PROPAGANDA Closes Its Doors

Bowie J. Poag writes "I'll keep this short and sweet-- Due to the lack of upkeep on the site (read: The guy I gave control of the site to didn't do anything to keep it going like he promised..) I've decided its time for Propaganda to close its doors for good.. I'm not going to pursue the idea of finding a replacement, or going back to doing it solo. For now, the site will remain up for those who still care to visit. I've finally managed to locate a site where I can move my work to, in order to cut any remaining ties with VA Linux Systems. The work will remain publically available elsewhere, but no further additions will be made to the collection. The last two less-than-stellar volumes will also be removed. Myself, the people I worked with, and my project have been through a great number of ups and downs in the last year or so..Some of which I really enjoyed, but most of which i'd honestly like to forget. To me, I'd rather see the project come to a respectful end than to see it continue to languish. I accomplished what I originally set out to do in '98, so, I guess we won in the end. (A note to the Slashdot staff: Just to repeat, this isn't an April Fools joke. My decision was made a few days ago. Sorry for the bad timing.) " I'm sorry to see the Project go - but you can be sure I'll treasure the Volumes that remain.

Comments

Propaganda & Open Source

[frantzdb]

While it's a shame that the project may be dead (depending on if it's a hoax) It was very closed for an open source project. It was basicly one guy with gimp skill and a lot of time. Had propaganda been done in an open fashon with a mailing list and people exchanging ideas then it would have the best possable graphics work of the OSS community. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. I'd love to see an Open Source graphics archive but Propaganda didn't aspire to that.

--Ben

Bowie's IRC Chat

[Jason W]

For those who missed it, Bowie had an IRC chat after he turned over the project. I couldn't find complete logs, so here is my copy of his speech:

Bowie| I'll make this short and sweet.. I dont like long drawley boring thank yous, and theres much fun to be had.. :)
Rahga| Annoucements from Bowie, followed by punch an pie!
Bowie| 10 months ago..I sat down on the corner of Park and Speedway infront of a Subway restaraunt royally pissed off.
Bowie| Just rampantly pissed.
Bowie| Met up with my best friend for lunch that day, and talked about what the hell I was gonna do.. I needed something to occupy myself with.
Bowie| That guy is Nach0, by the way. /msg him and tell him he kicks royal carpeted and jeweled ass.
Bowie| ...anyway.. :)
Bowie| Bri said to me..
Bowie| "You know...You should just pick one thing and do it."
Bowie| "Cuz if you dont.."
Bowie| "...You're gonna forget what its like to complete anything."
Bowie| And so I did. :)
Bowie| Propaganda was originally launched on a 56K modem with a dynamic IP host..Every 8 hours, the IP would chnace because i'd get kicked off my ISP, and the DNS would have to propogate before anyone could get on the site.
Bowie| I worked, and I worked, and I worked.
Bowie| Got a lucky break for Christmas last year.. Rob and Hemos (who doesnt suck) announced the opening of my site, which kept the Tx light on my modem locked solid for 3 days straight. :)
Bowie| Well, to sum it up..
Bowie| 14 volumes, 730+ images, a quarter of a million visitors and an estimate *half billion* tiles in distribution later......
Bowie| (yes, 500,000,000 tiles plus)
Bowie| its time for me to stop. :)
Bowie| Give somebody else a chance.
Bowie| Pass the tradition along.. :)
Bowie| While Propaganda is still my project..and always will be my little pet.. the creative control behind the project is now in the hands of Naru Sundar at CalTech..Asmodean to many of you. :)
Bowie| I wouldnt dare hand over the project if I felt it was going to suck the instant I let it go. I've seen that happen..trust me. :)
Bowie| This aint the case. :) You're gonna se *alot* of new things come out of Propaganda soon, and the tradition will continue. :)
Bowie| That 730 figure should top out over a thousand before the end of the year..hehe
Bowie| Anyway..
Bowie| I know i'm forgetting alot of people...Rob, Hemos, Scoop, Trae, David and all the other guys at t.o/VA who've helped me.. Bri, Kristen, my folks.
Bowie| Its the community that makes it work, not me.
Bowie| Thanks a shitload, guys. :) Its been one hell of a run. :)
Bowie| Nuff with the smalltalk. Lets see some goodies. :)

Propaganda vs. VA

[Anonymous Coward]

For more info on the beef with VA, check out this story, and check comments #101, #121, #122, and #126.

incidentally, its strange that when i click on a comment id, i just get a blank page instead of the comment..

For the link-less people...

[Masem]

Propaganda can (could have been, if this is 4/1, and the explicit statement in the article) be found at propaganda.themes.org, and is a collected of largish, artsy wallpapers good for both your computer desktops and web page backgrounds. The site was built around the theme of the ghost of JFK helping us to fight a WWII-like battle against the blandness of Microsoft Wallpapers. Most of these were Gimp-derived, and worked well with E themes, making them so-called "linux wallpapers".

Propaganda has been my sole sore for wallpapers of late, and if this truly isn't a April Fool's, it will be sad to see it go. Hopefully someone is as artsy as the old maintainers to provide these types of wallpapers in the future.

Thoughts about Bowie and Propaganda

[Phantasmagoria]

It seems that Bowie is trying to suggest that it's all Naru Sundar's (the new maintainer) fault that Propaganda is "languishing", and so must be killed. The way I see it, he didn't have time to make more backgrounds, and so he got someone else to maintain the site and continue making backgrounds. Most probably that guy as well didn't have enough time in his hands to keep making backgrounds. And now Bowie is not only stopping his so-called "project", but he's removing the two volumes Naru had spent time to create, plus blaming him for the site's "demise". And judging from the article and his comments on other articles regarding Propaganda, methinks Bowie is a tad too arrogant about this "contribution" to the world. I liked the backgrounds, both his and Naru's, but his attitude has space for improvement. I mean, calling the last two volumes (Naru's) "less than steller" was downright rude.

Bowie, if you are reading this, calm down and stop being so protective of your "project". How about keeping the site up (wherever it may be) and allow other people to contribute, sort of like themes.org.
------------------

Murder by numbers. One-two-three.

[Bowie J. Poag]

At the time I submitted this post to Slashdot, Propaganda was still up and running. That was around 11:30 PM last night. I went to bed shortly after that.

On the splash page, I put a little graphic which did a wonderful job of explaining how I felt about things.. Specifically, about what VA did to the people I worked with, myself, and those of you who actually supported the site. The lyrics from an old song by the Police, called "Murder By Numbers".

Clicking on the graphic then displayed a series of emails I had recieved from someone at VA Linux Systems from between April and May of 1999. A few of you know who I'm talking about, and thats fine. The bottom line is, that person knows who he is, and he has to live with himself. Thats all that matters.

Apparently, VA didn't like the fact that I had this sort of thing on public display, so, my site was basically destroyed by VA sometime between midnight and 9:00 AM when I woke up.

I don't have login access to the site anymore, nor do I want access. In addition to losing my login, all the materials that were once there are now gone. Artwork included. All of it. Gone.

If this doesn't underscore what i've been saying all along, I really don't know what more I can do to show you people. VA is a company willing to destroy a year and a half's worth of my work to prevent you from seeing a handful of emails which show you what kind of company they are on the inside.

The Linux community isn't the same anymore because of companies like VA, and what they're doing to us. It makes me sick. So sick, I refuse to even be associated with it. They can rot as far as I'm concerned. I'm out.

My sincerest thanks to all of you guys who were honestly thankful for all the work that went into the project, and took the time to write me tonight. or tossed a reply here.

(ignore the signature, btw. havent gotten around to changing it quite yet)


Bowie J. Poag

propaganda.themes.org, meet ufo.sourceforge.net...

[dlc]

Wasn't the solution to this problem posted a few days ago? The Unmaintained Free Software Open Source project is your answer. It would help out UFO a lot too, to get such a high-profile site on there.

darren

Cthulhu for President!