How the Flock are ya ..,

Balilongtime

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Hello everyone , Lots of old familiar names here I see :thumb:.

This is (old user name ) DAVOBALI ..,

I quit using the old forum a few years back due the non-stop presents of some Lowlife Trolls who over-polluted the Old forum :flame:.
This trolling was a real shame as there was so many other great and helpful members on that forum, and I did enjoy being able to help others there also when I could.
I really hope this new site is free of those type of trolls .

Is that why all you other guys "jumped Ship" .., as I see that other forum is still in operation ?

Cheers Dave
 
Is that why all you other guys "jumped Ship" .., as I see that other forum is still in operation ?

Short version: We all woke up one morning to an "upgrade" from vBulletin4 to vB5, and it was terrible - people kept getting logged out constantly, the PM system was unusable for some of us, posts were disappearing, the "last post" function was completely inaccurate...in short the place was incredibly frustrating and non-functional. Paman posted a thread saying that "we" had done an upgrade and people should note any problems in the thread.

People started out politely observing the problems. The mod team, which had not been informed of the switch, distanced themselves from any knowledge of what was going on. Paman did not reply at all, and wm didn't say anything for days, when she finally posted a weak note in the mod channel (not readable by the general members) that said something like "yes, it is a bit buggy, we'll work on it." But, no apology or acknowledgment that it was inappropriate to dump a poorly-vetted "upgrade" on the membership without even doing the moderation team the courtesy of a heads up.

So after many days (eons in internet time) without any response from the admins, the mods (plus me - at that time I was not actively modding the old forum, but I was still "one of the gang", so to speak) resigned and our accounts were hijacked. We were still listed as members but in fact we couldn't even sign in.

Paman finally weighed in (this must have been 10 days or 2 weeks after the debacle began, I'm not sure since I didn't keep a timeline) saying he had been traveling on business and had been too busy to check the forum. Anyone who continued to complain over there got a temporary ban. Paman also posted a note saying the mods had "sabotaged" the site. It took quite a while, but eventually all the mods had "banned" listed under their names, which is something of a relief since it was frustrating to be listed as a member and yet be barred from site. I believe the bugs have been fixed but since I'm IP-banned my forays over there are somewhat limited.

You know what they always say on internet message boards: "if you don't like the way we do things, feel free to go start your own forum." So - thanks in large part to the awesome technical prowess of dafluff and El_Goretto - that's exactly what we did. All but a few of the old members came over and registered at this new site.

We're trying to do a few things differently here, such as setting up a very lightly moderated section which will be known as the Cage, and organizing some of the crowd-sourced information to make it more easily accessible from the start.

So that's the basic story. Welcome, and thank you for joining us!
 
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Short version: We all woke up one morning to an "upgrade" ... So that's the basic story. Welcome, and thank you for joining us!

Very succinct summing up. (And I think accurate, from the outside looking in, anyway)

One thing I don't recall in the old Forum was the "non-stop presents of some Lowlife Trolls who over-polluted the Old forum." Maybe that was before my time. I do recall that most of those who were from their beginning posts unpleasant and bating did not last long. The old Forum used to have a good group of moderators who seemed to keep trollish behavior to a minimum.
 
Hey Davobali, not too flockin' bad, before my time I think, but are you the one who did those great posts about building? ... just wondering, if not, welcome anywho....
 
Waarmstrong , no it wasnt always like that .., I received excellent advice and learn't much valuable information from the forum from many excellent members (I see many of them here also) , and especially from Atlantis whom I am eternally grateful :clap2: I got my kitap shortly after his (when those new rules came in almost 5 years ago , and with his help in the forum , it made getting mine was a breeze ..,

On the negative side though , there were too many times i suffered a troll stalker or two that obviously had nothing better to do than get their jollies from constant flaming, and baiting etc - I am not mentioning names nor even going there - it's history .., the bottom line was rather than waste time arguing or being bothered by trolls I just left the forum (as did many others for similar reasons) .
 
Hey Davobali, not too flockin' bad, before my time I think, but are you the one who did those great posts about building? ... just wondering, if not, welcome anywho....
Yes Macvert , That's the one Cheers excellent memory you have.., hope your well
 
doin' just fine seeing I'm renting, haha ... shaking my head everyday though at the building standards here, always pointing out the basic ground up mistakes to the good wife (the only one who seems to listen ... haha ).... will they ever learn? .... but then again maybe they just don't give a flock.
 
Hey davobali - glad you joined us - I think we exchanged a few PMs about those "issues" and I reckon it won't happen here.
 
doin' just fine seeing I'm renting, haha ... shaking my head everyday though at the building standards here, always pointing out the basic ground up mistakes to the good wife (the only one who seems to listen ... haha ).... will they ever learn? .... but then again maybe they just don't give a flock.
Thing will be as they are , it's difficult when there is no formal qualifications process and no official educating institutions for tradespeople .

Things are slightly on the improve though (slightly) as I have noticed lower grade versions of cheap "Roof sarking" is readily available in hardware stores, but i am still yet to witness any new buildings incorporate its usefulness. I still mention it to lokals building their homes and then when the roof gets built they still skimp of the expense (even though that is minimal) ?

I am hoping to see available one day .., the huge thick black plastic PVC rolls we can buy in Australia and the introduction of ground slabs , damp proof courses in masonry .

My biggest "can't figure out why" is why poeple still insist on putting Plaster on external walls (for that ultra smooth look) that plaster (meant only for interior use with zero exposure to moisture) always flakes off external walls - taking the paint with it making houses look cheap and rundownand falling apart .., even when they are still new-ish :rolleyes:
 
Hey davobali - glad you joined us - I think we exchanged a few PMs about those "issues" and I reckon it won't happen here.
Hi John .., how are you Glad to see you still around and hope everything is going good with you :thumb:
 
doin' just fine seeing I'm renting, haha ... shaking my head everyday though at the building standards here, always pointing out the basic ground up mistakes to the good wife (the only one who seems to listen ... haha ).... will they ever learn? .... but then again maybe they just don't give a flock.

Back on the exterior wall peeling paint / plaster issues i mentioned .., actually this is even on the increase as Architects are now designing minimalist buildings with either no eaves or narrow eaves which increase the walls , paint/ plaster exposure to weather which accelerates the problem. At least older designs had very wide eaves which helped keep the rainwater away from the walls ..., but all designs do nothing to stop moisture creeping up the walls (via capillary action) and getting to that plaster from the inside out , that issue can only be addressed by damp proof courses etc.
 
doin' just fine seeing I'm renting, haha ... shaking my head everyday though at the building standards here, always pointing out the basic ground up mistakes to the good wife (the only one who seems to listen ... haha ).... will they ever learn? .... but then again maybe they just don't give a flock.

if you go to Bintaro, there is a building several stories high, one side of it has sort of collapsed, fortunately the building was empty at the time, I'm told it's an old building, let's hope more old buildings don't give up and collapse
 
Back on the exterior wall peeling paint / plaster issues i mentioned .., actually this is even on the increase as Architects are now designing minimalist buildings with either no eaves or narrow eaves which increase the walls , paint/ plaster exposure to weather which accelerates the problem. At least older designs had very wide eaves which helped keep the rainwater away from the walls ..., but all designs do nothing to stop moisture creeping up the walls (via capillary action) and getting to that plaster from the inside out , that issue can only be addressed by damp proof courses etc.

about the only thing I find minimalist is the thought that goes into them
 
Slight correction. Paman noted that the mods had been told of the upgrade. Last year some time...

A little reminder might have saved everyone a lot of grief. Who does a major upgrade to a flakey platform, and then is gone for weeks?
 
Slight correction. Paman noted that the mods had been told of the upgrade. Last year some time...

A little reminder might have saved everyone a lot of grief. Who does a major upgrade to a flakey platform, and then is gone for weeks?

yeah, piss poor excuse from the puppet who may as well have said "you were told during a past lifetime".
 
Slight correction. Paman noted that the mods had been told of the upgrade. Last year some time...

A little reminder might have saved everyone a lot of grief. Who does a major upgrade to a flakey platform, and then is gone for weeks?

Actually, it's not how it went down. At all.

About a year ago or more (not sure), Paman told us he wanted to migrate to a completely new version of the software. Not just an upgrade. He did ask for our opinion though.

We (the moderators) collectively rejected the idea because we were worried that the users would get lost. Also, the most senior mod on the team remembered the last time a software migration happened: the whole database got wiped out. Considering the poor technical record of the administration, it was not worth the risk. If it's not broken, why fix it?

And that was it. As far as I can remember, the case was closed.

Fast forward to recently, and an upgrade to VB5 happened overnight without any prior notice to us and the rest is history.
 
Actually, it's not how it went down. At all.

About a year ago or more (not sure), Paman told us he wanted to migrate to a completely new version of the software. Not just an upgrade. He did ask for our opinion though.

We (the moderators) collectively rejected the idea because we were worried that the users would get lost. Also, the most senior mod on the team remembered the last time a software migration happened: the whole database got wiped out. Considering the poor technical record of the administration, it was not worth the risk. If it's not broken, why fix it?

And that was it. As far as I can remember, the case was closed.

Fast forward to recently, and an upgrade to VB5 happened overnight without any prior notice to us and the rest is history.

Actually to clarify, it wasn't a new version of the software that is currently being used (Vbulletin 5), he wanted a completely different software. If I'm not mistaken it was Discourse: https://try.discourse.org/

The entire moderation team rejected the idea, mainly because if it isn't broken, why fix it. A lesson that is currently being learned over there I think.

After that, fast forward 1 year or so, and literally the next communique from Paman was the "Hiccup Thread". He did not participate in any other discussion with the mod team for the entire time between the rejection of Dyscourse up to the botched upgrade. Implying that the moderators were given any heads up whatsoever on the upgrade from Vbulletin 4 to 5 is simply wrong.
 
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