Oops, that should be "led to the" instead of "lead".   lol

I knew it was coming, and suspected it would be sooner than later - but I still also convinced myself that 5 years from now he would still occasionally be logging in and leaving posts of dragon art in his room. It is too bad that people are so divided and subdued/enchanted by large social media sites that I could never generate the traffic here among the original Sacramento Citadel scene I had hoped to. I think that would have been a nice diversion for Jerry. I've stated before how much of my success I owe to  Citadel, and by extension, to Jerry's contributions to it. His contributions here took me back to that time, to driving out to Sunrise to buy Atari ST and Amiga software, to hobby/gaming stores in strip malls and arcades - and to sitting in my den/study dialing up local BBSes all night long on incredibly primitive PCs that I thought were super advanced at the time. I'm glad I was in the right place at the right time to experience every step of the home computing revolution. I know I always kept one foot firmly grounded in more base/banal activities and scenes - and I have a lot of fond memories from my involvement and experience with those crowds, communities, cliques and cultures - but at heart, the time when I was a "modem-geek" attending weird-ass MUPTs with a bunch of social misfits who were way ahead of the curve on "social media," remain among my fondest memories of the late 80s. I tried to revive The Sanitarium once before as a web CitUX - and it actually did pretty well for a while. Oddly enough, arguments about 9/11 were what basically destroyed that version's traffic. This version *never* attracted the number of old-timers that Unix/Solaris version did. At one point I had a pretty good user base of NEW users - but the Trump 2020 fallout made a number of those users disappear nearly completely from social media altogether. Also, I didn't manage it very good, it required DDNS, and it kept becoming "unavailable". By the time I got that sorted out so that it was no longer a problem - I think some of them had just moved on and given up - and I have no way of reaching them to let them know it has been resolved. Not necessarily a new problem for a sysop. 

I've considered advertising heavily to try and bring in new users who might make this place home - but I'm honestly afraid to have random new users show up and bring regular social media toxicity here. I think this is like a dying dive bar where eventually it is just a local for a handful of career alcoholics and once they're gone, the lights will go out for good. I intend to keep it running as long as possible, even if it is getting just a few messages a month. 

I wanted to help Jerry be able to visit here more often, as he did seem to enjoy having his own place here, as well as the nostalgia of it. Towards the end, where he was having problems that I could help - I kept offering to be available to help him sort it out, but he never leveraged it when he was feeling good, and frequently when he was AWOL it was because he was having health issues. I was concerned about that... but there wasn't much I could do but wait and hope for his call. It unfortunately never came. 

Well since this has gotten all maudlin, I hereby pronounce this Jerry's wake. I cracked open the hard stuff and am working on tomorrow morning's headache. What is everyone drinking?

Too bad Citadel doesn't have a group chat feature. We could hold a virtual MUPT wake in his honor and actually all raise a few drinks to his memory and contribution. 

I am not drinking this week. Just had my 4th booster and feeling a little bit under the weather. I'll raise a toast to him this weekend though... 

Can someone provide a link to his daughter's page. I know they were struggling to raise the final amount to cremate him. I would like to add a link to the Citadel group and encourage the folks there to help close that gap if they still haven't come up with the funds. 

Sat Apr 09 2022 19:49:33 MST from thanatos

 

Well since this has gotten all maudlin, I hereby pronounce this Jerry's wake. I cracked open the hard stuff and am working on tomorrow morning's headache. What is everyone drinking?

I don't have it, but would love to help as well. I no longer Facebook so no clue. I'll have my wife ask Glimmer.

I did finally figure it out, and within a few hours of posting again on a couple BBS groups they had met their goal. 

Sun Apr 24 2022 07:13:24 MST from thanatos

I don't have it, but would love to help as well. I no longer Facebook so no clue. I'll have my wife ask Glimmer.

Can you link it here, please? I would still love to donate, over the goal.

Never mind I found it.

*raises glass*

Sorry for the late response. I'm sure his family will not mind some late donations - as they're very cash strapped and I'm sure taking care of Jerry toward the end of his life was a very demanding obligation. His daughter deserves a little extra to spend how she sees fit.