Q: You make a good point. What happened to all the content?
A: Most of it is still archived. But we experienced many setbacks through the years. There have been more server failures than I can remember. As our traffic grew by leaps and bounds, we chewed through hard drives at an incredible rate. We seem to wear them out in less than a year. And we haven't been able to rely on shared hosting for several years, now. We've had to lease dedicated servers. Thank God for Linux and rack servers!
Q: Do you plan to restore the archives?
A: That is always my hope. But I haven't had as much time for Webmastering as I once did. I keep working on it.
Q: Does Xenite.Org make a profit?
A: No. It really doesn't even pay for itself. Dixie and I have to make up the expenses out of our pockets. It costs about $1500 a year to lease the server, but there are other expenses. And we have experimented with paid advertising in other media. We do have good months, especially around Christmas time. Our visitors have been pretty good about helping to pay the bills. I don't want people to think their clicks on our advertising links are not helping. We do bring in a lot of money, but not enough to pay all the expenses.
Q: So why not sell registrations, especially to SF-FANDOM?
A: Because I don't want to do that. Paid memberships annoy me no end. I like free content, and I want to continue providing it for as long as I can. That is what the Web was originally all about. The business community has to continue doing business. We are not in this for the money. We do it for our own reasons. And the day may come when we stop doing it. If I ever decide to create a real business site, Xenite.Org will remain a free content site nonetheless.
Q: White cheese dip. What is the deal with white cheese dip? And is it really that popular?
A: I now receive more email about white cheese dip than about any other topic at Xenite.Org. It's simply a very delicious product I learned to enjoy while I was living in Georgia. You cannot find it in many places west of the Mississippi River, although I hope that changes.
Q: Do you answer all the email you get?
A: I can't. There is way too much of it. And most is not spam. We were getting inundated with spam through all the Web-based email links, so I set up a Contact Us form which allows people to contact us but without revealing our email addresses. Some people still try to spam us manually, but that has dropped off. As for the legitimate email, my inbox usually has hundreds of messages. I cannot respond to them all. I spend a lot of time filing messages away. I try to save some for later responses. Every now and then I come across one I should have answered -- months later -- and write back to the person, to make sure I answered them. Sometimes they say I did not get back to them. But I do my best.
Q: Who is Hardball Jones?
A: Someone who whishes to remain anonymous. He hasn't written anything for us in a long time anyway.
Q: How many volunteers have you had at Xenite.Org?
A: I don't think we've ever had a full count. There are twenty-to-thirty forum moderators and admins at SF-FANDOM. We've had four or five people write essays, I think (although Dean Kish was never formally one of our volunteers -- he just distributed movie reviews to us). There were about eight people who wrote for The History of Xena: Warrior Princess. I think around 20 people helped edit Xena Online Resources. A couple of the Herc/Xena FAQs were written by other people but they were not formally associated with Xenite.Org. And we've hosted some fan fiction. So, maybe there have been 60-70 people through the years, allowing for turnover and including some one-time contributions or general distributions.
Q: Are you a good Salsa dancer?
A: Other people say I am, but I am still learning.
Q: Do you take lessons?
A: Yes. I've been taking classes and private lessons from Gloria Jones of Dance Passion in Houston since 2002.
Q: Why Salsa (and Merengue and Cha Cha)?
A: These are fun, sexy dances. I'm also trying to learn Bachata and Cumbia. Salsa is the hardest. My friends and I have a lot of fun when we go dancing, and we've even helped Gloria put on some exhibitions.
Q:When Elizabeth Smart went missing for several months, you carried her picture on Xenite.Org's main index. What prompted that show of support?
A:I just had this overwhelming feeling that she was still alive and would be found if someone saw her. I wanted to make sure that as many people as possible were familiar with her story and picture as possible.
Q:Why not carry other missing children's pictures? There are national organizations which need help in finding lost children.
A:Those organizations are doing some admirable work. But many of the cases are not as cut-and-dried as Elizabeth's kidnapping was. She was abducted at knife-point by a (near) stranger who broke into her home. Many of the missing kids are with one of their parents. The parents are often violating court custody orders, but I know from close exposure to such situations that the fleeing parents -- while breaking the law and setting bad examples for their children, as well as denying their children opportunities to heal their relationships with the other parent -- are not simply being selfish. Often, our family court systems compel people to make desperate acts. It is a national tragedy, and I cannot in good conscience support a system which turns a blind eye to the suffering it causes many families.
Beyond the basic criminal activity itself, I don't know the rights and wrongs of the invidual child-abduction cases where well-meaning parents take their children. Yes, these parents have broken the law. That is wrong. But the law itself is not working. When a court refuses to hear appropriate evidence, or is swayed by unscrupulous attorneys (including guardians ad litem, who are supposed to protect the child), or participates in a system which punishes its own members for criticizing decisions, the process, and so forth -- when a court does these things, it is morally in the wrong. And its decisions should not carry the weight of law. I am not saying we should disregard those decisions. I am saying that we need to change the way family law works. It is broken and getting more so. I have seen tragic, corrupt abuses of the court system at first hand. And there is nothing the average citizen can do to stop it. Even the press has been powerless to change the way things are done in these tightly controlled systems.
I am sure there are many good judges, and many good attorneys. But I am not in a position to know which of those decisions are the best ones, which are not. So I am not going to blindly support them all. That is just wrong. And Xenite.Org will not carry the missing child photos and links because I feel that way.
