Think I'll fade for a while.

[xaphod]

I wasn't overly impressed by the 'fait accompli' presented to the users of the board,

(1) No 'wouldn't you think this is a good idea'?

(2)No 'I'm in negotiations with Jeff'

(3)No 'Jeff and I have agreed to make the transfer and your representations/concerns in (1) are incorporated.'

Richie,

I thank you for taking up the responsibility of hosting the old hhplace and would hope that the the users enjoy the service they had there, funded by the generosity of 'Silhouette'.

Now I note that the server is with your company, which you presumably own. I guess that the cost of this is covered by the links you have provided, but knowing the mentality of companies, this thriving board will be regarded as a 'profit centre' ripe for exploitation. Maybe not now, but if your mainstream business takes a bit of a downturn, then I forsee the possibility of membership of the board quietly being renamed one day to 'basic membership'.

Some time later 'basic membership' will be limited in functionality, but 'premium membership' will restore this, but, lo, as soon as you press the premium membership button it will be giz yer credit card number, Guv.

Maybe, I'm wrong in all this; I hope so, so you can leave this on the board as a monument to 'Xaphod doesn't know what he's talking about', but if it disappears quickly, those who have seen it will remember my words and may have cause to remember that 'Xaphod wasn't so daft after all'.

BCNU, guys.

Xa

[sendra45]

I agree it was all out of our hands, but change happens, and at least jeff has handed the forums to somebody who cares. talking of daft, I dont think richie would be daft enough to start charging. he knew what he was getting into when he took this on and as a person running his own business he would have thought about the finacial requirements needed. I am sure we will find out either way, but non of us should fall out over this.

[Tech]

Dear Xaphod, Moderators and members reading this...

(1) No 'wouldn't you think this is a good idea'?

(2) No 'I'm in negotiations with Jeff'

(3) No 'Jeff and I have agreed to make the transfer and your representations/concerns in (1) are incorporated.'

I did try to contact you all to tell you what was going on and ask for your input/feedback to which I got 4 moderators that are uncontactable due to bad email addresses and a further 3 that simply didnt reply.

Thats why I posted the messages on the forum prior to the transfer so that at least you guys would have some notice of whats going on and could ask questions BEFORE it happened but as yet, Firefox and Calv are the only people who actually emailed me back.

I thank you for taking up the responsibility of hosting the old hhplace and would hope that the the users enjoy the service they had there, funded by the generosity of 'Silhouette'.

Absolutely, in fact the website users will have far more flexibility and usage because the website is backed up every night and during a manual backup you wont see that horrible plesk screen.

Also, disk space here is NOT and issue, nor is bandwidth, there is plenty of it.

Moderators here will also have a much easier time owing to some of the modifications I have made already and will be making later this week so if your a moderator here then watch this space...

Now I note that the server is with your company, which you presumably own. I guess that the cost of this is covered by the links you have provided, but knowing the mentality of companies, this thriving board will be regarded as a 'profit centre' ripe for exploitation.

Yes, the website is now hosted by my own company which is great news for all of us because "if"(I say if, not when) the website should ever go down for some reason, one of my admins will already be working on it so there is no need to panick or email me.

As for the website being ripe for exploitation or some sort of profit centre, absolutely NOT, NEVER, no chance.......... Not in this lifetime!!!!!!

Maybe not now, but if your mainstream business takes a bit of a downturn, then I forsee the possibility of membership of the board quietly being renamed one day to 'basic membership'.

Some time later 'basic membership' will be limited in functionality, but 'premium membership' will restore this, but, lo, as soon as you press the premium membership button it will be *giz yer credit card number, Guv*.

Xaphod.....

Excellent point you raise but should there ever come a time when the continued growth of my company does a 180 and goes downhill then I shall make this known to all the moderators so that something can be done about it in advance so that the website doesnt simply get switched off for running out of money.

Now, let me put your concerns to rest because you obviously seem to think this is some sort of "money making" scheme which it isnt!, I do this for fun and I also admin several other forums for my companies customers..

This website is hosted on the same server as my own company website and so therefore has its hosting cost's already covered and taken care of...

There will NEVER be any sort of "paid for membership" here

The small adverts that run across the bottom are doing fine and will not need to expand to any other areas of the website...

This website does obviously have cost's from the software its running on which is covered by the adverts and by using google adsense I dont put the website in the position of having to keep begging 1 sponsor for more money.

Anyway, my intention is to keep this website running, and keep it up to date, modern and functional yet make it a website that "EVERYBODY" can contribute to and one that can we can all maintain, FREE

Maybe, I'm wrong in all this; I hope so, so you can leave this on the board as a monument to 'Xaphod doesn't know what he's talking about', but if it disappears quickly, those who have seen it will remember my words and may have cause to remember that 'Xaphod wasn't so daft after all'.

Sure, no problem, I shall ensure it remains here for all to see....

I shall be asking for feedback on several more announcements/changes in the next 24 hours so please do have a read...(Yes you Xa!)

Xaphod, I welcome you back to the forum and would be very grateful if you would reconsider your fading out for a while.... I would also personally appreciate it if you would either pick up the phone and ask me "Hey mate, what you got planned" or drop me an email if you have questions / concerns so we can at least have a chat about it..

[micha]

I wasn't overly impressed by the 'fait accompli' presented to the users of the board,

(1) No 'wouldn't you think this is a good idea'?

(2)No 'I'm in negotiations with Jeff'

(3)No 'Jeff and I have agreed to make the transfer and your representations/concerns in (1) are incorporated.'

Richie,

I thank you for taking up the responsibility of hosting the old hhplace and would hope that the the users enjoy the service they had there, funded by the generosity of 'Silhouette'.

Now I note that the server is with your company, which you presumably own. I guess that the cost of this is covered by the links you have provided, but knowing the mentality of companies, this thriving board will be regarded as a 'profit centre' ripe for exploitation. Maybe not now, but if your mainstream business takes a bit of a downturn, then I forsee the possibility of membership of the board quietly being renamed one day to 'basic membership'.

Some time later 'basic membership' will be limited in functionality, but 'premium membership' will restore this, but, lo, as soon as you press the premium membership button it will be giz yer credit card number, Guv.

Maybe, I'm wrong in all this; I hope so, so you can leave this on the board as a monument to 'Xaphod doesn't know what he's talking about', but if it disappears quickly, those who have seen it will remember my words and may have cause to remember that 'Xaphod wasn't so daft after all'.

BCNU, guys.

Xa

Dear Xa,

aren't you a little bit unfair? There is luckily a guy burdening himself the work and the costs of continuing our forum and you are suspecting him at once of financial interests. At the moment I'm simply open minded. A complete new software and a new look and feel but not really strange.

nice greetings

micha

[jmc]

Well, the board looks different and feels different. But a lot of our interesting members have found it and resumed posting, so the old back-and-forth is here. I hope the rest of our membership finds their way here. We can get accustomed to the new look-and-feel. I daresay we will all appreciate less downtime, better accessibility and more involved administration. I am not faulting Jeff but I do get the impression that other, more serious endeavors have distracted him from this board. Maybe it was time for a change. I am holding out hope that this board will find itself re-invigorated as a result of this move. And that's really all that matters here.

[Jeff]

Jms, You are absolutely right.. The time I spend in managing the site was way to little to keep everything running as smooth as it should be.. I'm simply at a stage in my life where running and maintaining the board simply wasn't one of my #1 priorities anymore. Knowing that a lot of people would be very disapointed if the board ever disapeared though it never came to my mind to simply dump it.. So, I was actually thinking for a while now to look for a good admin to take over and suddenly there was Richie offering to host the hhplace forums on his system (for me a gift from heaven.. ).. Since I know Rich from some meets in the past I immediately decided to hand everything over to him, knowing that this is simply the best for the hh-community. I'm very confident that Richie will do his best to maintain these forums for a long time to go... More than I ever could do.. I would have informed you all of this transition before it happened if it where not for the fact that suddenly we were out of diskspace on the old hostingserver and the board had to be shutdown earlier than planned. I'm very sorry for that. From here I like to put out a big thank you to Richie for taking over and keeping this wonderfull community of people on the net a live and kikking (with their heels..).. Thanks Richie!

[Bubba136]

Thanks for your post, Jeff. I truly believe all members and guests using this forum owe you a huge debt of gratitude for all of the time and effort you've put into it. We're truely greatful. And we're confident your judgement in Richir as the "guy" to hand off administrator responsibility to, will be proven wise over the next few months. Once agian, thanks for a job well done.

[Steve B]

I'll second that.

[Dawn HH]

A great big debt of gratitude to Jeff for all of his efforts through the years in keeping the HH Place going for us all, and a very big welcome to Richie for taking on such a great responsibility for the Forum. It is nice that it will still be free and will be ongoing far into the future. Good luck, Jeff, with your future endevors. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[Dr. Shoe]

Why don't we wait and see? While I know that what Xa says COULD happen, I have a strong feeling that it won't. The main reason for this is the fact that one of our stalwart members owns the server and another is in the fact that the advertising adequately covers the extra costs incurred. Personally, I think that the move is the best thing that could happen.

[Shafted]

Thanks for your post, Jeff. I truly believe all members and guests using this forum owe you a huge debt of gratitude for all of the time and effort you've put into it. We're truely greatful. And we're confident your judgement in Richir as the "guy" to hand off administrator responsibility to, will be proven wise over the next few months. Once agian, thanks for a job well done.

Bubba,

You're back it's great to see you're still out there.

[dr1819]

I'll second that, Shafted - Hi Bubba! Nigel, and the others - I have to throw my two cents in with the general consensus on this one. The old hh board was having too many hiccups for my taste. The new one's had it's share as well - I wasn't able to access it until yesterday, then it was unavailable last night. I think that's probably due to security settings. Hopefully the settings will remain as they are at the time of this posting! I don't mind an ad or two at the bottom of the page - easy to ignore - provided they never morph into popups that obscure any of the text and require my intervention. If that were to happen, I'd follow Xaphod's lead, post something a lot nastier than he did, and leave. I HATE advertisements. But the current ad rate is acceptable. The most important section, however, the forums, appears to be intact, sans the material lost since the last backup. However, most of the old users appear to be back online, so I don't think it'll take long for the others to find their way home, nor will it be a long time before the posts start proliferating, either. Xa, I respect your decision, but I love you like a brother. Hope you don't fade for long - I've always enjoyed your posts. I hope to see you back soon.

[j-turbo2002]

I just want to congratulate Jeff for a job well done and give a big THANKS to Richie for taking over the forum. That is all.

[Skirted-UK]

Jeff, thanks for all the hard work that you have done in the past to keep the board going. This looks like a good outcome to me

[jo]

>> The most important section, however, the forums, appears to be intact, sans the material lost since the last backup. <<

If you're referring to the post from Jeff where he comments on 3 months material having gone missing, then please note that that post is approaching a year old now.

[micha]

I just want to congratulate Jeff for a job well done and give a big THANKS to Richie for taking over the forum. That is all.

He he, the first time that I agree completely to you!