I had originally supported the Iraq invasion as an essential pre-emptive defensive strike, just as I had supported the Afghanistan action and the First Gulf War. I still support the latter two. But the WMD story was just too much like the Domino Theory and the Tonkin Gulf Incident that precipitated our Vietnam escalation. “Fool me once…”, etc. etc.

Although it can probably never be proven conclusively one way or the other, the WMD excuse sounds less and less like a tragic but honest mistake and more and more like a downright deliberate fabrication the older I get.

Yeah, too bad about Raoul.

This place has been around for over 10 years. Back then, it was a time of unprecedented negative events. Unfortunately, it still is today.

Afghanistan was considered by most a reasonable response to the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon. Then we watched Bush making the case for war as our carrier groups were steaming towards the Persian Gulf. We watched and debated the entire build up to “Shock and Awe”. A lot of us were asking, “what the hell are we doing”? Others backed Bush without question.

For a few of us, this was the first war we saw live on TV. We watched the allied troops march quickly to Baghdad past burning tanks and APC’s. We saw the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. We saw the pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib. We saw first hand the “collateral damage” and yes, we saw the bombing of wedding parties. We even saw a man slowly beheaded, something that can’t be “un-see”. To say people back then were passionate in expressing their opinions is an understatement.

For me the Zone filled a need (which I didn’t know I had) to talk to people other than friends, family members and coworkers about what was happening. At the Zone, it was the ‘ black and whites’ vs. the ‘grays’ and polka dots. And it was no less intense when it came to peripheral issues like the Terry Schiavo case. All controversial happenings were brought to the fore to be chewed up, spit out, or digested by those with the appetite.

Then there were blueberries, everywhere! On Jan 4, 2004 we opened our eyes on the surface of Mars- and started walking. Thanks to the Internet we received images daily from the slowly plodding rovers. We had at least two professional geologists at the Zone as well as eager and educated laymen to pour over the pictures, wringing all possible explanations from every pixel. It was a gas! Oh, and I think everyone kept an eye out for fossils.

If asked, I think the biggest loss for the Zone would be Raoul. He was the heart and soul of the SpaceBoard. He looked at all things space and the general beauty of the universe with the wonder of a child. And he effectively shared that wonder with us, often racing to be the first to post developing stories. He always let you know when you had been scooped posting a link to his post. I’m encouraged that he still pops in occasionally to contribute something.

That was longer than anticipated. I’ll finish with saying Phil was another big contributor that I left off the list. I’d like to see the “Old Phil” back but who knows, maybe we’ll will pick up a new Phil along the way…

We’ll see.

“How’s that for putting out the fine china?”

Not to mention hanging out a lot of dirty laundry!

Of the essence, I think, but I am kind of pressed for time at the moment. Jury duty possible next week, it’s tax time soon, plus the usual work. Fixing the Zone’s technical problems is getting higher on my list. Nothing like the enthusiasm on this thread to prod my butt into gear…

I’m torn on this question of getting everything “perfect” before a discrete “opening day”, versus organically campaigning to bring back Zoners and bring in new members, while simultaneously remodeling the joint.

Some things are absolutely mandatory, I think, but also relatively easy, being cosmetic. Lots of formatting snafus I can clean up in a few hours, like the erratic font formatting. Just need to do it.

I really want to implement the improvement that would do away with needing a paragraph tag to identify the subject line in a comment. That’s not only because the present kludge sucks, but because the fix involves replacing those simple-text comments with full rich-text posts, and once the system can deal with that structure, I can finally put several hundred thousand posts back online. Ten years of the HabitableZone finally available again.

Think that might draw people? Think about what it will do to the search engines when I throw the switch and the spiders start swallowing up that huge message base. We’ll be a noticeable blip on google that day.

How’s that for putting out the fine china?

That could be the hook for an email campaign, couldn’t it? Because everybody on that mailing list would have posts being (re)published, I actually have an obligation to send out such an email. Wow…

Seems to me that the email ought to be written as a group by, and sent under the name of, this bunch we have that’s gradually forming itself into The Extraordinary Committee To Save The HabitableZone. And we need to get podrock back into the act.

I’m not so keen on sending out such an email under my name alone because, frankly, I worry that it would scare off some former Zoners who might otherwise be attracted to come check the place out. Not that I can avoid being a prominent participant and staff member, but I don’t want it to be about “Robert’s HabitableZone”. Does that make sense?

As for rewriting the front page, I agree with your aesthetic review of the welcome. But there is also the sentiment factor: It was written by Our Founder Justin, back at the dawn of time. Kind of a Cronus to my Zeus, so to speak. But I digress…the point being that retiring the text has that emotional dimension and may be controversial.

How about this: Could you propose it on a new thread, and we’ll consider that thread to be the discussion on the topic. If the consensus is that it’s OK to change, and new text gets posted and everybody murmurs “sure”, “yeah”, “fine by me”, then I post it on the front page and we check that one off the list. OK?

This has turned out to be a great thread, hasn’t it?

Didn’t podrock turn off automatic registration in frustration at the buckets of spam new users were splashing on the boards? There may be repercussions….

I have to roll with it, keep my mouth shut…NO COMMENT;)….and try to keep up.

So…I rock…you roll…..wanna dance mon ami?