Seriously...It Will Do You Some Good!
Well, it seems that this is the end of BNLJ - now little more than a ghost of a room. We went from a silly, innocent, and admittedly boring place to post bookstore stories to a hateful bitch-fest that had nothing positive to say about anything - especially the company that cut our paychecks. Many of you cursed my presence/participation - but you failed to acknowlege that I've been here from early on, posting topics that really meant a damn - and encouraging responses from booksellers with a work ethic. If you've followed "Smithback" posts, you'll remember that my very first topics appeared in the last two years of the Borders forum. They were funny pieces, meant to acknowledge/ressure those Borders booksellers who fought the good fight til the end. My BN in particular delivered coffee & donuts to our fellow Borders on its last day. It was sad for them and sad for us. We all knew that bookstores were in trouble.
BNLJ went through many different changes through the years. At first we were a mix of happy booksellers and anti-corporate folk, but over time the happy ones joined the FaceBook page - leaving the ignorant masses to take over BNLJ. The result was what you can see right now: so much complaining that readers bailed faster than viewers as MSNBC. This past year in particular - a year plagued by such gut-wrenchingly-immature posts as "Worries," "Dress Code," "Cafe Woes," and "Have You Read the Privacy Policy" - have succeded in slamming BNLJ into the ground, like an episode of National Geographic's Air Crash Investigation. I guess it's kind of like how MySpace was overcome by FaceBook: the better forum crushed the lesser one. It all comes down to quality, people...and how what we wrote was a reflection of our characters. No employer wants to hire/keep an employee who unloads LJ tyrades without thinking. I hope you've all learned your lesson, and that you're now enjoying new jobs in gas stations that smell like hot dogs, cigarettes, and AXE. Not the life I'd want for myself, but hey...I'm just Smithback - the apple-polisher. I'm just an out of touch, middle-aged man who loves BN - and who's planned for his future. Enjoy your parent's basements. I, myself, have built a nice blaze in my fireplace...where - thanks to my experience at BN - my third novel will soon be added to the wooden mantle.
Anyway, it's cold outside - and I want to have a glass of wine before bed, before I get up for tomorrow's Discovery Friday shift. I wish you all the best, and I'll send happy thoughts to each and every one of you - all three remaining - while I'm at work tomorrow. If you do join another BN forum, I encourage you to remember all the things I've said to you over the last few years. Be strong, people! Be mature and productive contributers to whatever job you end up working.
And like they said before the Borders blog folded, always remember just what happened here.
Seriously...it will do you some good :)
BNLJ went through many different changes through the years. At first we were a mix of happy booksellers and anti-corporate folk, but over time the happy ones joined the FaceBook page - leaving the ignorant masses to take over BNLJ. The result was what you can see right now: so much complaining that readers bailed faster than viewers as MSNBC. This past year in particular - a year plagued by such gut-wrenchingly-immature posts as "Worries," "Dress Code," "Cafe Woes," and "Have You Read the Privacy Policy" - have succeded in slamming BNLJ into the ground, like an episode of National Geographic's Air Crash Investigation. I guess it's kind of like how MySpace was overcome by FaceBook: the better forum crushed the lesser one. It all comes down to quality, people...and how what we wrote was a reflection of our characters. No employer wants to hire/keep an employee who unloads LJ tyrades without thinking. I hope you've all learned your lesson, and that you're now enjoying new jobs in gas stations that smell like hot dogs, cigarettes, and AXE. Not the life I'd want for myself, but hey...I'm just Smithback - the apple-polisher. I'm just an out of touch, middle-aged man who loves BN - and who's planned for his future. Enjoy your parent's basements. I, myself, have built a nice blaze in my fireplace...where - thanks to my experience at BN - my third novel will soon be added to the wooden mantle.
Anyway, it's cold outside - and I want to have a glass of wine before bed, before I get up for tomorrow's Discovery Friday shift. I wish you all the best, and I'll send happy thoughts to each and every one of you - all three remaining - while I'm at work tomorrow. If you do join another BN forum, I encourage you to remember all the things I've said to you over the last few years. Be strong, people! Be mature and productive contributers to whatever job you end up working.
And like they said before the Borders blog folded, always remember just what happened here.
Seriously...it will do you some good :)