Hi! About Barnabas.

[Prime_Z]

Nice setup you have here!

I just came to say Hi on behalf of the AllSpark Classic Administration, and also to speak in behalf of Barnabas.

Mr. Collins is one of our administrators, and he sort of told us that he had a disagreement here with one of your own administrators. I just wanted to let you know that he is a good friend and capable administrator, a very respectful guy, but he always speaks like if he were the Barnabas from the show.

He has sort of created a lot of interest in a lot of us Transfans for the Dark Shadows show. What I mean to say is that he is a good person, and that he is not a troll of any kind. And also that it's not very cool that he has been banned from here.

I hope the whole problem is just a misunderstanding of sorts and gets cleared up.

Kudos

- Hector.

[BluePhoenix]

oh, it will all blow over, i'm sure, Hector.


hi, everyone! i'm Blue from a neighboring board (several boards, actually) and Barnabas told me about this new chat board he found. Dark Shadows! yay!  


i plan to spend some time wandering around and getting to know people here. nice board!

[Midnite]

Welcome, Prime_Z and Blue Phoenix, and thank you for the kind words!

I did see Barnabas_Collins' messages on the Allspark board-- I'm actually a registered member there and on another ds board as well.  Unfortunately, BC is claiming he was banished frorm these forums.  He was never banished (I don't even use that word), and as you can easily see from his posts on the "Current Talk" board everything was civil and he was never asked to leave but apparently felt the need to do so himself because he took issue with the rule against role playing.  His membership here remains and his posting privileges are as intact as any other member's.

The board rules that are required reading upon registration clearly state that role playing isn't allowed on these boards.  No one here has anything against role playing but these forums were created for discussion only.  Barnabas_Collins agreed to this stipulation when he registered, and since he actually registered twice due to a problem in receiving his 1st password, he had to have agreed to these rules twice.  It's not my intention to cause any embarrassment for your friend, and it's unfortunate that he feels he's not welcome here when that's simply not the case.  Actually, I tried to avoid any public confrontations that might cause him grief or embarrassment by explaining to him in AIM before he made his first post that role playing is discouraged here, which I realize in hindsight didn't help the issue at all.  But isn't it wonderful that there are so many wonderful ds forums that are dedicated to role playing and the writing of scripts and fan fiction?

The only person that used the word "troll" to describe BC was BC himself.  No one here ever considered him a troll and he has always, to my knowledge, been treated with respect, and apparently our webmaster spent something like 2 hours helping BC get his registration and profile straightened out.  If my recent post about a troll on the Current Talk board made anyone think I was referring to BC, then I sincerely apologize.  There can be no question that the person I was referring to is indeed a troll whose sole intention is to attempt to disrupt this forum, but that person is NOT the lovable user named Barnabas_Collins.  And anyone that introduces new fans to DS is alright with me!

Thank you for your concern-- you're obviously his good friends.  However, nothing has occurred here to make anyone think of BC as anything other than a welcome member.  I hope you'll continue to enjoy your stay here and thank you for your messages!

[Prime_Z]

Hello Midnite! thanks for the welcome!  

Just trying to bridge interpretations of your rules, what exactly can Barnabas say or can't in here.

I think you have read how he posts at our boards, can he do that in here?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I hope the whole problem is just a misunderstanding of sorts and gets cleared up.

Hector,

Most of what happened yesterday was a misunderstanding, and I think he may realize what happened now. He wrote me an e-mail last night which explained what he thought had happened, but I wrote back earlier today to explain that he hadn't actually been banned from the forum.
What had happened was that he tried to access the forum while I had shut it down yesterday to modify some files on the server. A part of those modifications was giving him the username Barnabas_Collins (which he preferred) in posts that he had made under the username MrBarnabas_Collins (so that all of his posts would be counted under the one username). During the time that the forum was offline, a page displayed that message - along with an invitation to try again later:

However, we've learned from some visitors that if someone is using MSIE rather than Netscape, this page can continue to display even after the forum has come back online because MSIE has stored a copy of it in its cache. People using MSIE sometimes have to clear their cache in order to get through to the forum again. And this may be what had happened in BC's case. (I don't know because he hasn't had the chance to write me back yet. )

To further complicate matters, BC received an e-mail from the forum that his MrBarnabas_Collins registrastion had been removed from the forum, so he took that to mean that he was no longer welcome. But what had really happened was that I had combined some of his MrBarnabas_Collins files (he'd already created a profile for that name) with his Barnabas_Collins files so that he would have everything under that name, and then I deleted the MrBarnabas_Collins registration. He still had complete access to the forum using Barnabas_Collins. But my mistake was not writing to tell him that. (I should have learned my lesson after I'd deleted the entire message list from a duplicate forum while I was testing some modifications before I installed them to the real forum and all our members received notices that they had been deleted when they actually hadn't been.) My only excuse is that yesterday was such a hectic day here on the forum that writing to explain what I had done had completely slipped my mind. But I also explained all of this to BC in my e-mail this morning. So, hopefully this whole misunderstanding has been straightened out. As Midnite has already said, BC is more than welcome to post - if that's what he decides he would like to do. And I hope you and BluePheonix will continue to post as well.

The MB

[Midnite]

Just trying to bridge interpretations of your rules, what exactly can Barnabas say or can't in here.

I think you have read how he posts at our boards, can he do that in here?

Hi, Prime_Z!

Role playing is speaking as if you're a character on the show, whether it's an actual character or one that's made up.  It's not his manner of speech that's at issue, but if he speaks of his beloved Josette or the instructions that he gave to Willie, it's RP, whether someone else participates or not.

I've participated in and read RP on sites that were dedicated to it, and I had a blast, but these forums are dedicated to discussion and due to their size and our small staff we've had to continuously turn fan fiction and role playing away.

[BluePhoenix]

that's a shame that you limited role playing here, Midnite. Barnabas is great at catching people unaware when there's a subject going on and he puts a whole new twist on it as the star of DS! also, from what i've read, that policy was instituted due to some problems with a couple of bad posters in the past. i can only hope that this policy gets better in the future; my board has a lot of fun by suddenly going off on tangents and keeping interest up in the forums. you never know WHAT you'll read, so you read them all!


Mysterious Benefactor, it's really okay, i've seen the email you spoke of and Barnabas understands what was happening now; it seems to have been a series of unfortunate misunderstandings that occurred after seeing Midnite's original post that just seemed a little strong. he wouldn't have invited me here if he thought this was not a good board. let's all start over, kay?  


sooooo.... what else do we want to talk about now? DS perhaps?   i've been a fan forever, i watched the original shows! they were funny as well as mysterious... a girlfriend would always call me to laugh about anything that went wrong with the filming, like an overhead microphone in the shot or someone tripping or missing lines... it was great stuff!

[Nancy]

that's a shame that you limited role playing here, Midnite. Barnabas is great at catching people unaware when there's a subject going on and he puts a whole new twist on it as the star of DS! also, from what i've read, that policy was instituted due to some problems with a couple of bad posters in the past. i can only hope that this policy gets better in the future; my board has a lot of fun by suddenly going off on tangents and keeping interest up in the forums. you never know WHAT you'll read, so you read them all!

Welcome to the board!

IMO, that's what is so great about all the different DS boards and lists: there is something to cater to every taste.  Everyone is free to join the groups that meets their needs, and not participate in those that are not satisfying to them.  For example, I don't like role playing and I generally don't care much for fanfiction so I avoid the sites or groups that cater to any of that so those who do can enjoy themselves.  I prefer discussion and for that reason I joined this board since that is its purpose.  It's been great.    

I wonder how many DS lists and boards there are on the internet? Can anyone hazard a guess?

Nancy

[Barnabas_Collins]

Thank you my friends! *smiles* Benefactor has been a more than excellent host, by clearing up some misconceptions of mine...  In regards to the limitations imposed to me by Miss Midnite, well... as my mother used to tell me, just byte your lip and do the best you can. *bytes lip*...  So, let us just smile *smiles* and make the best of things...

[Josette]

Welcome Barnabas_Collins, and Prime_Z and BluePhoenix!  I'm glad things were straightened out and I'm sure we'll enjoy having you with us.

[BluePhoenix]

thanks, Josette! pleased to meet you...


gee, i don't have to ask you who your favorite character is, huh?    she always seemed the more delicate heroine to me. i kind of like Vicky myself, trying to figure things out and get in the middle of all the mysteries. ...not like she had a choice, being flung into the past...  

[Josette]

Hi BluePhoenix!  I wouldn't call her a favorite character, although I do like her.  Way back on the SciFi boards, when I needed to choose a name, I was trying to think of a character who wasn't already taken, and I felt I identified with Josette more than anyone else who came to mind!

[Barnabas_Collins]

Josette... Something about your name makes me feel that we are going to get along very nicely... *hands over a red rose to Josette* *smiles*

[BluePhoenix]

scifi boards? cool! that's another huge interest of mine too! i love to watch SF movies and shows, i even write a bit. which are your favorites, if you have any? i always watch Enterprise, the new Star Trek series, but mostly i enjoy the movies. anything from Alien to The Mummy Returns to Stephen King's movies...

DS was great because they had a whole new slant, with the gothic horror soap opera idea. it went over big with myself and my friends! while mostly the story seemed to evolve VERY slowly, the characters came alive and the story lines were interesting. it had a lot going for it!

[Josette]

A lot of us "got started" at the SciFi board.  Eventually the "precursor" to this board at VantageNet was created, and the other board pretty much died.  Robin still posts Robservations there, and some of us comment.  Occasionally there are other posts.  There are separate Creative and Lighter Side boards for fiction which are still used, although not nearly as much as they were back then.  On the "regular" board, we are up to Board #100.  As the older boards "disappear" a lot of the wonderful stories are gone, too, but there are still some on the current creative boards.

http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/  is the main bulletin board listing for all of the categories (classic scifi, current, etc.) and
http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/1 is the Classic SciFi TV board which includes the various DS boards.

Way back, I used to regularly watch our "Chiller Theater" with all of the horror and scifi movies, but I don't see much of that stuff any more.  I'm very big on the whole Star Trek universe.  So far I'm not as thrilled with Enterprise as all of the previous series, but I still like it.