I miss Al Featherston :(

[Lord Ash]

I still click on the front page of DBR and will see a story and think "Oh, is it one of Al's?" before I remember

Really missed.

[Troublemaker]

I miss Al Featherstone

I also miss Al Featherston (no 'e' on the end) :-)

Don't be panicked. I think Mr. Featherston would love that the second post in this thread involved a spelling correction. DBR needs to keep being DBR, he is thinking. :-)

[Lord Ash]

I also miss Al Featherston (no 'e' on the end) :-)

Don't be panicked. I think Mr. Featherston would love that the second post in this thread involved a spelling correction. DBR needs to keep being DBR, he is thinking. :-)

Oh, son of a...

If a moderator could fix it, I'd appreciate it. I can't stand having mistakes like that

But yes, he WOULD enjoy that

[rsvman]

Me, too. Not just his front-page articles, but his contributions to the forum, too.

[Lord Ash]

Thank you!

[gus]

Me, too. Not just his front-page articles, but his contributions to the forum, too.

Yeah, it's really too bad that he quit posting because of a UNC troll.

[JStuart]

Me, too. Not just his front-page articles, but his contributions to the forum, too.

I've asked several times if we could have his articles set up in an archive...many are timeless, especially during the ACC tournament.
JStuart

[throatybeard]

Yeah, it's really too bad that he quit posting because of a UNC troll.

Is this well-established? As his health was failing over a period of time, one wonders if that was the overarching reason and whatever proximate conflict took place was just a last straw of sorts.

[gus]

Is this well-established? As his health was failing over a period of time, one wonders if that was the overarching reason and whatever proximate conflict took place was just a last straw of sorts.

Here's his last post: https://forums.dukebasketballreport...48#post1031848

[kAzE]

Here's his last post: https://forums.dukebasketballreport...48#post1031848

Unfortunate that his final post was on a bad note, but I've enjoyed my interactions with Olympic Fan (as I knew him) over my years on this forum, and found him to be a insightful and eloquent poster who elevated the discourse of each thread he participated in. He will be missed. RIP.

[TruBlu]

Is this well-established? As his health was failing over a period of time, one wonders if that was the overarching reason and whatever proximate conflict took place was just a last straw of sorts.

Here's his last post: https://forums.dukebasketballreport...48#post1031848

I PM'ed Al (I did not know OF was Al at the time) after this post, asking him to reconsider and to continue posting as his posts were excellent, and for him not to let a troll keep him from posting. He PM'ed a response thanking me, but leaving no doubt that the trolling was the reason for him departing.

It was a great loss for DBR.

[throatybeard]

Here's his last post: https://forums.dukebasketballreport...48#post1031848

I see. I missed that at the time; oddly, the Grand Exit post is met with no further comment by anyone else on that.

The timing is strange. As the trollery of the UNC troll goes, this was about 2.5 on a scale of 10. That troll has been damaging this board for over two decades, and for the last 3-4y, i now simply tune out of a thread at his first appearance in it. But as his infantile antics go, that particular event wasn't much.

[Troublemaker]

Yeah, it's really too bad that he quit posting because of a UNC troll.

This seems unfair and maybe a little bit petty towards the "UNC troll" (and indirectly the mods [for allowing the troll to go unbanned, right?])

First of all, in these types of situations (self-removals from posting), I tend not to blame the object of protest too much. It's not as if the UNC troll held Oly Fan at gunpoint and made him avoid DBR. It's just that Oly Fan allowed the troll to get to him while many others did not.

More importantly, it's an internet forum. The return rate of people who declare that they're done posting forever must be like 95%. I suspect a healthy Oly Fan would be posting today.

[cato]

Unfortunate that his final post was on a bad note, but I've enjoyed my interactions with Olympic Fan (as I knew him) over my years on this forum, and found him to be a insightful and eloquent poster who elevated the discourse of each thread he participated in. He will be missed. RIP.

Olympic Fan took a principled stand. The circumstances of him leaving this forum were unfortunate, but his manner of doing so was admirable.

I too miss Al’s contributions, both here and in the wider media.

[OldPhiKap]

I see. I missed that at the time; oddly, the Grand Exit post is met with no further comment by anyone else on that.

The timing is strange. As the trollery of the UNC troll goes, this was about 2.5 on a scale of 10. That troll has been damaging this board for over two decades, and for the last 3-4y, i now simply tune out of a thread at his first appearance in it. But as his infantile antics go, that particular event wasn't much.

Oly's frustration, as I understand, stemmed from a rule at the time: you cannot mention the UNC cheating scandal anymore. Things had gotten out of hand to the point that any mention of UNC was met with a torrent of unrelated attacks on what a bunch of lying, cheating weasel-bastards they were that did not advance the discussion substantively.

The breaking point was when the UNC poster commented about how Roy was a better coach than K. The responses were along the lines that Roy's accomplishments were tainted because of the cheating scandal. The Duke side of the argument was deleted while the UNC side of the argument was left intact. There had been a lot of emotion about that poster at the time, and Oly decided that he had enough.

My messaging with Oly at the time also made it abundantly clear to me that he was fed up and gone. Whether health issues hampered a subsequent return or not, I don't know. But I am more than firm in believing that he left the site at the time due to an accumulation of the UNC poster and the manner in which that poster was handled. Right, wrong, or indifferent -- that's what happened.

(I hope that is as neutral a telling as can be had. I agreed with Oly at the time, so my personal description would be much more spirited).

[ehdg]

Damn to tell you how naive I was, I never even realized OLY was Al. I loved his posts and the incite he provided with them. His argument in that last post was a very valid one imo!!

[moonpie23]

as do many of us...

[NSDukeFan]

If you think you miss Al now, wait until the season really gets going. That, when the board was blowing up after a bad game or two, and tournament time are when his best front page articles came out. Thank goodness Jim has been posting lots of great articles this year. Olympic Fan would always be missed on the boards though as he often elevated the level of discussion in many of the threads he participated in.