Alien Son

Rutabaga has set up a redirect that should take care of that. Any URL that leads to the old CW directory on the AD site will automatically be sent to codeysworld.org. In the long term it would be good if you could update the links. (I assume you're referring to your stories posted on the AD site and not those posted on the CW site.) If you're referring to your stories at CW, it might be worth checking to see if they still show the old address because Rutabaga did a search and replace operation on the whole CW site and updated all the links he could find. ~ John

Hi, James I haven't done anything about Valentine's Day, but I'll be happy to post a story providing it meets the AD guidelines, and I expect that it will. Please email it to me at submissions@awesomedude.org. I've amended the links in my post above. They dated from before the move to the new domain, and I hadn't updated them. Sorry for the inconvenience. ~ John

Thank you for your kind words! ~ John

I agree, James. You got it right. And the photo is a startling, but accurate representation. ~ John

My apologies to everyone who was not able to see the new chapters that were part of the Wednesday update. I uploaded everything and checked that all the links were working, and I was able to see that the new chapters were being visited. The server showed that the home page had been updated. Sometime later the new home page was not visible. At the moment I have no idea how that happened, but it has shown us that we need a backup system so that Rutabaga can step in if he needs to. On this occasion he was unable to, and I was unaware that anything was wrong until R sent me a text message just as I was beginning my Thursday. The updated home page should now be visible for everyone. ~ John

I have to point out that Rutabaga did the lion's share of this work. By the time I registered the domain it was approaching midnight here. Rutabaga took over and by the time I was up and about again he was well into moving all the CW content to the new address. Much appreciated, R. ~ John

I'll get a swelled head at this rate... but thank you, your appreciation makes the effort worthwhile. It's been a bit tricky working out which stories Mike has already used as Picks. ~ John

We are aware that there are hundreds of applications for membership of the AwesomeDude forums awaiting approval. This used to be automatic, but because of spambots, Mike changed the settings so that manual approval is needed. Sadly, Mike was not able to do much after he had his fall in September 2022, and membership approval was probably one of things that suffered. If you have applied for forums membership and are still waiting for approval, please email dude@awesomedude.org to let us know. You will need to provide the username you chose, and the email address you used when you signed up. If you're a new registrant, it would help us if you could also email dude@awesomedude.org to alert us to your application, giving your username (and email if it's different from the one you're using to contact us). We'll attend to your application as soon as we can. Thanks for your help! ~ John

Thanks, Rutabaga, for all the work you've done behind the scenes. It's a huge relief to have the site up and running again. And thank you, Cole, for publicising the new address. ~ John

Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone. There are still things that need to be fixed, but at least the site is online and most of the stories are accessible. We'd appreciate it if you could please email admin@awesomedude.org to let us know of any problems you encounter. I should add that I greatly appreciate Rutabaga's help. He did much more than connect the dots, and must have given up a large proportion of his day and evening. ~ John

Thanks Doug.

Due to circumstances mostly outside our control this is taking longer than we expected and hoped. We've set up a new site and I'm at this moment uploading all the stories. It will be several hours before the whole site is online. I'll make a further announcement as soon as I can. ~ John

The AwesomeDude story site is offline at present. We are doing our best to solve the problem and I hope to have further news soon. ~ Alien Son

Hi, Merkin I'd never thought about it, but I would have said it's an Aboriginal word. This website offers a few interpretations. One of the explanations it gives is that Corryong comes from an Aboriginal word, 'cooyong', meaning 'bandicoot' which is a native Australian animal. Interestingly, there's a suburb of Melbourne named Kooyong.

In case anyone's interested, this news article demonstrates that the relationship between Villers-Bretonneaux and Victoria is still strong. The people of the village raised $40, 000 to help the people of Corryong, in northeastern Victoria, recover from more disastrous bushfires in the summer of 2019-2020.

My apologies for not updating the address for submitting suggestions for Dude's Picks. I've now set up a new address: awesomedudepicks@writetome.net If you sent suggestions to the old address, they were not acted on. Please send them again to the new address. Sorry for the inconvenience. On Wednesday 1 November I'll revert to using the Dude's Picks section of the home page for its intended purpose. Since the picks for October were displaced, I'll repeat them for November. ~ John

The email address for submitting new stories has changed to submissions@awesomedude.org. I'll receive any emails sent to that address, and I will arrange for the editorial team to read the story. If they see a need to, they may contact the author to discuss edits or amendments. We'll then decide whether to accept or reject the story. If you're thinking of submitting a story, please read through the information on the Submissions page. If you have sent in a submission in the last couple of months and not received a response, please resubmit it using the above address (which also appears on the Submissions page).

Hi, James. Yes, the procedure will essentially be the same. I've updated the email address for submissions. I'll receive any emails sent to that address, and I'll arrange for one of the group to read the story. If they see a need to, that person may contact the author to discuss edits or amendments. We'll then decide whether to accept or reject the story. ~ John

Rutabaga has obtained David's agreement to transfer ownership of AwesomeDude to us, and has begun work on bringing that to fruition. In the meantime, a small group of AD authors has agreed to vet stories (a task previously undertaken personally by Mike), and I'm able to report that we'll soon begin posting new stories again. ~ John

Thanks, Peter!

Hi, Jason Thank you for sharing your very personal story. Mike cared deeply about his authors. I'm sorry about the lack of communication. There isn't much to report at the moment, but I've now made an announcement here. ~ John

Mike died without having a clear succession plan for the site. He was working on it, but never completed it. That means there are several problems to solve. I've got together a small working group of authors and others who expressed an interest in the future and we're working on finding solutions to the problems. In the meantime the site will continue to be updated, at least until current stories are complete. For those contributing to the PayPal account, please continue to do so for the time being if you're happy to do that. At the moment, no email address @awesomedude.com is being monitored, so if you need to contact anyone about the site please use this address: awesomedude@writetome.net. We'll make further announcements as we are able to.

Hi, Peter I'm hoping to make an announcement within a few days about what the future holds for AwesomeDude. That will include advice about donations. ~ John

Mike never really recovered from the fall he had about a year ago, and was also contending with several health problems. Sadly, he suffered a massive heart attack on Saturday September 9, and was not able to be revived. Mike would have turned 80 on October 25, 2023. AwesomeDude will continue for the time being, and I will continue posting current serial stories until they are complete. At this stage I'm not sure what to do about stories that have been submitted but not yet posted, or about accepting new stories. I'll make a further announcement when the future is clearer. ~ John

Yes, it was truly awful, yet some good things did come out of the Great War. One example... Australian soldiers played a vital role in saving the village of Villers-Bretonneux in northern France from occupation by the Germans. Their sacrifice is still remembered in the village. The soldiers who lost their lives are buried in a war cemetery close by, and that cemetery also contains an Australian monument to the personnel killed on the Western Front. In the aftermath of the war, schoolkids in Victoria raised money to help rebuild the Villers-Bretonneaux school. That gesture is still remembered in the village, which returned the favour in 2009 after disastrous bushfires destroyed Strathewen Primary School in Victoria. Villers-Bretonneaux raised funds to help rebuild the school. The special relationship is commemorated on 25 April every year at the Villers-Bretonneaux memorial, with French and Australian officials and civilians taking part in an ANZAC Day service. (April 25 is ANZAC Day, and commemorates the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli in 1915. The acronym stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.) There's a page about the Villers-Bretonneaux relationship with my country here. When I did some research as I was putting together the Great War presentation, I was flabbergasted at the statistics. The numbers of military personnel (nine million) and civilians (eight million) who lost their lives is breathtaking enough, but add to that the number of homes, factories, schools and churches destroyed, the farms left full of craters, and the livestock killed. Even today, bodies are still being recovered, and artifacts turn up regularly as farmers plough their fields. It's hard to imagine how anyone ever recovered from that war. It's no wonder that returned servicemen and women didn't want to talk about it. Thanks for your kind comments, Bruin.