First, the good news. Neil Gaiman reads this site, which is really quite a compliment, since the man is one of my favorite authors.
He’s worked in several genres, but I first came across his work when he was collaborating with Dave McKean in the classic Sandman series. The two did several books together, my favorite being the strange and moving Mr. Punch. He collaborated with Terry Pratchett in Good Omens, and he’s written several great novels, including American Gods.
William Gibson, one of the defining authors of the “cyberpunk” movement and author of the classic Neuromancer, also reads here.
I’m also referenced on this very odd site. I’m not sure what’s going on, but the idea that ninjas may be acting on an extraterrestrial level certainly gives me pause.
Now, the bad news. I am disabling all comments for this site for the foreseeable future. The Mall Ninja page is by far the most linked-to page on this site (in fact, it’s the #1 Google return), and this situation has turned into a bit of a mixed blessing.
The WordPress system has an annoying quirk of turning all trackbacks into comments. Apparently, I was linked from a very high-traffic site, and I’ve been deleting 20-30 non-posts a day from the page. Then there’s the spam, which seems to come and go in waves across the whole site.
Then there’s the abusive crap.
I know this comes with the territory, and once in a blue moon is no big deal. I’ve been involved with the internet for most of my adult life, and I know that anonymity gives people the (debatable) courage to say things they’d never say in person.
Much of what I post here is opinion, and sometimes, rather than posting a cogent counterargument, people just stoop to insults because something I write doesn’t match their opinions. For the most part, I delete those. Sometimes, they’re good for a laugh.
However, I recently had a falling-out with a local forum (for exactly that sort of behavior), and two days after my last post there, this site was bombarded with comments from members of that forum.
My main purpose in running this site on WordPress was for content management, rather than as community portal. I don’t give a damn about the Democratic process; it relies on people capable of taking personal responsibility, and most people on the internet can’t do that. You want to vent, start your own site.
Still, there have been some informative comments posted here, and if you’ve left some, rest assured I still have them saved. I will be rewriting them back in manually as postnotes. If you have something you want to add or clarify regarding material here, I can be reached by email.
One last thing. I’m well aware that there are several individuals on the intarwebs claiming the mantle of Gecko45. Rest assured, there is only one man with the rights to that identity, and he no longer travels under that name.
I do, in fact, know his real identity, but I am bound by an oath of blood (actually, ketchup packets from the food-court Captain D’s) not to reveal it. Should he choose to reveal himself and challenge these pretenders, I shall be there to once again chronicle his greatness.
Until then, enjoy his early exploits.