[boc-l] It's time for goodbyes

[Jonathan Jarrett]

 	Dear all,
 		  here's hoping there's still time to see this posted, 
though it would be very much on form if I were just too late...

 	Firstly, I didn't see this coming and it's really sad, because 
BOC-L has been a big part of my life outside work at times and still a 
significant thread at other times ever since I got onto it in, er, I think 
1996 (wow). But on the other hand, after a few days I thought, wouldn't it 
be worse if the list had outlasted the bands? However pleased Eric Bloom 
may or may not be about that, it's still got to be the better outcome...

 	Secondly, thanks to all who have run it, especially Ben and Terry 
but also Steve Swann as the voice of quiet authority at a lower level when 
one of those was needed. And thanks to everyone who's posted and kept it 
going that way, of course.

 	Since we were briefly telling stories about meeting BÖC, as well, 
I will say that they did come out for the first gig I saw, at the Forum in 
Kentish Town, London, 1998, on the Heaven Forbid tour. I was there with I 
think Carl and Charlie Grant (Charles the Grinning Boy), and Eric and 
Buck, plus Danny Miranda, all came out for a drink afterwards and it 
was just the BOC-L people left waiting for them. Charlie hugged pretty 
much all of them into submission and got photos with them all (on a real 
camera, no smartphones then), and I just about nerved myself up to shake 
Buck's hand (nerved mainly because of awe, but also, I admit, because I 
was so afraid of accidentally saying what was top of my mind, which was 
'gosh, you looked taller on stage') and then talked to Danny instead 
because it was less challenging. But Eric kept his shades on and front up 
throughout, so that tracks.

 	I got onto BOC-L because someone who was used to watching Usenet 
and knew me as someone who had discovered Blue Öyster Cult and was 
evangelising about them everywhere, and had noticed a related group (who 
remembers what?) to which someone at our university was posting. So I 
mailed him and it was Carl Anderson, and he said, more or less, well, 
yeah, there's that group but I'm on a mailing list that's much better. And 
then I picked up a HW best-of because of talk here and the rest is now 
archive material...

 	In that time I've made friends and piled up debts to people 
(some unpaid, mainly to Big Mike, now I think about it, for beers and his 
unwanted t-shirts, and to Jill Strobridge for coming down for my 40th 
birthday, and some returned (people I stayed with for gigs and ten for 
interviews whom I was able to host in turn, or who sent me stuff that I 
sent stuff back to--here Mike Holmes most of all, but also Keith 
Henderson), and goodness knows where Carl and I stand on any cosmic tally 
by now, so much music and other knowledge have we exchanged. I've been to 
BOC-L members' weddings (maybe just one, but still), heard some 
incredible gig stories and begun to amass a few of my own, joined in with 
trying to moderate our resident lunatics now and then, not posted as much 
as I should have, lamented our thankfully-small number of dead (Mike C. 
most recently), and had a generally marvellous time. And I've found out 
about so much music, through recommendations, the Last Tapes of May 
exchanges and just through people's ObCD tags. And indeed links to 
Aural Innovations, which I'd probably not have found out about 
otherwise. Thanks to everyone, for so much.

 	There are people I will keep in touch with, I'm sure, and people I 
will mean to and forget to, so everybody, please, this e-mail is good for 
the foreseeable future, if you're not normally in England and you get 
here, or if you're passing through Yorkshire, or just want to say hi, 
please use it. There will still be Nethawks out there even if the ship has 
landed. Stay well and safe everyone, and maybe I'll see you at a gig yet. 
Bye bye! Yours all,
 		    Jon


On Sun, 12 Dec 2021, Terry Kennedy via boc-l wrote:

> The time is fast approaching when the list server hardware will be shut down 
> for good.
> As Ben has pointed out, it seems unreasonable to go on a search for a new 
> home for a
> list with 52 members and only a few postings per month.
>
> But fear not! BOC-L will live on at: https://www.glaver.org/boc-l Please note 
> that
> this is a DIFFERENT URL than the one Ben posted previously and will get you 
> to a much
> faster service than the prior URL. The old https://www.glaver.org/ftp/boc-l 
> and
> ftp://ftp.glaver.org/boc-l URLs now have a single readme.txt file that points 
> to the
> new location.
>
> The new server has also had all of the mailing list archives from 1990-2001 
> uploaded
> and you have the same variety of ways to access them that you did back when 
> the list
> server was live.
>
> I've peppered a few humorous (to me and Ben, at least) things throughout the 
> new pages
> for your enjoyment.
>
> It has been a pleasure being the "person behind the curtain" who has provided 
> the hard-
> ware and software to run this list continually for the past 25+ years of its 
> existence.
> You've all been a great bunch.
>
> Feel free to continue to post your thoughts on BOC-L/HW/related acts and what 
> the list
> itself has meant to you over the years. I will collect all list postings 
> between now
> and the server shutdown and make sure they are preserved for posterity at the 
> new site.
>
> I anticipate the actual shutdown date will be between December 20th and 
> December 24th,
> 2021.
>
>        Terry Kennedy
>        Operations Manager, SPC Academic Computing 1976-1999
>        Network Engineer, New York Net 1993-1998
>        Senior Network Engineer, Verio Inc. 1998-2001
>        Director of Technology, ISPnet Inc. 2001-2021
>

-- 
        Jonathan Jarrett, Keighley and University of Leeds
     "Says not the Wise One, `When two men cannot agree over
      the price of an onion, who shall decide what happened
     in the time of Yu?'" (Kai Lung, reported by Ernest Bramah)