Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

I've been trying the Machine Board software and it has installed on another directory for testing. I should create a user, "fred" as I have on this board, because logging in as the board admin gives me a whole lot of lists & scrolling to go through. I don't know if the user experience is the same. Nevertheless, the installation went as clean as a whistle and took very little time, (of course I've had a lot of practise over the past couple of days). When I'm ready, if and of you 3 would like to help me test the thing, while maintaining this board, then that would be great. I know some of us may be waiting to see how stable this installation is going before registering, but so far I am dismayed that there are really only 4 of us left here and I'm wondering if it's really worth keeping the board at all. The board programs are designed to handle thousands of people and we have less that ten. Not that we aren't quality people, but we could probably keep in touch with an email list with less fuss & bother. It's been months since we had a brand new member, (someone who was never here before), and I see nothing but 'bots trying to register. The phpBB new version has a system where I can allow them to track where a visitor to this board goes after they leave here. I can even set up an account to get a few cents back on every report, (I didn't check to see how much it actually was, because I had no intention of ever doing that). The World Wide Web is becoming less and less hospitable these days. I may do some more tomorrow on the experimental board... or this one if necessary. What do people think?

Well, I hope we can keep the board. E-mail is not near as fun. I suppose there's only a few people right now, but others come from time to time. However, it IS disappointing that there so few active members.

I think there are 5 of us as Henie is here too. You, Elizabeth, Judy, Henie and me. There was a fellow on here too, but I can't recall his name at the moment.

Heini's account has just been activated which made us 5. Does anyone know this member "soq?" I know I've seen it before, but I'm not sure if it's just a 'bot that keeps re-registering, or if it's a legitimate member. I'll keep an eye on things for a while.

Oh I am a silly goose. I know who this is. I have a record of emails from this member. Welcome back. We are now 6. we've increased our membership by 1/3 in the past 24 hours.

We had Kevin, who posted from time to time, Kitty. Maybe we'll see him again.

Well, I was just over at the alternative board I created, (at a secret address), and I've noticed all sorts of problems, not the least of which is scrolling & scrolling to get to the bottom of the long list of options every time you change pages, like opening someone's post. I soon learned that the best way to navigate that board was to click on an option and as soon as the new page comes up press CNTL END.
It takes you to the bottom of what is always a long page and that's where the information will be that you want. That alone is reason for turning our backs on that board software, but also the spam protections are inadequate, and I tried to register as a non-administrative user, and couldn't do it. Big problems all around with the "Machine Board," So I'm killing off the database for it and deleting the program.
Now, I have an idea for this board, I'm going to try it soon and see how it works. If it does we'll have the board back the way it was before I tried the last update with all the old messages & users, (& the old passwords too). HOWEVER, we would loose all the messages here from the past few days. What do people think? Is it worth going back? If it works, I'll have the new version of phpBB as well. I'd like to hear people's views before I try anything like that.

Fred - As the new season is already underway and I have posted a number of items on this new board about it, I'd be a bit concerned about losing all of that information, some of which was not on the previous iteration of the board.

If you should decide to try to resuscitate the old board and kill off this version, will it be possible to somehow save and repost this new information? I really don't want to try to recreate it (some of it for the third time)

I would not mind losing the last few days but I can understand Elizabeth's concern and she is the only one who keeps us up-to date on all the happenings. Elizabeth, would it be possible to just post new "news" for the items you have posted before? Fred, perhaps if you post a warning in the Elizabeth's postings like "read now, contents will be removed/lost after...." the date you would change the board back? Just my ideas...Many thanks to both of you, as always your work is sooooo appreciated.

I just spent 45 minutes typing out a response to this thread & it was magnificent. Then I clicked on "Submit" and found I had taken so long that I had automatically been logged off. No problem, just a little annoyance and I logged back in, only yo find that everything I had been typing was gone & I have to start over.
Long & the short of it is we'll keep this Board as is, and I'll make another one just like it and I'll use that as a testing place for backups & recoveries, where if anything goes wrong, it won't affect what's going on here. That's all I'll say for now. Oh! & if you're typing a message, don't stop to cuddle a cat, because the board times you out. Hmmm. I should be able to change that, but I don't know where. We'll see.

fred wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:03 pm I just spent 45 minutes typing out a response to this thread & it was magnificent. Then I clicked on "Submit" and found I had taken so long that I had automatically been logged off. No problem, just a little annoyance and I logged back in, only yo find that everything I had been typing was gone & I have to start over.
Long & the short of it is we'll keep this Board as is, and I'll make another one just like it and I'll use that as a testing place for backups & recoveries, where if anything goes wrong, it won't affect what's going on here. That's all I'll say for now. Oh! & if you're typing a message, don't stop to cuddle a cat, because the board times you out. Hmmm. I should be able to change that, but I don't know where. We'll see.

Thanks for not "trashing" this board right now, at least without having it backed up & recoverable

Yes, I'm not going to trash anything again. I'll be very careful.

I can see it from both perspectives, but I think it would be better to keep this as is and just build it up again. Sometimes it's better to leave well enough alone imho and there's quite a bit of info. posted already. That's a good idea Fred about having a testing site.

fred wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:18 pm We had Kevin, who posted from time to time, Kitty. Maybe we'll see him again.

The fellow was indeed Kevin, and I'm back here now! Thanks for your work Fred!

It's nice to have you back Kevin. The Juniors are happening all over the world in the next few weeks. I don't have time to spend on them and to tell the truth my interest is flagging a little. I've got so many different projects going, but working on the Board keeps my internet skills, such as they are, sharper than they would otherwise be. Olympics are coming. That's well a bit of drama to distract us from the more important tasks of the day. Well, every now & then we can all use a little distraction.

Kevin wrote: ↑Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:08 pm

fred wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 7:18 pm We had Kevin, who posted from time to time, Kitty. Maybe we'll see him again.

The fellow was indeed Kevin, and I'm back here now! Thanks for your work Fred!

Welcome back Kevin. Sorry I temporarily forgot your name.

Thanks for all your work Fred.