I was utterly shocked to see what happened to TT. That seems a shame, since she seems a lovely and helpful person.

Although, I must say, I feel I’m a bit black balled too. Nothing concrete but whenever I ask for help, I tend to get sort of weird treatment. And I haven’t hardly ever visited the forums. I think sometimes it all still boils down to those hideous popularity contests we went through at school – there are the golden children and then there are the rest of us.

The irony of course is that the golden children would have nothing if the rest of us weren’t around doing most of the heavy lifting, eh?
WC

CJ: I think people being more self-involved plays a big part in it, WC; they’re genuinely surprised or uncertain because a kind act seems so unexpected now, something they’re not used to. It seems strange that being considerate would seem so foreign, but behaviour is learnt; if there are fewer examples, it’s simple to understand it fading away.

And it does feel like a popularity contest sometimes… when something happens, aren’t we always the last ones to know? But then life is a popularity contest… one I’m quite happy not to win.

CJ: Thanks for reading, sulz. It was just something I felt like I had to write, I wasn’t expecting anyone to have much to add. And thanks for your post too.

Reasons people volunteer
1. An opportunity to meet and get to know people in the community.
2. An opportunity to use personal skills and knowledge and to feel good about sharing them.
3. An opportunity to learn more about the community and to learn new skills.
4. An opportunity for community recognition of knowledge and skills.
5. An opportunity to be recognized and valued as a knowledgeable and skilled community member.

Communities are built through cooperation, not through competitiveness. So just to set the record straight I received my reward for answering questions every time a blogger said thanks to me. Yay! another happy camper. I beamed like a beacon when I saw other bloggers receiving thank you’s too because I felt very proud of them. Yay! for ____. So as far as I’m concerned those genuine expressions of gratitude that came from the bloggers that we volunteers helped are worth their weight in gold.

In the context of the re-vamped wp.com forum which is destined to become more and more like yahoo answers these opportunities for volunteers will decrease and may even become non-existent. Over time I won’t be surprised to see that the two sets of forums at com and org become amalgamated and roboticized.
http://archgfx.net/blog/2008/geek/blogging/desaparecidos-wordpresscom-sucks

I respect and admire every one of the volunteers who gave freely of their time to help. I believe every one of the volunteers are quality people, whose contributions to wp have been vastly underrated. And, I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I urged any of you “get back in there and risk getting sucker punched”, now would I? If you do decide to enter the arena y’all better wear your helmet and keep your face shield down now y’hear.

P.S. I should have my blog contents up and running at my new host by the end of tomorrow so the all the information, work-arounds and other tips will continue to be available to bloggers who need them.

Namaste {she bows}

CJ: Interesting analysis, TT. I hadn’t thought of it that way but you’re right, I’d definitely subscribe to points #1, #2 and #3. No act is ever completely selfless; there’s always something that comes from it, even if it’s something we’re not aware of. But that doesn’t make the effort any less worthwhile, which is what I find sad here. It’s like WordPress is saying all of your efforts, and the efforts of all the volunteers, don’t mean anything, and that’s at odds with WP’s own features page.

Look forward to seeing your resource blog when it’s up again. I’ll have some more time on my hands over the weekend as well, and I’ll be stopping by your other blog then too. Peace and happiness to you, TT, always.

CJ: Thanks, Richard. Respect has been on my mind for the last few weeks, and after what happened to TT it seemed like a good time to talk about it.

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve met many of my close friends over a computer screen; it makes no difference to me if they’re here physically or if I’m reading their thoughts. But a lot of people don’t see it that way and think they can get away with more online than they would in the real world. If more people could remember that there’s a real person on the other side of the screen, the ‘net might be very different… ah well, maybe one day.