...and nothing of value was lost.
Well, that I would have to disagree with. Whatever personality quirks came a0long with it, there was a good deal of useful info that is no longer on record. As for the rest of it, I shall miss a good deal of mirth. Even though the duck was not posting new stuff, I would often find his past posts in my searches just as scintillating. The archives and threads here often read like a sophisticated (or at least nerdy) sitcom in my mind.
I had known the duck had left the nest already, but it was a new and wholly disappointing discovery to find holes in a past thread I had revisited from my first days here at GH. THAT was bit draconian no matter what the reason behind his departure or who's decision it was. I do hope that isn't a default behavior for past posts to go along with deleted accounts. Seems kinda sacreligious - like deleting history - not to mention the problem of making nonsense out of past useful discussions which might have been helpful to someone down the line (Believe it or not there are actually a few people that do use the search feature before posting).
If it was webwit's choice to delete them (kinda like "taking his toys" with him when he left) then shame on him. I thought he had a better sense of what was proper than that. If so I may have to wander over to the new nesting grounds just to scold or lecture him on this choice.
One of the reasons I try to counter pointless animosity online is to present an alternative to antagonism for future people that might come across my words long after I have forgotten I wrote them. All behavior, childish or mature, productive or counterproductive, is learned behavior, and I like to think (after a years worth of court mandated anger management classes) that the less desirable behaviors are often taken up for lack of a better example to follow. The thing about the net is that it can cross more than spatial and physical boundaries; there are discussions that I've happened upon and chimed in on that were begun years ago but are relevant to me now. And whether comments I happen upon were posted two months ago, two minutes ago, or two years, it may as well be taking place preseently since it is my first experience of the discussion.
There is the threat of some permanence to any moment in the e-world, as heated or indiscrete as they may currently be, it behooves all of humanity present and future to consider how we might be presenting ouirselves to an outside eye, especially if those are the eyes of children or anyone who would follow in our footsteps. To make unpublic what once was is even worse than the misguided editing of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn which substitutes all instances of the "n-word" with "slave". This is more like just leaving a hole in the sentence where it used to be. In that respect, real time has the advantage: we were taught in my interpersonal communications course at Emerson that one cannot "uncommunicate" something once it has been said. I guess the internet has altered that truth a little too, by the looks of things.
EDIT>> hey is there a new thing that logs you out after some time? I just had to log in again to complete my post...
