I have at hand four e-mails, two of them from current members of democraticunderground, and two of them from former members of democraticunderground; it needs noted the latter two were not tossed off Skins's island. They just floated away, and so there's no grudge involved here.
One of them asked why I, franksolich, thought the Bostonian Drunkard had returned.....as if franksolich would have any "special insight" as to what goes on, on Skins's island.
All four of them offered speculation that my fellow alum Skins asked the Bostonian Drunkard to come back.
Both the number of primitives, and the traffic, on Skins's island, has diminished considerably the past few months, as betrayed by BadCat's tentative preliminary "DUmp Diving," which numbers showed that the nadir was reached a few weeks ago, with a mere circa 900 active primitives (the usual "average" the past several years has been circa 4200-5500 primitives).
One of the former members of democraticunderground devised a second "tool" to gauge, at least roughly, the traffic on Skins's island; I don't have the permission of the person to describe the trick, but to me, it seems an eminently reasonable one. That has shown traffic on Skins's island at times to crawl at the speed of a glacier.
It's really bad when the "cooking and baking forum" trots along at a faster pace than "general discussion."
So.....quite obviously, my fellow alum Skins is dealing with declining numbers and action.
Based upon that reasonable assumption, these two insiders, and two former insiders, speculate that my fellow alum asked the Bostonian Drunkard to swim back to the island, so as to bolster activity there.
All four also speculate, to one degree or another, that Skins's fund-raising efforts have been less and less fruitful, and that the Bostonian Drunkard was brought back to help prop up the money-harvest.
The bottom line being, these four individuals (none of whom are connected with each other) are guessing that my fellow alum, desperate to keep Skins's island going, asked the Bostonian Drunkard to come back.
These are insiders, or former insiders, remember; while franksolich is on the outside looking in.
But one is compelled to disagree, most strenuously, with their assessment of my fellow alum Skins.
franksolich has watched, and known, Skins for a very long time now, and this assessment of him flies in the face of all that franksolich has seen, and known, of his fellow alum.
For a Democrat and a liberal, Skins has always demonstrated a high level ("high" among Democrats and liberals only; "moderately poor, almost flunking," if applied to Republicans and conservatives) of principle and integrity, a nobility of purpose, a steadfastness of honesty, courage, and compassion.
Money means nothing to my fellow alum, who is more interested in Higher Things.
I rather suspect that the Bostonian Drunkard tearfully begged, pleaded, crawled, kissed the boots of, Skins, to be allowed back onto the island, and that Skins, in a fit of misguided mercy, finally got tired of the bawling and sobbing, and let the Bostonian Drunkard come ashore.