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Farewell To Enola Gaia

merricat said:
I'll tell you what feels strange - I jump around the archives a lot and like to dip in to them on and off, so always leave a signed-in browser window up even when I am not online.
I had been part way through an old enormous thread when I heard the news.
Enola was a heavy contributor to that thread, so it felt very upsetting (yet kind of a huge privilege) to be reading his posts there, afterwards, knowing that he was no longer with us.

I too was a long term user before my official join date, so Randy's posts were quite familiar to me over a long period of time. There was something calmly reassuring about his presence.

I found it difficult to continue reading those old posts but there is such an enormous wealth of content that he left with us, which will continue to resonate with people (new and old) for a long time to come, I hope. It feels horribly wrong to see the 'account retired' announcement by his userpic - it made me feel a bit angry for a while, a naturally irrational side effect of the suddenness of it, the shock. I suppose this in itself is a form of internet grief, something entirely new for me, and still settling.

That hat with the feather in it - feels oddly symbolic, but I can't say what of..
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I agree with your point about the "Account retired" announcement by his avatar. Wouldn't a more appropriate message by his avatar be "In memoriam"? Just a suggestion.
 
Horsa said:
I agree with your point about the "Account retired" announcement by his avatar. Wouldn't a more appropriate message by his avatar be "In memoriam"? Just a suggestion.
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I'm 99% sure @EnolaGaia would want his account thus set.

He himself was the one that set up that status as a clever technical work around so that the member is clearly no longer logging in but is marked as present by the board software so they can be tagged, searched for and linked with their posts without the security risk of an 'open account' to be hacked—it's a win-win-win.

Prior to this, members were anonymised, and prior to that the accounts were deleted and their posts orphaned and separated.

There has been one earlier instance in which a deceased member's profile was altered to indicate that he had died, but in the name of consistency, we reversed this; it had also begun to look slightly mawkish in its incongruity.

Edit: 100%: I've just found a private post on this matter from him. He also mentions the GDPR requirements and the fact that a user's 'deceased status' arguably constitutes personally identifiable info that we—the staff— are bound to protect.
 
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Yithian said:
I'm 99% sure @EnolaGaia would want his account thus set.

He himself was the one that set up that status as a clever technical work around so that the member is clearly no longer logging in but is marked as present by the board software so they can be tagged, searched for and linked with their posts without the security risk of an 'open account' to be hacked—it's a win-win-win.

Prior to this, members were anonymised, and prior to that the accounts were deleted and their posts orphaned and separated.

There has been one earlier instance in which a deceased member's profile was altered to indicate that he had died, but in the name of consistency, we reversed this; it had also begun to look slightly mawkish in its incongruity.

Edit: 100%: I've just found a private post on this matter from him. He also mentions the GDPR requirements and the fact that a user's 'deceased status' arguably constitutes personally identifiable info that we—the staff— are bound to protect.
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O.K. Thank you very much for the response. I just thought that it would be more appropriate & respectful so made the suggestion. I didn't realise that it had been tried before & thought insecure. I really respect your (collective mod & admin team) decision. I'm very sorry.

Respectfully

Ann
 
Horsa said:
O.K. Thank you very much for the response. I just thought that it would be more appropriate & respectful so made the suggestion. I didn't realise that it had been tried before & thought insecure. I really respect your (collective mod & admin team) decision. I'm very sorry.

Respectfully

Ann
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No need at all for an apology. Just wanted to give a 'belt and braces' response to indicate that our decision not to do as you suggest in no way betokened a lack of respect towards EnolaGaia.
 
Yithian said:
No need at all for an apology. Just wanted to give a 'belt and braces' response to indicate that our decision not to do as you suggest in no way betokened a lack of respect towards EnolaGaia.
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O.K. Thank you very much. I realise that you all respected him as do a lot of people here. Your response also showed that you respected his wishes which I didn't know about as I didn't need to know about them.
 
Yithian said:
No need at all for an apology. Just wanted to give a 'belt and braces' response to indicate that our decision not to do as you suggest in no way betokened a lack of respect towards EnolaGaia.
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By the same token I was wondering if this Thread could be moved out of Chat and into the This Place Forum? Randy was an integral part of this place and Threads in chat are ephemeral.
 
I just learned the news of Randy's passing today after having been away from the board over the holidays. I can only echo what others have said upthread: Randy was an erudite poster and an even-handed moderator who will be greatly missed. Thank you to @Yithian for the touching letter of condolence sent on our behalf to Randy's cousin.
 
Yithian said:
Edit: 100%: I've just found a private post on this matter from him. He also mentions the GDPR requirements and the fact that a user's 'deceased status' arguably constitutes personally identifiable info that we—the staff— are bound to protect.
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Really sorry to hear about this.

Obviously please do as you see fit with this, and I could be mistaken, but as far as I'm aware, GDPR only applies to living identifiable individuals.
 
TheLeeds said:
Really sorry to hear about this.

Obviously please do as you see fit with this, and I could be mistaken, but as far as I'm aware, GDPR only applies to living identifiable individuals.
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I think you are correct. Thank you for the clarification.

Neither Enola and I are UK-based and I conflated the situation with the rules covering the release of publically held data on deceased individual by some UK Government agencies (115 Years after DOB).
 
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Bad Bungle said:
I was always intrigued by the other quote under his signature : 'Of course I know the difference ... I don't want you to kiss a hole in the ground!' and a search last year lead to Enola as a long term moderator on the Toyota Tacoma Forum (for truckers) and his biographical site. Cannot now find the post from Randy explaining the origin of that reply/put-down and the sign-off on the forum has changed. Now he has gone and the past is already clouding over before I got to know him. A big sad shock.
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Yes, that intrigued me for a long while, too. And then, I think in passing, Randy explained it on a post here - apparently a common way of commenting on someone's intelligence levels among his friends and acquaintances way back when was to tell them "You don't know the difference between your ass and a hole in the ground." This was his rejoinder, although I can't imagine he'd been on the receiving end very often...
 
Yithian said:
We've just received the news that our good friend and fellow moderator @EnolaGaia has died.

We'll confer shortly, I hope, and decide how much information is appropriate to release.

A big thank you to him for everything he did here; he was a fine man and a major part of the reason the board runs smoothly on a daily basis.

Rest In Peace.
Vale.
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Sorry to hear that news, as he always seemed to have had good insight covering a lot of subjects.
 
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It's always a shock to lose 'one of our own'. You get so used to seeing names as posting on the various fora, realising that one will never post again is just too final. But the threads will stand, Enola's posts will always be there, searchable, as a kind of immortality.

What is it they say, no one is ever truly gone as long as their name is spoken? RIP, Enola and condolences to family and all who knew him.
 
I was very sad to read of Enola’s passing.
There’s arguably no “ good” time of year for this to happen, really, but especially poignant at the season of moving from an old year to a new one.

He was incredibly knowledgeable, generous, engaging and from what I’ve seen and read, a true Gentleman, and whilst it is always enjoyable to receive likes and response to any of ones postings- and not to denigrate in any way those responses, I have to say, it seemed extra special if one of this forums “Elders” such as Enola did so, to ones own offerings.

RIP Sir, in the Great Beyond... You will be sorely missed.
 
Yithian said:
We've just received the news that our good friend and fellow moderator @EnolaGaia has died.

We'll confer shortly, I hope, and decide how much information is appropriate to release.

A big thank you to him for everything he did here; he was a fine man and a major part of the reason the board runs smoothly on a daily basis.

Rest In Peace.
Vale.
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That is sad news, May he Rest In Peace.
 
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