It is over…and I wanted to share it with the world so that I never had to talk about it again.
I just can’t take the stupidity and craziness any longer…and therefore I happily proclaim — JB34 is dead!!!! And I couldn’t feel more liberated!!
I started using the internet around 1994/1995. Shortly after finding the internet, I began connecting with other Wolfpacker’s all over the world via emails and newsgroups. Soon thereafter, the “InfoPack” E-newsletter was born and grew to over 3,000 subscribers all over the world. (Quite an undertaking to handle in those days of primative software, etc). After the InfoPack, I began spending time on the ACCBoards Message Board Community. After that, I joined some other people to start Statefans.com, which became PackPride.com.
Through all of these years, “JB34” has been my email and message board identification. I never made any secret of my identity because I always believed that there was an important level of value and integrity that went hand-in-hand with anyone willing to share information / opinion under their own name. It is called accountability. I had nothing more valuable than my credibility, which I would never want to negatively impair.
I have learned a lot about human nature from other people as well as myself in this decade+ of posting on the internet. Not very much of it has been very good. (There is no reason to be sucked into a deeper conversation on this now). I have also learned, but always seem to forget, that any coward can sit behind a login name and say anything without sharing the same kind of responsibility and accountability that I feel. The internet is truly the great equalizer where every opinion and every poster looks the same due to their mask.
I have allowed myself to get sucked into far too many arguments and exchanges where I behaved very differently than I would in real life…and this has allowed far too many people who don’t know me or my character to make judgements about me without ever shaking my hand or looking me in the eye. I hate this.
Over the last few years, the PackPride message boards have evolved into such a cess pool of childishness, stupidity, and personal attacks that simply reading other’s posts in the community has become unbearable…not to mention if the evil JB34 dared try to have a conversation about a topic. I’m going to refrain from other criticisms at this point (moderators, etc) because the list could keep me here all day. I hate that I have allowed other supposed Wolfpackers to frustrate me so much.
I look at posting and sharing thoughts and information in any community from the perspective of “adding value”. How masochistic must I be to spend time and effort adding value to PackPride, or any forum that is controlled by moderators and members that despise me so much. There is no common sense in this; I pride myself on common sense.
Perhaps this is just an evolving re-prioritization of things that I should be spending time on in my life – family, work, business opportunities, reading more, etc. But, I fear that it is more likely my personal, natural next step in my growing apathy and waning interest in North Carolina State University and NC State Athletics. I hate that, too. But, I do not hate being able to proclaim that JB34 is dead!
