Four score and seven weeks ago, Accountingfly f#[email protected] up. They closed comments here on Going Concern, thus leading to countless Going Concern faithful (or maybe just a vocal minority, all six of you) to declare this the end of GC once and for all.
I’ll admit, when Jeff Phillips hit me up recently and asked if I had some time to talk about the state of Going Concern, I was a little less than enthused. As some of you may know, I spend my time calling out GoFundMe scammers nowadays, so a rap session about the latest drama in the GC comment section wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time. But one of the first things he told me was that they shut down comments, and why. OK, I thought, that makes sense, the comment section has always been a bit of a dumpster fire, even when I was its dictator. Then he said: and it was a mistake.
I’ll spare you the rest of the conversation, but 20 years from now when I’m curled up around a Christmas fireplace with my grandchildren, I’ll no doubt tell the story about how the publisher of Going Concern came groveling, begging me to come back. In reality, it was more like I had some spare time and will always have a fondness for you guys and your plight as the grunts who power the entire world’s economy one tick at a time, so I offered to return. And here I am.
A lot has changed in the nine years since Going Concern launched. Coincidentally, it’s nine years to the day today. Back then, I was but a 20-something San Francisco hipster sitting through hours of FAR classes behind the camera so CPA review students would have lectures to watch when I got brought on to write about the exam. And you … well, I don’t know what you were doing. In the time since, I moved to Washington, DC, became managing editor of this fine publication, left, came back briefly, and now am coming back again. I’m older and wiser, as are a lot of you. The CPA exam students I worked with back when this site launched are now nearly 10 years into their careers. That is a long time, especially in public accounting time.
All that to say, we’ve all grown up. If Going Concern were a person, it would be old enough to make its own bowl of cereal in the morning so mommy can sleep in and possibly walk itself to school alone depending on the neighborhood where it lives.
Although the site has changed hands a few times since 2009, Going Concern has always belonged to you guys. It was never about Colin or me or that consulting guy I mistakenly brought on to write for us that one time. It’s in that spirit that comments are coming back, with one big caveat: I don’t have time for your shenanigans. That’s right, I’ll be reprising my role as the Muammar Gaddafi of the accounting watercooler and moderating comments. Seriously, can we lose the Hitler Gonzalez? That never made sense; why would my first name be Hitler? But whatever, again, this is your show. You wanna roast me for being a power-hungry fascist, that’s fine, but let’s at least try to behave like the professional adults we’re supposed to be, k?
I can’t promise you that Going Concern will return to its former glory, when we endlessly mocked Big 4 press releases, morons who cheated on the ethics exam, and mid-tier pervs who tried to tempt teen girls into their cars for the promise of “a buck,” but I can tell you that I’ve missed you guys and want to find a way back to that. Perhaps with just a tinge less assiness now that we’re all allegedly grown up.
I understand some of you are justifiably butthurt about the direction Going Concern has taken. Some of this just comes with maturing. Some of it is the nature of online publishing. Still some of it rests with you and how you treat your watercooler. But listen, I got fired and I’m here, so if I can get over it you can, too.
As always, my virtual door is always open. You can find me on Twitter, email me, or if you’re in Richmond, Va., be like that weirdo reader who one time spotted me in the produce section at Kroger and was like OMG ADRIENNE IS THAT YOU. I promise not to kick you in the balls either way, although that dude did freak me out so maybe don’t do that.
In the meantime, please be patient while we fish the comment section out of the flaming dumpster behind HQ. They’ll return on July 25, once they’ve been dusted off.
Here’s to the last nine years. God help me if I’m still doing this in another nine.
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