New admin needed

[J. Wilhelm]

If you want to see who are the moderators for Spare Goggles (and send Pheobsky an email - don't swamp them), go to https://sparegoggles.forumotion.net/g2-moderators

Sorontar

Useful list, but I only know of one moderator there who has been active here in the recent past.  The problem is that people move on, drift away, life happens and / or they no longer have time to manage, or even visit, the forum.  I don't see that there is a solution to that, beyond perhaps making moderator status an elected position with a set lifespan and (say every 12 months) mods have to be elected/ re-elected.  

I'd propose that we elect a Prime Minister/Governor, to serve in the role of the executive, separate from the technical director in charge of the server (the Engineer General?) . Those are two different functions anyhow. Moderators can be re-elected. I don't suggest single term limits, because we *don't have that many people in the forum* 

[Prof Marvel]

my Dear Von Corax -

You are an Oak!
however did you get saddled with being "the person who's probably going to be doing this" ?

:-)

upgrade the new host to a current version of SMF. I think with some help that I could foot the bill for the current host for as long as it takes to complete the move.

So let's say we try to transplant Brassgoggles.co.uk to a smaller SMF based forum. Is there such a thing as a current version of SMF?

Good Question...

RE: Pheobsky

I did some looking for Herr Pheobsky last night. besides Spare Goggles i also found a presence on DeviantArt and some
public correspondence with another long-gone interesting fellow: ElShoggotho. Both have dissappeared from the Steampunk world ca ~ 2012.

I tried sending Pheobsky an email/PM via Spare goggles and Deviant Art, but have little hope since he also left DA
around 2011:

Information
   Joined : 2008-09-12
   Last visit : Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:57 am

He, along with a few others disappeared off the face of the Net around
the winter of 2011-2012. including his/their presence on Deviant Art, Flickr, and other venues...

This seems to happen to artistic and student types. As they graduate, change art forms,  etc, they "move on" to "whatever", and sort of disappear into mundane life until free time & funds re-appear. Or choose to re-invent themselves entirely.

It does happen to a lot of us.

unfortunately for we who remain, in this age of interwebs it can mean things like SpareGoggles and/or Steampunk Mexico
(https://steampunk.forosactivos.net/ ) are abandonned and  take on a  crippled life of their own, continueing on somehow, unguided....

I have had a number of historical Muzzleloader forums disappear like that. One of my favorites, wher an insane amount of mid-1800's scientific data was discussed, went into archive mode, then was slated for EOL. Fortunately, the owner/operator
still maintained a presence elsewhere, and when I contacted him, he was so kind and gracious as to archive The Whole
Damn Forum onto a thunbdrive and send it to me!  

I am STILL extracting valuable technical and historical threads and archiving them onto The Wayback Machine where
those of us who wish can link to ( yes I ended that sentence in a preposition!) .

Fortunately for us, when tinkergirl wandered off, BG ended up in the hands of Proteus ( and apparently Von Corax)
who kept the faith, maintained the forum , threw massive amounts of cash at it, and bravely manned the helm!


Unless a miracle occurs, and the PM/emails get to Pheobsky... and another miracle occurs and they choose to respond...
and another miracle occurs and they remember the passwords...  it looks like Sparegoggles is not a choice.

Von Corax - you wrote

> As the person who's probably going to be doing this, let me address some of the comments above:

Apparently you have far more insight into the boiler room than the rest of us!

Are you willing (and able? without undue distress?) to take on such a migration, even with help from us?

I myself would like to see
a main boss (admin),
and 2 or 3 co-bosses (co-admins), all with access to master passwords to "fix stuff"
then a number of forum mods as before.

I would also like to see a contact list shared privately with the staff, not anywhere on the forum (security 101 ) .

I don't want to see the board down for a month or 2 because "someone forgot", or got hit by a truck, and nobody could contact nobody...

Also ... what J said..

snip-------------------------------
I'd propose that we elect a Prime Minister/Governor, to serve in the role of the executive, separate from the technical director in charge of the server (the Engineer General?) . Those are two different functions anyhow. Moderators can be re-elected. I don't suggest single term limits, because we *don't have that many people in the forum*  Roll Eyes
endsnip----------------------------

Also... I don't want to see any feelings hurt on this, I don't want anyone thinking this is a Coup or Revolt....
but a community effort by those of us who are left and don't want our (admittedly) little club to die.


Von Corax wrote

snip--------------------------------------------------
but there are other options. I currently master another web site for which the organization I work for pays CA$167.40/year (not counting domain registration) for a virtual web server, email service, not quite 100GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, PHP, and SSL. This should suffice for Brass Goggles given current traffic levels; that price (possibly plus some additional disk space) would put it in the ballpark of a personal/vanity site (which I suspect BG was originally for Tinkergirl), and is an amount I could probably stomach with any help at all. (I would need to see BG's current traffic and usage statistics, of course.)

The big challenge would be migrating to a new host. I would think this would involve first installing SMF 1.1.20 on the new host, dump/load the database, then (once things are running smoothly) upgrade the new host to a current version of SMF. I think with some help that I could foot the bill for the current host for as long as it takes to complete the move.
endsnip---------------------------------------------------

this sounds like a viable and affordable option! I believe we here can assist both financially and with tech assistance
thru the transition. It would help to find out who current donors are... and see about some sort of committment from the
rest of us...

If a save/restore/convert of the existing BG is viable (with little pain) that would be outstanding.
If a limited save/restore  to maintain at least some of the look and feel and memberlist is easier and less painful, I think
we can have the entire BG archived on The Wayback and reference any threads with links.

also, I believe that ads "might be" necessary ( sapre goggles and the Mexican site have been running with ads, unattended for ~ 8 years! ) and "can be" made palatable.

If any members have security or personal issues based on ads and bots I will gladly write a tutorial, Windows scripts, and/or coach them as req'd.

yhs
prof marvel

[von Corax]

upgrade the new host to a current version of SMF. I think with some help that I could foot the bill for the current host for as long as it takes to complete the move.

So let's say we try to transplant Brassgoggles.co.uk to a smaller SMF based forum. Is there such a thing as a current version of SMF?

According to the SMF web site, the current versions are 2.0.17 (stable) and 2.1RC2 (release candidate).

I myself would like to see
a main boss (admin),
and 2 or 3 co-bosses (co-admins), all with access to master passwords to "fix stuff"
then a number of forum mods as before.

I would also like to see a contact list shared privately with the staff, not anywhere on the forum (security 101 ) .

I don't want to see the board down for a month or 2 because "someone forgot", or got hit by a truck, and nobody could contact nobody...

Also ... what J said..

snip-------------------------------
I'd propose that we elect a Prime Minister/Governor, to serve in the role of the executive, separate from the technical director in charge of the server (the Engineer General?) . Those are two different functions anyhow. Moderators can be re-elected. I don't suggest single term limits, because we *don't have that many people in the forum*  Roll Eyes
endsnip----------------------------

Also... I don't want to see any feelings hurt on this, I don't want anyone thinking this is a Coup or Revolt....
but a community effort by those of us who are left and don't want our (admittedly) little club to die.

After Tinkergirl left, there were three Admins - proteus, S.Sprocket and Outa_Spaceman - and three Governors - Herr Döktor, Stella Gaslight and Siliconius Skumins. The Governors' role was to take over Tinkergirl's place, and to provide oversight of the Moderators, review and revise the rules, and to provide final ruling in any disputes. (Their role did not, however, include succession planning, apparently. Perhaps we can remedy that when we take over.) There is undoubtedly a Governors subboard much like the Moderators subboard, which will contain untold wealth and richesguidelines for governing. I agree that the new Leadership should exchange out-of-band contact information.

Von Corax - you wrote

> As the person who's probably going to be doing this, let me address some of the comments above:

Apparently you have far more insight into the boiler room than the rest of us!

Are you willing (and able? without undue distress?) to take on such a migration, even with help from us?

I have very nearly abandoned my efforts to talk myself out of it.

...I have faith in the general maturity of BG netizens, and we have the moderators to prevent the snowflakes from snowballing....

"...prevent the snowflakes from snowballing"...omg that is a great line! 
I'm going to use it  for everyday [real time] conversations (as needed). 

Just for the record, while I do not accept "woke" as an adjective, I also do not (normally) agree with the current condescending use of "snowflake." That was me shooting from the lip.

[Prof Marvel]

My dear  Von Corax,
I am , and will be, eternally grateful for your efforts on this!
I would like to offer my help in whatever capacity would be useful and will certainly sign up for
a monthly contribution if we can set up paypal .

...
Just for the record, while I do not accept "woke" as an adjective, I also do not (normally) agree with the current condescending use of "snowflake." That was me shooting from the lip.

I agree that we all need to be "above" condescending behaviour and name calling in general... in spite of being guilty of it in the past...

Let us carry the baton forwards!

yhs
prof marvel

[SeVeNeVeS]

So I see Pheobsky logged in today, any updates or news on Spare Goggles we should know?

[Pheobsky]

So I see Pheobsky logged in today, any updates or news on Spare Goggles we should know?

I'll give a more full update & work out what I'm actually doing when I've got a bit more time (probably tomorow)
However general gist-

• I'm trying to get my account for spare goggles reset, but it's being a bugger! (seems if you initially set up the forum it won't allow you to just reset password, or something like that!)
• Once I've got that sorted I'm happy to hand over the reins to any of the current admins
• Things are all a bit busy for me so I may be a bit slow at replying/moving things on (Sorry in advance!)

[SeVeNeVeS]

So I see Pheobsky logged in today, any updates or news on Spare Goggles we should know?

I'll give a more full update & work out what I'm actually doing when I've got a bit more time (probably tomorow)
However general gist-

• I'm trying to get my account for spare goggles reset, but it's being a bugger! (seems if you initially set up the forum it won't allow you to just reset password, or something like that!)
• Once I've got that sorted I'm happy to hand over the reins to any of the current admins
• Things are all a bit busy for me so I may be a bit slow at replying/moving things on (Sorry in advance!)

Thank you so much for taking the time and what appears to be considerable effort to sort this out.
Very much appreciated, and if not too presumptuous, I think everyone else here thanks you also.

And as a side note, thank you Prof Marvel for being able to contact Pheobsky, spare Goggles may be salvageable after all as a result......

[Prof Marvel]

hooooraYyyy

our eternal thanks to all involved, we may yet see our way through this thing!

your humble servant

prof marvel


(sr sys admin,  retired;
sr sap-on-oracle admin,  retired;
unix kernel support,  retired;
unix security,  retired;
application software developer (patents) ,  retired;
flight systems software developer,  retired;
amateur machinist, blacksmith, woodworker, knifesmith, potter (in progress)
home computer butcher (ongoing)
home remodeler (in progress)
aspiring steampunk architect (in progress)
aspiring buddhist (in progress))

gawd i'm bloody tired

[J. Wilhelm]

So I see Pheobsky logged in today, any updates or news on Spare Goggles we should know?

I'll give a more full update & work out what I'm actually doing when I've got a bit more time (probably tomorow)
However general gist-

• I'm trying to get my account for spare goggles reset, but it's being a bugger! (seems if you initially set up the forum it won't allow you to just reset password, or something like that!)
• Once I've got that sorted I'm happy to hand over the reins to any of the current admins
• Things are all a bit busy for me so I may be a bit slow at replying/moving things on (Sorry in advance!)

Phoebsky! Welcome back, this is phabulous! - Sorry, I couldn't resist!

[Deimos]

Phoebsky! Welcome back, this is phabulous! - Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Phoebsky, please phorgive JW's lame attempt to be phunny.  

[SeVeNeVeS]

Gaaaagh! The gnu thread re-visited.  http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,34064.0.html

Phlipping Phantastic. 

[Deimos]

Gaaaagh! The gnu thread re-visited.   http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,34064.0.html

Phlipping Phantastic.  

What is more fenomenal is that you recall a thread that phar back 

[Prof Marvel]

Gaaaagh! The gnu thread re-visited.   http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,34064.0.html

Phlipping Phantastic.  

What is more fenomenal is that you recall a thread that phar back 

"That Long"?
Heavenly carbunckles, it seems like only a few days weeks months ago....

yhs
prof marvel

[SeVeNeVeS]

Gaaaagh! The gnu thread re-visited.   http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,34064.0.html

Phlipping Phantastic.  

What is more fenomenal is that you recall a thread that phar back  

clever,    I like.

[J. Wilhelm]

Gaaaagh! The gnu thread re-visited.  http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,34064.0.html

Phlipping Phantastic. 

Oh, phor God's sakes, gnot again! Leave the gnu thread in the past!

[Deimos]

Gaaaagh! The gnu thread re-visited.   http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,34064.0.html

Phlipping Phantastic.  

Oh, phor God's sakes, gnot again! Leave the gnu thread in the past!

Gno.

[SeVeNeVeS]

Oh, phor God's sakes, gnot again! Leave the gnu thread in the past!

I do believe you started this silliness again, my dear JW.   

Phoebsky! Welcome back, this is phabulous! - Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Phoebsky, please phorgive JW's lame attempt to be phunny.  

Gno.

Shouldn't that be....... Gnot on your Gnelly?

[Pheobsky]

Those are glorious puns!!

Ok so in the end somehow I manged to remember my password (mainly through a lot of lucky guesses!)
If the mods want to send me a message- I can easily to make someone a mod or admin, but not sure if I'll be able to hand over everything? I'll give it a crack though. Incidentally have made Herr Döktor an admin & I think Stella already is
Even if you don't end up relocating to sparegoggles it's probably worth someone having the keys.

As for the clunky graphics, I threw them together as a teenager so I'm sure it'll be easy to greatly improve on them! ^^

[Pheobsky]

Ah, I have a simple solution - I have changed the username my founder's account from 'Pheobsky' to 'Administrator' & can simply hand the login details to the mods here, they can change the associated email to whatever they wish.

[Deimos]

Ah, I have a simple solution - I have changed the username my founder's account from 'Pheobsky' to 'Administrator' & can simply hand the login details to the mods here, they can change the associated email to whatever they wish.

Pheobsky delivers! Three huzzahs! (Or maybe phour? )  

[Siliconous Skumins]

... There is undoubtedly a Governors subboard much like the Moderators subboard, which will contain untold wealth and richesguidelines for governing.

Err, sadly NO...  just our common shared Moderators club house.  The Govs are simply Mods with extra powers (not that many as it happens). With a bit of "questionable" modifications, a Governor can make *some* forum changes and possible upgrades, but due to the lack of complete control that an Admin has, I would not suggest this to be a good idea...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


OK, so I have been reading this thread and mulling it over for the past week. I did a bit of pricing up and I unfortunately came to the conclusion that I simply cannot afford to take over full payment of the forum. The current costs are roughly £600 a year give or take depending on interest / conversion  rates, so about an extra £50 per month for me to find  Due to Tax issues and other payment / donation related issues, simply receiving funding via Ad revenue or from member contributions / fees, is also right out of the question. I already have enough financial issues being a Landlord in the current climate, the added complexity of running something that technically is another source of income that I will have to pay tax on, is simply a non starter.

Then there is also the issues regarding EU / UK laws on GDPR and browser Cookies etc. For Me this is a killer - I already have enough issues to deal with regarding GDPR, I don't need to add to the headache with sorting out a working legal consent agreement framework for Cookies / tracking and the various associated EU /UK rules and laws.
This pretty much makes running Ads on BG a potential nightmare for whoever owns the domain! BG would likely have to be run as a legitimate registered 'Limited Liability' business, and then your into business TAX issues etc...


However.....There does exist one possibility that I could potentially afford to provide - and this depend HEAVILY on the monthly data bandwidth requirements - I should be able to completely take over the hosting and domain registration *IF* I drop the co-location and hosting service and run the forum from my own hardware and upgrade to a business internet connection. This means I would be running BG from a server I built myself, have complete control over and fund directly. I'm already a registered "Data Handler" for GDPR reasons, so that part is already taken care of.

Self-hosting is something that I could realistically do, and provide for free to all*

* (bandwidth restrictions may be a possibility - though doubtful these days).


Also, I think this may be a good time to call time on our current SMF software. If I can take over, then I would be looking towards locking this version of the forum into "READ ONLY" mode for archive purposes and then building a new forum with as much of the old forum links / info etc as possible. Somehow integrate various sections of the old forum into relevant links in the new forum sections. Possibly attempt to extract some of the more important threads and integrate them natively into the new forum...


Any comments or questions on anything I have written here?

[Mercury Wells]

Ah, I have a simple solution - I have changed the username my founder's account from 'Pheobsky' to 'Administrator' & can simply hand the login details to the mods here, they can change the associated email to whatever they wish.

Pheobsky delivers! Three huzzahs! (Or maybe phour? )  

High phives all round, then?

[Deimos]

High phives all round, then?

omg...That is great! veeeerrrrry cleveeeeerrr! Wish I had said that!  

[SeVeNeVeS]

... There is undoubtedly a Governors subboard much like the Moderators subboard, which will contain untold wealth and richesguidelines for governing.

Err, sadly NO...  just our common shared Moderators club house.  The Govs are simply Mods with extra powers (not that many as it happens). With a bit of "questionable" modifications, a Governor can make *some* forum changes and possible upgrades, but due to the lack of complete control that an Admin has, I would not suggest this to be a good idea...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


OK, so I have been reading this thread and mulling it over for the past week. I did a bit of pricing up and I unfortunately came to the conclusion that I simply cannot afford to take over full payment of the forum. The current costs are roughly £600 a year give or take depending on interest / conversion  rates, so about an extra £50 per month for me to find  Due to Tax issues and other payment / donation related issues, simply receiving funding via Ad revenue or from member contributions / fees, is also right out of the question. I already have enough financial issues being a Landlord in the current climate, the added complexity of running something that technically is another source of income that I will have to pay tax on, is simply a non starter.

Then there is also the issues regarding EU / UK laws on GDPR and browser Cookies etc. For Me this is a killer - I already have enough issues to deal with regarding GDPR, I don't need to add to the headache with sorting out a working legal consent agreement framework for Cookies / tracking and the various associated EU /UK rules and laws.
This pretty much makes running Ads on BG a potential nightmare for whoever owns the domain! BG would likely have to be run as a legitimate registered 'Limited Liability' business, and then your into business TAX issues etc...


However.....There does exist one possibility that I could potentially afford to provide - and this depend HEAVILY on the monthly data bandwidth requirements - I should be able to completely take over the hosting and domain registration *IF* I drop the co-location and hosting service and run the forum from my own hardware and upgrade to a business internet connection. This means I would be running BG from a server I built myself, have complete control over and fund directly. I'm already a registered "Data Handler" for GDPR reasons, so that part is already taken care of.

Self-hosting is something that I could realistically do, and provide for free to all*

* (bandwidth restrictions may be a possibility - though doubtful these days).


Also, I think this may be a good time to call time on our current SMF software. If I can take over, then I would be looking towards locking this version of the forum into "READ ONLY" mode for archive purposes and then building a new forum with as much of the old forum links / info etc as possible. Somehow integrate various sections of the old forum into relevant links in the new forum sections. Possibly attempt to extract some of the more important threads and integrate them natively into the new forum...


Any comments or questions on anything I have written here?

I would prefer in an ideal world the forum be kept in tact, as is, but this is another option to be thought about. BTW, Good to see you back again Siliconous Skumins.

[Deimos]

*looks up from playing in the sandbox* Huh? ...
Meaning, I'm totally ignorant of how all this works  ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ..or something like that) .
Whatever you all need to do to keep BG running, all I have to say is: Press On!..  Oh, and Thank You!