
What will I do after I’m retired from the Land of Gas? Well, I'm still my towns' official weatherman, and that job I'll more than likely do till the day I drop dead, as it's just PT work, and it’s fun work, so I'll keep doing that for at least as long as my mind stays alert, anyway. I may or may not keep writing for the local newspaper, but for the most part I have retired from most of that work about a year ago, and I only contribute one column a month to them now, whereas years ago I was their main local news reporter and a columnist. The newspaper is for sale, so whoever buys it will help determine if I keep writing for then and maybe even go back to writing a bit more than I’ve been doing for the last year. I do still like writing, but still, my days as being a news reporter are over.
Would I still post at a new Gasland that somebody else runs? My guess is yes, but not a lot. Would the polls go on? Well the On Going polls will for sure. The weekly polls, I don’t know, but the Stones weekly poll for sure will end come week 1,000, which will happen around Sept of next year. There will still be many years of weekly polls that I could program at both the Beatles and Rock polls, including still running some Stones polls at the Rock poll, and at all of the weekly polls we are seeing record voter turnout today… and I still enjoy running them, too. So why end that? Well as of now the 2 Rock polls should keep going till they see their 1,000th week each, but, if that actually happens will depend on continued voter turnout. Gasland is responsible for getting the main word out on these polls, even if most who vote in the 2 remaining weekly Rock polls don’t come from here, my bet is most of them first heard of the polls from here. But with no outlet to advertise the polls, what would happen? My guess is the regular voters would still show up each week, but as far as new voters go, I think that would die off in time. So it will depend on if the polls are still voted on or not as far as me keeping them going.
So yes, in another year it will be time for me to start to fade into the sunset, as is the reward you get for living into old age. I don’t fear entering the autumn of my life at all, I’m glad I made it to the end of the road, and who knows when the true end will be reached for any of us? Yes, I’d love to see Gasland still around in 20 years’ time (if I’m still around in 20 years), being run by another person. I would be in my 80s by then, and I’m sure by that time I’ll be wishing that I didn’t do all of those bad drugs in my youth that more than likely won’t allow me to ever see the big 8 0. But I keep remembering when my mom hit her late 80s and then lived on into her early 90s, she would say over and over again how she never expected to live so long. Perhaps if I see my early 80s I will say that too. I’m sure MJ will still be around in 20 years, hell, he’ll just be in his 90s by then, but I got a very strong feeling the Stones won’t be an active band in 2038.
So will Gasland still be around in another 20 years? I don’t know, I only know it will be around for another year for sure. Do I have an exact closing date set for my retirement from running this place? No, not yet, other than it should take place sometime in mid-January of 2019. But if Gasland lives on after that, it won’t be in my hands. But deep down I would like to see the board live on under a new leader, for sure!
I thank you for reading this and I thank all the Gassers who have made this joint the best damn Stones board around for the last 19 years! We got at least one year left to go (and that’s still a long time from now), so let’s all make it the best year yet here!
Keno
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