<Colleagues> As I explained in a recent email to my esteemed friend <Edward Gibbon>, I've been gone so long because I had another of those 14-hour a day work spans at my job. They aren't as bad as they sound, because they are sporadic and in fact I get more time off at the College than at any other job I've had teaching in Korea for the last ten years.

Just to clear up a few matters, I have no knowledge of Daniel's finances or the financial state of this website- but I doubt it's in trouble on that front.

One of the reasons I have no knowledge about this and most other cg.com matters is that Daniel has never directly answered any of my "site longevity" concerns, either in public or private.

I'll try to be brief- over the last 10 years I've amassed hundreds of browser bookmarks of chess websites, and at present fully half of them are gone. The problem with websites, especially one-man proprietorships, is that there are no provisions for longevity.

My chess history work at youtube (not that I've published anything there for the past four years) isn't going to disappear suddenly, because it's owned by a gigantic corporation and it's not suddenly going to go off the air, or suddenly delete all the work people have posted on youtube.

This isn't a "Daniel" problem, it's a systemic problem with website publishing in general. Unlike work published on paper and put in a library, work published on a website depends on the longevity of the website itself. Unless careful legal/financial provisions are made in advance, all the work a given website hosts may disappear forever, without warning, at any moment. This is not true of material stored in the New York Public Library, for example.

If anything, I get the impression Daniel loves running cg.com. I think it's his labor of love, and it remains by far the best internet chess site in existence. The only thing I'm worried about is that it can't exist for any reasonable length of time, as far as I know, without Daniel- who is one man. In history writing, a "reasonable length of time" is 5000 years or more. History writing isn't an obsession with the past- on the contrary, it's written specifically for the future. What if all of those scrolls that make up The Bible had been stored on one man proprietor websites, instead of on paper or rock? We'd have no Bible. We might even have no knowledge there ever was a Bible.

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Ok back later with more- quickly, the "stodgy" <Atletico Madrid> played the most exciting football against <Bayern> in both legs- In leg one they ran a high press throughout the whole first half, and it paid off with a goal. Instead of packing 10 men inside their own 18 yard box, they packed 10 men inside Bayern's 18 yard box lol. Hats off to them. Now they look like the European "team of destiny" and could end up both Spansh league and European champions- easily, in fact.

<Man City> looked uninterested in meekly succumbing to <Real>, when all they needed was a single goal to win (due to the "away goal" rule). They played with zero energy and zero creativity. What a massive disappointment for <City> fans. I'm a <City> fan and I was both appalled and saddened by their lack of enthusiasm in this critical semifinal.

Now <Liverpool> is our last European hope. I've just downloaded leg two, but I won't be able to watch it until later so please don't post the score yet ok? All <Liverpool> needs is a clean sheet and one goal to go through to the final on the dreaded "away goal" rule...

lol

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Last thing before I come back tonight-

<The Focus> Quite right. We've been on affable terms for ages now and why not? We go back a long way and have many common opinions and interests- chess history in particular. As our mutual friend <"Mark Finan/User not found"> once put it, I'm also "team Focus."

<My chess history work at youtube (not that I've published anything there for the past four years) isn't going to disappear suddenly, because it's owned by a gigantic corporation and it's not suddenly going to go off the air, or suddenly delete all the work people have posted on youtube.>

Speaking of YouTube. Did you <ever> receive my email titled 'I received an email from BOBBY FISCHER!!!?" If so I can help you with those videos, I know all the little tricks to maximize your profits and given that your videos are <all> yours (some of my profits go to people who's clips I might use for one of my own) but I'm making 4 figures a month from doing something I'd be doing anyway. I've just passed the 2500 subscribers mark on one of my channels and I'm eligible for direct YouTube support, which I've taken full advantage of :).

<If anything, I get the impression Daniel loves running cg.com. I think it's his labor of love, and it remains by far the best internet chess site in existence>

It's the best history wise but other sites have larger databases. I've nothing against Daniel Freeman, sometimes I feel a little sorry for him, but I called him a coward for a reason, both publicly and privately. Whatever happens I still wish him and this site all the best.

And I've no need to elaborate on your football assessments, you know more than I do! And I won't ruin the Liverpool result for you but I don't know how you escape from it in this day and age! It's on <every single social media platform> there is, it's not like the 80's and early 90s where all you had to do was avoid the pub, lol. Reminds me of that 'Likely lads' episode where they spend all day avoiding the score only to make it home, turn on MOTD and see the game was postponed, haha.

And Jess. I'm not being funny as I'm guessing you don't know but please don't mention my real name on this site. I changed my username so I wouldn't spawn another weirdo and I don't want some newbie joining the site and becoming infatuated with me like a certain person here already is. You missed it yesterday but he lost his mind once I it sunk in he's in big trouble. He saw my solicitors letter to Daniel and papped his pants. I would too if I was him, he's been obsessing over me daily for the last 3 yrs and now something is about to be done about him. We have SEVERAL!!!! statements from several different forms of social media, lol. I just don't want my real name on this site again, I'm not moaning at you I'm just giving you a heads up.

<User not found> Message received loud and clear.

Still no email in my box and I checked spam folder and such. Did your emails get through to <Edward Gibbon (Trav)>?

I may have to open another email account on a different provider anyways because Yahoo truly are the most incompetent people on the planet.

Football Spoilers lol thank you- but they're easier to avoid if you aren't on any social media.

Cg.com is my only social media place and I don't have my mobile connected to the internet. It's bad enough I have to answer a human voice call- I don't want the bloody thing chirping at me with "tweets" or "toots."

Anyways the EPL questions I care about most are already decided. I can't wait for the Euro 2016 tournament now.

<Teem> Yes I just watched it- the favorite won, which is not common, but seems to be getting more common?

<User not found>

Right I've just sent you an email using this newfangled "gmail."

Please tell me you get this one. If you do, will you tell me how to view "sent messages" from the gmail dashboard?

Bloody google but at least it's better than Yahoo.

<User not found>

lol you just click "sent mail" which is right there in red letters and I still didn't see it- until now...

When those teenagers get out of hand, and when don't they, just tell them "Children! You're teenagers now! So act like adults!"

Nicely done- now if only <Martinez> and <Big> were around to complete with you.

Yes did you in fact have the conversation with <Carl Yastremski>?

<Teem> I'd love to read (hear?) the exchange but your link produced nothing I could find aboot you and Yaz. At the time you mention in that post all I can see is <George Foreman> analyzing <Lend a Hand> vs <Wesley Sewing Machine> on a "display board."

I looked at the comments below but they are not time stamped, nor is there any way I can see to find your exchange.

We don't give up so easily in the British Army. Now give me 20...

Wait. Wrong skit.

<Teem> Fabulous. That should be on the front page brah. <Yaz> was so happy to hear from you, his whole face lit up when he recognized your voice!

Also he agreed with your point and elaborated on it, with personal anecdotes from his past.

Brilliant.

<User not found>

Contact!

<Teem> I suspected as much. Ever since I first hear the "Puyallup Screamer" I figured that would be close to your accent?