Re: future of Looper's Delight (long)

[doc rossi <docittern@gmail.com>]

Brava, Violet! I'm really touched by the way you're handling this - it's a 
real inspiration.  If there's any way I can help, I'll be more than happy 
to pitch in. -- Doc

On Jun 29, 2010, at 7:27 AM, Violet Xoxox wrote:

> I've been trying to write something about this all week, but finding time
> and strength has been hard.  It's difficult to write this even now, but I
> feel compelled.  I don't know how eloquent it will be, since I don't feel
> particularly coherent right now, so bear with me.
> 
> I know many of you are reeling right now and worrying about what's going 
>to
> happen with Looper's Delight.  Will it fall apart?  Will it be abandoned?
> I know it's hard not to fret, but please try to have faith.  I need
> everyone to, because...
> 
> What's going to happen now is exactly what was going to happen anyway.  
>For
> a long time Kim had been frustrated that the site was such a mess and he
> had no time to work on it.  Even the times he did update it, he had a 
>tough
> time because he didn't know much about HTML; adding even the simplest 
>thing
> was hard for him, which is why the site is so jumbled and inconsistent.
> 
> He'd been begging me for more than 10 years to help him clean it up.  
>Every
> now and then, I'd make graphics for him and help with layout on the site
> using my awesomely bad circa 1998 web skills (the CD ad banners, the
> navigational buttons ... ugh, please don't hurt me!  They were cool at 
>the
> time, I swear!).  But the main reason I never fixed the site for him was
> because it needed to be switched over to CSS, and *I* didn't really have
> the skill to do what needed to be done, either.  But it was something we
> talked about many, many times.
> 
> I've worked on several sites since then and I know much more about site
> development than I used to.
> 
> Two days before Kim died, I told him I had finally begun site 
>restructuring
> for Looper's Delight.  He was SO HAPPY!  I can't even tell you how 
>excited
> he was.  For anyone who doubts that Kim still had a passion for LD, I can
> tell you that the passion never left.  The fire I saw in his eyes that
> night, the joy ... I will never forget that and I wish you could have 
>seen
> it.  He was simply stretched thin and his job at Nvidia was so stressful,
> there wasn't enough time for him to do everything he wanted. I watched 
>him
> wrestle with that for so many years.  You have no idea how frustrated he
> was that he couldn't do everything he wanted to do.
> 
> In the past I had added an interface to the site to make updating the 
>news
> section easier for him, but he never had time to learn how to use it.
> (Currently, you'll notice the news page is giving a server error; that's 
>a
> result of my moving the interface UNDERNEATH the running site when
> restructuring began in order to hide it so that the existing site can 
>still
> viewable while I work on the re-org.)  I told Kim that since I already 
>knew
> he probably wouldn't have time to give me much input or work on the site
> even with the interface added, I was also going to join the list so I 
>could
> get input from the community directly and get you involved.  He laughed 
>and
> said yeah, that was probably a good idea!
> 
> So the upshot is, Kim and I had already agreed that I was going to take
> over the day-to-day management of the site and seek input/help from the
> community.  I had hoped he would be here to guide me because I don't 
>really
> know the sorts of things that are of interest to you, but sadly, well, we
> see how that went.  But I was going to rely on the community for much of
> that anyway.
> 
> So together we can do this.  You know the sorts of things that are of
> interest to loop artists.  I know what Kim's vision was, I know the
> principles that were important to him, because they're the same 
>principles
> by which I run my OWN sites and mailing lists.  We were in absolute
> agreement on how mailing lists should be run - and as you've seen for
> years, he took great pains to structure the list so that it would be able
> to run without him personally babysitting it - and we also had many
> wonderful discussions on how we felt news sites should be operated.  I 
>will
> miss those discussions so much.
> 
> You may not have Kim any more, but I hope you'll find that his spirit 
>lives
> on in me.  We were two halves of the same whole.  (Although I am,
> admittedly, the more verbose half.)  I hope you can trust that I will 
>take
> the site in the direction Kim would want it to go, because I watched him
> care about it for the past 14 years and I know how much it meant to him.
> 
> The trouble for me at the moment is that having lost Kim now, I won't be
> able to get to the actual redesign as quickly as I'd wanted to.  I was
> working on it, and now I'm reeling and life as I knew it has come to a
> screeching halt.  Not only am I too heartsick to focus on much of 
>anything
> right now, but I'm also going to have to work on keeping Kim's personal
> sites - KimFlint.com and Annihilist.com - alive in his name.  This is on
> top of the work I have to do for other sites on our server and dealing 
>with
> my own website, Undented.com.
> 
> I haven't given much thought yet to how I'm going to keep up with it all,
> but I do have people to help me through this, and I have all of you to 
>give
> me input when I'm sorting out the LD stuff.
> 
> But for now, things are going continue the way they were and would have 
>if
> Kim were still here: the list will continue running the way it has been,
> and I will be reorganizing the site behind the scenes and getting some of
> you involved when I'm ready.
> 
> I hope this gives you some hope for the future during this painful time.
> 
> Oh!  I nearly forgot ... although the way the site is physically run is
> going to change dramatically (in that it will be able to be updated
> regularly when I'm done with the re-org, yay!) the overall look probably
> won't change much.  Originally I had wanted to come up with a new design 
>-
> nothing overly flashy, but something better than what's there now - but 
>now
> that Kim has gone, his mother has asked if we can at least keep the entry
> page similar to what it's been all these years because it comforts her 
>and
> makes her think of Kim, so we're going to do that.  But it will also
> feature a prominent memoriam to Kim.  I don't think anyone would argue 
>that
> that's the way it should be.  So it isn't the overall look that will
> change, but the way the content is organized and updated, which will make
> it much more exciting and interesting for everyone.  I'll be relying
> heavily on the community to help with that.
> 
> And I'm going to clean up the archives.  When I looked at those, I was
> shocked by all the spam!  I wish Kim had told me that was happening - I
> could have cleaned that up.  Eesh!
> 
> So the site isn't going to suddenly turn all crazy, just be more coherent
> and easier to navigate and update.
> 
> Okay, I'm done now, and very tired, and I may not have the energy to
> respond to replies, but I *am* here and will be reading as much as I can.
> 
> Violet
> xoxox
>