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The internet is hard work

Well yesterday's usual schedule was totally derailed by the events I mentioned in my Tuesday column.

Yesterday I received and personally replied to over 600 emails of support and outrage from all around the world.

Six hundred sounds like a pretty big number -- but when you have to read and type replies to that many messages the number becomes enormous.

I started at 7am and it's now 8pm -- and I'm still going but thought I'd better take a break to ensure tomorrow's column actually gets done.

It is a very long time since I've felt this exhausted -- and it's all the fault of the internet ;-)

However, it has been incredibly gratifying to receive such a powerful and positive response from so many of my regular YouTube viewers -- the smile on my face as I thank each of those who emailed me has been enough to keep me going.

The banana sandwich I made for my lunch still sits on the desk beside me, only half eaten and now a bit dry and crusty. I think I might not eat the other half.

I even had to hunt down my Bookface login so I could respond to some discussions running on that famous social network (such sacrifices!)

What I have discovered is just how much the Net has changed over the past couple of decades.

Back when I got my first email address, there were only two real ways to communicate through the Net -- email and usenet.

Discussions were done in the relevant usenet newsgroups and person-to-person communications took place by email.

There were a few mailing lists but they were pretty rare and instead of forums we tended to rely on local BBSes running FidoNet or whatever.

Today I've found myself jumping between email, Youtube, Facebook, a myriad of web-based forums and Google+.

Each of these mediums offers some special benefit over the other but there is no single medium that delivers "all things to all people".

Oh, and I forgot that my phone has been running hot with calls and SMSes from all over NZ and the world.

Twenty years ago, nobody except the individuals involved would give a stuff about a small rural hobby club being shut down by a bunch of grumpy old men. Today however, it seems that the whole world knows about it and it makes them very, very angry.

Absolutely amazing.

The offers of help and support have been very humbling.

Of course there are always two sides of the coin and some of the NZ MFNZ members who seem to have a personal dislike of me have been engaging in vitriolic personal attacks. "If you can't argue the facts -- assassinate the character" seems to be their strategy.

The MFNZ mailing list has had to be switched into moderated mode because some of these people can't be trusted to make postings without the use of profanity or personal attacks. What a sorry indictment on their maturity. I really worry that people with such little self control are allowed to fly something as dangerous as an RC model.

Anyway -- I've still got quite a few emails to answer and bed is looking awfully attractive right now so I thank regular readers for your patience and understanding in respect to my momentary neglect of my responsibility to bring you your "daily dose".

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