At one time the Bryan’s Bio was posted on the home page of AAPK. I think it was lost many years ago in a server crash; whatever the reason it has been gone from the home page of AAPK for several years. I know most of the AAPK members of probably never heard Bryan story, especially not if they joined within the last 6 or 7 years.
So forgive me if I get a few details wrong, but this is a general gist of the story as I recall it and as Bryan has told me bits and pieces over the years.
Many years ago, (15 years I’m guessing), Bryan was getting ready to graduate from college to be a Wall Street broker. An accident, I believe it was a diving accident, injured his spinal cord and left him a paraplegic. After the medical profession did everything they could for him, Bryan went back to college to become a computer programmer. AAPK began as a project as part of his college degree program. It was so successful and so popular that Bryan continued with AAPK and built it into what it has become today.
Bryan types by a combination of eye-movement and twitches of shoulder muscles, (muscles he can still control in spite of the accident). It is with a great deal of effort that he is able to do computer programming or even email. He told me once that he just can’t answer all the emails because of the pain involved and the muscle spasms in his shoulders from “typing” with his shoulders.
I am one of 3 or 4 active administrators on AAPK may also have a couple of moderators as well. All the technical work of AAPK, all the behind the scenes programming, troubleshooting and everything else including setting up the AAPK stores is all done by Bryan.
I am frankly amazed at all that he does at AAPK. Most large websites have a staff of paid moderators, a webmaster and a host of other technical people. At AAPK Bryan wears all those hats!
As someone who worked professionally with disabled people I am aware that quadriplegics have certain time-consuming but necessary health routines that they must strictly maintain. In addition Bryan also has to go to physical therapy several times a week. A while back he had some vehicle problems with his adapted vehicle. This it means he had to get someone else to take him until he could get another adaptive vehicle built on the old one repaired. This was very expensive and also quite time-consuming.
Somehow Bryan does all of this, manages to keep AAPK running and does it without a large paid staff, indeed without any paid staff, (all Moderators and Administrators on AAPK are voluntary), and he does it without charging any membership fees! I think that’s absolutely amazing!
Yes, Bryan is slow at answering emails. Most of my emails to him are unanswered but I know he reads them and has the necessary information to take the needed action to address the situation about which I emailed him. If Bryan doesn’t have a very important reason to email you, he doesn’t simply because of the time and the physical pain it causes him to type the emails.
I know a lot of people would like to have stores on AAPK. Bryan and I have discussed this and he is in the process of setting up a protocol for opening new stores, but this does take time especially when every stroke of the keyboard is slow & painful.
I know a lot of guys would like to have stores on AAPK but until the new protocol for the stores is established there will be very few if any new stores open. The stores that are opened will probably be for longtime active members who have been waiting years in some cases for their own store. They are obviously at the head of the line.
I get a little upset when people who don’t know the situation start talking trash about Bryan because he doesn’t answer their email. If 1% of our members sent Bryan an email every day that would be 110 emails per day and they would all be expecting him to respond within 24 hours!
It comes down to this:
Bryan can either keep AAPK running or he can answer emails. Given his physical limitations he can’t do both. If you send Bryan an email, don’t expect an answer. If you have a question you can contact one of the Administrators; philco or myself (orvet). We will attempt to answer any questions or handle any technical issues such as changing passwords, forgotten passwords and so forth or we will forward them on to Bryan and he WILL address the issue at his earliest convenience.
Administrators do not have access to the AAPK stores part of the program. Bryan is the only one who can access that part of AAPK. If you are having a problem with your existing store contact Phil (philco) or Dale (orvet - me) and we will relay your problem to Bryan and I know from experience he makes store problems a priority.
I know a lot of people don’t know Bryan story. The last time I remember seeing his story on the home page was about 2007 or 2008 and we only had about 2000 members then so I know most of you probably not heard it. For some of you it probably won’t make a difference, but for most of you I hope you can better appreciate the effort that Bryan goes to in keep AAPK running.
No, we aren’t the largest knife forum on the web.
No, we don’t have a professional staff of technical people that do all the work.
No, we don’t have a staff of paid moderators.
There are a lot of things that we do not have and lot of things that we are not.
But IMHO, AAPK is still the best and the friendliest knife form on the web.
