Hello all,

First of all I would like to apologize for the way the forum has been behaving lately. I did not realize it has been acting so poorly. I have been outrageously busy with work on some very large projects which have basically taken over my life. I plan to make more time for the site to ensure that everything improves and hope to get some time to post more as well.

Second one ... forum is definitely not being shutdown ... in fact we would like to grow the site some. Expand it and if anyone has any way they would like the site improved please let me or one of the mods know.

Now, what are we doing to correct the issues?
One of the issues the site has as well is the server it is currently running on. This needs to change and we plan to do a move very shortly(less that a week) to a new more powerful machine. This should correct a good portion of the issues regarding posting. This is at some expense to us as servers to handle sites such as this aren't cheap but I am willing to do it to keep the site moving forward. I will make another post when we are about to do this move so that you will know what is up in case of any issues during the move.

I also have someone who works for me who I plan to have follow the site more closely to ensure that everything is sailing along smoothly. As well I now have direct contact with Dingo so if anything issues arise that we miss she can let us know and we will do our best to make sure everything is cool again.

Everything will get sorted shortly and I hope to get some time to chat will you all shortly. Again sorry for the issues. And if you feel the need to vent - I have thick skin but definitely prefer love over hate. =)

Cheers,
mrRonX

I suppose I can start the ball rolling in my down to earth blunt dingo dog way....

I can see why some people have been disgruntled... Noone had any idea what was happening for months because we haven't been updated for such a long time... Some also know that when the forum goes down and it's the data base, that emails are sent to Admin to advise of these glitches. Normally, to what many of us have become accustomed to, if the forum is playing up really bad, Xander used to here and there, advise us of some of the problems...

Puts everyone who is wanting to know what is happening and why things are going down so much in the know.... Nothing more frustrating than if you try to post time and time again and you can't get in a forum many times over, so you reach a stage where you can't be bothered after a while...

Because of the huge uncertainty and speculation this has all created... we seem to have lost some of our good posting, long term members lately... But like most forums, if the problems are caught in time, there is no reason why things can't be recified in some ways... Forums and the internet as a whole, is a fickle place and people come and go rather quickly anyway.... but hopefully once things are back on keel again all will be honky dory...

Obviously a few changes are in the pipeline and if people see some action happening real soon, then maybe some faith will and can be restored... As mods we were given an email address by Ron to contact him in emergency and I finally decided to use it and thus was able to alert him that things aren't looking good.... So Ron, the ball's in your court now... lucky you... lol...

:goblin:

Dingo
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Ron hopefully you'll understand where I'm coming from on this matter. For three years now Dingo and I have 'looked after' this place and we did so because we have a huge interest in the subject matter. You can't moderate a place like this without getting to know the posters personally, their lives, their nuances, likes and dislikes....it gets personal in a way. Latterly Kelly (one of our longest serving posters) joined us in the mod team with the same enthusiasm for the forum and it's posters that Dingo and I share. I think most folks would agree that Dingo and I practically live here.

Since the hand over from Xander we've watched as the technical difficulties here grew increasingly severe - to the point where for weeks on end we'd struggle to get logged in, we'd get booted off, we'd have posts post in quadruplicate, no search engine, links that don't work and a whole heap of database crashes.....now most folks know that an e-mail is despatched to admin every time the database falls over and yet we've had that happen quite frankly in the hundreds of times, not tens, but hundreds. And we've heard nothing from anyone. Disgruntled members here scream at Dingo and I or post in threads denouncing the situation and still we hear nothing. Our 'urgent' Pm's or posts in the thread which was agreed would be responded to urgently go unanswered or reach no resolution.

All of this is taking place against the backdrop of technical nightmares on a daily basis....what were we to think? Only a few logical conclusions could be reached...the place was either dying or earmarked for closure. Now we all hold out the hope that this is not the case. After three years here however whilst I have been as loyal to Xander as anyone (and carried that loyalty on to yourselves) I also have loyalties to the good people who frequent this place - (Some of whom have been here since it's inception). This weekend was the final straw - it was barely possible to get into the forum for 48 hours and when we did we were being summarily logged out again. It looked to all intents and purposes that this place was 'dead' - I immediately set up an alternate place to 'hang out' because where are we supposed to go? What are we supposed to do? This is a forum where people over the years have built themselves into not a 'membership', not a 'group' but a community. There have been marriages struck up here, relationships, friendships, support and everything one could expect from best friends or neighbours. As the longest serving 'Mod' I owed it to these folks to make sure they had a home.

I hope you appreciate that even against the background of all I have intimated, Dingo Kelly and I have continued to make this place run at the highest possible level of standards - we still spend as much time as we have ever done here, we still do all the modding tasks required of us on a daily basis and we do so without undermining the operation of this place in any way. We are good 'staff' (I would actually argue we are the best on the net). You have our loyalty but I (I can't really speak for the others lest they disagree but I suspect not) am in the unique position of having that same allegiance to the members of this forum who deserve the best we can do for them. Recently they haven't been getting that quality delivery we have been so used to in the past.

We really need to know what on earth is happening and whether this forum goes forward or is in the process of running down?

In posting this I am probably opening myself up to being fired and whilst I personally think that would be sad - it is probably inevitable. But should you decide that is what has to be done then I will of course respect that decision.

At all times my only concern has been that the folks in this community get the attention their efforts and time deserve.

Thanks to all of them. And thanks to you Ron and Dan for allowing me the leeway you did in running this place with Dingo and Kelly - it was very much appreciated and helped enormously I'm sure in making the place the No 1 stop for all things alien/ufo on the internet.

Ben

Thanks for relying after a long time of bitching.....Alot of people already left and now the forum is inundated with nut cases.


It might take some time to get this place up to par again after this neglect.

Well as one of the resident hazel nuts, I'd like to say, don't fire Ben, this place needs him!!!!!

I understand Ben position and he definitly will not be fired or even slapped on the wrist =). My goal is to get everything straightened away. Again I'll take love over hate but at this time I'll take some blunt honesty. I now have Ben on my msn so if anything else comes up he can let me know directly.

Cheers,
mrRonX

Already a few changes have been made to the forum itself and I will post about these in another thread...

It would be great if we could all work at this together... I am one of the longest term members here along with a handful of others... some of us come way before the 3 years ago when Xander moved to this place and seeing this forum grow from what it was orginally in it's birth over the last 5 years has been quite a trip...

So remember everyone, if you have any concerns about the forum you can contact either me or Ben as we both now have direct MSN contact with Ron should anything go askew again.

Dingo
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