BrainTalk is important and probably more so than we can imagine. For every one of us who use it as a soap box or street corner hangout, there are dozens of "lurkers" who just depend on it being there. Just so they know that they are not alone and that if things get dire enough to overcome their hesitancy that there will be someone who understands.

Such a community lifeline is far too important to owe its existence to the health, stamina, or whim of just one man. It should be structured to survive just as the Internet was structured to survive by distributing control and resources.

John Lester has done a great work over the last few years and we all owe him a great debt. He has created a community which is unequalled in the history of the planet. One which future historians will study. It would not be hyperbole to put him in the ranks with Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog project.

But John, assuming you read this at some point, it may be that it is time for your child to leave home. If you come to agree then I suggest that it would be fitting that you took a role in bringing that about. We know of your interests in such communities. I assume that (perhaps unconsciously) BT has become less interesting for you as other projects beckoned and you yearned to move on.

While they seldom know it at the time, people of genius often do their best work in their youth. BT may well be the most wonderful creation to spring from your hand, but only if you finish it. Help us, John. We need independence and redundancy. A governing board drawn from the members and a phased and dignified exit by its father.

Perhaps you are overbudened. Shift your load to our shoulders.

Perhaps you find BT to be boring after 11 years, particularly when compared to the possibilities of your projects at Linden Lab. That would be normal. So change the dynamic! You are into innovative uses of online communities and BT gets in your way?? No, managing BT gets in your way. Take a lead role in the final step of setting your greatest work on a solid foundation from which it can manage itself. Your work is half done. It is time to finish it.

Here here. An excellent proposal. I think empowering people to empower their own communities is something that can feel scary to moderators but ultimately I think it's the way forward...

I agree that BrainTalk has grown to the point that it needs more than one person who has access and control over software and hardware problems.

With so many members that depend on BrainTalk, I think that it would be a good idea to have a group of people to manage it instead of just one person.

John has worked so hard and has done a great job -- the fact that BrainTalk got to be so large is proof of all of his hard work... but I do think that we now that the forum has grown, that the staff should grow as well so that we don't have another incident of the site being down for well over a month without even a new update.

Just my 2 cents.

Liz

John has been out of the day to day end of the operation for quite a while. A working/governing board is in charge for the most part.

While BT needs to be member sensitive and inspired, I would hate to imagine how a member dominated board would have responded to this latest problem. It would still be hung up on which BT conspirator was responsible for it.............undoubtedly someone who had been banned after one of the infamous flame wars.

Obviously, it is time for some sort of change. Things have not been going well at BT for some time. A sensible and well informed first step would not include bashing John. It's time to get a grip and move forward.

Hi, everybody!!

It's me -- The Moose

I've been watching what's been going on for the past two months. I wrote to JL and his friends and called his place of employment. Got in touch with a government agency and a local newspaper.

BrainTalk (or whatever becomes of it) CANNOT be run by the members. This is a HUGE non-profit organization with ten of thousands of members and non-members from all over the world. The whole theory and goodwill and business of BrainTalk needs to be sold to an entity that will run it as a business and as a non-profit organization -- one that realizes the fragility of the people who participate (even the people who do not participate).

What's been done over the past two months has happened before. All the history and the collected wisdom disappears. All the support for people who cannot leave their homes disappears. It makes my heart ACHE to think of Lou Gehrig's Disease patients sitting at home with all their connection to the outside world just gone -- POOF!!

It makes me gut-sick to think of the parents who have terminally ill kids that have lost a resource that has helped them cope and has helped them stay sane. I know some of the Moms and Dads have quite a few small sites around the web -- but, BrainTalk was *HOME*. I've spent my last year on BrainTalk doing research for the Moms and Dads who just don't have the time or the energy.

I've been doing a lot of research into JL and BT and there are things that I DO NOT LIKE. I won't go into them here -- because it's not appropriate here.

I do believe WITH ALL MY HEART that no one should go back to the Original BrainTalk (especially if you're emotionally fragile) -- it's not safe there.

I remember my first job supporting computer users. My boss came in on the weekend and set up a brand-new server -- and then went on vacation for a month. The first day was fine. The second day -- the server was sitting in the corner whimpering and dying. I got in touch with peers who could help. I got the vendor to come in finally and fix the dang thing. There is NO reason in the universe that a server should be down for two months. That space in Cambridge where the server is stored is a hacker space -- that means the intelligence and the competence to fix/repair things was available.

I'm gonna let everybody know that this website is here.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the efforts that have gone into creating a safe place for people to land.

I, too, believe that it's time -- past time -- for JL to let go of BrainTalk and let someone else take over the reins.

Barbara

Great to see you Moose and I totally agree with your post.

You can't state that BrainTalk isn't safe. You CAN say you think or it's your opinion that BrainTalk isn't safe.

I have to agree with Moose's comments about what needs to happen (except for the part about bad stuff going on - I don't have any experience with that). A 50,000 seat Board of directors would go nowhere, extremely fast. A great thing has been done by John Lester, and it is time for him to take a breather. I don't have any ojections to the way he ran it, but it is clear that it's becoming too much.