Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Misplaced Trust

11:35, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted in rants .. 35 comments .. Link

It seems as if like a phoenix, the EFX2 blog site has risen yet again from the ashes. But this is no thanks to He Who Must Not Be Named, aka Keith, who is the owner of the blog hosting site. Repeated attempts to contact him about the problem continue to go unanswered.

The only reason EFX2 is alive again (sort of) is because of ChicaX, who cared more about the blog site and its people than the man who owned the place. She wouldn't give up on it, and eventually found a way to get it running again. However, she, nor any of the other Community Leaders, have full access to to the inner workings of the place, so her fix will likely be a temporary one. To really fix the place so it will remain stable would require that full access, but this would require He Who Must Not Be Named turning over the "keys" to the place to someone who is willing to take on the responsibility.

After reading that EFX was up again, I went over to the site chat box, where several people were dancing the happy dance that it's back. There were also several blog posts conveying the same message. Though EFX2 has been up and down like an elevator in its rather short life, and He Who Must Not Be Named has shown time and time again that he's washed his hands of the place and moved on, many EFXers have chosen to naively put their blind trust yet again into a blog site that never shown any lasting stability. Though many of us created new blogs at Blogger, Wordpress, and most commonly at Vox, many EFXers will drop their new blogs like a bad habit to give their full allegiance yet again to the haphazard disaster of a site known as EFX2.

Some of these same people are also quick to defend He Who Must Not Be Named continuing to ignore requests for assistance: "maybe his computer doesn't work', "maybe he's sick", and the ever-popular, "don't complain -- at least it's FREE".

I crack up every time I hear the last excuse. What fucking good is FREE when it doesn't work at all? And I'd add that Vox is free, Blogger is free, and Wordpress is free. But they WORK. I think the hosting site working should be a basic requirement of any blog hosting site, free or not. I'd also turn that sentiment around to those who are complaining about the lack of the comment alert system at Vox and other places into "Don't complain -- at least it WORKS....and it's free, too!"

Such bloggers talk about the community feel of EFX, others talk about the convenience of comment alerts. Granted, Blogger is abysmal when it comes to interactivity, but Vox has excellent interactivity where one can easily keep up with their EFX friends. No, it doesn't have comment alerts, but it WORKS. I think having to do a little work and manually checking one's friends' blogs for new comments is a very small tradeoff for having a blog system that is there when you need it. Indeed, what use is a community feel when you can't get to the community to interact or comment alerts when you can visit the blog to read the comments?

However, unlike the last major breakdown of EFX, where nearly everyone ran back to EFX with no hesitation, I noticed that several others are like me in that they no longer trust the place and aren't so eager to carelessly abandon their new blog homes for their unfaithful lover, EFX2. Last September, I was nearly alone in urging people to continue to maintain their new blogs, as EFX was surely going to shit the bed again bigtime, sooner or later. All that time, I continued to maintain my Blogger blog, as well as one on Blog City, so when EFX hit the iceberg yet again, a couple of weeks ago, I lost NOTHING.

This time, however, several people share my caveats and I read several comments urging people to back up their blogs, maintain the new blogs they've created and, if they must absolutely have their EFX fix, to double post and not depend on EFX to be their sole blogging home.

Don't get me wrong. I love my EFX2 blog -- I'd missed my New York City skyline custom header. But I'd be an idiot to place any faith in EFX2 ever again. It's a matter of "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me". I'll likely double post there, but I'll not neglect my other 3 mirror blogs. It's not that hard to do mirror blogs. You write the post once and publish at one blogging site. Then you copy n' paste at the others. Simple. Doesn't take a lot of time.

Thoughts?

Leave a Comment

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11:52, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by littleMissConfused
oh all right...you convinced me. I guess I'm just the "Pollyanna" type. I'm just so happy to see it up and running again. I guess I will do the mirror blog thing for a while....just to see how it works.....some how over the past few months I started to buy into the whole "positive thinking" thing....I'm trying to think positive that this place will stick around......I know, I can be silly some times!

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12:03, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by WelshPixie
I'm staying on blogger. Much like Vox, its reliable, has a present and active moderation and administrator service, a stable server, ZERO spam, and is still free.

After Styles and I worked our asses off for days (it's a good job I don't have anything to do at work because if I did, I'd be fired by now for not doing it during those first few days) trying every damned thing we could think of to fix this place (incuding what Chica tried), to no avail, and after trying countless times to send Keith messages and tracking down contacts of contacts of contacts to hear nothing back from him, I'm done. The only reason we didn't publicise the gargantuan effort we were putting in is because none of it worked.

I've removed myself as an admin of the CL blog. I'm only keeping my account here to keep track of friends who're staying.

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12:07, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by sarai
EFX is my home until the day it dies, I will always post here first and expect the most comments and interactivity from this place, but I have a back up blog at Vox and have had another at Blogger as well for quite some time, they don't get much traffic but having all my writings in a safe location is all I'm expecting from those places.

FYI WP and PhotoStyle have been working for MONTHS to get contact with Keith and see if they and others can take control of this place, give us a real captain to this ship, but he has remained unreachable. I think the site came back because of some server maintenance or something, no disrespect to Chica, she does a lot here, but there are still glitches so whatever "fix" was done it didn't do it all.

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12:10, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by WelshPixie
Oh, and Libertine - although it narrows down your colour scheme options, you can (you might already know this) select one of the 'personalized' templates on Vox and upload your own header to it.

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12:12, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by libertine
And that's the thing. There are Community Leaders here who are willing to get the job done, but they can't do so without full control. And it's quite obvious that Keith doesn't give a flying fuck what happens to the place, as he'd have made arrangements for turning over that full control long ago.

Welsh Pixie: Thanks...I intend to spruce the place up a bit when I have to time to work on it.

blogging

12:45, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by Chandramoon
I've kept my Vox going for months and I really like it - it's easy, interactive and free. I'll continue to double post - no way I'd rely on Efx alone!

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12:46, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by Anonymous
Everyone was thanking Kelly last night because she posted that it was now working. No disrespect to any of the other CL's, most of us know the other leaders are working their butts off also.

I'm certainly not giving up my vox, I've had it for quite sometime now and will do mirror post over there.

But, I have to tell you, when I came back last night and was able to go on my blog and run around and look at things, it really was a feeling of coming home. As long as I've been at Vox, I've never had that feeling. I have to explain that in defense of the people glad efx is working. (well somewhat working)

As insane as it sounds and as insane as it will be, I will have to maintain two blogs in order to keep in touch with everyone. If you think about it though, it's really just a matter of a click of the mouse.

Has anyone actually come right out and asked Keith to let go of this place and hand it over?

It seems sad that there are smart and willing people wanting to work on this place, but are unable to because of access.

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12:50, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by WelshPixie
Anon - I suggested it in an email I sent him. Words along the lines of 'If you don't want to maintain the site any more, just say the word - I've got a handful of people here both ready, willing and able to take over full control of it. All we need is for you to hand it over.'

No reply.

Styles has also seen him on MSN on more than one occasion, sent him a few messages, and had no response.

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12:56, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by Nikkie
When efx2 went down in September I created a back up blog. From that time forward I mirrored my posts. I am not so quick to trust. I am not trusting much now here so vox will be my HOME, efx will be the MIRROR. I have grown to like Vox a lot.
I am glad things are working here but I had no problems with it being down. My panties didn't get in a twist over it. I guess cause I had my backup.

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01:06, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by libertine
Welsh Pixie: Styles' experience does not surprise me in the least. I just wish he'd man up and give someone a definitive answer. Either turn the keys over to someone or shut the place down for good, if he's no longer interested in maintaining it. This half-assed shit, leaving us all to twist in the breeze wondering just doesn't get it.

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01:31, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
Woops, that anonymous comment was me..

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03:48, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by mothman
I LOVE the interactivity of EFX, and haven't found a replacement for it.

But... that said, I'm one of those you talk about who are now too frustrated with EFX to migrate back here. It's not just the latest problem... there have been countless times over the last few months where I've spent half an hour putting together a blog entry, only to hit the Submit button and have the site hang/crash on me, and be down for me until the next day (sometimes then showing that my entry actually got posted 4 or 5 times lol) .

So, while I will miss the connectivity that EFX provides... I believe I'll be staying with my Blogspot blog. It took me a while to get used to the system there, but I now like it.

And as Chica has been saying, through a couple free 3rd party services, like Blogcatalog, MyBlogLog, etc, you are able to achieve some form of community.

As for mirror blogging... I can't see myself doing that.

I created a Vox blog quite a while ago during one of EFX's down times, and used it for a few days, but then left it when EFX returned.

And I now have my Blogspot blog.

I could easily copy/paste in 2 of those places, or all 3, that's not the problem.

THe thing I don't like about it is that I'll then have 2 or 3 "homes" with (hopefully) people visiting each one... which makes it that much more difficult for me to keep up with who is commenting on what.

I just think I'll find it easier to pick a blog, and stick with it, and eventually anyone who is interested in keeping tabs on my posts will know to find me there.

And via Blogspots Blog List page element it's easy enough for me to keep tabs on what everyone else is posting.

The only thing I'll be missing are the comment alerts on other peoples blogs, but that's not that big a deal.

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05:23, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by libertine
You know what's funny -- or not so funny -- EFX has been back up for less than 24 hours, yet I've already had to clear off two new spam comments. Seems as if a two week down time didn't deter them any.

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05:28, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by darkstar
Well since i do not know what really is going on, i am not pointing fingers, dude could be laid up somewhere for all i know, but yea thanks Kelly

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05:32, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
I'm actually with you David, I've said all along that something might have happened to him. I mean, in my bad mood days, I might have said things like, why isn't he handing over the reins if he doesn't want this place, but I truly believe something is wrong at home.

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05:53, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by Anonymous
Be very careful of what you speak of.
I called out Keith almost two years ago and his henchmen were all over me as if I were being blasphemous to God Almighty.

Blind faith is the worst type of faith.

This is LOTGK by the way.

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06:01, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
I don't think it's Blind Faith, I think it's a matter of not judging someone until you know all the facts, plain and simple. Since he's been gone for almost 6 months without logging in once, and no one has been able to contact him either by phone or email, I tend to lean towards "something is not right at his house" rather than he just bailed out.

If he did just bail out, well then I'd have some choice words for him, lol.

But, we don't know, do we. So, until I do know, I'm not passing judgement.

.

07:41, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by Cam

My bottom line is this :

When efx works, I'll use it.

When it doesn't, I'll be on vox.

Pretty simple, really...

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07:42, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
LOL Cam, it is just that simple...:)

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07:47, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by slayerbarbie
I'm going to double post (more for myself and my peace of mind). I just wish we could make another EFX with the same (or almost the same features) on Word Press or somewhere that's stable.

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08:46, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by bitzky
Actually guys.... both Blogger and Wordpress now provide comment tracking (both blog-wide and single-post comment tracking) through simple RSS feeds. And every other host provider (including Efx2) has post RSS feeds. Keeping in touch across the communities is really easy now. Check my post on the topic:

http://bitzky.blogspot.com/2008/07/h...ities.html

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10:33, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
Wow, who was that????

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10:42, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by slayerbarbie
Someone with anger issues and too much time on their hands would be my guess.

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11:59, 2008-Jul-19 .. Posted by lisalisabobisa
Yep Cam, it's that simple. And I agree....I personally think something is going on with Keith, I don't think he is intentionally ignoring EFX. And I will always give someone the benefit of the doubt until I know better. I will use this blog while it's up, and when it's down I'm at Vox....and that's it.:)

Keeping in touch ...

12:05, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by womanoffeathers

I will make sure that those who are staying here ...
or mirroring their blogs will have their links posted on ...

http://efx2-mbnomads.blogspot.com

I also have a button where you can get alerts however you wish (email, Yahoo, Google, etc).

I too will be doing mirrior posts on Vox and Blogger. I also found out how to be more creative on Blogspot ... but it's easier to do the actual creating here and transforming it there.

Will ...
I have my own banner on Vox ...
so can you ...

(I really miss ems on the other places)

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12:09, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by libertine
I deleted the anonymous troll. If they can't be man enough to sign their name to what they say, then no one else should have to look at it, either.

My blog, my rules.

Mr Anon Badmouth ...

01:12, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by womanoffeathers
I agree ... it's your blog ... your rules ...

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01:49, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum
Tara, there's a button? I'll have to go check that out...:)

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02:09, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by indigomoonarts
You can always right click on the skyline and do a save as and keep the image Wil... just a thought. I am staying at blogger, with back ups here and at vox. I love this place first, but like everyone else, don't trust it.

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08:38, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by libertine
Yes, I already have it saved on my computer, along with my Modblog header and the header from my first EFX. Unfortunately they're all too large for Vox and don't look all that great chopped up. Plus Vox has that little avatar box on all blogs that kinds of ruins a design.

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12:26, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by DeeJay
I love this place, but I don't have a lot of faith in how it has been run by Keith. I am very very impressed by the dedication and hard work of the CL's on all of it.

I'll keep blogging here, but I will not give up on my blogger account again. I just can't trust efx until the keys are safely in the hands of someone with the knowledge and dedication it takes to run this place.

.

01:42, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by Anonymous
Lib I'd have no problem making your header right for your vox blog, since I do believe I've made them all.. :p

.

01:43, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by Chica
Darnit, that was me :)

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05:06, 2008-Jul-20 .. Posted by libertine
I appreciate that, Kel. I hadn't asked you because I figured you had enough on your plate right now.

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04:26, 2008-Jul-21 .. Posted by logis
I definetly gonna keep my vox blog and will double post but i am not sure yet which blog i will make my primary.

Your are right when you say that efx2 is up and down like a yoyo. I was hoping, blind faith, in the past, not anymore.