I say start writing! There will always be those that can't articulate their thoughts and so they resort to name calling and threats but by "shutting up" they've won and worse yet you've only validated their form of communication. I say put up a little disclaimer by your comment section that any offensive comments will be yanked and prune out the bile. It's your blog after all!

I used to be a bouncer and you learn quickly that people like that just want attention and the best thing to do is yawn at their entirely unoriginal act and calmly escort them outside and make sure they never come back in. Don't let a few ruin the party for the many :)

Indeed, keep writing. If every writer stopped when criticised, there'd be no literature at all.

And let's face facts, Chris is right; in terms of initial goals, MCE has been a failure; it's nowhere near as good as it should be.

You should keep writing, I miss your posts I always thought they were insightful and entertaining

Charlie it would be great to have you writing again. I think the Media Center community is really lacking that voice from Microsoft. We use to have a few but now I rarely see anyone these days. The Media Center community needs it's own Major Nelson!

Yes, you should start writing again.

I just read Wuss' comments and I think he's just frustrated like most Media Center fans that there hasn't been any news or updates about our beloved product. We used to have the "Ask Jessica" forum over at The Green Button to get some direct communication with a Media Center team member and get some reassurance that our opinions might actually be listened to by the Media Center team. But Jessica left the team for the Zune team and no one has taken her place over in the Green Button forum.

So I say, you should blog. We're desperate to hear any news about Media Center and you could be an outlet for it. Of course, some of the comments you get back from the fans like from Wuss will not be so positive, but you should want to know the current temperature of fan sentiment and what we think is wrong with Media Center so you can try to make it better. You'll also get positive comments which would tell you what features are good so you can keep them.

I agree with Chris (and a little bit with Wuss) that Media Center should be better than it ought to be right now. It should be able to connect to YouTube, Hulu and other such sites. It should allow you to view widgets with RSS feeds, weather, stocks, etc overlayed with what you are currently watching. Heck, some HDTVs from Sony (i.e. Bravia) and Samsung (i.e.Series7) that can connect to the Internet can do this without any Set Top Box. Even the beta process should be a "little" bit more open so that we have at least an inkling of when the new version might be available, which would cause some excitement among the community.

SO I say start blogging again and hope to get both the good and bad responses, so Media Center can become a better product.

Charlie - I know I miss reading some of the cool insider tracks that you have....I say start writing again! I miss your blog showin up in my RSS!!

Charlie,
Don't let that kind of garbage commenter get you down. I'd love to see you blog again.

It's a little late to undo your celebrity. Might as well embrace it.

Please keep blogging, I've appreciated your insight and perspective on MCE

Agree with everyone Charlie, you gotta get back to writing more!! You know me, i'll only insult when i'm around ya :-)

I think it’s imperative that you get back to writing, anything you can do to move Media Center moving forward.

I agree with those commenting that you should start up again, particularly because we need good Windows Media Center coverage.

Hey Charlie, I had just finished reading Wuss's comment when I went back to the RSS reader and saw this post. Of course you should keep writing!

There's always going to be people like Wuss. But that was one comment out of 40+ on Chris's post. I might not always agree with you (remember the 'Xbox 360 is quiet' post ;-) ), but I really appreciate you taking the time - either on this blog or via comments on others' - to keep the conversation going and striving to make the product better.

Whether it's better to write here or via comments, I'm not sure. But definitely stick with it. Don't let the b's get you down man! :)

Cheers, Ross.

Not that I want you to stay away from blogging and all, but if I was you, I would keep my distance from Media Center. As soon a Fiji hits "the streets" (blogs, forums), I think you will be wondering why you did not take that other job.

Charlie,
I was disappointed when you decided not to blog earlier this year, but certainly understood the time issue. If you can find the time to blog I say go for it. It is always helpfu to have Microsoft's point of view and you are(at-least in my book) an authority on Windows Media Center.

Whenever you have the courage to put your opinion out there there will always be people like Wuss who make ignorant unhelpful crticism. There are already clear examples of this in comments left on this blog entry. These comment are not important and can be ignored so that you can focus on users and community members that can provide constructive critism and ideas.

Just know there are people that appreciate your opinion, news, and views even if we don't always agree.

Media Center is a great product but needs better marketing and more partner deals(like the Direct TV one in Fiji) with content providers. It seems that your blog would only help, not hurt.

I would like to see you continue posting.

Maybe you could set up some commenting rules about insults and profanity and moderate?

Or, disallow comments completely and force people that want to respond to respond on their own blogs (aggregate via trackback).

Please continue, I miss your posts.

Charlie,
Haven't seen you post yet, so I wanted to ask that you please blog if you have time. I always appreciated your insights and looked forward to your entries.

Thanks,
Shahn Hogan

Keep writing bucko. I know where your office is. :)