Here it is:
I had a chance to vent my anger along with countless others in the blog I created yesterday called "As Mad As Hell". I felt I needed to vent and believed very correctly so, it seems (with 88 BOOMS or more) that countless others needed a place to do that as well. The edge is off of my anger today, but my sadness and sense of betrayal and newfound lack of trust in eons remains and will remain for a while. Those take longer to heal.
I have been an active and visible leader in the eons community since last June. I manage two successful groups and moderate three more. I have a popular blog that eons likes (probably until yesterday) and wants me to keep writing. I have networked well on this site and have many friends. Eons has changed my life in several positive ways. My life on the whole is better because of Eons. Eons the site for people on the "flip side of fifty", that is.
Eons changed my life because I made a choice to put life into it and it gave back. Part of what was behind that choice was the fact that this was a site for people my age, that would understand my issues, my context, my concerns, my dreams, my fears, and my loves. I saw in you a willingness to make some things more important than your "bottom line", like the concerns and needs of a whole generation of people that are now aging, didn't grow up computers, let alone with the internet, and having discovered it want to carve out a place in its seemingly limitless universe for themselves. I thought how amazing that was that you cared about me and those of my age group and generation enough to help us make a place for ourselves on the internet. You gave us a territory in the virtual world in which to interact, make discoveries, make friends and set up a home.
Now it seems you are using your "right of eminent domain" to take the territory in which you allowed us to make a home for ourselves back and do something different with it. It does seem that you believe that inviting people from 13 all the way up is going to put more life into you. I hope for your sakes it gives back in the way you hope.
I for one am left wondering why did I give so much of myself only now to be told that mine and others contributions to growing your site were not nearly enough for you. You are subscribing to the same prejudice that has caused some our age who find themselves out of work, to have a virtually impossible time finding a job. "It's young blood we need; youth will give us more life life, more growth, more visibility, etc." Do you not realize that your willingness not to fall prey to the MySpace/Facebook free-for-all is the reason for your life in the first place? Do you not see that your sacrificing the bottom line in favor of providing a place for a whole generation of people was what made you special and gave you more life than you'll ever have now that you've become "just another networking site"?
The market has not changed; it has always been driven by those who spend the most money. You're changing all right, but because you have lost your compassion for a generation in favor of "the market", aka money. And as is often the case, when people or institutions lose their compassion, their conscience goes with it. And so you both lied to us and betrayed us without so much as batting an eyelash. No one can serve two masters, especially when it comes to the "market" aka money! And when money rules the day, conscience is sentenced to death.
You say, "The vast majority of people don't use age as a hard-limit when interacting with people or forming friendships." Where are you getting this information? While it is true that we all must interact with various aged persons on a regular basis even within our own families, our support base and closest friendships are made with those of our own age. We have the nature that all living being have: "birds of a feather flock together." It is part of the very basic nature our Creator gave us to both survive and thrive in this live.
Check any statistical data base and you will find that people do indeed look to their own age group when forming their closest friendships. Do your homework, please. I and people like me have little tolerance for the spread of misinformation just so you can bolster an unconscionable decision to justify dumping a whole generation of people in favor of "the market".
I am not leaving Eons yet. But I admit I am sorely tempted. If I decide now, it would be stooping to the level to which you have stooped, making a decision based on something other than compassion for myself and others. I would be deciding based on "the market" of my feelings, which have often compelling enough to cause me and others to throw conscience aside and go in favor of "feelings," doing things that we have come to regret seriously later because of the havoc they wreaked in our lives.
No, I'll wait a while. I don't want to let down my groups or my friends and I have enough drops of compassion in me left for you all in the Eons team to stay and see what will happen.
You end with "please trust that we're making the right decisions". You have broken the trust with the extremely disrespectful, dishonest and even sneaky way you have handled this whole thing. Trust, mine and others, must be earned. You can say 'please' all you like, even with your manners, I will no longer trust you in any form until you earn it back. That may be a huge task for you. I believe in grace; you have all you need from me to do so. The rest, namely, what you do with the grace some of us will give you, is up to you. And time will indeed tell what will become of Eons. I am a firm believer that "what goes around comes around" and I don't need to do anything to make that happen. It just does and it always does.
Now it's time for me to
