I'm Taking a Sabbatical

Published by Bart on May 16th, 2008 in BlenderNation

Recent events in my life (a baby, and starting my own company) and on this site have made me decide it's time to put some distance between myself and the Blender community. I find it too hard to motivate myself for the huge amount of time I need to put in this project every day. So, I'm stepping down for at least a month, maybe longer, maybe permanently. The site is in the more than capable hands of our team of editors now!

All the best,

Bart

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216 Responses to “I'm Taking a Sabbatical”

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1 Gryphon May 16th, 2008 at 9:51 am

Congratulations Bart! We'll miss you, but you've earned it! Thanks for everything!
2 ton May 16th, 2008 at 9:53 am

Respect Bart! We'll have a beer soon. :)
3 johan_zhe May 16th, 2008 at 9:54 am

Aggreed, thanks alot for everything!

Afterall, blendernation is the heart of the community!
4 Jarod May 16th, 2008 at 9:57 am

Thanks for your work Bart!
Good luck!
5 Banjax May 16th, 2008 at 9:59 am

Kinda sorry to hear that, I will miss your time and efforts, thank you for Blendernation.
6 Hassan May 16th, 2008 at 9:59 am

Good luck with the new Company. I really appreciate all the work you have done with blendernation. It's one of my favourite sites, you know one that you open up in a tab when you first start you web browser for the day.
7 skn May 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am

Thank you and good luck.
8 GeeN May 16th, 2008 at 10:11 am

Thanks for everything!
9 rpgsimmaster May 16th, 2008 at 10:11 am

Thanks, Bart
The Blender Community honestly wouldn't be what it is without you and your work (although that said, the 'community' has unfortunately not paid you back very well, sorry to say)

So, Good luck, and thanks for all the fis… Erm, sorry. Good luck and thanks for all the work you've put in.

rpgsimmaster

Say… What does the company do? You didn't mention…
10 Rickyx May 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am

Take your time, thank you for the time you put into this.
We can see it…

Good luck for your company, a kiss to your baby and thank you again.
Rickyx.
11 Imer May 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am

Thanks for all and good luck for your company ;-)
12 MartinR May 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am

Good luck. Just wanted to say thankyou for all your effort in maintaining the blendernation site in all it's 'open-ness'. First thing i do on a computer every day is go to the site for news and quite often. entertainment. All the best.
13 Ogden May 16th, 2008 at 10:20 am

You da man bart dude!
14 Dion Moult May 16th, 2008 at 10:26 am

Thank you so much for the effort you've placed in BlenderNation and the Blender community.

What a pity, I was going to ask you to beta test a system I was making for the Blender community next month! Now who shall I ask? I have absolutely no idea how to contact the whole of your editing team ;)

Congratulations Bart! You're leaving at the peak (well, a high spot anyway, Blender has still far to travel) and that must be great for you!
15 bullx May 16th, 2008 at 10:27 am

:°)
have a lot of happy-time and a lot of luck on your way.
thank you for your time and work.
16 samran May 16th, 2008 at 10:27 am

Thanks Bart and good luck man
17 Big Fan May 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am

bart,
well i'm sorry you fell hosed about the goings on here recently enough to withdraw what time and inclination you do have but honestly I understand your viewpoint.
myself I have contributed here and there thinking that goes against the community grain but I dont think I have ever seen such blatantly ignorant and obnoxious posting as we have had in the last few days.
so I am not going to say thankyou and wish you good luck cos I think that misses the point.
rather I would suggest that the obvious offenders apologise to bart and kernon and the community for trespassing all over the goodwill of various parties with their ugly persistant and thoughtless posting.
18 Tagyn May 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am

Thank you for all your work .
blendernation is the only site i check every morning .

good luck !
19 Jean_R May 16th, 2008 at 10:29 am

Merci Bart, Have good luck with your projects. :D
20 Dusty May 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am

Don't blame you, it's one hell of job running something this popular. Your team I'm sure will do a fantastic job, though maybe not up to your high standards.

Good luck.
21 Ankit Pruthi May 16th, 2008 at 10:32 am

thanks for all that you hav done for blender and for us Bart…thanks a lot..

but please do try to find time to just come here once every month or so…it would be nice i guess

all the best…..
22 luis May 16th, 2008 at 10:32 am

Congratulations Bart! Thanks for everything!
Obrigado,from Portugal.
23 mfoxdogg May 16th, 2008 at 10:32 am

Good bye bart thanks for everything :) and i wish you good luck in everything you do :)
24 Dread Knight May 16th, 2008 at 10:35 am

RESPECT!
25 Len May 16th, 2008 at 10:43 am

Hope to see you back soon Bart.
26 donya May 16th, 2008 at 10:44 am

thank you a lot for all Bart,
your work it have been amasing.
good luck, we miss you.
27 paulR May 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am

Good luck to you on all fronts. All the best bart! :) Don't stay away too long though! ^^
28 Zeirus May 16th, 2008 at 10:46 am

Good luck, Burt! :D
29 Reaction May 16th, 2008 at 10:47 am

Looking back over all the news items, one begins to realise how many had "Published by Bart" at the top!

Thanks for all the effort Bart, which has helped make BlenderNation my first web page of the day for a long time now.
30 pepe May 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am

just one more to say ….

… THANK YOU with a teardrop in a smiling face
31 Sympodius May 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am

All the best, Bart. Whether you come back or not, your efforts have been greatly appreciated. I hope we'll see you soon.
32 NeonU May 16th, 2008 at 11:01 am

1000 Thanx, best luck!

Maybe this is a good point for the "team of editors" to introduce themselves… I'm using this community-site for a couple of months and did not yet find out …
33 Mal May 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am

Enjoy your well deserved break Bart!

As someone mentioned above, you have created one of the only websites that I check daily.
I didn't follow the Microsoft story past the first few M$ bashing posts, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty.
34 TX_RX May 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am

Life balance is everything. :) I'll echo Sympodius thanks and wish you all the best in what ever you decide to do and many thanks for managing this tornado of news for the blender community!
35 NeonU May 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am

Ah and yeah, a small point of critcism: the recent discussion about this microsoft-mail was stopped by bart, sure he had his reasons, nothing I couldn't live with. But even if some of the posts where quite stupid, doesn't the simple number of post show that there is a need of discussion? Who will manage these community-processes in the future?
36 wayne May 16th, 2008 at 11:11 am

i agree bart, family first, great news :)

thanks for all your hard work up til now, you are a legend!!!
37 required May 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am

I am confused.
Who is Ton and who is Bart?
38 Schlops May 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am

Thank you, B@rt! Enjoy your sabbatical and good luck!
39 Jos May 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am

Thanks for all the hard work you have put into Blendernation for all this time. You will be missed. I hope you come back but take your time.
40 meta-androctro May 16th, 2008 at 11:22 am

thanks Bart,
you have done Blender the such a Great Service for so long.
enjoy the time with you child, they really do grow up so fast!
best wishes in your future endeavors.
Brendon.
41 spiked May 16th, 2008 at 11:25 am

Bart, Blender is a wonderfully good part of the open source community that you helped grow. Unfortunately you just witnessed a terrible bad part of it, which exists as well. A bunch of hard headed single purpose idiots whose only real support of open source is for the hate of Microsoft. Ignore them. They contribute nothing to the true open source community except stench. Take a break, relax and remember why you were here to begin with, it surely had nothing to do with that part of the community.
42 Gat May 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am

thanks for your work here Bart! good luck with the company
43 ROUBAL May 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am

Thank you for all your efforts Bart!
Blendernation is the first site I visit every day, and a great source for the Blender Community. You made it alive day after day and I'm sure that it was not easy to find new informations each time. Don't think too much about the last 2 days, and enjoy your break with your family. Take care of you and good luck for your starting company !
44 Sensei May 16th, 2008 at 11:50 am

Bart,

I had a gut feeling this would happen. I certainly hope we see you again. Yours were my very first tutorials with Blender. Building a house, riding through a tunnel, burning steel :-)
Ah, fond memories indeed.

To me, you are part of Blender. No less than Ton, Big Whale, Way Pay, Reevan, et al. I'll miss you and all that you have contributed to Blender and it's community over the years.

When it came to the signal to noise ratio, Blendernation couldn't be beat. :-D
I suspect that will continue.

Good luck to you, and best wishes to your family. Hope to see around again :-)

Now, where did I save that Pawn in a Hurry tute, it's on my hard driver here somewhere ;-P
45 Astrollo May 16th, 2008 at 11:51 am

Dear Bart - total respect!
46 shul May 16th, 2008 at 11:54 am

Bart, thank you for all you have done , and I hope will do, for the community, I know that running a site is a tough work but very rewarding,

Good luck with the new company and hope to see you here in the midst of us commenters :-)
47 Ephalim May 16th, 2008 at 11:56 am

I hope you dont do it because of the last 2 days..

Thanks for your great efforts in developing and promoting Blender (and still to know what comes first..).

Best wishes for your future!

vg e
48 Chris May 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

thanks mate, good luck
49 BlenderLovingSquirrel2 May 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

congratulations!

thank you for all the efforts!
50 Greg M. Johsnon May 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

I think I met you at SIGGRAPH Boston, I was the "only guy talking about povray."
Best wishes.
51 rexprime May 16th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

thanks for all of your hard work bart.
52 MrE May 16th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

Best wishes and good luck with your baby. Hope to see you back now and then.
53 MrNoodle May 16th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

Good luck!
54 Givissa May 16th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

I really appreciate your work. Best wishes for your family and projects. Grazie mille.
55 TweakingKnobs May 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

Thank you so much !!!!

from the heart.
56 mumluke May 16th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

You've got it, your name along with Blendernation.com, forever, what more does a person hope for!!!
57 Toni Grappa May 16th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

The simpatico front-face of Blendernation is leaving. What a pitty. Good luck for you.
58 PapaSmurf May 16th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Bart, this site has done more for Blender than we will ever know. You have created a permanent and valuable source of information out of nothing except your ingenuity and brilliance, and you need to be very proud of that. Motivation has its ups and downs, and it is a hard job being an editor. Any leadership position carries with it responsibility, and decisions have to be made, No one can ever make everybody happy all the time. You need to focus on whether you have made the right people happy and have accomplished your mission, which is to broadcast news items. I can tell you, as a fellow leader in the Blender community, that you have done this and more. As I said on BA to the community, BN is not a public forum - it is a news service with limited resources, and your responsibility is to maintain its editorial integrity and control its content. Many people think they have the right to control and consume your limited resources, but they do not pay for it and are mistaken.

Unfortunately, we do not say "Thank You" often enough, or get appraisals / bonus / rewards for our contributions to Blender, and thus we leaders really don't get a lot of tangible recognition as we go about our duties. So, as one leader to another, Thank You. Take some time, take care of the family, delight in those baby bubbles, recharge those batteries, and I hope you to see you back again.

Warm Regards,
Roger
59 Olaf May 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Thx Bart, and all the best wishes!
60 Anthoni_C May 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

Well Bart you've done this community a great service and hopefully your team of editors can continue to do so.
61 Chainz May 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

We" ll miss you… :'(
Hope to see (hear) you soon…
62 Chaotician May 16th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Good luck Bart,

I wouldn't have heard half of the cool things I have about Blender if it hadn't have been for this site. Without my daily Blender Nation fix I wouldn't know half the things I do and consequently wouldn't be using Blender as part of my job.

Thanks for everything…

Best wishes for the future

Matte
63 Grzesiek May 16th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

I agree with what PapaSmurf said.

To me, this is the source for all blender information, other sites are a filler more then anything else (yes, even http://www.blender.org).

It has been, it is and it will be the first site I open for Blender News. (ps Blender RC5 is out :) )

All I can hope is that one day you'll come back and the community will grow up a tad. Especially the hole MS/Windows. I to had this issue in blenderstorm. Most simply hate them. But such is life.

So…

Rest, relax, and concentrate on what is most important to you. Your family and the new company you mentioned. And again, hope to hear from you once in a while here on blendernation.
64 claas May 16th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

good luck man

I am 5 years away from my sabbatical ;)
65 Pavel Siska May 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Good luck to you Bart and your family :)) We'll miss you. Hope you will be back soon :)
66 TKR101010 May 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

Thanks for all the time and effort you put into the site. I wish you every success while you're away :)
67 Marijn May 16th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

Hey bedankt voor al je moeite wel pech voor je dat het nu zo slecht weer is dus even lekker in de zon gaan zitten is er niet bij ;)
Maar suc6 nog met je zaak en je kindje!
68 henk May 16th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Bedankt, Bart!
69 Micool May 16th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

You made a great job.. Blender nation has become my home page from many month by now…
70 dono May 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Thanks a lot for all your wonderful work, i love very much all what you did and how you think.

Bonne chance pour la suite !!!
71 Florian May 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Thanks for all the effort! Blendernation is one of the few websites I visit daily.

Florian
72 yellow May 16th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Good bye for now, Bart. Best Wishes to you and your family.

I'd also like to echo PapaSurf's post, they are my feelings exactly.

BlenderNation is usually the first website I go to. It's invaluable and has done so much.

I personally don't think you've made one bad decision here at BlenderNation. Except for perhaps not locking the MS thread sooner. :-)

Best of luck.
73 NCubed May 16th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Thank you!

Enjoy the time with your baby. One's own children are just amazing!
74 SeanJM May 16th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Bart, there's opinionated people everywhere, in fact they outnumber sensible people. Don't take anything personally here, but if a break is what you really need, take it.
75 zapman May 16th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Vielen Dank für alles und alles Gute für die Zukunft! Auf bald!
76 pKrime May 16th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

Yet another Thanks, Bart, enjoy your time, you did very much!

about these days meaningless flame wars, it happens whenever some "key words" arise on the internet, making polite people go away from a nonsense discussion, so don't mess the trolls with the fine blender community.

all the best! :)
77 Martín Eschoyez May 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

Thanks for all your efforts Bart, and take care of your baby! Agree with NCubed… Congrats! ;)
Again, thanks for all the time that you've taken for this!
78 pastorJohn May 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

B@rt:

As a dad, I fully understand the need to have time for a new child at home. Congrats and blessings on your family!!

As a guy with a busy job, I fully understand when our energies need to go to work with us, not get used up on our other passions. It is very responsible of you, and I applaud your wisdom.

As a Blender perpetual NOOB and HUGE fan, I can say that this site has had a huge part in keeping the Blender community a community. I got interested in Blender just before Ton announced that he was starting the Blender Foundation. (Wow! Open Source!) Over the years, I have followed the story of Blender from interesting Geek app to a tool for artists and professionals.

I read the story here. I remember when the site started, and I was excited then. I loved the format and always will. Your RSS feed button is permanently on my Bookmarks Toolbar. This is one of the 5 websites I access to start my day, and my day isn't started unless I get some Blender news.

You have accomplished far more than you realize. The ugliness of the threads that made you re-think your involvement here is an unfortunate reality in life. Think of it as a cyber-zit: Below the surface everywhere and ready to erupt when there is irritation involved. It was no reflection on you at all, but I fully understand why you want to get some distance. I have had to for stuff like this before, even when I had nothing to do with it.

Thanks for your legacy of a great site for the Blender community. We do love you and hope you will be back refreshed after your Sabbatical. Blessings on you and your family.

pastorJohn
79 GustavTheMushroom May 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

*hugs*
80 Drax May 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Thank you! It was pleasure to read your news :) Good Luck!
81 DJ_Boxer May 16th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

Bart: I just want to say congrats on the baby. Enjoy the break it is definitely well earned. Good luck on the new company. And I'd also like to wish you all the best in these and any future endevoures.
82 Kukanani May 16th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Have fun on your "vacation"!
83 blue_bone May 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

Thank you Bart!!

For all the years you made blendernation and for all the support you gave the community.

The best wishes,
blue_bone
84 Waystar May 16th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Bart, you created something wonderful here. I hope you can be proud of your creation and the contributions you've made to the Blender community. Blendernation is one of my daily news sites. During busier times, it has been a lifeline, keeping me connected to the Blender world.

Thank you, Bart.

Now go get some R&R!
85 n-pigeon May 16th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

We'll miss you and THX for everything :)
86 greenlig May 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

Good luck bart, and Thank you.

God Bless
87 Mike May 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Get some rest Bart, and good luck with your new company! Congrats on the kid too!
88 Spamagnet May 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Best wishes, Bart! I keep up with a lot of F/OSS projects, but this site is by far the best source of information I have seen anywhere. Thanks for all your work!
89 Seikoh May 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Family… Nice :)
Good luck, Bart.
90 Sam May 16th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

Best of luck! Thanks for all the work you've put into the site.
Have a good rest!
91 davidh7426 May 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

Good Luck with whatever plans you have in the future…
92 arnaud May 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Bart:

Your priorities are in order :)

Best of luck to you and all the best to you and your family.

Arnaud
93 Thomas Vecchione

I'm Taking a Sabbatical

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216 Responses to “I'm Taking a Sabbatical”