Hello All!

When I first started Slew back in February of this year, I posted messages on a few racing forums to get the word out. One of them was a strange place which recently was put out of its misery by a merciful sponsor who probably just couldn't stand it anymore:

"The TVG community is closing."

That was the message that greeted me as I clicked a bookmark I had ignored, with good reason I might add, for most of the year.

What took them so long?

Way back in 1994, when I began my professional software career by writing in a little known language subset on an even littler known platform, there was Compuserve. There was no internet, just Compuserve. It was via this online service that I found a forum that was frequented by some 30 or 40 developers using the same platform. They hailed from all around the world and they had  found a wonderful shared resource in each other. You might not be able to imagine that even amongst these professionals, some of what took place wasn't always pretty. Tempers could get short with stupid questions. And shorter with lazy ones. But it was there that I learned the fundamentals I needed to continue on into an arena I never imagined I could negotiate. I could not have moved forward without them.

It was also there that I met a colleague and wonderful friend from the UK with whom I am still very close. He was very kind to me in the early days and I told him if my project ever sold, I would hire him. Even with an ocean between us. It did. And I did. To this day his friendship is valued greatly and always will be. At what other time in the history of man could this have happened? In this way?

None.

After several weeks of posting to the TVG forum I began to notice very little increase in interest regarding the daily posts. This was in direct contrast with the other two forums to which I was posting, and I began to wonder about the people who frequented the TVG online nation. Just what were they doing there? I had decided that I would try posting there for 30 days, and if there was no increase in interest in my posts, I would not waste any more of my time. Somewhere around day thirty I posted the following headline:

Go ahead...Keep Ignoring Me

A little experiment in socio-psychology. I was curious as to how many reads it would get, as I was getting about 12 - 15 for each daily post. This one should not have been any different. My thought was that if they were not interested in my racing posts, maybe a headline such as this would bring them crawling out of the woodwork. If it did, I would have no interest in continuing.

Within 2 hours, there was over 130 reads. By the end of the day, close to 200. It was then I knew that I was wasting my time, and stopped posting to the community. These people were not interested in sharing with each other the common knowledge they had, or in gaining new insight into the almost impossible task of handicapping thoroughbreds. In fact, there were more advertisements for Viagra, more backbiting, self-indulging, catty posts than information about the races.

The lineup for tomorrow's big stake was of less interest than my headline challenging the reader to ignore me. Just like a child who is told not to open that drawer, the collective online community could not ignore my post the way they had the previous 30. They just HAD to open that drawer.

What a waste.

But I did have some unfinished business and maybe I can close that circle here. One of the regular posters who also touted picks (and might very well run a fee for service site) had commented on one of my last posts that he had heard of Slew and that he heard good things about what I was doing. I did not have time to answer at first read but I did go back the next day to finish that task, only to find that my post had been removed by a moderator- I guess I was in violation of some rule -  and with it, his online name. I never did get to thank him for his comment, but I don't want to have him think I had ignored him.

So: whoever you were, thank you for the kind words. They were and still are much appreciated.

And to the rest of you...

Keep ignoring me?

Slew