Re: [abcusers] Goodbye

[Frank Nordberg]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Frank-
>
> I have learned a great deal from you in your posts and your
> answers to my questions, and spent many hours poking around
> musicaviva.com. Whatever is happening in your life, I hope it
> works out for the best for you.
>
> But one question: Does this "Goodbye" also mean you're signing
> off the list? Note this is cc'ed both to the list and to you
> personally. I'd sure like to see an answer on the list, though.

That's a very difficult question. You see, without Musica Viva I won't really be an abcuser anymore. Practically all non-Viva music notation I do is a bit too complex for abc. It is possible to do a marching band or a big band arrangement in abc, but I'd rather not.
On the other hand I do believe in abc. The free exchange of music through internet is an idea that is important to me, and abc is a vital part of that. Besides, I've made a couple of friends through abcusers (one of my closest friends even) and met a couple of people I deeply respect (no names mentioned, of course ;-) ) and I'd hate too loose touch.
So I guess I'll still hang around.


John Chambers wrote:
> So are you going to tell us the whole story?

Just the line I was waiting for, John ;-)
Strangely enough, I don't think I'd be able to answer that if it wasn't for that stupid domain name problem. It gave me something to focus on, and as you all know, everything becomes far clearer once you've got some focus

The first reason, of course, is the good old websmater's blues. I suppose all webmasters here know exactly what I'm talking about. To all the others: running a website is a *very* lonesome occupation. You write those pages, upload them and hope somebody likes what you've done. But you don't get much response from the visitors. People come to your place and they leave your place and they hardly ever bother even to say hello. I added a guestbook to Musica Viva in April 2001. Since then there have been between between 15 and 20 million page visits at the site. 262 visitors have signed the guestbook. I used to get lots of emails too, of course. Mostly from young kids who told me that this or that pop group made the only *real* music and that I should stop posting all that boring old s**t on the web. I've solved that problem, but sometimes I wish I didn't. Negative response can actually be better than no response at all.
I really didn't want to announce Musica Viva's problems at abcusers. I didn't want everybody to tell me how great a job I was doing. But that's exactly what happened, and although I hate to admit it, it feels really ood. :-)
Remember guys, when you stumble across a site you really like, tell the webmaster! If there's a guestbook, sign it, if not email him/her and tell him/her how much you appreciate the site!

The second reason is - well I guess you could call it boredom. A few months ago I decided it was time for something new. So I took a year's leave from my regular job and went looking for new challenges. What I didn't realize at that point, was that Musica Viva by ten had become a *part* of the daily routines it used to be a break from.
Working on Musica Viva can be very boring sometimes. I change the layout here, I tweak some script there and then I add some more music. But the site has grown so huge! Modifications on a scale that used to be a major step foreward, just drowns in the huge mass that is today's Musica Viva.

The third and most immediate (but not necessarily the most important) reason is simply money. I don't have a regular income at the moment, and that means I *have* to be very cautious about everything that costs me money.
I don't think I would have considered closing Musica Viva if it had managed to become self-financing. I might not have updated it very often, but at least I might have kept the old stuff online. As it is, I have to pay for the privilege of being Musica Viva's webmaster - not much, but more than I can afford at the moment.
Besides, they say time is money, and that is certainly true in this case. As long as Musica Viva exists, I just can't keep myself from spending time tweaking it - time I really rather ought to spend keeping the bank happy.

Hmm... I suppose nobody has the stamnina to read this far, so hopefully I'm only writing to myself by now. I guess I should have let the boojum called ActiveISP eliminate Musica Viva after all. The more I reason and the more I try to explain, the more I start looking for ways to get through this. For good or bad, Musica Viva is my child, and you don't just kill of your children just because they are a nuisance, do you? I'll make a few phone calls tomorrow and see what I can come up with. If there is any way at all to save the site, I'll find it.


Frank

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