Have we decided to limit membership?
Have we decided to limit membership?
Yes. I like that the spammers have been greatly reduced and we have no ads, but I have been seeing several comments in the chat box about waiting to post, including one today that has been waiting a week.
Has anyone tried contacting the Admin?
Jon Szanto (July 12th, 2015)
This board is apparently on auto-pilot. No one answers the phones. No one, apparently, is attending to issues, items, or new members. We are adrift, and nothing can be done.
"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
reprieve (July 12th, 2015)
To re-iterate what I said recently, this is the issue of most concern & will result in the death of this forum. Eric is unlikely to want to continue funding the site. Without new members the forum will shrink to a small core group, trying desperately to keep the place afloat, but ultimately failing. That happens because the core group becomes like an exclusive clique, with all good intentions and without meaning to, but it puts others off.
Without minimum moderation and posting discipline threads will drift and become less relevant to fountain pen users, & subject matter of less interest. This is already happening; the site is getting to be just a chat room and people don't want to wade through lots of 'noise' to find info of interest. I've seem it happen to other, much larger, forums.
I hope I'm wrong, I really do.
Funding doesn't seem to be the issue, so long as Eric doesn't pull hte plug on his server (he hosts us, so there is zero funding necessary unless he decides to stop hosting us.)
The lack of Admin is problematic, if anyone here knows Eric personally and could please ask him to make a couple trusted people admin so that issues like spam, or registration problems, can be taken care fo that would solve the issue.
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Current pen rotation: way too many!
We were gone in the blink of an eye for a period just a few months ago. There is nothing to prevent that from happening in precisely the same manner, at any point.
People have been attempting contact. He is not responding.The lack of Admin is problematic, if anyone here knows Eric personally and could please ask him to make a couple trusted people admin so that issues like spam, or registration problems, can be taken care fo that would solve the issue.
"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
reprieve (July 12th, 2015)
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Current pen rotation: way too many!
Hawk (July 12th, 2015), Jon Szanto (July 12th, 2015), reprieve (July 12th, 2015)
I love the friendly atmosphere here and the relaxed feeling. It's enjoyable. That said there has been one troll of gigantic proportion recently, and one long thread that is a horror show of gigantic proportions IMO. As Quantum Sailor said, " I'm not really big on censoring people, but at the same time I'm not really big on train wrecks either." Too much moderation, and this place will lose what makes it special. Absolutely no moderation, and this place will lose what makes it special. We can all see that.
I personally don't need an all-business forum about fountain pens, because I already have one of those, and it's a well-run place that already does things perfectly well, and I like it there just fine. JMHO. No place is perfect, but I like this place. I personally want FPG back. The one where trolls were actually warned and given time outs if necessary, and new people could join, and some people were politely asked to stop when their repeated posting of the same contentious material added nothing new (and then did stop, to be fair). Or add an "ignore thread." There are lots of options.
It seems that Eric hasn't been responding to his emails here, or to messages through "report post." Perhaps he's on vacation. Perhaps he's busy. Maybe if enough of us tried to contact him nicely, he'd take some action. You'll remember his post here, where he seemed to ask for feedback and posted his email, which is eric@fpgeeks.com. Maybe we could reach out to him (and I know some of us have tried, but let's try again). Maybe he's just missed what's going on.
He also posted his cellphone number there, but I'm not calling someone I don't know that well. Maybe someone who does know him will call?
Even if you love things just as they are right now, it's still a problem if new people sign up but can't post, and are left in limbo because no one seems to be responding to them.
As I recall, when everything blew up, the Andersons were in contact with Eric. Could someone contact them? Maybe they have some pull with Eric. I think maybe they were the ones that got him to at least put the forum back up.
But maybe he's just hoping the forum will die if he ignores it. It'll all just go away.
Susan
Show me a shiny blue fountain pen and I will probably buy it.
How do we know there are throngs of would be members waiting in the wings?
Chrissy (July 13th, 2015), Jon Szanto (July 12th, 2015)
As mentioned, there have been a number of people active in the chatbox that have alerted regular members to the fact that they signed up but have yet to get any approval, hence are unable to post. This has never been an issue in the past. I have a hunch Trump thought they were trying to sneak across the border to cause mayhem.
"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
I'd rather see some spammers get through than have new members being prevented from posting. I also didn't realize that there was a probationary period in place. When did that change?
I don't think there is a probationary period. The problem is that a moderator has to approve their request and there is no moderator, as far as I can tell.
Show me a shiny blue fountain pen and I will probably buy it.
Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry to be unclear. When I registered a couple of years ago, there was an automatically generated e-mail confirmation--I clicked a link that was sent to my e-mail address to confirm my registration. But there was no other approval process that I can remember, and, as far as I know, no human being had to approve my membership. Is this something that has changed? Or was I just unaware?
My other pen is a Montblanc.
And my other blog is a tumblr!
And my latest ebook, for spooky wintery reading:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CM2NGSSD
Hawk (July 13th, 2015)
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