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Thread: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    "Some people need killing." I first came across that in a New Yorker magazine article I was reading in 1980 as I rode the Southern Crescent train from Washington, DC to New Orleans. It was John McPhee's story of western U.S. geology, but as an interesting counterpoint he talked about social formation. He recounted the early days of western towns where troublesome people sometimes just disappeared. No one inquired after them or investigated their disappearance. There was simply a consensus that "some people need killing."

    Maybe the same is true of made-up Internet worlds too.


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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by A Smug Dill View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Szanto View Post
    .. bring people together, rather than drive them apart.
    Thanks! That's what I wanted to know, assuming that's for what you were alluding to needing those people. Just in case you thought that was bloody obvious and/or implied, there are people like me — who don't presume to be above or below you or anyone else, but just (self-centred) individuals who are everybody's equal — who don't assume social harmony and others' happiness to be a default, much less primary, objective or requirement of any project or enterprise. We need to be informed what it is that you want specifically, before we can/will decide whether — as peers socially and politically — we want to support, ignore, sideline, undermine, or outright oppose your ideals and goals with what is in our power, resources and influence (by votes, dollars, or just personal behaviours) to do. Appealing to some fuzzy concept or buzzword such as “diplomacy”, “fairness” or “progress” is unlikely to cut it, when my personal ideas of what it means may be very different, or even in direct contradiction to what you have in mind.
    I took JSz to be making a political jab/joke. I thought it was pretty funny, too. But I admit that I have also been desperate for humor lately....

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Brilliant Bill View Post
    There was simply a consensus that "some people need killing." Maybe the same is true of made-up Internet worlds too.

    I get that you were quoting a beautiful article you've saved for years, but I don't think that casually discussing murder - and intimating such action in our own type of community - is something we should condone being posted here.
    Last edited by Jon Szanto; November 10th, 2020 at 03:42 PM.
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

    ~ Benjamin Franklin

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Somewhere in a dark crevice on the internet, the usenet Drunken Lord is cackling...
    Last edited by Ray-VIgo; November 10th, 2020 at 03:31 PM.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    I know logic is not your strong suit. And I know you struggle with harsh realities when presented. But I find your suggestion that I have intimated murder to be the ranting of a simpleton.

    I, fortunately, don't give a whit what you think should or should not be condoned.

    Probably best you retreat quietly into your Mary Poppins world.


    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Szanto View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Brilliant Bill View Post
    There was simply a consensus that "some people need killing." Maybe the same is true of made-up Internet worlds too.

    I get that you were quoting a beautiful article you've saved for years, but I don't think that casually discussing murder - and intimating such action in our own type of community - is something we should condone being posted here.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    It will be an interesting scenario if FPN doesn't come back up.
    It is back up, just not in its full functionality as it is rebuilt while preserving the data. When there are close to 4.3 million posts, and almost 115 thousand registered users, it takes a while.

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    Please contact us by email, and not PM for repair inquiries.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Z View Post
    It will be an interesting scenario if FPN doesn't come back up.
    It is back up, just not in its full functionality as it is rebuilt while preserving the data. When there are close to 4.3 million posts, and almost 115 thousand registered users, it takes a while.
    That sounds a lot more promising than the current note on the site:

    Update 2020-11-09 05:45 GMT / 2020-11-09 00:45 EST: Fixes did not pan out; working on alternative strategy
    Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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    Senior Member Jon Szanto's Avatar
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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Brilliant Bill View Post
    I know logic is not your strong suit.
    Observation is all it takes. Keep living down to the precise personality spectrum that you self-described somewhere else.
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

    ~ Benjamin Franklin

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Since FPN is not properly staffed yet has a robust amount of useful information: has anyone considered approaching them to see if they would agree to allow their content to be ported to this site?

    It could be a win for both sites.

    I’ve requested an account on their site for weeks before giving up and half the time they block me from viewing their contents because I will not submit to intrusive tracking.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Brilliant Bill View Post
    "Some people need killing." I first came across that in a New Yorker magazine article I was reading in 1980 as I rode the Southern Crescent train from Washington, DC to New Orleans. It was John McPhee's story of western U.S. geology, but as an interesting counterpoint he talked about social formation. He recounted the early days of western towns where troublesome people sometimes just disappeared. No one inquired after them or investigated their disappearance. There was simply a consensus that "some people need killing."

    Maybe the same is true of made-up Internet worlds too.

    I’m interested in your Southern Cresent experience

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    I found this site some years ago, and learn stuff here too.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Baisao View Post
    Since FPN is not properly staffed yet has a robust amount of useful information: has anyone considered approaching them to see if they would agree to allow their content to be ported to this site?

    It could be a win for both sites.

    I’ve requested an account on their site for weeks before giving up and half the time they block me from viewing their contents because I will not submit to intrusive tracking.
    Ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

    That was a funny one.

    They make money out of the content provided by all their users.
    Do you really think they would share their capital, only a single information?
    Since many years the FPN admin maximising the commercialization of the site, to get the most out of his business.
    E.g. different levels of Memberships are sold, if you want to sell something you have to pay also, the information flow is strictly controlled, they encourage you to upload your picture content to their server to have full control over it,.....

    I do not know what creative ideas they had in addition since they banned/muted me years ago.

    Information and users should always stay inside the boundaries of their empire/forum.
    I remember when I once referenced to a post here on FPGeeks with a link because it had additional useful information about the topic discussed in that thread.
    I got an angry message from a mod that outlinks are unwanted and in particular forbidden for non premium users/mods.
    My post got censored all traces were eradicated and I was advised to never ever add a link outside FPN again (as Basic user) otherwise this will have “consequences”.

    Read their terms of service.

    You can find a long thread about user experiences/stories on FPN here on FPGeeks if you are interested, including my story (how I got muted).


    Side Note:
    Imho they could have kept all the sellers (scavengers) on their site which only come to FPGeeks to sell stuff for free and do not actively participate in the community.
    They just spam our “What’s new” list that you hardly can see real content.
    I always claimed that the “Classifieds” section of the board should be excluded from the “Whatˋs new” list.
    But this is the weakness of FPGeeks, there is nobody who takes care about the forum, means no changes, no upgrades, no improvements, no (sometimes useful) moderation.
    Last edited by Pterodactylus; November 11th, 2020 at 01:21 AM.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Based upon the comments here it sounds like a forum I would not like to belong to. It takes a secret handshake to get in, there are multiple paid membership tiers, and yet they have virtually no mods, they can’t keep their servers running, and when they do mod they are jerks. I’ve been a mod on multiple forums and have never seen a reason to be a jerk to someone for cross posting. It can be politely handled when it is against the forum rules. and it’s a bit unreasonable as rules go. FPN sounds like a slum with a premium price tag.

    Frankly, I thought FPN was a dead or dying forum that could do a service the the community by having someone else host their content for archival purposes. We did this with another forum recently where there was a forum dying from bad mods and a corporate marketing issue. The legacy data was archived on a new site that had no relation to the corporation-run forum. It was an amicable divorce and the community it serves now has the legacy data preserved. Revenue is raised through yearly auctions and it has worked fine.

    Edit: now that I’ve called FPN a premium slum (based upon what I have read and experienced), let the high praises of the forum commence!
    Last edited by Baisao; November 11th, 2020 at 02:30 AM.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    The important thing to know is that you can access everything on FPN* (when it's running), except for the Chat forum, without having to sign up as a member. Use a browser with adblock to remove all the annoying ads, and do not click accept on the pop-up that mentions cookies, and you're good to go. Obviously you can't post as a guest, but that doesn't really matter most of the time.

    Apart from the event that led to my ban, I mostly enjoyed being a member over there. Yes, there were some annoying "rules and decisions" at times, but offset by the good parts. However, the tone of the place has changed over the last few years, and the engagement of some of the bigger names has dropped off quite a bit. The place feels a bit hollow these days.

    Moderating aside though, there is more that is similar between there and here than is different. Traffic here is generally lower (smaller membership, higher percentage of sales-only people, lower percentage of content creators), tolerance or lack of are about the same, passive-aggressive bullying is pretty much the same. Both places have their comedians, pedants, experts, jerks, and so on. Just like in meat space. There are some super helpful people here, as there were there.

    All in all, either place would serve well as a resource.


    *can't do sales though, forgot about that.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    I've had a much different and thus a more positive experience on FPN that some of you have. It is unfortunate that the site is being impuned here. A forum is only as good as the members's attitudes allow.

    Last year I got interested in GMRS radios and signed up on a discussion forum. Because two of the long term members didn't respond to others who were just getting started in a friendly or helpful way, I stopped participating.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Pterodactylus View Post
    ... if you want to sell something you have to pay also...
    As far as I know is this not 100% correct. Also members with a basic account can sell, but you can improve your possibilities with a paid account. I sold a lot of pens there and never had to pay. But in my first years (before the system changed) I have voluntarily supported the forum. I thought it was only fair to pass on some of my profit to the operator.


    Quote Originally Posted by Empty_of_Clouds View Post
    ... and the engagement of some of the bigger names has dropped off quite a bit. The place feels a bit hollow these days.
    That's what I also noticed, and as a result of this I also withdrew a little of my activities there. But I also had good years. When classified ads still worked well I found some nice pens.

    C.
    Last edited by christof; November 11th, 2020 at 05:21 AM.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Don’t get me wrong, like others I also enjoyed the first years on FPN before I got in trouble by posting a simple harmless drawing in a weekly drawing challenge thread.
    I’ve chosen FPN over FPGeeks initially because of the much higher traffic, all my needs were covered and it was great to have every day dozens of new threads/posts.
    I’ve learned and tried to spread the new knowledge and experiences also with new users (and there were plenty of them).

    Then the commercialization got more and more and the admin justified it with high server costs.
    I’m also an IT guy and I saw clearly that the costs never could be as high as he claimed, but ok.... I thought itˋs his site, his business and he is also allowed to earn some money (with the content of the users).
    I didn’t liked the commercialization but accepted it (as I was already a well established user, part of the community).

    As long as it was that way it was ok for me.
    I heard rumors now and then about banned people and clashes with the mods.
    But I thought, well most likely they deserved being punished or banned as there are always people which can’t behave properly and civilized.

    And I never observed any problematic thread which could have lead to a ban.
    Now I know that this was the case because of excessive and massive censorship and post/thread deletion.
    Ok, every now and then a poster I noticed previously wasn’t there anymore, but I was not concerned.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    My goodness you do write a lot, A Smug Dill !

    I see no evidence that FPN is dead or dying. What I do see is that much of the expertise in some areas has gone.

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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by silverlifter View Post
    Site has been down for the better part of a week now. Database corruption forced an unscheduled software upgrade that has proven to be quite challenging (just going by the update messages).
    I just wonder about the FPN platform. Invision, isn't it? It seems unstable; I thought, why not set up a temporary 'shelter' for FPN users via PHWhatever (we have one of our own, but it handles very little traffic).

    The FPN platform problems this time must be enormous.
    My other pen is a Montblanc.

    And my other blog is a tumblr!


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    Default Re: FPG Refuges Status Area: The 2020 FPN Diaspora

    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Naill View Post
    I've had a much different and thus a more positive experience on FPN that some of you have. It is unfortunate that the site is being impuned here.
    I am sincerely happy for you. But experiences are something very personal. And many times you can have the best of experiences until one day you don't. Just look at how many marriages end in divorce.

    There are many people that have had bad experiences in FPN. I would suggest you don't dismiss them just because you haven't.

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