DARK SHADOWS FORUMS

General Discussions => Testing. 1, 2, 3... => Topic started by: Prime_Z on April 23, 2002, 07:24:40 PM

Title: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Prime_Z on April 23, 2002, 07:24:40 PM: 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.
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: BluePhoenix on April 23, 2002, 07:43:16 PM: 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! ;D

i plan to spend some time wandering around and getting to know people here. nice board!
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Midnite on April 23, 2002, 08:23:49 PM: 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!
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Prime_Z on April 23, 2002, 09:08:29 PM: 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?
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Mysterious Benefactor on April 24, 2002, 12:41:21 AM: Quote
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:
(http://www.dsboards.com/images/offline.jpg)
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 :o 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. [winkb]

The MB
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Midnite on April 24, 2002, 01:33:53 AM: Quote
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.
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: BluePhoenix on April 24, 2002, 06:29:57 AM: 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? :P 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!
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Nancy on April 24, 2002, 06:50:29 AM: Quote
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? :o

Nancy
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Barnabas_Collins on April 24, 2002, 07:09:22 AM: 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...
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Josette on April 24, 2002, 09:54:53 AM: 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. :)
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: BluePhoenix on April 24, 2002, 05:33:54 PM: 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... ;D
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Josette on April 25, 2002, 03:51:12 AM: 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!
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Barnabas_Collins on April 25, 2002, 04:30:36 AM: 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*
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: BluePhoenix on April 25, 2002, 04:35:09 AM: 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!
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Josette on April 25, 2002, 04:53:15 AM: 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.
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Barnabas_Collins on April 25, 2002, 05:00:22 AM: Ahem... Josette, you forgot to reply to me... *points to the third post above this one*
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Josette on April 25, 2002, 06:11:50 AM: Sorry, Barnabas. While you made a very nice post, I guess it didn't seem to require additional comments the way the other one did.
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: BluePhoenix on April 25, 2002, 07:05:20 AM: regarding Barnabas giving you a rose: well, "thank you" is always nice ;) and i'm jealous! i've never gotten a flower from him...

on your old stories, you can't save them some way? on the boards that i go to, you can always create one more forum to hold the best of the best. it's a shame that you're losing something wonderful that took time and creativity to make.

and although i loved Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap, i don't think he was right to play a captain on ST. it's sort of nostalgic to watch this show and see how so many of the races and equipment we took for granted in the other shows got their start. kinda fun!
Title: OT - for BluePhoenix
Post by: Midnite on April 25, 2002, 08:51:46 AM: Blue_Phoenix,

Just a quick note... I visited your forum (always anxious to see other sites) and wanted to say 2 things. First off, it's GORGEOUS! Am curious to know the source of your quote. Okay, so technically that was already 2 things, but I'm not done yet: My hat is off to you-- you're a heckuva moderator!

M.
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Josette on April 25, 2002, 09:50:29 AM: About the old boards, it really is a shame that they delete them. SciFi runs the site. Supposedly they have them archived and it's supposed to be possible to request old ones, but a long time ago I think someone tried and it didn't work. Recently they did a big overhaul and deleted a lot of old ones. Given that we have 100 of the "regular" boards and I think it's up to 25 Creative and 18 Lighter Side (generally 100 topics to a board), you can imagine what it would be if they kept all of them. But it really is a shame that so many things are gone. Someone did save a lot of the stories on another site, but I forget where that is. (I'm not a writer, so none of the stories are mine, but I've been a big fan of them.)

I've enjoyed Bakula as the captain, but I don't think they've developed the other characters enough. In their other series they created a very varied and intriguing assortment of characters and set up all sorts of quirks and interrelationships amongst them and so on, and aside from how clever some of the story developments were, it was primarily those relationships that made the series click. I keep hoping this one will eventually, but while I'm enjoying it, it just doesn't seem to be up to the level of the others yet.
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: BluePhoenix on April 25, 2002, 05:14:46 PM: thanks muchly, Midnite! i appreciate your comments, and i've started another thread for us to get to know each other, and to tell you more about my board.

Josette, i think those sites and this one must be set up very differently from the ones i use at EZboard, and i think the terminology we're using is not the same. Vindicator, the EZop (our term for owner) of AllSpark Classic, is well versed in both your type of board and the EZboards, he's a real brain and a heck of a nice guy too, but me? i don't have much experience with the independently operated boards like this one, so forgive me if i give you the wrong info sometimes...
more on that in my thread/topic with Midnite!

i guess the first season of a new show is most difficult, they have to establish so much! after all, it's a whole new world... and when it's a world the viewers are already aware of, like with all the Trekkers out there, the new shows receive even more scrutiny. Hey, we have what, 30 years worth of fans and MANY shows that came before. any new ST show really has to hit the ground running!

i especially like that they are just discovering so many technical ideas and pieces of advanced equipment that we already know about, it adds a nice twist to the stories. but you're right, many of the characters could be stronger and more fleshed out by now, and the stories could be stronger too. it's like they're 3/4 of what i had hoped for, and it's good, but you still know something is missing... maybe by the second season they'll take off. as i remember, when i first saw the "Farpoint" episode that began ST:The Next Generation, i didn't think it was all that great. now that i go back and view it, knowing the characters, the meanings behind what they were doing, etc, i seems great! one of my favorites!

hey, if you guys started out on the scifi boards, how did you end up specifically as DS fans on a separate board? you tell me your story, and i'll tell you mine! :D
Title: Re: Hi! About Barnabas.
Post by: Midnite on April 25, 2002, 07:16:52 PM: Quote
thanks muchly, Midnite! i appreciate your comments, and i've started another thread for us to get to know each other, and to tell you more about my board.

Thanks, I'm anxious to read it next!

Quote
hey, if you guys started out on the scifi boards, how did you end up specifically as DS fans on a separate board? you tell me your story, and i'll tell you mine! :D

I can add some insights about this too-- I bet there are loads of posters on these boards that don't have a clue why these forums are here and (you never know!) they might be interested in finding out-- but I'll do it in your other topic. I also wanted to invite you and Prime_Z to come on over to the "Current Talk" forum to introduce yourselves to everyone. I'm sure other posters would enjoy hearing about you and how you came to be a fan of DS, what you like about it, your other interests, etc. I know you'll be a welcome and valuable addition to our discussions on Current Talk!