Password Protected Blog

As most of my more loyal readers are aware, since I started this blog back on January 1st, things were rather quiet and peaceful. After some time went by, the blog started to gain a little attention. With that attention, the visitors and comments began adding up. Of course at first I thought that was a good thing. I thought wow, look at this - I'm actually writing about stuff other people are interested in other than myself. I've always stated that my #1 reason why I even began this blog was for my own selfish reasons. Meaning, I thought it would be a fun little activity to do on the side when I was bored. It was a good way to kill time at work when things got slow. To be honest, I would of kept the blog going even if a single soul didn't know it existed. Basically, it was something for myself and if others also enjoyed it, then I was fine with that and welcomed them along for the ride as long as they could abide by some simple rules.

Now with any website where there is a good size group of people who gather in one space to share their opinions, it's only a matter of time when those views and personalities conflict - some more often and more abrasive than others. Many times these "feuds" or problems pass and things return to normal. Other times, it is an ongoing issue. Anyone with a half of brain is well aware of this going into opening any type of website, blog or message board. Although what I wasn't prepared for or expected is that the very people that claim they "enjoy" coming here and do visit/comment, wouldn't take an active part in destroying things. To me that just doesn't make sense. If I enjoyed a site and wanted it to stay around, I wouldn't be a complete asshole on a daily basis to cause problems and push whoever runs that site that much closer to saying f-it and having it disappear into cyberspace.

I feel like a broken record having to repeat these rules all the time, like I am a kindergarten teacher. Since there are alot of people that act like they are five, I guess I'll treat them like that and repeat the list one more time. The 3 rules are super simple and basic. I'm shocked they are so hard to grasp and follow for some.

• Rule #1 - If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
• Rule #2 - Do your best to stick to the post topic when commenting.
• Rule #3 - My personal life is not your concern. What I don't share is private and my business alone, so I don't need to answer or explain myself to you. If I ignore your comments or questions it may be because it simply doesn't deserve a reply (see, none of your business remark above). No reason to go off assuming things wrongly, just accept it.

Those are all pretty clear, right? If for whatever reason YOU are unable to follow those or YOU simply don't like those rules, then please by all means, don't come here. Nobody is putting a gun to your head and making you visit my blog. Personally I don't even want you here and I bet nobody else does if you are bothered by what I've just said. Go somewhere else online and cause problems if that is what you like to do with your life. If you have some type of personal problem with me, then chances are I don't really care for you that much either. So how about you leave me alone and I'll leave you alone? How hard is that? It's not. I'm sick of everyone's bullshit drama 24/7. It's giving me such a headache and you've taken something that was once really fun and enjoyable for me and turned it into a massive chore that is just plain irritating. It really makes running this blog so not worth it in my eyes. So now that it has happened and continues to happen over and over again, it needs to be handled once and for all...for my own sanity. Since I'm the admin here, the problem is then left up to me to do 1 of 5 things. Here are my 5 choices...

• Choice #1 - Add fuel to the fire and watch it continue/increase.
• Choice #2 - Try to find some peace to end it getting the site back on track.
• Choice #3 - Ignore it/allow it to take place and let them overrun the site.
• Choice #4 - Implement some type of method to deal with the problem.
• Choice #5 - Acknowledge that a few can ruin it for all and close the site for good.

Choice #1, I'm not going to be an active participant in this crap so that's out. Choice #2, I've tried and obviously failed many times in the past trying to make things peaceful by giving a lecture/scolding to certain people. As you can see that doesn't last or work for long. Choice #3, I did ignore it for as long as I could yesterday and on other occasions, but why should I have to let shit slide? Why do I have to work at making a good site and then sit and watch you destroy it? That isn't right or fair. Choice #4, I've already begun looking into my options here. In the past I've closed posts, deleted problem comments or just blocked everyone from putting in their two-cents. That is too time consuming for me to monitor this blog that much and do constant damage control. I have other things more important in life to take care of than to baby-sit a blog. Choice #5, I'm aware that there are a group of people that feel like they are powerful by shitting on things. For whatever reason, my blog, and at times even myself, have been the target for them. I really don't know why, but it just sucks and I have little hope that any solution I pick will have the outcome I am hoping for. I'm willing to bet that probably sooner, rather than later, I won't be running this blog anymore. I will simply delete it for good and leave a nice "FUCK YOU" message as my good-bye post. Don't get me wrong, I do have some good/decent people that come here and are great. People that make me laugh, are helpful, kind and I really enjoy their input on a variety of topics. So the "fuck you" won't be directed towards them. I think the people who it is directed to will know it's for them, doubt they will care, but then I don't care either anymore.

In closing to this long post, I've decided to password protect my blog as a last resort to keeping the site up while still maintaining control over the chaos. That means that only certain people I've selected will be given a login (username and password) to access my blog. Everyone else who does not have a login from me, will NOT be able to view or comment here. The web address will work, but you will not be able to get past the login screen. I'll collect a group of names and post those later. If your name is not on the list, there is probably a reason, but you are free to ask me why I didn't include you. My reasoning may be I forgot, didn't know you wanted in or simply you've been a problem before so I've excluded you. If you're mad, you're mad. I'm not going to bend on that. Tired of bending for people. Not my fault you caused a problem on here before so in a sense I'm "banning" you from returning. Oh well.

According to the Blogger Help Guide, when asked..."How can I password protect my blog?" The reply is this..."We do not currently offer a password protection service for Blog*Spot blogs. However, if you host your blog on your own server you may be able to do this, since many hosting providers include this service. Check with your system administrator for information on how to set it up." No problem there, I actually expected that answer, but it doesn't mean I have to accept the answer. Of course I will find another workaround. I may be able to get a PHP script to run on here that would allow me to customize a nice password protected blog login. I'll work on that and keep everyone updated.