Jack's House

CONGRATULATIONS CICLOPSX #200

Thanks for these 200+ stories and for writing in both Spanish and English [almost as many in each language ]

Johnno

CONGRATULATIONS Y LEE #900

An amazing achievement for our very long time supporter -- with us at MMSA  from the beginning -- and now on the way to the thousandth

Johnno

CONGRATULATIONS HORWALK #500


Well done Horwalk, another of our top authors at MMSA, for his achieving 500 very fine storiees and for this neatly titles Milestone his  500th

A remarkable clever story to crown this remarkable achievement of 500 stories.

Very neat with the "Milestone" -- pub, store, chippy and the old milestone itself as a very clever theme.

Very clever the way the hero, Rory, managed to avoid being caught and joining the fate of his school mates time after time until at last  justice caught up with him

Horwalk  often finishes a story  with a clever little twist at the end, and this was particularly well done with Rory's own milestone of his first caning being the 500th milestone of all the Headmaster's canings at the school.

Johnno

Dave

I am grief stricken for you dear David. We had all hoped for a recovery as time went on and medications took effect.

My heart goes out to you.

Johnno

Joel told me  of his decision as above and kindly wrote a note of  personal appreciation  to me.  We remain very good friends.   

Very sad that he feels that way about MMSA.  He is one of the site's  most outstanding authors and I have had close contact with him ever since he began writing eleven years ago -- well close by internet of course as he is in Scotland and I am here in North Queensland 12,000 miles away.

I should stress that he leaving all of  his stories with us.    I have though another author who has requested removal of stories - to me that is not only sad but pointless as it just deprives that author's  readers past and potentially future.

Johnno   

I'm very sorry to learn that several mmsa reviewers have been pushed aside so unjustly. I would be very upset if it were me.

Several others disappeared as well.

I wonder when mmsa will just disappear overnight.

In theory he could cancel the Forum which is a sub domain.  I think it extremely unlikely.  All that has happened is some threads have been locked.

Could MMSA disappear?  In theory the entire  MMSA Domain with the archive could I suppose. 

It won't for financial reasons [the account is taken care of]  and not for technical ones.   Flag can be contacted if needed for any tech issues and responds immediately.

I cannot conceive he would intentionally self destruct.  He has just spent months day and night re doing all the codes and giving the entire site the most extensive make over it has had since it first  started.  He loves it greatly and uses it as a pleasure to escape to when others are asleep [he told us].  He takes great pride in his creation  and makes changes which he hopes will be appreciated. .   Most of the vast amount of work in rewriting codes goes unseen   and he is disappointed if it is not in his view sufficiently appreciated, or when some disagree with his policy as if they have ownership of the site.

Johnno

 
In other correspondence a friend said in regard to this matter,  that he was    “Hiding in the Corner”   -   which very neatly sums up where I am as well I guess.
 
I was as stunned as everyone else when I saw what had happened to Plagosus and Daniel in the thread started by Patrick.   .
 
I regard Plagosus and Daniel as  great colleagues and friends despite perhaps occasional differences.   It was a shock to them and to all of us.  They are some of the  original ‘Founding Fathers’,   doing all the initial work in transferring 7000 + stories from the Jimka site.   Plagosus in particular has been a prolific author of highest quality ever since and probably does more than anyone else as a Forum Moderator. I understand  the viewpoint that  such loyal supporters of MMSA for the past 16 years were owed the courtesy of being told first. On the other hand Flag probably felt it was the only way,   as he assumed it would lead to fruitless argument and the same outcome. He would not have been dissuaded by such confrontation. .
 
So YES,  I do feel I am hiding in a  corner, certainly publicly.
 
1. I don’t think there is any point in trying to challenge Flag on Forum  – he has made up his mind and has given a detailed explanation in that same thread.  I might mention  that the reason given by Flag ‘too many reviewers never reviewing’ has resulted in a  number of others  being eliminated as well.  In fairness to those eliminated, they have said   whenever they look there is nothing in assigned  as all have been assigned/reviewed  by David Kat, P J Franklin or Johnno.

2.  That said, Emlyn to his credit has expressed solidarity and sadness.   That would be read and I expect probably not  responded to, but noted nonetheless.   Praise to Emlyn for his stand.

3.  For myself I would not want to engage in a public spat with Flag which could not produce a positive result and more likely would end  up badly.  It would be regarded by him as unacceptably disloyal.
 
4. There is  something of a unique relationship between  Flag and myself.   I am trusted with  his phone number, so that I can contact him  if he is absent and no one else can fix a technical problem. 

I fully fund all payments for the account which includes the MMSA Domain  and  many others,  and have done so for the past ten years.   

At times past I sent payments  to Flag’s Paypal account in US$ which he sent on to Dreamhost.   In  2013 (Ian completely un-contactable at the time  ) and with  the host’s 2 month grace period expired and only a few days day remaining before oblivion,  this site could only be saved by my sending US$ funds to Jack Well’s Paypal. He then wrote a check in US$ and sent US Post  to Dreamhost.   So no Jack Wells, no MMSA. 

In 2015 same thing --  this time rescued by another US friend – funds from me to his Paypal, he sent US$ check via Fed Ex to get there in time.  Host would not accept direct credit card payment from any one other than the then absent site owner b t w..  Only US$checks to their postal address.

The problem with living in the Australian tropics -- but hey the sun is shining, the ocean and sky are blue , the beach below me golden 
 
Since then for recent years things have improved. I can contact Flag by phone.   I have access to the whole Dreamhost account.  All charges for the main account and the  assortment of extra Domains are auto billed to my credit card.   The main  account was paid in Feb 2020 for two years through to Feb 2022.  Annual extra Domain charges are auto billed as they arise.

The vast majority of site access problems in the past were indeed due to financial reasons and my not knowing when domains or account payments were due. My need to  'jump through hoops' as Kat mentioned.  Now the only reason for failure is some technical issue -- not financial.
  . 
 I feel I owe Flag  loyalty for all he does and  if I say anything  I do so  privately   to him and have raised a number of issues with him recently including another reviewer who was collateral damage in the recent purge and has been reinstated. .  . 
 
 So that is the situation.
 
And why I continue  “hiding in a corner”.    
 
Johnno