Posted By
Dunric on 2006-03-15 03:37:31
| My official goodbye to the Commodore community
Dear Commodore Users,
It is with much sadness and regret that I must bid farewell to the Commodore community. In my ten plus years on comp.sys.cbm, I truly enjoyed discussing Commodore computers and peripherals. I have been a Commodore user since 1983, but 2006 will be my last year as a participant in anything Commodore (or even computer) related.
In recent years comp.sys.cbm (and specifically, USENET itself) has completely "de-evolved" into a forum of randomly half-hearted posts which are seldom in charter with the original spirit of the newsgroup system. At some point in life, people step away from their hobbies and chosen fields of interest because they either have lost interest or no longer feel their presence is welcomed.
By the fall of 2006, I also will be disengaging entirely from computers in general, maintaining only work related internet contact via email. In other words, I am walking away from the past 20+ years of my time as a computer hobbyist/programmer at the end of the 2006 calendar year.
All of my creative efforts within the Commodore community (and computers in general) will cease entirely after December 31, 2006. Any games or utilities I release to the Commodore community (or Windows/Linux) before then will only be sporadic in nature and on an energy required basis (e.g. when I feel like releasing something new).
I will keep my Commodore-related website up on Geocities and Tripod for as long as they maintain a business as a web host. For archival purposes, you can always download my Commodore games and view my Commodore website at:
http://members.tripod.com/~panks/tcu.html
I also have many of my other Commodore games here:
http://www.geocities.com/dunric/westfront.html
To the fans of my many Commodore adventure games, I can only extend my warmest feelings of appreciation for your continued support and loving guidance in helping to encourage my development projects in the spirit of public domain software. I have never charged a penny for my work, in any computing system (modern or classic), and I will never charge any money for anything I ever write or contribute to society.
My last game project for this year will be the 2006 Interactive Fiction contest, followed by one more Commodore 64/128 adventure game there after (announced via Homstead mailing list). Once those final projects are completed, my 20+ years as a computer enthusiast, programmer and hobbyist will come to a sudden and abrupt halt.
As for my Commodore equipment and software, I will hold onto them until my future daughter is born and introduce her to the wonders of computers via the Commodore 64. At an appropriate time in the future thereafter, all of my Commodore equipment, games and software will be donated to an appropriate Goodwill foundation.
I will post perhaps one or two more messages this entire year to Homestead, but thereafter my communication with the Commodore community (and the Internet in general) will cease entirely. Sadly, I will be walking away from computers forever (my own choice). I apologize for this abrupt choice, but lifestyle choices and my desire to pursue a career field in my chosen degree of Sociology outweighs any contributions I could ever make in the computing field.
And while this is, indeed, a very sad and bittersweet parting for me, I hope that my time in the Commodore community throughout the years has at least helped one person in enjoying his or her Commodore computer that much more.
Thank you for supporting me, in spite of some of my many unorthodox postings to comp.sys.cbm over the years. I apologize for such a lengthy post, but other than an announcement sometime in June or July of my final Commodore adventure game, this is truly my last communication with the Commodore community and computers that I have loved and cherished so dearly for over 20 years.
God Bless.
Signed,
Paul Allen Panks (AKA 'Dunric') dunric@yahoo.com Former CBM User (January 1983-March 2006)
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