I started posting on Open Salon on August 5, 2008.  It took me a while to find my sea legs here, as in the beginning there were a lot of political and newsy types of post.  I don’t do political and newsy posts, my forte has been poetry, fiction, photography and song parodies.  So for the first few months, I floundered a lot.  But I eventually found what it is I am compelled to write, so I stuck with it.  I never had a huge audience, but I did have one.  I felt like I was a writer.

Over the next year, Open Salon truly became open, and an influx of new members made it hard to keep up with everyone I was suddenly reading.  There were a great deal of excellent writers, photographers, and poets coming on board.  But my fear was that, with them, would come the casual bloggers, the diary writers, and the trolls.  I saw Open Salon as a place where people could stretch their wings, get feedback, become better writers and journalists.  I know that the editors saw it as a “social content site” where they could get some intriguing takes on everything from current events to entertainment and all for free.

The big draw in this place was always the “built-in audience” that Kerry keeps touting.  Thousands of readers at your fingertips, people!  A cover page to highlight the best!  The only problem?  The cover page is designed and maintained based on what OUTSIDE people want to see.  NOT what you and I, the insiders, think is great stuff.  WE DON’T COUNT, except as content generators.  I’m sorry to tell you, too, that because it is FREE and WE DON’T COUNT, we also don’t get the right to demand anything of the editors.  Plain and simple.

Me, personally - I’m fine with that.  This is a place where I have had an opportunity to work on my chosen craft, fiction writing and poetry.  I’ve gotten some great feedback from people, and I’ve had a few EP’s and cover spots over the course.  But The last year has been less and less fun for me, and it’s because this site is devolving, not evolving.  It is becoming Wordpress with a cover page, and frankly I don’t need that.  I had a wordpress blog, and if I’d have wanted to keep it I would have, I wanted a place that could afford me the ability to test my skills out, get meaningful feedback, and avoid all the bullshit that occurs in online forums.

This place has been described at times as high school, with its cliques and side groups and conspiracies.  It is actually more like an elementary school, with its playground armies and coatroom quorums.  So, since there are a whole slew of folks here that think it is ok to steal from others (and you KNOW who you are), that plagiarism is no big deal, that it is fine to gum up the works for the rest of us while they throw their pre-K tantrums and clog up the feed, I’ve decided to bow out.  I have enough stuff going on in real life that I don’t need the additional bullshit that is going on here, and since I am not paying for the service and I don’t really bring in a lot of eyeballs anyway, it’s time to go.  I apologize to my twelve or so constant readers, you’ve been a great help and source of encouragement and pleasure to me.  But I’m done now.

I’d like to briefly thank a small handful of people:
Barry (bbd) for inviting me here to start with.  I will always be grateful to you for that, brother.
Sandra Stephens, Lee (Boanerges1), Jim (jimmymac1025), Ann (1_Irritated_Mother), Janie (JK Brady), Candace (femme forte), Steph (O’stephanie), Sally Swift, Stellaa, Dennis Knight - your encouragement, your critiques, and your own writing were a tremendous gift to me.  I thank you sincerely.

There are many others, but I’m running out of time so I will offer a blanket thank you to anyone here who has ever read something I wrote and left me a comment (or a PM).  You made it worthwhile to post here.  If you’re in my “favorites” list it is because I enjoyed what you had to offer here.  

To those who would say, “My use of other people’s photos or words is nobody else’s business”, you’re dead wrong.  It IS my business when your crimes affect me (and they do, they smear this place and tarnish every single person who tries to do the right thing).  If I had the time and the inclination, I’d go through every post you’ve ever made and track down the owners of the content you stole.  The terms of service here are very clear: you will not post anything you don’t have the rights to.  That is enough to cover the considerable ass of Open Salon should it ever come to criminal charges, but it WON’T cover yours.

I’m leaving you folks with two posts for now: this one, and the post I did on Basic Writing which covers how to actually FIND content on the internet that you CAN use and how to appropriately use it.  I doubt common thieves will bother; it is much easier for the spiritually bereft and intellectually lazy to just steal.  But hopefully it will help the rest of you.

I’ve turned off e-mail notifications, so please don’t bother PM’ing me with your latest post or your thoughts on my exit - my only activity here, until such time as I totally remove this account, will be to systematically delete whatever’s in the inbox without opening it.  I’d like to give those folks who have comments from me that they appreciated the opportunity to save those - when this account is eventually deleted, every comment I ever made, every PM I’ve ever sent you, will go with it - that’s how the software works, and I’m sorry for that.

As for this post, I’m not going to bother closing comments as I won’t be back to read them, so have at it, people.  The house lights are still on, the stage is cleared and the mike is open.