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Quitters: Members Who've Left The Forum

Well, I and I's quitting, and this is why:

As esteemed Brother Ring has noted on another thread, it would seem we amount to nothing to the owners of this board. In the light of that, further participation would be a tad undignified (a bit like lingering at a party you know is being held under duress).

It has also been noted that themes or material we have posted up here have popped up in the mag. Why should I or anyone else continue sharing our thoughts when we know very well they may be borrowed to the greater glory of a bunch of people who treat us with benign disdain and neglect?

And another thing. As if this were not enough, the whole 'the mods have driven the bright and beautiful away' thing has kicked off again. I'm sorry, do the rest of us bore? I've seen enough narcissism and spite on here to satisfy me for a modest lifetime; I really can't be bothered witnessing another round of it all.

You are a splendid bunch of people, and I wish you all the very best - I'm off to work on something else, so who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other sometime soon?
 
Sorry to see you go but your reasons are all excellent....
 
How about we all just sod off to another message board, some of the free ones are pretty decent. Everybody, mods and all. We could call ourselves the Official Message Board of Fortean Times and transport all the thread contents over. After all they are "ours" not Dennis's or anyone else's.

What say you?

*Waves a sword in what is hopefully a revolutionary fashion*

:monster:
 
greets

min interesting idea - do you really want to move all your posts over to a new board?

on a legal tip it may not possible to use the words "Fortean Times" on a different board - depends on who owns the copyright.

mal
 
"Unofficial Fortean Times Messageboard" would be ok.

What kind of storage and bandwidth consideration would one need to run this messageboard elsewhere (complete with existing archive)?

I know a bloke see..
 
min_bannister said:
How about we all just sod off to another message board, some of the free ones are pretty decent. Everybody, mods and all. We could call ourselves the Official Message Board of Fortean Times and transport all the thread contents over. After all they are "ours" not Dennis's or anyone else's.

What say you?

*Waves a sword in what is hopefully a revolutionary fashion*

:monster:
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In principle: book me a bunk. Is it possible to copy the threads i'm a techno-inept?
 
No Mal, I want to move EVERYONES posts! :D I have never seen another board quite like this one, they are all either too fluffy or too skeptical. The main problem now is this board and all the restrictions on it. I really can see it dying now, for reasons many other posters have pointed out.
theyithian said:
In principle: book me a bunk. Is it possible to copy the threads i'm a techno-inept?
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Thats just what I'm not sure about...When the owner of a message board I used to use went, for want of a better word, nuts we moved stuff over to a new one manually but it would be impossible on something this size. :(
 
And we probably couldn't use the phrase "Fortean Times" but I'm sure the word Fortean would be okay or Fort even.
 
Official Message Board of Fortean Times
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the clout of the Dennis legal team might cause problems here. Also I'm pretty sure that if the people over at the FT, who are normally very hands on via Owen on this board, give more than two hoots about this thriving little community - which I'm sure they do - they will be fairly gutted about us all upping and leaving. Firstly because any protestation of "us" on here ignores the vast majority of posters and lurkers who don't care about the little online community, and who won't bother coming along, thus dwindling user numbers massively, and secondly because the number of page impressions to this board would simply disappear, dwindling the site's impressions to zero and prompting Dennis to shut the place down. The admin would be out of a job.

And in a way people upping sticks is like blaming the editors of the FT, and penalising them, for a decision which is beyond their control - do we really think, any of us, that they sat there and thought "oh THAT sounds like a good idea?"

Still, take care Alexius and maybe see you in a different incarnation elsewhere.
 
Alexius4 said:
Well, I and I's quitting
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Sorry to hear that old chap. While I genuinely don't think anyone has to actually leave - stick around and see how it goes: its won't be that terrible (hopefully (if they require RFID or ID cards than I'm outta here ;) ).

min_bannister said:
How about we all just sod off to another message board, some of the free ones are pretty decent. Everybody, mods and all. We could call ourselves the Official Message Board of Fortean Times and transport all the thread contents over. After all they are "ours" not Dennis's or anyone else's.

What say you?

*Waves a sword in what is hopefully a revolutionary fashion*

:monster:
Click to expand...

Not The Fortean Times Message Board?

With mid-eighties comedy sketches.

I think I have said this before but I have offered to take the FTMB off Dennis' hands - lock, stock and (two smoking?) barrel (with all suitable inticements in place - they could keep their ads and navigation back to the main FT site and I'd have sorted something out with David/Bob to make sure it was semi-official with them too i.e. where it actually counts). However, no one has been interested. Pity.
 
Before the conspiracy-talk gets too far along...damn, Alexius, it's not that I disagree with you or would try to disuade you, but you've been one the most respected members of the FTMB and among the truly erudite, interesting, knowledgeable peeps I've ever encountered. Aside from being a good, funny, guy.

My very best wishes, do hope to cross your path in the cyber-ether again. :(
 
CodenameThrow said:
Official Message Board of Fortean Times
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the clout of the Dennis legal team might cause problems here.
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That bit was supposed to be a joke though. ;)
Also I'm pretty sure that if the people over at the FT, who are normally very hands on via Owen on this board, give more than two hoots about this thriving little community - which I'm sure they do - they will be fairly gutted about us all upping and leaving.
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Unfortunately, as is becoming more and more obvious, more and more people ARE leaving and also less and less people will be joining, due to the many reason already pointed out by others. The board can only shrivel up and die IMO, already there are far less posts than there used to be before this latest change.
Firstly because any protestation of "us" on here ignores the vast majority of posters and lurkers who don't care about the little online community, and who won't bother coming along, thus dwindling user numbers massively, and secondly because the number of page impressions to this board would simply disappear, dwindling the site's impressions to zero and prompting Dennis to shut the place down. The admin would be out of a job.
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Not if there is nothing new here for the lurkers to read..I'm sure the Admin have many other boards to deal with and won't be out of a job!
Emps said
I think I have said this before but I have offered to take the FTMB off Dennis' hands - lock, stock and (two smoking?) barrel (with all suitable inticements in place - they could keep their ads and navigation back to the main FT site and I'd have sorted something out with David/Bob to make sure it was semi-official with them too i.e. where it actually counts). However, no one has been interested. Pity.
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You Have? They haven't? Bloody shame, it would be the perfect solution. :( [/quote]
 
min_bannister said:
Emps said
I think I have said this before but I have offered to take the FTMB off Dennis' hands - lock, stock and (two smoking?) barrel (with all suitable inticements in place - they could keep their ads and navigation back to the main FT site and I'd have sorted something out with David/Bob to make sure it was semi-official with them too i.e. where it actually counts). However, no one has been interested. Pity.
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You Have? They haven't? Bloody shame, it would be the perfect solution. :(
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I asked when they were making a hash of switching servers, I've asked in between and, obviously, in the last week or so (I feel a bit bad for hassling Al as he does a bang up job in the circumstances so I've told him to leave my last offer on the book in case this ever came up at a meeting). The FTMB and Bizarre are Dennis' only message boards and the FTMB is/was the only one that really functioned well as a community (thanks to everyone's efforts over the years). As there are a lot of sites on Dennis' books the FTMB will often have to get in the queue for attention (we have probably had more than our fair share recently - I'd probably rather we'd been left alone a little more on some fronts ;) ) and changes that should have taken no time have dragged on for months. I suppose this is all aprt of being a small cog in a large machine and is fairly inevitable I suppose.
 
Oh Alexius that's such bad news. I know it's a pain in the arse but it's still the best board around for good and interesting stuff (and I'm sure HC will come back eventually!). Hang in a bit longer.
 
Oh Alexius that's such bad news. I know it's a pain in the arse but it's still the best board around for good and interesting stuff (and I'm sure HC will come back eventually!). Hang in a bit longer.
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No, HC has gone. Gone gone gone gone gone.

I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth and indeed it goes
so heavily with my disposition .... look ye, this canopy the sky...pestilential vapours...quintessense of dust...and stuff...

:D
 
Alexius4 said:
I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth and indeed it goes
so heavily with my disposition .... look ye, this canopy the sky...pestilential vapours...quintessense of dust...and stuff...

:D
Click to expand...

But that's just when it starts getting good! All you need now is the spooky, creepy music and the knight in shining armour will come hurtling out of the mist to save us all .... or something <g>

So, basically, get your flippin' SOH back and don't gve up on the little ray of hope that is FTMB. (Meant in the nicest, most polite way of course)
 
"Not the Fortean Times"

I like it! I'd join!

A good way a cocking a snook at Dennis and its thoughtless unwanted meddling.
 
min_bannister said:
How about we all just sod off to another message board, some of the free ones are pretty decent. Everybody, mods and all. We could call ourselves the Official Message Board of Fortean Times and transport all the thread contents over. After all they are "ours" not Dennis's or anyone else's.
Click to expand...

Ok, i've been looking about for message board layouts that look to have a good combination of adequate appearance and functionality. I've stumbled across one i think we should model it on HERE

Thoughts?
 
Alexius4 said:
It has also been noted that themes or material we have posted up here have popped up in the mag. Why should I or anyone else continue sharing our thoughts when we know very well they may be borrowed to the greater glory of a bunch of people who treat us with benign disdain and neglect?
Click to expand...

I have always assumed that this would be the case anyway?

If the people on the mag' have anything about them, they would've kept an eye on the Message Boards to see what the mag' buyers were talking about, interested in and currently discussing with their peers.

Then they'd bring out an article or two about the Fortean public's subject(s) of the moment...
 
theyithian said:
Ok, i've been looking about for message board layouts that look to have a good combination of adequate appearance and functionality. I've stumbled across one i think we should model it on HERE

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Heady days indeed. My avatar looked much younger then :cry:
 
I wonder if all these people who are over-reacting (IMHO) and quitting the boards in protest at Dennis are also going to stop buying the magazine because it has adverts in it? :evil:
 
graylien said:
I wonder if all these people who are over-reacting (IMHO) and quitting the boards in protest at Dennis are also going to stop buying the magazine? :evil:
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I don't think its going to be a Private Eye-style "and please find my subscription cancellation included" messages. It'd be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Its not the fault of the mag (or us ;) ) that this was pushed through so I'd hope not.

I also hope that ocne things have quietened down people will drift back.
 
graylien said:
I wonder if all these people who are over-reacting (IMHO) and quitting the boards in protest at Dennis are also going to stop buying the magazine because it has adverts in it? :evil:
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I've not left fully - just don't really bother coming here. Not because of Dennis but because of the hoops that have to be jumped through in order to login to post and the ongoing difficulties with browsing that I have been left with as a result of the server change.
Dennis can flood the board with pop-ups for all I care (pop-up blockers) it's the milking of us all for demographic info (probably highly inaccurate) and the sale of same that disquietens me.
 
I've been a subscriber since my teens. FT is the world's greatest magazine, and my favorite. Always has been, always will be. I was of this opinion before the MB even existed, and should this website go the way of the trilobite, I shall feel the same.


As the Mods aren't running the show, they shouldn't be blamed for whatever Dennis thought they were accomplishing by pissing-off roughly 90% of the members of this MB. Most - if not all - of the bugs resulting from the transition seem to have been worked out, and the site seems to have recovered nicely, however, even in the event of my quitting this MB, I would continue to subscribe to the print version of the magazine. One has little ( or nothing) to do with the other.

It isn't as though I cracked open the plastic bag containing my latest FT to discover a crass questionaire inquiring if I was interested in Special Offers, or offering me the chance to win ''A New Car''.
 
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