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Display name: Brand Y
Gender: male
Location: Samaria CA USA
Website:
Date joined: February 14th, 2008
Last seen: October 25th, 2008
About me: Some closing notes...

I'm leaving Answerbag, after somewhat less than 2 years. I may be back in the future of course (what departed user doesn't mentally reserve that right anyway?). I hate dramatic swan songs by departing users, so I'll try to make it interesting.

First some housekeeping: I can be reached at stabledog [at] gmail . com.

Here's the complete list of accounts I've used in my time:

Brand Y (this account)

Stableboy #1 (my original account): http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=81969

Stableboy #2 (the first-ever badgicide, before I knew the staff could just subtract points): http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=107377
(This account did business as "Yobelbats" for a while, which is just Stableboy backwards and few people had trouble figuring that one out)

Stabledog: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=101179
(Presumably nobody was fooled by this sock puppet. The dog isn't real, btw... just a photo from Google Images)

Stablegirl: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=96081. Originally this account was just used to test new animated avatars. I had a hobby for a while "improving" other people's avatars and this is where I tested them. Later on, the account got renamed as "The One" in one of those elaborate humor wars that erupt in comment threads. But everybody involved knew who "The One" was, and when the joke was done the account was retired.

Tormato: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=107110. This account was concocted for a "new user" experiment I ran in Dec. 06. I spent a day trying to "crack the leaderboard clique" as a new user, to see how hard it was. Turns out it wasn't that hard, but the experiment led me to the conclusion that I should dump my points (badgicide). The account was retired after that, except for a couple of follow-on comments later. BTW, "Tormato" and the avatar are taken from an early-80's Yes album.

Querylous: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=144172. This account was created to post some joke questions. There was a user (still active, some will recognize) who was posting an amazing number of questions that all had the same structure: they would take a story out of the news, summarize it in the question, and then personalize it for the listener... e.g. "A man fell out of a 3rd story building in New York today. Have you ever fallen out of a window?". Because of the incredible volume of these questions, and their obviously contrived nature, some people (including me) were amused. So the questions Querylous asked took this pattern to extreme absurdities as a way of making a mildly-sarcastic point and having some fun. In hindsight, this was perhaps not such a nice thing to do, but there it is.

I have been accused sometimes of being several other users, including Zenmonk, but there isn't the slightest truth (or evidence) in any of those cases. Today I learned that at least one person, with whom I had no issues, was angry with me because he thought I was Zenmonk (and perhaps had clashes with Zenmonk).

There are a number of reasons I'm leaving, and a number of ways to interpret those reasons. I won't bore you with all of it... but most people are aware that Carmella/Brand X and I are an item, and that upset a number of people. (I'm 50, she's 19.) I love her very much, but we have struggled a lot with the age difference, and with the sometimes harsh reactions from others. Now I think we have that pretty much sorted out (i.e. we know when to lift the middle finger, and when to be patient and explain). But some folks on Answerbag simply would not take "none of your business" for an answer, and made a concerted campaign to harrass and discredit, and in fact quite a few rumors have been fabricated from nothing at all to support these campaigns.

The staff have tried to walk a middle ground to provide us some defense, and recently have become more stern about striking back at these folks, which we appreciate. But overall, the mood is spoiled... it's just not much fun to hang out on Answerbag anymore, knowing there are people who will just keep coming at me over and over again -- as if the world needs more self-appointed judges.

I recognize that I'm arrogant, and that I do anger people sometimes during disagreements. That's something I've tried to manage, but sometimes it gets away from me. But overall, I'm upbeat, enjoy others, and try to be helpful. Whatever my sins are, it's my job to sort them out and I'll continue to work on that.

I wish the best to those who have been friendly and generous, and appreciate most those who were supportive when the attacks were most vicious and persistent: in particular, Jodie44, LynfromNM, Andy777, idne, Lady Fuschia, Eli, ChandaDiane, Darkling, gtravels, Tinkabelle, Redhawk, Ruby Doomsday, and zazzy_one have each gone out of their way in some manner to be real friends... people who lose track of themselves and help out when their friend is in pain. I will not forget.

Best wishes to all (except the trolls, of course!), and don't forget to follow the chain of friend's list's once in a while -- that person you hate is no more than 2 hops away from your favorite bagger. :)

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