[spacy stacy]

Originally Posted by annie

imagine how we are going to feel if it turns out that the reason he is not communicating is because he is in the hospital learning firsthand what we already know about having brain problems.

imagine how we are going to feel if the problem is that someone close to him is very ill and he is spending all his time taking care of them.

imagine how we are going to feel if we discover that the reason he has abandoned us is that something bad has happened to him.

maybe we should stop criticizing and blaming him and start praying for him.

maybe we should think about his needs for a change instead of demanding that he should take care of ours.

Annie-

Well said. I couldn't agree more.

I wish he would post only to know that he is OK. However, if there is something serious going on (and what is going on at his job is not trivial), I understand why he is not posting or updating. Any good friend should.

My true friends understand if I don't get back to them right away when something serious is happening in my life. They are still there for me when the dust clears and I can join them once again.

I hope all is going to be OK with JL. I hope that BT will find its way back again. It has helped me greatly and I don't want to lose the wealth of info there. JL made a place for me to go and be heard, helped and hugged. I hope that we can do the same for him. That is what friends are for.

Just my thoughts for today.

Stacy

[lindylanka]

I too have been visiting BT for many years - and it has been important to me in terms of being able to have a good dialogue with people who KNOW how I feel because they are going through the same thing. The whole thing about peer support is that. Yes, John did a great thing in setting it all up for us, but I am very baffled by the strangeness that surrounds this whole thing. At the same time that BT sank, John was apparently on a lecture tour that included slideshows that featured BT and his role in developing it, as well as projects like Brigadoon, as part of Linden Labs community efforts.

Now I'm no technical expert, but it was plain to see from a link in another message on this thread that the equipment that JL bought was under warranty from Apple for THREE YEARS from april 05. And its only september 06.......... The hardware should be okay, the data maybe not, but to get things up and running again it should have been a simple matter of reinstalling the software on repaired or replaced equipment. It does not take months to do, the software is not hard to put in place. So there MUST be other reasons for it not happening. If BT was a "non-profit corporation operating as a public charity" as described on the hasypastry page with John's message to us then surely there is some liability there - or maybe those words don't actually mean anything............

I am not writing this to attack John in anyway, he has given a lot of people a great deal over the years. I am however questioning his way of dealing with the members of BT - it seems neither responsible or ethical to leave so many people, many of whom have had devastating health issues affect them and their families, in this kind of limbo. I would just request respectfully that he steps up to the podium and offer an explanation to 'his' members about what has happened, instead of leaving them in the dark. And to do it here, and on the BT page where that rather old message is.

At this stage it is about re-empowering the people who made up BT, it's not about John, or who is to blame, it is about re-connecting people with THEIR support system, because it was not all about John and the work he did in setting things up, but about a whole community of very real people. Forums like these may seem as though they are 'virtual' - in reality they are not, we are just using a virtual medium, if you doubt that look at the Brigadoon people, their REAL lives are improved, in fact it is a lot less virtual than watching TV......

John, if you come here, or you have anyone looking in on your behalf, please let us know what is happening, if it is to do with the security breaches at LL then let us know, if you no longer have the time to devote to BT then let us know, if it all grew too big and it is too much then let us know, and allow a good end to the work you have done. IF you ARE going to put it all to rights, then also LET US KNOW, but please don't continue to leave people in the dark. It is not right to leave people with severe health problems in the lurch, it goes against everything you have worked for, everything you write about. The people who came to BT often had a commonality - they had questions that the medical profession would not or could not answer. You gave them the means to ask those questions, and find out some of the answers themselves. Well, we have another question now. It would be kind if you gave us an answer. And whatever that is, you would have more respect for answering it than for remaining silent.

Lindy