Just some random thoughts...

I swung by my old hang out, OHN. The guy who runs the site was giving appreciation to the posters and lurkers. What bothered me was that he said his numbers were down. He didn’t know how it had gotten like that. I hope his numbers rebound soon. I like that spot.


I started wondering myself and immediately thought of a few things. One, the recession because people have had to cut back on luxuries like internet access at home. Also, those who access the site from work may have lost their jobs or their jobs may be blocking OHN now.

Don’t know if I mentioned that a few months ago I tried to sign on to OHN and one of the site’s sponsors popped up asking did I want to download something to my computer. Of course I clicked NO and the damn thing started downloading anyway. Luckily, I was at work on my lunch hour and the job’s firewalls caught it. Then my computer flashed a message that read CALL THE HELP DESK AT ____. *nervous chuckle*

We have 3 different computer help desks at my job: one for software, one for hardware, and one for network connectivity issues. There’s a different number for each. Normally you put in a help ticket and it will get triaged to the correct IT team. So when my computer for the first time ever flashed the message to call this number, I started sweating. Luckily, the firewall caught it after it replicated itself the first two times! By the time someone from IT got there it had replicated itself 4 more times. Soooooo, no more signing into OHN. I do check from time to time when I see there’s a new comic strip up.

I don’t know where he got that sponsor from. I definitely don’t even bother to check from home let alone sign in. I got a firewall but it is nowhere near as sophisticated as the one at work. I tried checking from an internet café a couple times and the café listed the site as blocked! Yikes!

The second problem he may be having is the couples. I know I’ve mentioned that a couple chicks have come after me after they thought I wanted their avatar boyfriends/husbands/fiancées/fantasies. *rolls eyes shrugging* Whatevs.

This time last year I took an internet hiatus from everybody, OHN, BA, and a couple other of my e-hangouts. Work got KA – RAY –ZEE!!! We had 2 people rushed to emergency surgery, another person had elective surgery that had been planned long before the emergency surgeries and then we had work being thrown at us from all over the place. We got some contracts in a country that we had to re-establish our presence in. So it was a mess from Thanksgiving until spring. So by the time I signed onto OHN again some things had changed. Like people who had just been regular single folk were now coupled up. That’s fine but I did a lot of stumbling while I figured out who was with whom.

After the culture shock I realized something, if it was that serious then the couples should have slipped into lurkerdome and let some new lurkers come out and become regular posters. The people posting now are not the same folks who where posting when I first started stopping by 2-3 years ago. Just like they fell off and new ones stepped in the same will likely happen if the couples with the sensitive (read insecure) womenfolk fall back. I mean one chick came at me after I was joking around with her e-hubby and come to find out Chante has a man at home in real life! *smh snorting*

I was like, and y’all treat me like I’m the crazy one. Yeah. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. So I just swing by, look at the strips, like, share on fb, and keep it moving. Lurking is fine for some sites but OHN is one I would want to comment on and it is no fun if I can’t comment. I have enough sites where I just lurk.

Then his third problem is probably that he doesn’t post enough comic strips. At least not for me anyway. The strips were what drew me in to begin with. The character he created, Boo, is an absolute fool and I loves his ectoplasmic heart. *chuckling* He use to give us a strip every week. Now it is really intermittent.

Anyways, what made me think of this is I ran across a couple of my attempts at starting my own website. *chuckle* I don’t think it is my forte. *lol* It takes a lot of time and effort to find your niche, get it up and running, keep it running while you find your audience and then grow your audience to where it is first self-sustaining and then profitable.

I compare OHN and Baller Alert and I don’t know how Boss did/does it. Boss is the screen name of the woman who runs Baller Alert (BA). I KNOW we are just as classy, sassy, intelligent, smart, funny and at times ig-nant as the folks on OHN and yet BA has great name brand sponsors. OHN *embarrassed shrug* A gay thug dating website? I’m so serious.

I hope he figures it out. I like his site and the people on it. We’ve had some great meet and greets. Now I can’t say that about BA.

Anyways…work tomorrow. That’s another post for another day. *smacks lips together sleepily* Oh! I got a new love. I call him Waldo. He is my new mattress and I heart his queen sized square self very much. And he requests I turn off my computer and get comfy now. So nighty nite.