Sonny is answering his tumblr Qs now

[Hokahey]

I think he should have left them up but it's his content.

Sonny did a lot right for a long time. He also made some questionable moves. Can't say I agree with how he handled killing the board considering our only alternative. Also, my desire to be part of a daily conversation with many of the members was satisfied via that board, hence I never reach out to them in other venues. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of a few this would have taken much longer or never happened at all in this format, and I think we would have lost a good portion of the community. Not cool considering we were the content of that board, even if Sonny was the manager. If nothing else, he should have posted a link here. I think he let ego get in the way there. I feel like that was more of a move against some of us instead of one to help most of the others.

Yeah, well said. The thing that unfortunately sticks out in my head that taints Sonny's overall massive positive contribution to the community is that day of arguments a couple weeks ago he had primarily with K-V where he's going on about how "yr nothing, a nobody except a name on my board. It's my board, blah, blah, blah" all because of some obvious joke K-V made. It was like he was looking for a fight and perhaps a reason to pull down the board. I'm pretty sure I made a comment along the lines of "I can see where this is going...."

I think he was trying to say that he was always the one held accountable for the vibe on the site...you or I could post anything we wanted good or bad, but when the band or anyone else would read the board they'd probably look at the guy running it as opposed to individual posters. Its a tough call to make...I understand why people are disappointed, but I don't think it taints anything that he chose to do things the way he did...it forced people to make quick decisions to try and keep things going & I think it also taught people a few things...when you have something good going, appreciate it and try and act as if you value it...I don't know that he went about it the best way, but it definitely is making people think & that ain't a bad thing imo...

I hear what you'r saying, but we're not children. We don't need to learn lessons from site admins about valueing things blah blah.

No members, no Xiola/bored.

We deserve some of the credit for the community there and he left us high and dry.

Yes the good he did outweighs the bad. Yes I respect Sonny and freely proclaim him the best Jane's board admin yet.

But it doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't discuss our dissatisfaction with how he burned the house down to teach us a lesson, and then did nothing to help those that couldn't be reached find where the community.

I understand us needing to build it on our own. And he's right to insist this place live or die but how we run it. But that will happen regardless of whether he helped people know where we went. If it sucks here it sucks and those people will jump ship. But don't leave people in the water without at least mentioning everyone else found a a new boat. That's just screams ego to me. Like he just tolerated us more so than was in it with us.

[Essence_Smith]

I hear what you'r saying, but we're not children. We don't need to learn lessons from site admins about valueing things blah blah.

No members, no Xiola/bored.

We deserve some of the credit for the community there and he left us high and dry.

Yes the good he did outweighs the bad. Yes I respect Sonny and freely proclaim him the best Jane's board admin yet.

But it doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't discuss our dissatisfaction with how he burned the house down to teach us a lesson, and then did nothing to help those that couldn't be reached find where the community.

I understand us needing to build it on our own. And he's right to insist this place live or die but how we run it. But that will happen regardless of whether he helped people know where we went. If it sucks here it sucks and those people will jump ship. But don't leave people in the water without at least mentioning everyone else found a a new boat. That's just screams ego to me. Like he just tolerated us more so than was in it with us.

No one's trying to tell anyone what to discuss & how to feel about it...everyone's got a legit reason to feel however they feel on this matter...just giving my two cents is all...

I don't think he killed the site to teach us a lesson, just my speculation...if there is an aspect of ego involved I doubt he sees it that way...and it doesn't even matter at this point...if people want this to work, it will...my only gripe is people feeling bitter about the way the end went down and forgetting the overall contribution...Better to look at the big picture imo...

[ellis]

I can only sit here and pretend to know what motivations sonny had to do what he did.

I noticed on facebook a few weeks ago he posted a pic of himself that seemed, at least for me from afar, to be a completely new look. When someone does that, often times a transformation is considered a midlife crisis or a makeover. I think midlife crisis is a negative term. But the truth is, as each of us approaches our 40's, we have a moment where we look back at what we've done. Are we satisfied? Are we disappointed? Are we of an age that we must let go of certain dreams?

I think if I was sonny, I'd look back and see that often times I was appreciated for xiola. I can also see how he was not appreciated. I can see how sometimes members of the band as well as wives/girlfriends treated him like shit. I never thought sonny did anything intentional to deserve getting shit on by any of them. How he chose to respond, whether it was outright silence, a tirade post or whatever... it was 95% of the time completely warranted and justified. The other 5% was basically him going too far with certain things. I don't blame him at all for anything he chose to do, even the bad.

I remember when he killed the board a few years ago. I wasn't surprised. It was dying. People were acting like assholes. Then... and NO ONE saw this coming... Eric Avery was back in Jane's for the NME Awards. HELL FUCKING YEAH. Like all of us, sonny jumped back in within a few hours of the announcement and fired up the hemi of xiola. Again, I don't think that's weird at all!!! We were all pumped up when Avery was back. Oh to dream... will these 4 musicians finally get along and do it the right way? And over the next 2 years we watched them try to do it... Things seemed great in the Jane's camp the majority of the time. And almost like clockwork, the shit hit the fan again and the band simply didn't work. Like eric avery said, "the parts fit but the machine won't work."

With that said, why the fuck wouldn't sonny kill the site? Things seem to be right back where they were 2 yrs ago. Being a mod is still a thankless job and babysitting adults with potty mouth humor doesn't exactly sound appealling. Maybe... at his age, in the last few weeks... he's decided that he's too adult to be playing on a band msg board anymore... especially for a band that doesn't exactly appreciate him. He's got THE longest running Jane's fan site... a site even bigger than the official Jane's site. And for that... he gets shit on. Sonny walking away isn't a slap at any of us. It's a liberation for him. I'm mean come on... what exactly does he get for running xiola other than grief? The benefits dried up a long time ago.

I say bravo, sonny! Fuck em! You ran it as you wished with a decent, fair effort and you left on your terms. You took a lot of shit for behavior that wasn't yours. You were more than patient with a lot of users. But you also weren't a saint, and none of us were. Thanks for everything! I hope to see you on ANR when the dust settles... Don't fade away. Burn out and torch it.

[Deconstruction]

Man Sonny is really stroking his ego with responding to all of the thank yous and shit and putting them up, don't like some of his behavior since closing the site. Very smug. If you're reading this Sonny, if you're really out, why are you still doing a blog?

[Juana]

You know it was his site, so he could do what he wanted to it. But my thing is the fact that he did it after things were starting to work out. Which I think all those other times when he was talking about ending it and didn't this was him finally doing it. So after like 9 years of me posting there I have no ill will. I was just wondering where everyone went because over the years it was more about the community posting there then the band that brought us all together.