Norwich Bus Page: All Change

When I took over this blog, one of my main ideas was that my posts would be subjective and informative, and never personal. However today, surprisingly, I go against that rule.

I’ll refer back to a post I made a few weeks ago regarding the cancellation of Konect’s service 2 and 2A. I was asked to keep the news to myself until Monday 14^th September; which I did so. A couple of days later, on Thursday, I noted how another local blog had made a point about having kept the information quiet after being “respectfully asked to remain embargoed”. To be honest I had wondered why it had taken four days for the other blogs to post the information, so I emailed my contact at Konectbus enquiring about it. This is what I received back: “It’s (the post) caused a major issue with a lot of people. Your name is mud amongst the enthusiast world. You are being disrespectful at a time where people jobs could be at risk, and to be honest I can’t be arsed anymore.” As I have some decency, I will not name name’s however I asked the employee why he had failed to tell me the date to release the information had been moved to Thursday to which he did not reply. But that isn’t the point. I’d like to pick out a section of their message. “Your name is mud amongst the enthusiast world.” I’m not going to pretend that that didn’t hurt, but I wasn’t surprised to be told something like that. I’ve obviously been aware of various things that have been said about me, around me, and behind my back which could cause my name to be compared to mud, and I’m aware that I’m not everyone’s favourite bus enthusiast because of those rumours. At first, the hatred towards me was my motivation to carry on and the main reason why I continued to run the blog. Then I questioned my morals. I realised that the only reason I was writing Norwich Bus Page was to piss people off. I knew that my presence on the web was annoying various people, and that pleased me. But what kind of person am I if the only reason I’m writing is to get under people’s skin? I started writing because I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed being a source of information and being able to keep other enthusiasts up to date with the local bus scene. That is why someone should run a blog, and that should be the only reason. But that isn’t my reason. And I don’t think I should be writing just to annoy others, so with immediate effect, I will no longer be posting on Norwich Bus Page.

To the people who have created the reasons to why my name is ‘mud in the enthusiast world’ I ask you to look at yourselves. What is it have you achieved by doing what you have done? Do you feel like a better person? Maybe you didn’t know what you were saying actually affected me, maybe you did. Maybe that’s the reason you did it. And if that’s the case then maybe you need to re-evaluate your morals, but just remember. I’m not leaving because of you. You have not caused me to make this decision, you have not ‘won’. I will continue to be an active member of the community and I will continue to enjoy photographing buses. I will also continue to post my photographs on flickr and keep up to date with the local news. I also plan to carry on updating NBP’s fleet lists and galleries, so this isn’t the end. I may even add more features onto the website, but I will not be posting any news. There are plenty of places where you can find things like that but here will no longer be one of them.

To my loyal readers, contributors and friends who have stuck by me I say thank you. I probably wouldn’t be the person I am now without you.

So to recap, Norwich Bus Page will no longer be a blog, but a website. Fleet lists and galleries will continue to be updated so do please keep checking back.

It’s been fun,

Zak

Now, Harry here. As NBP prepares for this big change, I take the decision to resign. Over the last few weeks, I've lost all interest in the bus industry and I too am struggling to find time to post. Zak's decision has eased my mind, although I admit I'm going to miss posting!

A few of my favourite photos from me on the blog...