I believe that the blog did a lot of good. The archives will remain up at this location.
The great majority of folks who have visited here have extended incredible kindness. I have been changed by the experience.
If I failed Fab and the rest of you, please accept my apologies. I did what I could for as long as I could, and despite options to keep the page open, we all felt that it had run its course.
Of course there will always be online options for college proffies to vent, and I hope that the enterprise started in 2005 at RYS will continue in some form.
I have made dozens of friends amidst the misery, and those of you who know me know how to find me.
Leslie K.
Wow.
ReplyDeleteSorry.
Come over to twitter: there's lots of misery there!
I thought we had until Wednesday! NOOOOOO!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome?
ReplyDeleteNo.
I prefer not to.
I do not acknowledge this post.
Say it ain't so!
So long. Farewell. Amen.
Oh, hell. I was so hoping that this was a joke! Especially since the posts have been really great lately.
ReplyDeleteWell, thanks for everything you and all the other RGMs have done over the last few years to make life a little more bearable for all of us in the trenches. It's been great.
Folks, sit tight. I'm planning something. More info to come in a day or two.
ReplyDeleteI'm in. :)
DeleteIt is not April 1st sooooo.... nuts.
ReplyDeleteMy hat goes off in deep gratitude to all who volunteered their time to help keep the blog going.
Fare thee well! and if for ever, still for ever, fare thee well.
I thought talk of this was the usual joking about killing the blog - I didn't think anyone was really going to do it!
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, the blog seemed fine to me, whether it was being run by Leslie or Fab or Cal or whoever. It had misery, it had links, and we had a place to vent. If the people who ran it just don't have time or interest, that's fine, but I'd hate to think the blog is being closed because someone felt it didn't live up to some imaginary standard... especially when the core contingent of regulars were happy, as always.
Alas.
"For what it's worth, the blog seemed fine to me, whether it was being run by Leslie or Fab or Cal or whoever. It had misery, it had links, and we had a place to vent. If the people who ran it just don't have time or interest, that's fine, but I'd hate to think the blog is being closed because someone felt it didn't live up to some imaginary standard..."
DeleteThis.
I has a sad.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Leslie K, and all those who have held the office of RGM. I wish I could say "no; don't do it; I'll help," but even from this limited perspective I can see just how much work, and how much hair-pulling frustration, must be involved in keeping a balance of freedom and civility. Honestly, I'm surprised it's lasted this long.
ReplyDeleteAt least we went out on a high note, with R and/or G's magnificent apocalypse, and a poem from Greta, and some old-school smackdown from Peregrine and Chiltepin (no to mention Molly's welcome breath of fresh air over the last few weeks). If we've got to end somewhere, that's not a bad place.
ReplyDeleteSo it goes.
I am heart broken, but I understand Leslie's decision. We Skyped quite a few times this week - and over the months, too - and I came to realize that this was the best thing to do at this time. What a ride. My thanks to everyone who made this place go!
ReplyDeleteYou crazzy, crazzy motherfuckers. You done killed it, and I was just starting to enjoy it...
ReplyDeleteFab, Cal, Leslie: please go and have a rest now.
Walt
Love, love, love, to Leslie, my real world friend, who I only met because of this silly, wonderful page. "Hubby," Jake and I send our love...
ReplyDeleteBest to Fab and Cal and Terry P. and all the wonderful folks who made this such a great destination.
XOXOXO
Darla
What will I do?
ReplyDeleteThis is a damn shame, and I'll miss this place. Thanks to the moderators, each and every one.
ReplyDeleteJust so folks know, Leslie K and Fab were tormented by this decision. Much Skype time was spent and I was a fly on the wall for it.
ReplyDeleteI love you both. I loved CM, and feel honored to have been allowed to be a small part of things these past years.
I'm quite sad, as it feels as if the RYS legacy has now slipped away entirely. But as said above, by someone wiser than me, what a ride.
Cal
And we love you too, Cal!
DeleteI haz a sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for everything!
I echo Wylodmayer's comment. Heck yeah, it's time-consuming and can get under your skin to administer this thing, but I would hope it's not about anything other that that. It had seemed even livelier than usual, really. I like the newer voices. I like Molly. I appreciated the ongoing work by all of the participating RGMs to keep it going over the years.
ReplyDeleteDoes Beaker Ben really have something up his lab coat sleeve? 'Cause there's really a deep, deep vein of Misery that still pays off.
A damn shame, and you'll all be missed as will this place. Thanks for the ride!
ReplyDeletewell, my shitty day just got worse...
ReplyDeleteWe'll always have Yaro!
ReplyDeleteThanks to all the mods and the decent people who have contributed.
Best to all,
EC1
This was the only place online that made me feel better after visiting it. I didn't contribute much, but it was comforting to know that I might a space to express what no one here cares to hear. I appreciated all the work you all put into this. I am sad. My office will be much lonelier without you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all you have done, Leslie, Cal and Fab.
ReplyDeleteI'll miss everyone and wish everyone here all the best!!!
Oh, I am so very sad and heartbroken. Please say it ain't so and that it really is April 1st after all. Please.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame! Thanks ever so much, Leslie & Fab & Cal, I'm going to miss this place! Not that I posted regularly, but reading the misery of an evening with a nice glass of wine after grading hell was a wonderful way to help me get over my personal misery.
ReplyDelete/me waves to everyone
I'm sorry to see this blog go. I hope that the Beaker can rassle up something and I plan to participate if he does, but I am pretty sure that Leslie was kind of the last attempt to keep this going, with Fab and Cal already pretty burnt out by the fun that being RGM entails.
ReplyDeleteMy hat is off to you all, and my handkerchief is rather damp. Thank you, danke schouml;n, dziękuje bardzo, mille grazie, Спасибо, merci beaucoup.
Reading CM was always one of the highlights of my day. Thank you, Leslie, Cal, and Fab, for "doing that voodoo that you do so well".
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness. Thanks so much to all of you for all you've done.
ReplyDeleteI'm terrible at long goodbyes, but I'm going to miss everyone. Especially the duck. Please tell me he's got a place to go.
ReplyDeleteThanks to the RGMs in all your incarnations (you sorta remind me of Dr. Who that way).
A hundred thousand thank yous. Peace.
ReplyDeleteSo long and thanks for all the fish.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Leslie, Fab, and Cal, for creating this place and for keeping it running for so long.
ReplyDeleteThank you, regulars and "others", for contributing such thought-provoking original material, commentary, and conversation.
I found you nearly a year ago in a Google search on "helicopter parents", and I saw such good here that I read the back catalog from beginning to now. Along the way, I crafted a persona and anonymous backstory to remain in good stead with my employer whilst allowing me to contribute as well; the other day, I joined the conversation in earnest.
I'd begun several original pieces. Last night by dwindling battery power while snowed in, I finished one, but thought I should proofread it in daylight. I drove to work today in high spirits, looking forward to this evening when I would email it to Leslie to post during a slow spell, and I would finally ask if you had room for one more correspondent.
While here, I've been buoyed and enlightened in ways incalculable and inexpressible. I thank you all again; any more I can only sputter insufficiently.
I am now unmoored. There is no balm in Quakerberg, no wheel to ease along my heavy barrow.
Fair winds, all. May we soon meet again on some pleasant shore.
I knew that if I tried to name individual contributors, I'd leave several out, but I thought I was safe naming moderators. I wasn't. I don't mean to overlook the hard work of Terry P., a.k.a. Gordon Presto. If I've forgotten any more, please know that you were appreciated no less.
DeleteThe winter snows may leave us temporarily powerless, but they also prove our resourcefulness. We will live through this.
I came here damn near every day. Thanks to all the moderators - I can't imagine the work or the hassle of it, but thanks. Thanks to all of you fine, funny, bitingly sardonic, sad, frustrated, sarcastic, joyous people. I don't say much but I listened to you and it was good to know this job/life is about the same everywhere. It keeps a person sane.
ReplyDeleteThank you to all the moderators, acting moderators, conscripted moderators, and others who simulated that position. I have enjoyed the run, I've endured a bit, even if I haven't been 'regular', and I wouldn't trade a minute of it (well, I would trade it for tenure...)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I'll be that helpful to Beaker Ben and whatever he has bubbling, but I know I'll enjoy following it.
Thanks for all the hard work Fab, Cal, and Leslie! I will miss this place.
ReplyDeleteI love you all!!!!
ReplyDeleteMy best wishes.
I have a killer syllabus thanks to this place!
ReplyDeleteThank you to everyone involved with it's being here. I will miss my daily dose of venting and articles.
Oh wow. I'll miss coming here and reading all the intelligent, witty commentary. Thank you to all those who have made this page (and RYS before it) so darn good.
ReplyDeleteCurrently having All The Feels. I will miss my daily CM fix! Heartfelt thanks to all the mods for their exemplary dedication, and to all who have made the page worth visiting.
ReplyDeleteGod bless us, every one.
Thank you!!! *tears*
ReplyDeleteI shed real tears when I heard this news.
ReplyDeleteThank you Cal, Fab, Leslie, and everyone else who has ever moderated this page and kept it afloat. I can tell you that CM was the only thing keeping me afloat during my particularly miserable years as an adjunct and then my probationary period when I finally landed a full-time job.
And thank you all, my fellow miserarians, for the support you've given me over the years, for the companionship, for sharing your own experiences. Much love to you all. I feel as though I'm losing family.
I know the blog is over, but my guppy died and the weather is bad...soooo....can I please submit my comments? I'll do anything....
ReplyDeleteAs long as they are stapled correctly...
DeleteI was here for barely a year, and I will miss it. It is the only online community where I felt completely at home from the first time I posted; where I could comment or vent without even an attempt at self-censorship, and feel many others knew exactly where I was coming from.
ReplyDeleteWe all know we're right, and it mystifies me (baffles me, even) that the entire professoriate isn't here (or on sites like this), venting and raging about what's obviously true, but never said out loud by people under their real names (even tenured people). And why not?
So yes, thanks to Leslie and the other RGMs for all the work. I had a blast, and I'm sad it's over. So this crowd will have to find another venue, and I'll be there.
Oh great. Budget cuts, staff reductions and now this. Sucks
ReplyDeleteThis is a bummer. Thanks for keeping it going for as long as you did. I'm going to cry in the corner now.
ReplyDeleteLeslie, you ROCK! Thank you for all your hard work. It is much appreciated. And that goes for everyone else - Fab, Cal, Terry P, and everyone whose name I can't remember.
ReplyDeleteWell shit.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all you did to keep this place afloat--all of the mods deserve thanks and praise for making this place so awesome.
See you all at the Bourbon Cooler.
Serves you right for not banning Xxxxxxxxx and Yyyyyyyyyyy from the page. Hey, I posted something, why isn't it at the top?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, thanks for all of your efforts over the years. I may not have posted or commented much, but I never went more than a couple of days without reading. Even though I'm (mostly) away from academia at this point, I find snowflake stories endlessly entertaining, and I can only hope that Ben's blog will pick up right where CM left off.
Or that you'll change your mind next week and surprise us all. I'll probably keep checking just in case.
Thanks for keeping the misery going for so long. I'm not a regular commenter even, but I've been around since the RYS days as a reader.
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed bad news. Now there's no one to keep Strelnikov in check.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the wonderful memories.
My advice was not solicited for this terrible, terrible decision.
ReplyDeleteI understand the amount of force it took to maintain the blog daily, but I never understood why such a small group of people were responsible for such a large job. Why not spread around the obligations? Why advertise that we needed help? I would have gladly stepped in. Ben clearly had some desire.
I was devastated when RYS died. I found that in my first year of grad school. Nine years later, I am a doctor in my first real job and the misery has finally begun in earnest. Reading my posts over the years you can see the misery of a grad student, PhD candidate, nervous job-hunter, virgin publisher, and early professor. Why stop now?
I love all that you did, and this makes me all the sadder.
Monkey, I am sorry. I did talk to about 6 people, some of them folks who had run the page, and the consensus was that if I was unwilling to carry on, that it'd be best to let it go.
DeleteI can tell you that Fab and I are as sad as anyone. And perhaps we should have done a better job of finding avenues to keep the page going. If there's any blame, it's strictly on me. The last dustup was just so hate-filled and so misogynistic that I, personally, just me as a woman, was unable to find a way to keep doing this.
Should I have given the keys to someone else? Perhaps. But I threw them in the ditch.
That Ben has taken up the sword - just like Fab did when RYS died - makes this easier on me. I hope you'll go over to Ben's site and do all those things, pitch in, help him with the mail, post regularly.
It pains me to know people are disappointed with our ending, and all I can say is I did everything I could to find a path to the continuation. I could not. It's on me.
Les
I'm so sad you went through this, Les. Thank you for all the bullets you took in keeping everything going.
DeleteSad to hear, but great work and kudos to all the moderators and posters who made this wonderful blog tick for so long.
ReplyDeleteI was sick. Really sick. And then...
ReplyDeleteI'm sad, but I understand.
Wow. Just...wow.
ReplyDeleteIt was me. I killed it. after a year of lurking, I finally start dipping my ties into the commenting pool, and the whole business shuts down. I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteThis has been my favourite place since I first found it. I'll miss it. Thanks for keeping it as long as you did.
Thank you, thank ALL of you for being a safe haven. I was too shy to post much...I never felt that my contributions would add luster to the site (and would show poorly against the witty, insightful things I read here) but I read, every day.
ReplyDeleteMay we all see better days in the academy, and I wish you all more joy and less misery in your lives. You are a wonderful, crazy ( in the best possible way) bunch.
I'm sad. Not as sad as when my mom passed three weeks ago...but I'll miss this badly.
ReplyDeleteThanks to everyone. Was great.
ReplyDeleteBoy this week sucks all the way around. I was diagnosed with breast cancer on Tuesday and you killed the blog on Wednesday. Now where am I to vent my spleen? Thanks to everyone for making this page what it was. I for one loved it and would support any new variation RYS/College Misery/???
ReplyDeleteDear Anne. I'm a breast cancer survivor myself, three years now. I send you my best. My advice just comes from my own case. Gather family around you. Keep 2 doctors in the loop about your care and don't feel shy about sharing their different opinions. Be proactive. Believe. Have faith. Whatever you need to do, try and stay positive. My very best wishes for the future.
DeleteLeslie K
Thanks so much Leslie! =-)
DeleteEveryone's already said it, but Wow. Shock and sadness. Having resolved not to visit CM while traveling last week, I looked forward to coming back today and seeing what everyone had been up to.
ReplyDeleteSo thank you, Leslie, which becomes even bigger on learning that you've been busy surviving cancer in addition to bailing us out here multiple times.
Thanks also to Cal, Fab, Terry P., and most recently if briefly, Hiram for keeping the page dying for so long and dealing with real goddamn email.
Thanks to my fellow Miserians: Yaro, and (in no particular order, and surely incomplete) Annie Oakley, Frog and Toad, Contingent Cassandra, Southern Bubba, Strelnikov, Greta, Wombat of the Copier, The Contemplative Cynic, Suzy in Square State, Sawyer in Student Services, Mildred from Medicine Hat, Wylodmayer, Dr. Lemurpants, Academic Monkey, Professor Chiltepin, Dr. Amelia, Emergency Mathematical Hologram, Froderick Frankenstien, and Beaker Ben.
And a shout-out to Katie from Kalamazoo for her entertainment value.
See you at the bourbon cooler. I'll be the one drinking tea.
I am so sorry that the filthy, woman-hating, hate-spewing, cretinous bottom-feeding trolls finally got to you, Leslie. It is truly horrifying what is happening on the internet more and more lately, as hate-filled mouth-breathers feel more and more empowered by their anonymity to do everything they can to make sure that female voices are not heard in public space. I had hoped that we were past this but we really, really aren't. May every one of them learn the error of their ways. And thank you so much for carrying us for so long.
ReplyDeleteFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
ReplyDeleteUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
CK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seconded. I found this place less than 6 months ago and have enjoyed every minute of it.
DeleteWell, thanks for making it. At least I have the archives to wade through.
Thanks for everything, everybody. There is just something so powerful about knowing that you're not crazy or alone. All the best.
ReplyDeleteLeslie, Cal, Fab. Thank you. This site has given me a great deal of joy over the past three years, and I'm sad to see it go while I am only getting into the swing of my second year in grad school. The wit, the humor, the venting - I appreciated reading it all and I learned a great deal that I carry into my teaching. So long, and thanks for all the ducks.
ReplyDelete