credit: Enterprise Mission
Using the Wayback Machine, I discovered that the last date on which the graphic appeared was 19th April this year. What now heads the page is the garish announcement of The Other Side of Midnight -- a new radio show. That's "new" as in dating from July 2015. So it really does look as if Hoagland has abandoned this site, although his domain registration is paid up through next December. Removing the main way for your users to browse your site sends a pretty definitive message.
Under construction
Not that the nav was ever well maintained anyway. The links to Bridge, Physics Lab and Stores did at least lead somewhere useful, although the Physics Lab contains such stunning material as a transcript of RCH's radio interview from 1996. Communications and Library both led to an UNDER CONSTRUCTION graphic. Conference Room was the real joke--a forum for members only, moderated by Keith Rowland and costing $3.95 a month to join. Hoagland and Rowland both walked away from that quite soon after it was established in 2002, while continuing to collect membership fees for several months.note 1
Death of a Radio show
Say, does that remind you of anything? It should do. Hoagland has been collecting $5/month membership fees for "Club 19.5" for two months now, without providing any new content at all. A replay is billed for tonight, so that puts the kibosh on any hope of a return this week. At this point, and given his documented record, I'd be surprised if he's ever back.
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[1] Then there was the vanishing newsletter from 2010, which James Concannon blogged about.
And here's another Hoagland walk-away.
17 comments:
Retirement might be a little strong, but the parrot is might be sleeping. If it's true, it's because he over played his hand and over stayed his welcome. Too bad. He could be an entertaining guy sometimes, when he wasn't pretending to save the world anyway.
Some, if not all, of the abandonment and unrealized projects could be a question of money or at least "who pays". Sometimes I thought even articles used to be written to please a sponsor or two, if they came through. To my knowing the forums TEM BBS (1998-2001) and Gototalk, (2003-2006?) were hosted by Rowland, for free, although Gototalk had a fee of $3.95 paid to Rowland Communications, not Enterprise. This probably was a deal with Keith and no "income" for Hoagland at all! And even if so, the membership was low, it could not have been more than $250 per month before taxes, probably less. Richard of course indeed hardly ever showed up anymore after the first year with such low membership or just because that's how his attention wavers. The Gototalk system hosted some other topical forums as well at the time but I don't think they thrived. The whole business model got crushed by the ease of self-hosting and the large choice of free andpaid subscriptions elsewhere.
All the falling out in this story also introduced some other "refuge" places for the TEM crowd like the free but seriously moderated BBS on the Anomalies Network in 2001 but that also ended up with a conflict with management but I'm not sure anymore if it was about moderation, content or something else. Also, at the time between 500-1000 members signed up at anomalies.net right after P2P and TEM shut down, to get an idea of what the total loyal crowd size was (and it's hard to split the Art Bell and TEM crowd at this BBS but I've numbers indication 50/50). There was even another brief BBS location, before Gototalk came into being, right before or after the Anomalies Network phase, but I forgot.
The point of all this? Seeing the never-ending repeat, the openendedness of all his undertaking and especially Hoagland as querulent and not as businessman but instead always expecting unwavering support and donations of time and money for his cause. All else: betrayal!
Thanks for the history, Dee. Most of that was new to me.
Wouldn't it be appropriate for someone to play 'The Last Post' in remembrance of 'Poor Richard'?
Hoagland always tried to grab the helm at Coast. He probably feels that he was just getting the hang of it, when the rug got pulled out from underneath his feet. Well, that's just part of his charm, now, isn't it?
What he really needs to do is write a book, any sort of book, and book himself on a book tour, doing radio and television interviews on local broadcast stations, all around the country, instead of becoming somebody's bitch, or being a half assed do it yourselfer.
Richard C. Hoagland
2 hrs ·
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
December 6, 2016
Dear “Other Side of Midnight” Listeners and Club 19.5 Members,
We apologize for the lack of regular updates “from the Bridge” the last few weeks; we know that this “silence” has been frustrating — we miss you as much as you miss us!
A number of long-time listeners have emailed during this “enforced hiatus,” wanting a meaningful update; here, finally, is what we can now tell all of you:
There are a LOT of “moving parts” still going on behind the scenes, regarding the future of “The Other Side of Midnight” (picture a paddling duck on a mirror calm lake … ALL the meaningful activity is unseen … UNDERWATER).
Unfortunately, at the moment, we have to continue “paddling furiously” … while we continue “being vague” ….
Here’s what we CAN tell you “from the Bridge”:
“By The Book — HOURS will seem like DAYS ….”
We were supposed to be “live” in our new network home over a month ago — and then “this piece … and that piece” had to be added, compatible broadcast equipment ordered, “live broadcast” tests carried out … both at the local AND the network level.
Now, with the holidays looming, big organizations (networks …) go even slower with new projects — and that’s where we are practically, less than three weeks before Christmas; even though this may come across as “vague,” it is enough info to really stir up some folks who still do NOT want this to happen … and could delay things even further ….
As you might imagine, I’m personally VERY frustrated at these continuing “delays,” and have been trying to successfully conclude all this, plus, attend to the usual “Enterprise Mission” projects.
Against these realities, I have had to consider each public update re “OSM” very carefully … because of the aforementioned “interference.”
We WILL make this up to you … and with at least one MAJOR surprise we are working on (!) … when we return, LIVE.
Remember:
On this Show, we have been following an Arc of History (I mean, just look at the NEWS that has occurred while we’ve been “dark” just a few weeks — and you ain’t seen NOTHIN’ yet!!!).
So, each of our Archive shows (M is carefully selecting during this “hiatus”) is being chosen to “fill in THAT Coming arc” — to try to prepare you … for when we’re Back!
SO … pay attention … and enjoy. 🙂
If there is anything else you wish to ask (within reason …), please go to the contact page on theothersideofmidnight.com and “open a hail.”
We look forward to returning to the air LIVE as much as you do … as soon as … everything is a “go.”
We have a LOT to talk about!
In the meantime, remember:
“Third star on the left, straight on ’til morning ….”
Thanks.
RCH
https://www.facebook.com/RichardC.Hoagland/posts/10157984140225089?comment_tracking={%22tn%22%3A%22O%22}
Member "Somnambulist" commented:
"LOL @ Hoagie. The “aforementioned interference”? What a load of baloney.
Anytime there is any kind of incompetence it is dark forces that want him off the air. If there were dark forces people like Alex Jones would have been off the air ages ago.
Hoagie, you are plain and simple, imcompetent [sic], living in a fantasy world in which everything revolves at 19.5 degrees."
My own comment would be:
" ....the usual “Enterprise Mission” projects"... WHAT FUCKING PROJECTS? Nothing's been done to that site for 18 months except the navigation has been removed.
What "network" is he talking about? I thought it's just one radio station run by a non-profit.
Who is "M"?
"Miss M," his current producer. Probably working without compensation.
I do love the bait of projects yet to come. If you stick with him, some really great stuff is coming up and we will all have such fun you wouldn't believe! That gag never gets old.
[quote]
Blogger Chris Lopes said...
What "network" is he talking about? I thought it's just one radio station run by a non-profit.
[/quote]
You are not the only one thinking this. I suspect this "network" exists exclusively in Hoagland's imagination.
Hoagland claimed he was going to be on shortwave as part of the deal he was getting with KCAA, so this would not be the first time Hoagland has made a claim that turned out to be false.
That's kind of how I figured it too. Hoagland has always tried to make himself a bigger deal than he is. He has an almost pathological need to be the great man doing great work.
In the old days it was the so-called research being done at EM. One got the image of a elite think tank with a modern campus and a well manicured lawn. The reality was closer to a small house in New Mexico with a very cluttered living room/study. Captain Hoagland, savior of the planet, has always been the hero of his own pulp sci fi story.
Well-expressed frustration today from member "edwardhopper." I preserve it here since it seems likely to disappear from OSOM before long.
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"For people who claim to value the truth, seems like there’s a lot of information scrubbing going on around here, courtesy of the Other Side of Midnight team. Seems like the last six weeks of comments have disappeared. Subtle, guys.
The reason I came to comment tonight is to say that I unsubscribed as a member, along with a bunch of other people from the last few days whose comments have disappeared.
I agreed with their assessment of this whole charade, and that’s why I left. There are buckets of free, quality content all over the Internet. If RCH truly cared about us, he would have provided concessions to members who have stuck with him this whole time. Free audio messages to tide us over, telling us how frustrating the delay is and what he’s been working on lately? Nope. Even periodic sneak peeks of what he’s been writing? Not a chance. Doesn’t seem like he even writes anymore; his web page hasn’t been updated since 2014.
Fact is, I’m embarrassed. Embarrassed that I stuck around for this long, paying money I need in this economy to a man who doesn’t care about me or any of us. I paid money to support a show that doesn’t exist. I paid money to a man whose defining characteristic is dropping projects mid-stream and walking away from people who paid for the privilege.
I’m done."
Well, not just edwardhopper's comment but everyone else's have now disappeared, and the comment box has gone too. Hoagland has evidently had enough of people telling him how lazy and transparent he is. LAAAAAA LAAAAAA I CAN'T HEAR YOU.
Well it's not like the guy can actually give the money back. He's probably spent it all just keeping the lights on. So that boat has sailed for the new world.
As to the scrubbing, that's Hoagie's favorite move. Back in his FB days (when he thought maintaining a fan base was something worth doing) he was always vanishing unpleasant comments. After a while he finally figured out how to ban people outright, so he went with that. Until then though, he pretty much sat on his page 24/7 and wiped every comment that didn't praise him as humanity's savior. Probably the most work he's ever done in his life.
Hoagie's writing skills are even worse than his speaking skills.
I can't read his scribble without feeling a headache.
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