Alan

[oxbowfarm]

Sure would be nice if he came back.

It's been a year since he last logged in, more than that since he last posted.

Just saying.

[ottawagardener]

I'm hearing you and echoing it back.

[galina]

Jul 25, 2013 14:34:25 GMT -5 ottawagardener said:

I'm hearing you and echoing it back.

Yes where is he - is he ok? - do we know why he is not here ?

[MikeH]

Not to mention what would happen if this board ever disappeared. There's an immense amount of invaluable information here, some of which is irreplaceable. There is neither a backup of the site nor of member id's & email addresses except by Proboards. Most of us have some contact name/emails but I doubt we all have all the ones we'd like.

Trying to backup the site with software such as HTTrack - www.httrack.com/ only results in your IP address being banned by Proboards because they assume that the rapid information collection process is a denial-of-service attack. They will remove the ban if you sweet talk them but they make you promise not to try to grab the site again.

[ottawagardener]

He's fine as far as I know just busy. We miss you Alan!

[oxbowfarm]

So Alan has been completely gone from this forum for years at this point.

He recently posted on Facebook that he is unable to even login to his account here.

Where does that put HG? The forum administrator with all the permissions to modify and upgrade the board cannot access those control options? Does that worry anyone else? I don't know about anyone else but I look at old threads for reference and inspiration all the time. I cannot recall how many times I've re-read mybighair's "Finding this hard to believe, Daubenton flowering" thread I don't want all this stuff to disappear.  

[flowerweaver]

I believe Joseph Lofthouse once said he was in contact with Alan weekly, and that the moderators were able to run the site. I notice some of the forums are moderated by people I've not seen on the site since I joined.

[ottawagardener]

Yes, I think we need to have someone get head admin powers. He is on FB.

[philagardener]

support.proboards.com/post/5956992 describes how a transfer of responsibility can be made.

It does seem like very few of the original admin structure remain active on this forum and it is important that these responsibilities not be abandoned.

[nicollas]

It seems that this board and all data are stuck to Proboard both technically and legally. Sad

[ottawagardener]

Which brings up a question. Who is active? Joseph, Oxbow, Myself (but only returned recently), anyone else who has admin powers? Frank?

[ottawagardener]

I looked but I don't think I have main mod powers to change people status.

[orflo]

Dec 9, 2014 11:07:57 GMT -5 ottawagardener said:

Which brings up a question. Who is active? Joseph, Oxbow, Myself (but only returned recently), anyone else who has admin powers? Frank?

Yep, but not a frequent visitor any more...Others were Michel, Lavendulagirl and some that don't come to my mind, but they disappeared. I don't have full powers as well, maybe Joseph is the only one who has got that?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I am a junior moderator. My permissions consist of moving or deleting posts or threads, and reading and posting to the moderators forum. I delete spam, but I can't ban a spammer.

[PatrickW]

I can't say anything about the legal side of things, but the whole site is probably in Google's cache:
www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:alanbishop.proboards.com

It's probably possible to come up with a script to extract the site from there.

As someone who has staunchly refused to let any commercial interests gain any rights over my material, and hosted their own blog (via a hosting provider) with open source software, I can tell you it's been a lot of work, but at least I'm not having this problem now. Someone should really find a way to move this entire forum to open source.