Well? Better to jump before the ship sinks completely. That EZ place seems alright.

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2002

Answers

What is the EZ place I don't want to miss out on your conversations, even if I am generally just a lurker

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

http://pub84.ezboard.com/fnewcastleunitedbbsfrm1

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Despite its problems, I still prefer Greenspun. Is there no way we can find out exactly why it keeps vanishing...and if anything can be done about it?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Hence this thread. What does everyone think? What's the story from them upstairs?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

I think the ezboard has got some good points, and all thank to Jonno for setting it up as an alternative, but Greenspun seems faster, simpler and better organised. We need to know why Greenspun is so unreliable at the moment.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Could be nothing more sinister than just maintenance breaks. If it isn't just maintenance and the thing's going t1ts up, I'd still rather stay here till the bitter end.

We surely can't be so sad that a few hours break takes on life threatening proportions.

Or can we ?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

yes we can :-(

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Well, some of us certainly are! ;o{)

Having made a concerted attempt to "get into" the Ezboard over the last couple of days, it has some really nice features, but it is generally painfully slow and therefore frustrating.

Macbeth - can you please consult with the owners of this place and find out for us whether the increasing unreliability is due to a transient problem, or indicative of something more sinister and permanent. This is THE vital question imo.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Buton this occasion it seems to have been about two days, and there's never any explanation.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Greenspun is very frustrating but is still the place where most of us are and does contain our history. For the time being I vote we keep EZboard as our continuing free lifeboat alternative. We do know that we can improve things there by paying if need be, but as it only serves as the backup at present, this seems pointless.

However, in light of the erratic behaviour of Greenspun, I would now urge all contributors here to at least get a log in at EZBoard and bookmark the place. Then you have somewhere to go in the event of these annoying downtimes.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

From the I love Music forum:

We know, from other forums, that Greenspun.com is eventually going to go down permanently because Phil Greenspun isn't maintaining this server any more. I've emailed Phil asking him to confirm this but the info is from people (eg the Countryside moderator) who have talked directly to him about it. The payment/registration thing he talks about on the front of greenspun.com seems to be a bit of a red herring.

I'm trying to put some feelers out for alternatives too.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

To be honest, I will use ezboard as a last resort, 'cos I'd hate to lose contact with you lot, despite all your/our idiosyncrasies, but clearly this place has got to be favourite, or a clone of it if poss. I just didn't like ez at all, and if neccessary can list why. Mind you, I still prefer the old Communicata format, so what do I know? I suspect that Pete's posting on ez is correct - a lot of us have gone over there and lurked, but few have bothered to post. Not being a techy, what's the cost of setting up/maintaining our own, presumably didvided by 100 (cost to each of us)? You techies must know someone who can host it.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

This place feels like home, EZboard doesn't (yet). But remember how strange this place felt at first after Communicata (RIP)?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

I just didn't like ez at all, and if neccessary can list why.

Please do Terry - it would be most useful.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Just had a server too busy error. We might be back, but things are obviously still unstable or resources are close to breaking point.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

It can't handle the Corinthian League threads anymore (too big).

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

That's terrible news Softie :-( Anywhere else you can post it?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

So, size is important. Damn :-(

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Softie, are you talking about Greenspun or EZboard?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Both at present, Greenspun sometimes stabilizes.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

what do you use to generate your tables Softie? I use Netscape for the Team Pick ones (when they appear ;-( ) bacause it generates SIMPLE HTML. If you use any Microsft product you willl generate gigabytes (exagerate? me?) of unnecesary crap

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Geordie, I think if you trawl the recent archives, you'll find that Softie has already answered that one. MS Front Page if I'm not mistaken.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Desperate to know the result of the table toppers away to 3rd placed Fatfield. This media blackout is doing my head in ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

You should have subscribed to Sly Sports, Pete, instead of Off Digital. The Fatties are currently negotiating a new sponsorship deal with them. It all hinges on renaming it to Pie Sports. We're hoping the widewcreen will give us the extra coverage we need. Rumours that Deliah Smith is putting in a rival bid are wide of the mark tho we'd welcome her as team cook.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Jonno, bit difficult this, when pressed. It’s a little bit like the missus asking whether or not you like the tie she’s just bought you. You should be pleased someone has been thoughtful enough to go out and buy you a tie, and it seems ungracious to carp, but…..On the face of it, a tie is a tie is a tie, but there’s that element of aesthetics and visuals which is difficult to put a finger on. However, here are my thoughts as requested; · Clunky, maybe that’s due to lack of familiarity, but certainly not as comfortable as the Greenspun site. Not so easy to navigate back and forth. (see also later comments re. Communicata layout) · No way to see latest chronological posting . · Banner ads and ads generally are driving me crazy. Open up more than one posting and you get another banner ad. Yesterday I had six of them sitting in my menu bar. But I guess we could pay to lose them. · I struggled to register, and then subsequently to log on. Maybe that’s just me, but this is my list after all! · Would prefer to see latest answers on a thread coming up first, but this is a problem with Greenspun also. If I recall Communicata listed most recent postings at the top of the thread, not bottom, and this was better. Mind you, I always liked the Communicata ‘side by side’ layout style. · Is there a way to view archived threads on ez, or do they just die after a period of time? The recent re-activation of some of our early season threads has been both illuminating and entertaining, thanks mainly to Mr Miller. · Not sure about the emoticons. I’ve always liked this BBs because there is a degree of maturity (ie age!) about it. Ez seems like the .NU board my son uses. Then again, no-one is forcing us to use the emoticons. · The option to submit personal info. could be a good or bad thing. As was noted on an earlier response to Steph’s Strawberry pic’s, most of us look like escapees from a gurning convention. However, I like Macbeth’s facility to restrict access, if necessary, from this sight. Can that be done on ez? Do they/we have a Macbeth type moderator?

Er, I think that’s it. None of it drop dead stuff, but you did ask. I’m sure if I actually use it for a week or two I would overcome these relatively minor points, but then again I might discover others. Pete M seems okay with it. In fact, most of the postings on ez over the last two days have been him! That boy should get out more.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

LOL. I'm actually with NTheLL, although Pie Sports does sound tempting.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Hey, Terry, I was trying to upgrade myself to a 'Reserve' ;-) I think you'll find over a longer period that Mr Clark is guilty of frequenting EZboard the most. EZ come EZ go. ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Well Terry - on the aesthetics front what if we gave it a background matching your favourite tie?

Thanks for your points. I presume you must be at work and unable to load the pop-up killer which works a treat?

Disappointed to hear about the Corinth league. We'll have to reduce the size of the divisions if Softie can't get them on a page! Have you any idea on numbers here Softie in terms of characters or megabytes or whatever the shortfall might be?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

I found this message on the "home page" of Greenspun :
"March 30, 2002: this server is back up and running, thanks to Jin and Tom. Every week or so the Linux operating system that sits behind this service freezes. We can never figure out why. We had some downtime because we needed to move the machine from Waltham, Massachusetts to Cambridge, MA. This should make it easier to reboot in the future. Sorry for the downtime. "
Clearly it's a few weeks old but to me it indicates that they must be going to carry on otherwise why would they bother to move to a new machine? But unfortunately it sounds like they don't even know themselves why it goes off.
On the relative merits of EZ Board v Greenspun, I must say I like the way you can see at a glance the latest topics in Greenspun. Maybe we could ditch all the sub-sections in EZ Board and put everything in one place? Still I think Jonno did a great job with EZ Board and we should keep it as reserve

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

hey, I never wanted to leave the old place. This EZ board has lots of swings and whistles and as the clarkster points out it is kinda slow and I can never figure out where everyone is at any given time.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Nice to see this back up again for the time being. Just popping in for a quick look before going back to the paperwork. no time to hang out just yet as it's only day 2 on the job, so I should probably make an effort to look like I'm working. ;-)

My vote is for EZboard once this one goes belly up for good. Once the board is paid for and pop-ups disappear, it is a bit faster. Still a bit frustrating only being able to post once per minute, but it'll take getting used to. That really only affects match day threads, anyway. As I've said before, I lurk on other ezboard forums that are way busier than our bbs, and it's really not that hard to keep up with threads. Just a different format than we're used to on here, but as Steph said, it took time for us to get used to this one after Communicata. Good idea about having fewer folders, which may make things easier to keep track of for everyone.

Well, must run. A meeting has just broken up so I may be interrupted with requests to actually do something work related. ;-))

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Now that we are back on here I find life a little easier. For example I was looking for the 'pop up killer' as mentioned earlier. I had seen it while at work and was going to download it last night on my home PC. After 15 minutes going in and out of the topics and different threads I gave up. I recalled it being in a Greenspun thread (I think) and looked at all topics, not just those with recent postings. Anyone care to point me to the website cos I can't be bothered to look through EZ again tonight.

I prefer the option on here of choosing how you want to view. I always just pick the most recent answers and then I can look at the ones at the top, without going through the different topic levels.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Have a look at the forums (fora?) on www.notbbc.co.uk - they're lovely and akin to the old communicata job. I've emailed the feller there and he says:

Well the NOTBBC code is completely written by me, so it's not available elsewhere I'm afraid (no plans to release it either, sorry). But Hotscripts (www.hotscripts.com) has a directory of lots of similiar forum systems in a variety of languages, so that might help you a lot more than I can. You will need a special web account though in order to run the programs required to have a bulletin board (the features you'll need depend on what software you forum is written in).

I'm also considering a sports forum on NOTBBC, so let me know if you're interested in that....
Perhaps the more tech-minded of us could have a look at that link and see if anything there could be of any use to us? Meanwhile I'll suggest an NUFC forum to him, though he obviously has something more generic in mind.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

This would seem to be the relevant bit.

http://www.hotscripts.com/Remotely_Hosted/Discussion_Boards/

Also, someone who posts on I Love Everything (another Greenspun bb) has offered to set up a pretty much identical board if there's enough interest. If so, he says:

If I were to host ILx on my server, then yes, I would be most happy to host the Newcastle United forum too. If not, however, I wouldn't have the inclination to build and administer such a system for something that I have little to no interest in.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Can someone explain to a cyberplank like me how it all works, when we talking about an individual setting up a BBS? Presumably someone has to have a PC server or somesuch with sufficient clout. Then there's a case of a 24 hour connection to the internet, presumably at more than your average domestic modem rate? Then there's the servicing issue. If you're an individual, isn't it a bit constraining on your life, or dos it run itself when your away etc? I suppose we've been pretty lucky to have had half decent bulletin boards for free over the years.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

I'm for staying here if it's working. This is a nice, clean format, easy to read and navigate.

That said, EZboard is fine especially, as Ciara noted, if we pay for it. That speeds things up noticeably. At the moment it is chronically slow. It doesn't cost very much at all to go gold or whatever and i'd be willing to contribute.

It would be nice if everyone got used to just going over there if Greenspun is down. Most people still just don't seem to bother.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

I don't know how many of you use the www.nufc-bbs.com link to get to the Greenspun site. To date it has been set up to fall through to Greenspun. I have now changed it to have two options on it.

The options are to click and join Greenspun or to click and go to the Ezboard site. If we find another site to live on I can change/add to this transfer site.

Hope this is okay

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Jolly good show that man...

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

EZ board is good but also frustrating...OK for you techies who know what they are doing but I find it's operation less than simple.

Apart from this HTML stuff that some of you talk about on here the operation of this board is pretty straightforward. I would prefer to hang on in here to the death if ever there is one.

I still don't understand how we get all of this free on here! What do greenspun get out of this?

Can any body recomend a good book which might explain some of this HMTL or whatever it is (Idiots guide)?

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Bob:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764507230/qid=1020412618/sr= 2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-5816147-4124668

By the way, the NOTBBC guy is having a look to see if he could host a forum for us.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Bob, have a look here. Very clear and easy to use, it fact it was the only one I used when setting up my web site.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Thanks Dan / Steph

Primary 1 completed...Won't have any excuse soon!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002