The Rise And Demise Of The Woofer

Last night I was once again asked, "What's up with that Woofer thing?" Since I've had to explain it several times lately I thought I should probably put a formal written explanation here. So here goes...........

Long ago a young lad (well, younger than now anyway) and his fair maiden traveled to the golden land of Ebay. This was near the end of the reign of the benevolent King Pierre and life there was good. The happy couple settled in to sell their wares and also joined the village known as The eBay Blogs.

As with all good folk who settled into the land the young lad and his fair maiden took a user name. Since at that time they were the proud possessors of two fine golden retrievers they took 2woofers as their name. And in the village of The Ebay blogs they became known as Woofer and Mrs. Woofer. There they met many fine people such as Bay Vendor, DDKitty, PBE (Pretty Blue Eyes), CrazyJeans, and hundreds of others.

Now the village of Ebay Blogs existed in the olden days before the larger cities of My Space and Facebook had appeared, but it worked in much the same way. The villagers would gather and post and comment on other villagers posts. We would wish each other good morning, post a little humor, display our wares to each other and in general have fun.

It became a close community. We would admire each other's wares, cheer each success, offer advice, give holiday wishes, and offer up prayers and support in times of trouble. There was the occasional knave, such as Dinners or Aidan, but we banded together and defeated our common enemies. Through all of this we rarely knew each others real names. Woofer was known as Woofer.

After several idyllic years King Pierre stepped down and turned over the reins to Queen Meg. Rumblings began that bad things were in the wind for the future of the village, but we persisted. And flourished. And became closer.

But alas, at last the power was turned over to the evil Sir John of Donahoe who decreed that the village of Ebay Blogs be burned to the ground and it's citizenry cast to the four winds. Such social foolishness cost money and could not possibly be looked on with favor by the Gods Of The Bottom Line. And so it came to pass.

Cast into the vast wilderness of the Internet the villagers, left without a home, wandered and tried to settle in to some of the new cities. They came to Twitter but could not find a happy life in the land of 140 characters. They tried My Space which was confusing and without a way to communicate. They tried Multiply where they almost found a home but that didn't quite work either.

Fast forward to the present. Most of the villagers have found a home of sorts in the City of Facebook. But here their old names cannot be used. They must be known by the names given to them at birth. And they, villagers at heart, have found the city life to be harsher and more impersonal than the life they had known before.

So now Woofer has again become Roy. Mrs. Woofer has been relegated back to Donna. The user names of good friends have been lost in the mists of time. The wonderful fairy tale that we all lived for many years is gone. We have been returned back to a real world that we all enjoyed getting away from once in a while. The magic of that time will never be recaptured. For most of us it was like having our own little piece of Camelot and we loved it. Now we have been moved away from our time of innocence.

When you've had to explain something one too many times and people look at you like maybe you should get your meds changed after they hear the explanation, you come to the realization that a really good part of your past has died. And you're late for the funeral.

Woofer is dead. Long live.........whoever the hell I am now that I'm not Woofer.