Great interview, as usual.

This has been a joy to read, Keith, keep up the good work! Can’t wait till next week!

2. continued with explicatives that are not fit general viewing audiences. Truly so vulgar, vile, and obscene that Keith himself, dies a little inside.

3. Bargaining – Dave I am begging you, on bended knees, (or is that bent at the waist?) please reconsider! What can I do? What will it take to satisfy your needs, to please you?? (This is where I tell you how amazing of a builder you are, how I think you have only touched the tip of the depths you will go). Please Dave, I whimper softly, towards your cold dark glance.

4. Depression – Keith I am hurt you allowed this all to happen, not to mention the public humiliation. And Dave, well, I am numb. I dont think I can live with the knowledge that you didnt choose me. In fact, I think I will give up the hobby and sell off my entire beloved collection. No, forget it, I am obviously not worth the money… I perhaps will give it to some angst ridden, spoiled, over achiever teen that builds better than I could ever think of and will gain recognition that I could never dream of.

5. Acceptance – So this is the way it must be, I have accepted my fate. To build alone, in the dungeon of my darkening soul. To never be part of something bigger, better, faster, stronger (looks for my vid of daft hands). To never be satiated. To never be Shaddixedified. (You can thank me for that word later.)
This too shall pass. (Deep sigh, fade to black)

I hope you both can live with yourselves.

Janey: I want, so very badly, to know what 3 through 5 were. ;-)

For the record, I had no idea JLUG had a bastard child, I demand ice chips, back rubs and retroactive support payments.

I was feeling it, totally digging the “new to the scene” (oh wait, you mean the Lego scene, never mind) vibe… grooving with the not soooo geeky Shaddix… and then wham bam, thank you ma’am… I got to the middle question of the boilerplate.

The important part! I held my breath in anticipation….

In five rapid minutes, I hit all five stages of coping with grief.

1. Denial – I can not believe Shaddix did not pick me to be his tag team builder. This can’t be happening to me, Keith must have edited out the part that Dave actually said me. Keith is the jealous type.

2. Anger – Spit out the ball gags boys, you both suck. Screw you Dave, and screw you too Keith! This will not be forgotten. How could you do this to me, you dirty *!&^7 [

There are definitely some fundamental issues with MOCpages right now. The virus thing really pisses me off because I lost 2 comps and over 3 years worth of pics because of it. Make sure to back up your back ups of your back ups kids.

As for Flikr being safer for children more than MOCpages, I completely disagree with you. Can’t say one is more safe than the other. I can easily navigate to the wrong side of the internet on Flikr, which is why I don’t even bother opening it when at work. There may be questionable content on MOCpages at times, but they are generally innuendos and not ‘in your face’ genitals.

The kids need a place to grow, and learn their craft. I think MOCpages is much more of a friendly environment for that. Unfortunately with that comes the annoying parts too. Like you two weren’t smart-assed teenagers. They look up to you as builders, and personally I think it’s a tad bit socially irresponsible to just tell them to piss off.

On one hand you want the community to grow….on the other you want them to leave you the hell alone. At least that’s how it comes off to me. Unfortunately you can’t really have it both ways. Most of the kids are just trying to fit in. They see us AFOLs talking shit to each other and it’s only natural for them to do the same. To bristle up at them just sends the wrong message…..just confuses the whole situation.

As for groups….yeah I think MOCpages would benefit highly from an IM system. People create the groups to communicate with each other more than anything……because we’re ALL reserved about sharing our e-mail on the internet.

Great article as always Keith….even if it did involve that Shaddix slouch. In the future I would really like to see some interviews with young blood. TFOL’s like Joshua Christenson ( http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/16594 ) who may have better ideas to a solution for the community gap…..and who may be outbuilding even YOU in the near future.