Blarst! A damned typo on my Awlmark OLOversary card for Ludwig. Blinding stupidity!

Graham's 'blake dog' indeed! Should of course read 'black dog': how depressing, at such a time and in such a place that we have no means of correction at our disposal. How in blazes did I do that typo? I know I sometimes do an order-reversal on common letter combinations, but even if I did that the 'e' is nowhere near the 'c' on the keyboard. There I go, belly-up again, almost as if by rote.

I don't suppose the withholding of such an editing feature could be GrahamY's way of maintaining a memorial to a one-time Roman governor of Judea, could it? What we have written, we have written, it continues to appear. A singular testament to obscurity if true.

Enough of my b*--** railing, and attempts at, em ..., bossing Graham around over Forum features.

Oliver,

Polycarp conceding that Herold the Sic was not alive when Jesus was born? That was Great, even if unheroded. Can you post a link to that discussion? I would love to see the arguments for such a conclusion. I have a feeling the doctrine of Typos may have some as yet unrecognised bearing upon this contention. Let's resurrect it.

Liked your "For Lud's a jolly good poster... and so type all of us." Real Marlborough country stuff, that. All smoke and errors.

Hello Forrest,

I will check, but I am in the middle of marking. Could be a few days. Herod the Great was alive 7 BCE and that would make better sense with regards the powers of the Herods (appointed by Julius) than Herods (later the Annas) under Augustus. Sense, in so much, that Jewish continuous calendar, which was approaching 4,000, and the House of David being deligated the task of promoting Judaism to the Gentiles.

Ludwig - a little late in the day, as usual, but I join my good wishes to that of the other posters here.

These days I have very little time to participate as I once did but for me there are two things which cause me to keep coming back when I can. The first is the unending delight from the unexpectedness of peoples replies. Just when one thinks that someone has been pegged, they post a response or an idea that shows the futility of ever trying to compartmentalise human beings.

The second is the discipline of forcing the expression of an idea into 350 words. I consider this is excellent training for any writer and it also clearly shows up the extraneous or irrelevant. Though I am constantly surprised at how differently people interpret posts.

Oh, and Belly, my dear. One thing I have noticed and on which I have meant to comment often (but I didn't want to seem patronising) is how your style has changed. At first your posts were often difficult to understand due to your admitted unfamiliarity with the rules of written English. But you have taken every single well meant piece of advice you have been given to heart and consequently your writing style makes your ideas clearer. I admire you tremendously and it just goes to show: you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

All the best again, Ludwig.

I must belatedly add my congratulations too, Ludwig - not so much on your notching up of milestones, which I guess many here can lay equal claim to, but on your calm, consistent and all round decent style of posting.

I started on OLO just a little earlier than you, and I clearly remember you as one of the first posters with whom I could disagree and yet still engage with in meaningful and productive dialogue. Your fairness and decency stood out then and still do to this day.

On a lighter note, I'd love a dollar for every time you've used the word 'population'; I'd be a bit closer to retirement than I am now!

Like you, I'm also in two minds about the usefulness of OLO. It is certainly a great public forum which brings together lots of minds on lots of issues, but I sometimes wonder if the time we spend here could be more usefully spent in other areas of public service, for example, writing to newspapers and politicians and participating in a more hands-on capacity in community groups and activist causes.

Having said that, I am more than happy to sit at my chair and contribute through my keyboard!

Hey Ludwig
Cool thread. Congds Nice to see you both enjoy and appreciate OLO

I am not sure how long we have been on - not game to look.

I am just wondering if any body else thinks with the economic crunch to come perhaps we should all put in a few bucks a month to keep OLO going.

What do others think ?

Wow, a bunch more people to thanks: Forrest, Romany, Bronwyn, and PALE…and all the unmentioned contributors to this thread.

Arjay, you thought that you had obsessive compulsive disorder with 1933 posts in 47 months. I’ve often wondered about that, with 2243 in 36 months.

So where does that leave CJ, with 2461 in 26 months? ( :>|

Or Polycarp/Boazy with 6199 in 46 months ?? ( : > |

No. No OCD. Each to their own. I appreciate CJ’s comments on how his OLO life fits in very nicely with a variety of other indoor and physical activities.

.
R0bert; “….many of us [on OLO] are spending our time discussing, arguing, rebutting the same crowd over and over again here rather than spending that time writing letters to pollies and others who have an actual role in decisions.”

Yes, that is certainly the case for me. I was very active in non-government environmental organisations, produced and presented a community radio program, wrote copious letters to newspapers and to pollies, wrote media releases and occasional articles in newspapers, ran for a state government seat, etc.

I don’t do any of that stuff any more. OLO is almost entirely it for me these days, apart from my job which is very environmentally-oriented. But as to whether that means I’ve been waylaid from more effective pursuits or not, I just don’t know. But I’m inclined to think that regular contributions to OLO are a more effective means of airing my concerns and being involved in current affairs and debates than all of that stuff ever was.