Obsessive, possessive, aggressive, oppressive; the Beast attacking me. Selfishly, relentlessly, unapologetically; the Demon breaking me. Conniving, scheming, planning, sneaking; the Banshee draining me. Slowly, subtly, persistently, inevitably; the Monster changing me.

Today, I... 1) Woke up way too early from a short, restless sleep with a crappy sore throat. 2) Set up a doctor's appointment. 3) Diagnosed with Strep Throat. Got a vaccine in my ass-cheek. 4) Vision went black and nearly passed out while driving to work. Cause was either the vaccine or that I hadn't eaten anything since lunch the previous day. Pulled into the nearest parking lot to get off of the road. 5) Called an ambulance for myself in case I was dying. 6) Started to feel better while watching the ambulance take the wrong turn over and over again. 7) Went straight to work, left leg was cramped up from the damned ass-vaccine. And that was all in the space of about 60 minutes. Much later: checked Opuss and found that it's still here. That makes it a good day.

Saving A Sinking Ship (I've done as much prior research as I could regarding Opuss' closing, but I may have missed a detail or two. Let me know in the comments.) Okay, our little corner of the Internet may be going away soon. If you're reconciled to that, good for you. If, however, you see reasons why this community is perhaps too important to die, let's brainstorm a bit. The way I am understanding this, Opuss is being shut down because it's losing money and no one is interested in buying it. There's another reason, but more on that later. Opuss isn't making money. That isn't surprising, since you've probably noticed that the app is free and there are no ads. Not making money is okay if that's your kind of thing, but we also know that there are costs associated with running this app and its business like servers, payroll, taxes, etc. By all means, be a purist and don't seek a profit. Far be it from me to judge. But the problem we're facing isn't poor sales generating less revenue than costs, it's that nothing is in place to generate ANY revenue, period. It begs the question of how, exactly, anyone planned on being able to sustain this thing, knowing fully-well that the current system gives a 100% guarantee of losing money. Opuss needs to start making some money fast, and donations are not a substitute for revenue. There are a few ways to make money, and the Opussians have all done a fine job of suggesting them. I'm going to recommend some while pointing out potential problems with others. Let's start with ad revenue, since it's the simplest. The iOS SDK makes it easy for you to place an ad banner at the top of the screen for some effortless, free money. Taking it one step further, the SDK lets you add full-screen ads. They're intrusive, but the pay is higher. I'd suggest a constant banner supplemented by an occasional full-screen ad or video. By "occasional", I mean every five-ish minutes of non-typing activity, like browsing Opusses or comments, and one after posting a new Opuss or comment. Some people won't like the ads, but they're kind of a fact-of-#life at this point and most people are able to tolerate them. To be fair, some people may hate the ads so much that they uninstall the app. Lame, but losing a couple of people beats losing everyone if Opuss is shut down. Another suggestion I've seen a lot is a subscription model or making Opuss a paid app. The benefits here are obvious, especially with a subscription model, since you have a lot of predictability in your profits. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying up to $1.99 or a few bucks per quarter. But there is a demographic who will mind-- younger Opussians. I'm sure the devs have data on the ages of their users and could make more sound conclusions here than I could, but my personal observations are that a significant chunk of the community are under the legal age to own a credit card, open a bank account, or have a job. That means restricted access to online purchasing and a fixed income, if any income at all. The reason game developers and publishers are crazy for free-to-play these days is because being able to consume a product with no up-front cost gives it a lot more reach than it would otherwise have. If you place a barrier to entry in the form of a paid app, you risk losing a key demographic, even though the potential customer really wants the product. Regarding the subscription model, my suggestion would be to have two tiers of Opuss service, one premium and one free. Free has ads and limited access to features, for example a Free account can only Follow five Opussians, cannot post comments, and cannot place searchable tags in an Opuss; while Premium accounts get the full, ad-free Opuss experience. I'd see this route as preferable to making Opuss a paid app, since you are not barring Free users, while still generating ad revenue from them. Though the money in either wont be anywhere near as good as the third and final monetization model I'll be covering-- those ever-loved... Microtransactions. If you want to get rich, there is nothing better than the good ol' "nickel-and-dime-with-a-fake-conscience" model, where you make currency a necessary and limited commodity while still allowing it to be earned at a painfully-slow rate for no monetary cost to keep users from crying foul. (If you've ever used Quora, the following is going to sound very familiar-- except that Quora is actually free) Pick a cute name for your currency, like "Paws". Writing a new Opuss costs 50 Paws (abbreviated to "P" from now on), and you gain 5P for each Like your work receives. Reposting an Opuss to your followers is free, but you can also force it into others' feeds as a "Featured" Opuss for 100P per ten impressions, getting 2P for each resulting Like (the original author is still receiving 5P per Like). Out of Paws? You can buy a pack of 50P for 99¢. Sans purchasing Paws, I would actually like to see something like this implemented in Opuss. The Credit system in Quora does a great job at encouraging the community to create and share quality content. But this is a discussion about making money, so that's off-topic. We've discussed a few ways that Opuss can be changed from a money-sink on the verge of capsizing to a sustainable platform, possibly even a modestly-profitable one. But all of the 987 words you've just read are worthless if Opuss is in the hands of a party who cannot turn things around. Way earlier, I mentioned another possible reason why Opuss is shutting down. It is my opinion that the current team is either unwilling or unable to keep Opuss alive. I cannot say if it is due to a lack of motivation or a lack of manpower (or both), but it's a reasonable assumption, considering Opuss is losing money and the app itself is outdated (the iPhone 5 has been out for eight months and I still see black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. It makes typing a pain.). Unfortunately, there isn't much that anyone can do to save this app if leadership is burnt out and there isn't enough development muscle to make the changes necessary to start generating revenue. I dearly hope that this is not the case, but it could explain why no one has offered to buy Opuss. An ineffective team behind a failing platform does not make a wise investment choice. They'd be better off giving the platform away for free just to keep the app and community alive. That last paragraph was kind of bleak. Let's assume it's just untrue and move on to future plans after Opuss is making enough money to become sustainable. If it were my call, I'd go for some rapid, aggressive growth. Expand the dev team and pump resources into a major update to Opuss. Not just the app itself, but alternate platforms as well. Flesh out the website so people can create and browse content on a computer, break into the Android market, and add new features to the existing product (bold and italics would be really nice to have). This will take time and money, and you'll be able to get higher-quality services out sooner with a front-loaded sum of cash. Normally, you'd have to seek investors for this, but Kickstarter has changed that. Make a good campaign to fund Opuss 2.0, offer your backers compelling rewards (a printed collection of some of the top-ranked works submitted to Opuss would be brilliant, if you can get the consent of the original authors), and market the Hell out of the project. You'll end up with not just the money you'll need to take Opuss to the next level, but an expanded user base to enjoy the new hotness. Thanks for reading all of that text. Opussians, please chime in with your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Seamonster Ltd., Opuss is more than just a plug for you to pull and there are compelling reasons for Opuss to continue existing. It's never too late to turn things around. Your move.

Twenty days since last I wrote, Twenty days since last I thought, Twenty days since last I rhymed, Twenty days since last I could.

C/2012 S1 (ISON) Comet, shining like a star, Traveling here from afar, You are many, yet the same, Frozen water and Methane, Brightening as you near the Sun, Streaking tail 'cross horizon, Over time called many names, In the past ominous claims, Later that you made Earth whole, Left water, early #life's goal, And maybe extremophiles, Evolving though nature's trails, Though we do not know for sure, Still we love to watch your tour, So burn bright and hold still too, While I'm photographing you. --- November can't come soon enough #aprilwords #comet