Hmm. Not that this isn't a real post, but I'm checking stuff.

No that hasn't happened to me. But then the number of Dutch mefites is really really small. So that's not very strange.

Yes, because this podcast is right next door and I navigate the entire internet through this old wardrobe that was here when I moved in.

The other day, someone tweeted that they looked up something and language hat was the second result. I'm sure it was by promenade in his local library. Good thing language hat tours so often.

I'm sorry. Someone once emailed me that "metachat was for being nice" -- basically humor and opinions were not welcome and that it was basically a dysfunctional support group of blind encouragement, enabling and cliquishness, the exact thing you have to try to bust up in any functional group.

This was spurred by them thinking I was talking about something they said on another site when in fact it was just a stray joke I had no idea or intention of having anything to do with them, so it does still apply to the post.

But, I'd love to know if this is true. In one of my many absences, did everyone agree that that's what this place is? Because there seems to be two very clear teams on either side of this, one that wants me to be here and one who really wants me gone. The latter is of the, "Sure, everything that person says is textbook codependency, but you're just suppose to cheer her on! Or say nothing!" variety.

See, I was thinking of posting some writing projects and other things to share, but if that's not "what this place is for" I really want to know.

To paraphrase Princess Bride, I want to know if this metachat means what I think it means. I thought it was for sharing stuff. If you just "like" things, isn't that Facebook?

(btw, so far these comments have gone smoothly.)

ethylene I don't think it's very useful to discuss what this place is for. Since unfortunately it's de facto dead.

The upside of that is that it doesn't matter whether some people like you to be here or not.

As far as I myself am concerned: I've sometimes worried about you. Not that that is of any use to you.
Also the following may not be welcome to you.

From a continent away through the medium of ASCII my vague impression of you is that you have a really intrigueing way with words. To me it's a verbal effervescence that I don't see very often online.

At the same time when I read your posts I often can't quite follow what you're saying. Because of some disjointed speedy prickly quality I can't quite place.
In my estimation it's that same quality that makes people wary of you.

To put it plainly: to me you've come across as a bit unbalanced.

From the heartlands of socialism that makes me worry how you manage in an unforgiving society like the US.

As metachat is winding down I thought I'd just might as well write this down.
Be well ethylene.

Is it de facto dead? Did I miss this somewhere? Because if that is the case, it doesn't matter but I did not know what was the case.

And if it's not, I think that makes it very important to discuss what the nature of this place is intended to be, because over the lifetime of the site I've talked with a variety of members at the point in which they have left or receded before they finally never came back. While they vary, the main reason is that it stopped being what they came for or they felt unwelcome/not free to express themselves and that really seems to hold with people who are still a part of it. If you look at it now, there is very little chat or interaction or substance. if that's the point, then it really is dead.

As far as what you think you know of me from sporadic writing over the years, you assume much from very little. There have been things that have been projects, writing or games where I was using whatever feedback to work off of and things where i have been very precise with my language, but other than those, i almost never really care about what I type here because it's just very fast, impulsive things with exactly as much reason as that implies, often evidence by the many typographical errors. There has also been a lot of purposeful misdirection. That you think these little slices of time and text are suppose to add up to a balanced picture of anything is a bit disconcerting in how it seems you think.

For the few people I know exclusively from what they've written here that have made, if any, only brief impression, I greatly hope this is not representative of the depth and breadth of their person.

I've been using this place for what it is at its most basic: a group blog, an interactive publishing platform, an internet accessible multimedia notepad. Everyone here uses it for different reason in different ways because if everyone was using it to write different versions of how their mother died or spew off bravado to vent their insecurity or complain about minor middle class irritants, then it'd be a clearly defined group blog.

If no one ever says anything about anything, it really cuts down on any straight men to cantilever jokes off of, and that blows.

Jouke, if what you have written here is the sum of your being, well, ok, I hope that works for you, but I have not assumed to know you from it. I don't think I've read that much from you, so maybe there's an unculled novella of who you are I missed, but the few details I remember are not to my mind that flattering a picture. And that would be the thing: the few continued habituants here i do know I know more about and I don't assume the others to be just what they've put here for whatever reason they did so. That would be a big difference between you and me but consistent with what you have put forth here, so maybe this is a decent picture of you. I am not the one to say.

So, if this place is dying, that changes things for me in how I'm going to use it, but i'd rather get word from at least another person.

So the server connection dropped. Is it just drops until never gets up? As it's paid for, someone should at least be getting a refund.

I was trying to figure out what this prickly thing you were on about was besides the whole "who the hell what the fuck" thing and I think you have misunderstood something very basic:

Me: Let's talk about great pickles we've had.
You: I don't eat pickles, so, none, ever, but I don't eat pickles.
Me: Thank you so much for that important addition to this conversation. That was ironic. In other words, the exact opposite of what I said. maybe with a bit of fucking off.

See, that is a bit prickly. Just a bit.
Much as one does when someone has stopped dead in front of you to stare and block the way, on the off chance they don't know better, poking may be involved.

You: That did not seem complimentary. I did not quite understand. I think you are a bit unbalanced.

Well, that's an interpretation. As some would say, "an interesting choice."

I would love to know where your unsolicited criticisms of things you don't understand that are not of interest to you nor in your purview are welcomed with open arms.