I participated, with mixed emotions, in the removal of justfred's nodeshells.

Like a four-year-old who just walks away from his toys, he left about fifty of them for us to put away for him. Perhaps he thought he was doing the site a favor by removing their contents. Perhaps he thought their shadowy presence here would inspire braver noders to greater heights.

Only "fred" can tell us why he decided to walk. I, however, feel I must note here that "justfred" displayed promise. His writeups alternated excellence and crap. His obsessions were obvious, but his thoughtfulness peeked through just enough to catch my eye. He had a sense of humor too, but I guess he hasn't learned to laugh at himself.

Too bad he wasn't grown up enough to take the good with the bad. He won a few, he lost a few, but in the end he quit without knowing just exactly how good he could have been.