Deweywriter Forums May Close?

[Lugnutz]

I just read a musing from Bubba there that he questioned closing the forums. I can see his point because aside from me trying to revive things there, there is little to no activity anymore. This troubles me because long ago that place and Dewey's stories woke me up to what was under the surface and gave a name to what was hiding. It was home to me and many others. It was a very active place along with the chat room that was there, no topic was cast off but was talked about and almost guarantee lives were saved in the talks.

I would hate to see the place get scattered to the winds and lost.

[The Pecman]

Was this run by the guy who originally wrote stories under the name "Dewey2K" in the 1990s? If so, he was a fine writer, and I enjoyed his stuff.

All discussion groups rise and fall over time, and some rise again. But so much depends on the participation of the individual group members.

[Lugnutz]

Same guy. He still pumps out a chapter every once in a while for his main story.

[JamesSavik]

< the home you can't go back to

[Lugnutz]

Well, it's no longer now. I was told that CRVboy took the reins. End of an era.

[Graeme]

It's sad, especially as that's where I started writing, but I've only been back once or twice a year at most for some time. There were only a few key people keeping the forums going and when they moved on, the forums died Lugnutz tried his best, but I remember a couple of years ago (I think) when there was someone spamming the forum and there was no one around who remembered the admin control panel password to ban him. I still had my moderator privileges so I put him on an indefinite posting ban, but that was the best I could do.

[Lugnutz]

I started writing there too. If memory serves, my try at writing got you going.

[The Pecman]

Looks like "Deweywriter.com" has been shut down as a domain name. I wonder what the story is there? Did Mr. (or Ms.) Dewey2K just get sick up and fed of the whole thing and split? Did they stop writing? Did they decide not to spend the money any more to keep the site up? You wonder why these things collapse and there's nobody around to take over, or at least offer the URL to somebody else who wants to use it as a forwarding link.

[Lugnutz]

Cryboy took it over. I'm figuring the foums will be gone and the stories will be shifted to his place. He'll probably delete mine like he did last time when I heard he couldn't get a hold of me when I seen they weren't there anymore. I've had the same e-mail address for 13 years. I don't like or trust him since then.

[DesDownunder]

So the old saying that once it's on the Net it's there forever isn't quite as true as it's made out to be?

[The Pecman]

So the old saying that once it's on the Net it's there forever isn't quite as true as it's made out to be?

There's always the Wayback Machine, which purports to having copies of almost every webpage that's ever existed, going back more than 22 years...

http://web.archive.org/

[DesDownunder]

I forgot about that, In fact I've never used it.

Thanks for the link to it.

[Graeme]

Not everything is in the Wayback Machine. I know of a site (no longer around) where the owner set it up so it wouldn't be archived. The content at the site is now only with those who copied it while it was still around.

[The Pecman]

That is true. I'm not sure why anybody would deliberately engineer a site not to be archived. What's the point of living on the earth if you haven't made a permanent mark on it somewhere? And the Wayback Machine is totally, 100% a non-profit organization merely recording the history of the internet.

What's Dewey2K's story? Does anybody know him and what his background is? I think I reached out to him in email once maybe 13-14 years ago but never heard back, so I don't know what the deal is there.

[Graeme]

That is true. I'm not sure why anybody would deliberately engineer a site not to be archived. What's the point of living on the earth if you haven't made a permanent mark on it somewhere? And the Wayback Machine is totally, 100% a non-profit organization merely recording the history of the internet.

What's Dewey2K's story? Does anybody know him and what his background is? I think I reached out to him in email once maybe 13-14 years ago but never heard back, so I don't know what the deal is there.

I knew him moderately well while I was active at that site. The following information was all public domain at the site, so I don't believe I'm sharing any confidences.

The major thing is he's a male-rape survivor (see the afterword to his short story You Are Not Alone). He was raped as a child by a family member. As a result, he suppressed his sexuality for many years. He worked in the Navy as a nuclear reactor technician (I think) and eventually married and had children (two girls, from memory). After reading some online stories, he had a breakdown as he realised that he was gay and had been suppressing the fact for a long time. The resurfacing of the rape memories occurred after that point, further complicating his life.

He was one of two people who helped me when I came out to my wife, helping with advice on how to handle the situation since he'd been through it with his own wife. It was after that point that he separated from his wife. I think he lost his job, too, which was another factor in his slowdown in writing.

I haven't heard from him for quite a few years.

[DesDownunder]

Philosophically, there is a case to be made for all trace of one's existence to be wiped out from the moment of our passing. Whilst this subject is too complex to go into without hijacking the thread beyond justification, we can note that the argument is put forth in the Marat/Sade most eloquently, but it is a difficult intellectual concept.

Thinking in terms of, eventually nothing surviving, or, 'all things must pass,' the only benefit of maintaining links with our ancestors is to become aware that the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn. But that has become almost a cliché, a platitude that overlooks the contribution we make in the finite existence of our cultures.

Whatever we may think on this matter, it is difficult to argue with the idea that ultimately it makes no difference to the extinction of life. The flaw with this thinking is that it appears to promote nihilism or leads to the sense that everything is unreal and not worth worrying about.

The reality of our consciousness, our awareness of our reality, is that we have come to know that we do not know.

The Platonic/Socratic idea that "the unexamined life is not worth living... …when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know." However, too many times do we take this knowledge of our not knowing, and assume we can know nothing more, and therefore cease all examination of our lives.

Just because we know we do not know, does not mean we should give up (examining life)...but many do.

Inspirationally we can look to the lyrics for The Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows:

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream

It is not dying, it is not dying

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void

It is shining, it is shining

Yet you may see the meaning of within

It is being, it is being

Love is all and love is everyone

It is knowing, it is knowing

And ignorance and hate mourn the dead

It is believing, it is believing

But listen to the colour of your dreams

It is not leaving, it is not leaving

So play the game "Existence" to the end

Of the beginning, of the beginning

The philosophy is clearly a mix of East and West cultures, but the end thinking, in the positive sense, is one of living - being, in the moment, fully, completely, and without assuming that anything we think we know is worthwhile, whilst we are being...alive and subject to the wonders we observe in each of those moments.

To expect those who come after us to think that what we have discovered and created is worthwhile, is presumptuous to say the least, and yet we must also take notice that the worth of archiving is seen in the words of Plato, The Beatles, and other seekers of meaning, being available to us.

The danger, as always, is that some religion or other will try to petrify what we think, as a belief never to be questioned.

Question everything.

[Cole Parker]

While it can be argued, I guess, that we haven't made much progress in terms of civilization -- hence the fact we still sort of believe that might makes right and that war is the ultimate answer -- we certainly have made progress that shouldn't be lost when we die. We've made huge progress in scientific areas like medicine and physics and aeronautics and astronomy and oceanography and many others, and practical endeavors like engineering and architecture and manufacturing and computer science, and even philosophical areas where many different disciplines have been discussed and argued. We need the past to help us into the future, even if we often fight like dogs not to accept the lessons of the past.

C

[Merkin]

We need the past to help us into the future, even if we often fight like dogs not to accept the lessons of the past.

That includes learning what we can from the experiences of others and perhaps thus improving our own ability to empathize and broaden our willingness to discover that there are many other ways to conduct one's life. That is the wonder and the beauty of the stories that we can read, the stories written with passion and commitment by dedicated writers.

[Lugnutz]

Forums are gone but the story site is back. This place seems tame compared to Dewey's forum back in the day. Many good times were had.