thanks, you're very kind! i've been with EZboard for 2 1/2 years now, and watched it grow tremendously. i've even spoken by email with the owner when we had some serious problems going on. it's a wonderful alternative to setting up your own board system, like this one, and i'm afraid i just couldn't handle all this yet! lol... so my hat is off to you and the rest of the staff here for their tech knowledge.
Thanks! I count my lucky stars to not only be partnered with the web wizard MysteriousB, but also that we get along so well. We've been working together at this for (don't faint!) 3 ½ years, and get along fabulously. We also looked into ezboards as a temporary home for the interim after our 1st server deleted all our message boards for the 2nd time (yes, we should've bailed after the first time) and before this board was ready, since it was only in the planning stages at that point.
My first posting boards were on SciFi.com. I was made to feel right at home there and met some fantastic people, some of whom are my best friends today. It was comfortable until, well, it became painfully obvious that the PTB at SciFi couldn't care less about what was happening at their boards. I can't get into specifics cuz of a clause in the board rules that was written to keep arguments and problems on other DS sites from spilling over here. But suffice to say that I quit, as did several friends and acquaintances, but still felt the need to have a place to hang out with other DS fans. There was a discussion among 8 of us about starting another DS board on our own, and when it came time to decide on who would moderate, I was the only volunteer so that pretty much decided it, hee hee. Isn't it amazing how a simple decision can grow into a labor of love? My motivation back then was to have a place I could go to talk about the show that was comfortable. Of course we hoped to be able to attract posters with similar interests, but had no idea it would bring in the numbers that it has. THAT'S why we do this-- it's knowing that fans are enjoying themselves that makes it all worthwhile. And despite the fact that it can be trying, most days it's a breeze and a joy. I know you can relate.
You asked about the history of role playing here, and you're right that the earliest role playing was problematic (which wasn't unique) and that's the only time I've ever removed any RP from any board. What I'll do instead is post reminders and warnings. These forums are so large that we just can't accommodate role playing and fan fic, but I know that there are other forums available for either or both, and links can always be posted to alert readers to them.
i think our terms are different where i come from, and i'm getting confused... for instance, any one who wants to can create a "board" at EZboard. within that board, you can create as many "forums" as you like, each for a diff subject, like general conversations, recipes, music, role playing, etc. and if the posters like only certain subjects, that's where they head. within a forum you can have 400 "topics" or "threads" before the ones that are oldest fall off the back of the board to oblivion. and if you have some real keepers in the forums, you can move the topic/thread intact to a new forum that you've created just to showcase them, where you can choose between allowing people to continue to comment within the threads or make them "read only".
Sounds great! The other DS board I visit is on ezboards and run by the wonderful Tim Choate, who also posts here. In fact, I was surprised to see that I was already logged in when I visited your site; that was convenient!
Here, only administrators (just a word for the same thing you're describing) can start boards, but anyone can begin a new topic on this Testing board (which actually is supposed to be for forum questions or testing features... and here we are, oops?) and the Current Talk discussion board. The CT forum is growing so quickly that even with unlimited bandwidth we'll eventually need to start archiving. Having 2 boards deleted without warning makes you realize how awful it is to lose fantastic discussions forever.
Haven't had to use our "read only" forum feature yet. The name for it is "locked topic"; same thing.
Also, i think the staff titles and abilities are different. you have one EZop/owner, who can add on as many administrators as she likes, each with the ability to edit, move, and delete things across the entire board (the EZboard has a few more powers above the admins, btw) as well as access the controls of the board too; then you have Global Moderators, who have powers across the entire board, but can't get backstage to the controls; then we have Moderators who are assigned powers for specific forums(s) that interest them, and those forums are the only places they have more powers than regular posters do.
We have the option to create other positions besides the executive administrators, and I'm trying to get a friend to return as a moderator. I don't know how involved he'll be willing to be, but we could sure use his help!
So, at Blue's Club, i'm the EZop, and i have two admins who have 99% of the power that i do; then i have some global mods who enjoy floating across all the forums helping with all the subjects, and who came in REALLY handy when we had attacks from another group who spammed and porned and made fools of themselves; then are the forum-specific mods who prefer to concentrate on just one subject/forum. together with the regular posters, we make up a pretty nice family!
I saw how you handled someone on your board that was irate and I was totally impressed with how you listened and eventually talked him down!
EZboard gives you a lot of options for adding image backgrounds instead of just colors, if you choose, as well as your own custom buttons, banners, and all kinds of frills. you have to find the images yourself, or create them, however. that can make the page hard to load for people with 56k modems, so i try to be considerate.
I saw that. Really amazing.
since i'm a creative type too
I noticed!
please feel free to stop over and say hi to us, it only takes a few minutes to register a name. and if you have any specific interests that we cover, jump in and ask questions; all of us are friendly there or i smack them personally
Hee hee!! I will-- first chance I get. Thanks!
ah, forgot your question about the quote! it's a song by The Alan Parsons Project... a wonderful friend of mine left the board suddenly, and i was feeling sad.
here's the link to the entire song. http://pub5.ezboard.com/fbluesclubthejukebox.showMessage?topicID=145.topic
I apologize for taking so long to get back to you! I tried to play the midi this morning but couldn't, and then tried again tonite with no luck. Ah well, but thanks for the info and at least I got to read the lyrics for the entire song.