Meltdown at LATOC archived for shits and grins

Breaking News: Friday October 22nd, 2010

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Editor's Note: I Would Like Some of You Get the Heck Off of LATOC. You're Using it as an Escape Mechanism, Not to Prepare
I'm working on tonight's update. The old forum is archived and searchable but I still have it in maintenance mode as it seems people were still able to post last night when I opened it back up. The new forum is at DoomerTown.com
A few notes: if you've got the time to post more than say 10 posts per day (total) on internet forums, I *don't* want you at the new forum. Why not? Because it means you're spending too much time on the forum and not enough time actually getting your act together in the real, physical, three dimensional world.
There's some other "types" I don't want to see at the new forum: Doom Groupies and people looking for a Doom Daddy Authority Figure. How do you know if you fall into one of these categories? Well one way to know is if you get pissed if I don't respond to your emails, private messages, or facebook requests, etc. The site gets 12,000 visits a day. Don't take this personally but I don't have time or energy to respond to personal emails unless the sender lives within 50 miles of Sebastopol, California. Why not? Because in addition to running the site & forum, I'm actually doing stuff in real life to get ready for this cluster and in case you hadn't noticed we're in crunch time. This is "IT". That leaves no time to respond to emails, pms, facebook stuff unless the sender lives locally. (Anybody who lives locally can attest I do respond to their emails.)
For those of you who don't live locally: your anger at me for not responding to your emails, pms, and facebook assclownery means you've projected some crap onto me, either as a result of my "celebrity" status (which is a joke I think given the subject matter here) or your authroity figure issues or both. Let me be clear: if you're looking for an Authority Figure to tell you what to do or a for a "Doom Rock Band" (in this case it's not me but LATOC as an overall entity) who you can metaphorically rub up against like a hit from some sort of self-esteem crack pipe, or for a bunch of facebook-type "internet friends" you'll never meet in the real world, then get off my forum and stay off the main site here too.
If this message resonates with you enough to piss you off then guess what? It's probably because you know you fall into one of categories described above and the reality of that is too close for comfort.
So who do I want to stick around? Those of you who are both actively preparing and involved in your community in some way and want to exchange info that will facilitate those endeavors then, yes, the New LATOC Forum is for you.
Those of you using the forum as a point of leverage for actual localization, I want you as members! If, for example, you want to use the forum to get your localized meet ups and prep clinics going, *by all means do so*:
New LATOC Forum: Prep and Survival Meet Ups Sub-Forum

But if you've been using it to escape having to actually work with people in your neighborhood and develop real localized relationships as oppossed to fake facebook type friendships then no, I don't want you around on the new forum.
On a semi-related note: many of you know I'm very much into astro-psychology. *Not* the mass marketed crap. The real stuff. For those of you who are into that, you can check out Matt Savinar Astrology. I'm not anywhere near done with the site but the Moon is at 29 degrees Aries tonight, a good time to tell people who need to get lost to "get lost" (see above) and a good time to announce new projects.
I'll be back later tonight with the day's news roundup.
Best,
Matt


then the next day:

Breaking News: Saturday October 23rd, 2010

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Editor's Note: Future of the Forum
I've closed the forum, may or may not open it up. I think far too many people are using it as a form of escapism and/or time wasting. And, on some level, an attempt at connecting/channeling the archetypal energies associated with the destructive power of Peak Oil and related psycho-religious memes.
(Something can be 100% factually *true* - like Peak Oil - and still end up taking on the trappings of a psycho-religious belief system. That something is based in verifiable fact does not necessarily make it less of a belief system.)
There is also the "glamour" issue and by that I mean "glamour" as a destructive and deceptive force. In this case it would be the "glamour" of having a gazillon posts on a popular apocalypse crash web site or a bunch of "friends" who you communicate with soley by way of a digital machine interface.
So I need to think about what to do about it. I may just close it and use the new forum as an archive, not unlike what Ran Prieur or James Rawles do at their sites. They're both pretty smart guys who seem to have their egos in healthy alignment, probably a reason they have chosen *not* to have a forum.
Best,
Matt

(Just wanted to save this for those that missed it when it was fresh. Seems many people are in the dark about what happened. Just doin' what I can to help them out. )