Farewell

Obviously the chat is down and there has been a lot of speculation as to what's been going on. Yes, there was apparently a DDoS of some kind against the chat server, which Rob was gracious enough to host for free. The DDoS knocked us offline for a bit. Rob cancelled that hosting account, due to that host's incompetence, and offered to put the money up for a better machine on a more secure network. Other people have also stepped forward to offer DigiChat hosting for Karma. I turned those offers down.

I've been thinking a lot about the future of Karma. I've been thinking it over for quite a while now, before all these events were set in motion. For most of the past year, it's been obvious to a lot of people that my interest in running chats has been waning. 2011 was a year that I often internally contemplated the possibility of closing the chat. But I still held on because I didn't want to let go. Because I felt that I owed it to people. I've always been the kind of person that has trouble letting go of something. Not being able to let go, and having that burden on my shoulders, has held me back from being able to do the new things that I want to try.

With recent events, my choices were to either pick up the pieces, fix everything, and give this yet another go, or just move on. So I have decided that it was time to finally let go. It's time to move on with my life and do other things. There are other directions I would like to go with my life, and taking the time to run a chat room just doesn't fit into those plans. I love you guys, but running a chat room is not what I see myself doing for the rest of my life. It's not what I want put on my tombstone when I die; it's not what I want my lasting legacy to be.

It's been a lot of fun here at Karma, and at the other chats and places online where I met some of you. I like to think that a lot of lasting friendship were made here (or imported here from other places). I hope those bonds of friendship carry on long after Karma Chat. The Facebook group and page are still there, for now. If people use them I'll leave them there.

I'll still be around. I'll pop onto that other chat that we all hang out at once in a while -- you know the one. I'll probably see you all there. This isn't goodbye forever. Who knows, Karma may pop up again some day in some incarnation -- but it won't be any time soon and I have absolutely no current plans of doing so.

So, until we meet again (probably some time tomorrow).

Regards,
Tom aka Xenoraze