A few random thoughts over my first cup of coffee on Saturday morning:
1. I have never found an online community such as this one. FT has become a part of my daily life -- even when I don't have time to take a few deep breaths, I'll still gravitate to FT to see what is going on (usually while sitting on hold in the office!).
This truly is an amazing group of people -- thoughtful, caring, generally polite (Hi MERRY!
) and, most of all, very giving of their knowledge and expertise.
Such a place is very special and I for one am very grateful to our hosts for providing this unique opportunity.
2. My first take on the whole F U K U chan issue was that he had overreacted. It reminded me of me 10 years ago. I was unaware of the previous issues with his name. Once I had learned that from Baobab's posting the previous thread, I was somewhat upset. Changing the rules 6 months down the road is a bit capricious! Demanding someone to prove their identity smacks of heavy-handedness.
3. Last evening, after a miserable day at work yesterday, I logged on to see the discussion of F U K U chan's fate. The threads were gone. Only Marvella's thread existed (and in the name of logic and consistency why hasn't it been deleted?) -- welcome back Marvella where the heck you been?
I posted to the F U K U chan thread. I gave my opinion. I wanted to know what others thought. That's one of the reasons I come to FT! Unfortunately, I'll never know...
4. When I logged on this morning the first thread in the buzz involved a 25k mile offer from MCI. A thread started by F U K U chan. I seem to recall that there was a grass roots campaign staged to honor F U K U chan with the March OMNI award for this thread. How many free tickets were earned by our community because of this thread?
And yet I'm staring at the dreaded F U K U chan name. Any consistency in that? Well we don't like his name so we're going to delete his account -- but that's a good post so we'll leave it?
5. Lurkers. We often mention them in a somewhat whimsical way. We know the airlines, hotels, etc., are aware of this board and they do come here to see what we discuss.
What we haven't known is that Big Brother is watching us very closely. And it gives me an uncomfortable feeling. We can and do self-police this community quite well -- anyone remember jaucutt -- that's one of the unique attributes of the FT community.
6. When it's all said and done ("oh goody he's gonna shut up now!"
) --
We lost a valuable member of our community. Let's hope we all learn from this action -- ALL of us, even those who lurk and pull the strings and decide who lives and who dies.
res ipsa loquitor