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Alan
Dec 13, 2014 19:22:22 GMT -5
Post by Hristo on Dec 13, 2014 19:22:22 GMT -5
Yes, pruning the useless threads would be very wise. That should be done after conversion. They should not be deleted, but moved to archive board accessible only to read but not post. A standard procedure.
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Alan
Dec 13, 2014 19:26:31 GMT -5
Post by MikeH on Dec 13, 2014 19:26:31 GMT -5
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Alan
Dec 13, 2014 20:29:54 GMT -5
Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 13, 2014 20:29:54 GMT -5
Since I started this conversation, I should clarify my personal concerns. I'm worried that we have so few active moderators. Currently we do not seem to have any big problems with spam, etc. But we need mods to control that when it does pop up. My primary concern is that we have very few mods, and the active mods have junior permissions. Alan is currently not active on the forum, so we cannot create new moderators as the original folks have gone inactive for whatever reason. Currently it seems like Joseph Lofthouse and ottawagardener are committed to the forum, but two individuals does not leave a lot of redundancy to run HG. If Alan came back just long enough to give Joseph the keys to the kingdom or even gave him a lot more permissions and created a few more mods, I'd be pretty happy. I always assumed Alan would come back and get active again. But if he doesn't, eventually we'll most likely have to all migrate somewhere new, and hope that we can still access the useful old content in some fashion. |
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Alan
Dec 13, 2014 20:51:50 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jondear on Dec 13, 2014 20:51:50 GMT -5
I personally think as a group, we have done more than fine at "self moderating". Yeah it'd be great to have Alan pop in from time to time, since it's "his" board, but I assume life has him busy. So we should just keep posting the really cool stuff we've been working on.  |
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 4:04:08 GMT -5
Post by orflo on Dec 14, 2014 4:04:08 GMT -5
Hristo, nice to see that you're still here!
Oxbowfarm, three moderators are still active, and Johno wrote that he logs in from time to time, so that makes four. But there should be some more, although spam is pretty low, in the last months I only removed one spam message, but maybe the others are quicker than me and I don't get to see the spam...:-). I do wonder who has got the ability to remove spammers, I can only remove spam, and if I read correctly Telsing and Joseph can't remove spammers either...?
I don't see any reason why the forum should migrate, it's still going strong, and it's a lot of work to move the whole thing...Besides that, moving the forum would mean some sort of a new start, for everybody including the search engines. I don't see any point in doing that. Moderators can be found, and maybe Alan can be found to sort things out when it comes to full moderating skills. I'll contact Michel 'Canadamike', he possibly still has contact with Alan or maybe he has full moderating abilities, who knows..?
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 7:32:36 GMT -5
Post by nathanp on Dec 14, 2014 7:32:36 GMT -5
Keeping the spam out on a regular basis will likely require more regular updates to the forum code for whatever it is based upon. It may be that proboards does that automatically now, but if this is moved to another hosting site, that would be something that needs to be done by the moderators or those hosting it. I have seen what happens with forums not kept updated.
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 7:41:59 GMT -5
Post by ottawagardener on Dec 14, 2014 7:41:59 GMT -5
Pretty sure I can remove spammers too. In fact, seems like I have the power to ban anyone  What I can't do is change people's permissions to make new moderators or change other structural settings if needed. I've been in contact with Alan just today btw. I'll report back but he is having trouble logging in. |
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 7:43:24 GMT -5
Post by MikeH on Dec 14, 2014 7:43:24 GMT -5
Well, it would appear that we are stuck in uncertainty which is OK with me. However, as a hedge against uncertainty, I've begun to capture threads that I'm interested in to the Wayback machine - Astronomy Domine and Tim's Adventures in Nixtamalization, for example.
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 7:50:40 GMT -5
Post by MikeH on Dec 14, 2014 7:50:40 GMT -5
Pretty sure I can remove spammers too. In fact, seems like I have the power to ban anyone What I can't do is change people's permissions to make new moderators or change other structural settings if needed. I've been in contact with Alan just today btw. I'll report back but he is having trouble logging in. What kind of trouble is he having? |
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 9:06:31 GMT -5
Post by ottawagardener on Dec 14, 2014 9:06:31 GMT -5
No longer has the email account.
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 10:35:12 GMT -5
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 14, 2014 10:35:12 GMT -5
I remove about 1 spam message per month. Proboards is catching most of them...
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Alan
Dec 14, 2014 10:52:22 GMT -5
Post by MikeH on Dec 14, 2014 10:52:22 GMT -5
No longer has the email account. He's probably not the first Admin to be in that situation. There's a support board where he or someone could find out how to deal with the situation - support.proboards.com/ |
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Alan
Dec 15, 2014 8:30:00 GMT -5
Post by Hristo on Dec 15, 2014 8:30:00 GMT -5
orflo Hey, Frank nice to see you here too. I regularly check the RSS, but rarely open the forum to read/post. Obviously I was wrong saying ProBoards own the content. Actually it seems the owner is the individual poster because as reed pointed there is an option to export all your own posts and PM's you have made on any PB forum you have posted in from www.proboards.com/account/settings For example I got an email with this link www.proboards.com/account/export/posts/forum/1575823/hristo This means PB recognizes the poster as an owner. This does not change much though, because we can't expect every one here to export their post so they can be joined and converted. Anyway, if you decide to move it you can count on me. Just PM or email me because most probably I will not visit often the forum. If someone still wonders what will be the biggest benefit to move it, aside of the possible customizations (like for example creating searchable have/want seedlists, gallery section, articles section, individual member blogs and so on) the biggest benefit will be that the forum (if well managed) could get much more visits, thus more new blood and more influence. Currently ProBoards acts as an anchor for that. There is a cost though and that is you have to invest much more time to run it well.
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Alan
Dec 15, 2014 9:50:09 GMT -5
Post by PatrickW on Dec 15, 2014 9:50:09 GMT -5
I really completely agree with Hristo. While it might seem nice sometimes, this forum is really very primitive. It's really a one size fits all, designed to serve ads and trap you as a customer like commercial hybrid seeds. A lot of things could be done if it worked like an open source project, and people could add functionality as they wanted.
This forum is also very vulnerable. Not only can you not be assured of making and keeping your own backups, but ProBoards terms and conditions say they can shut down the board at any time for any reason. Not only can they do this, but they have done it in the past, and there are stories on the Internet.
Yes, you will lose something with search engines if you move, but this is really minor compared to the other issues.
The one major drawback is you need a reliable person or people to work on the technical side of things. ProBoards does a lot of this kind of work for us. There also needs to be a consensus, or the forum will probably split. If you can possibly get past these hurdles, I really suggest we move on.
It's a lot of work, possibly for nothing, but maybe someone should just start working on an alternative, then talk about this again.
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Alan
Dec 15, 2014 14:02:15 GMT -5
Post by copse on Dec 15, 2014 14:02:15 GMT -5
I really completely agree with Hristo. While it might seem nice sometimes, this forum is really very primitive. It's really a one size fits all, designed to serve ads and trap you as a customer like commercial hybrid seeds. A lot of things could be done if it worked like an open source project, and people could add functionality as they wanted. This forum is also very vulnerable. Not only can you not be assured of making and keeping your own backups, but ProBoards terms and conditions say they can shut down the board at any time for any reason. Not only can they do this, but they have done it in the past, and there are stories on the Internet. Yes, you will lose something with search engines if you move, but this is really minor compared to the other issues. The one major drawback is you need a reliable person or people to work on the technical side of things. ProBoards does a lot of this kind of work for us. There also needs to be a consensus, or the forum will probably split. If you can possibly get past these hurdles, I really suggest we move on. It's a lot of work, possibly for nothing, but maybe someone should just start working on an alternative, then talk about this again. Is there a consensus that a move is of interest to make it worth anyone spending time on it? I don't think the forum is very vulnerable at all. If proboards shut down this forum, given it's content, that causes concern by other customers and endangers their business model in much the same way as someone being able to export the complete forum and move it elsewhere. It is more likely that the forums shut down discussed unsavoury topics, like terrorism, drugs and the like. |
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