"Stature" in a community can be attained by achievement, charisma, contribution or just kindness. Yours is the product of years of topping out in every category.
There is a sense of sadness and of loss in your message that I think a lot of us share, but it is even sadder that your motives would come into question by anyone here.
Those who have never attended WhilFest cannot imagine the difference in the vibe between that and Devcon.
And those who do not know you are certainly the less for not having that experience.
>I'll do all I can<
And that'll do.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.