Category: Forums

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A new battle forum has been launched at HDRap.com – This forum is for hip hop battles in categories of text, audio and graphics.

We also have another hip hop community opening at Life-Convicts.net . All forums are free to join.

1. All forums now up and running. If you had a favorite forum from years ago that wasn’t brought back last year, well, it’s running now.
2. All forums updated with additional anti-spam features on all servers. This will be the final setting for all forums until we do massive overhauls, sometime after 2008.
3. WordPress on all sites updated to 2.2.2
4. Traffic currently around 30,000 per day – or 900,000 per month.

I have a couple forums that are gathering dust so I thought I’d tell you about them. They are niche discussion forums in my network that have never quite taken off.

Lutheran-Talk.com

A discussion forum on topics relating to the Lutheran Church (including Missouri Synod) and to the works of Martin Luther. People critical of Martin Luther’s work (Pre-Vatican II hardcore Catholics, for example) are also welcome to post. Martin Luther is a fascinating subject to me, but judging from the web traffic on this site not too many other people feel so inclined.

ChristianDiscussion.com

I have forums for general public debate of scriptures that is open to all faiths including atheists. Many members requested a gentler setting where they could discuss their faith with fellow Christians. ChristianDiscussion.com is for professed Christians to discuss and study. Of course there are debates from time to time, but usually not head-to-head with Atheists or other faiths. Members have honored this setup and I think it’s reasonable to give niche groups an environment they are comfortable with, provided we still have our open public platforms.

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!FEren from RapDogs.com made me this custom animation – The “admin portrait animation”. I think it’s a cool little .gif and will put it on my website here. !FEren is currently running a stick figure animation shop at RD and making many creative graphics for members.

Thank you !FEre – I think it’s very cool!

I announced yesterday that my forums had hit the one million mark which is a milestone I’ve been waiting for to reopen the complete former network. With all the old forums coming back I was sent this list of possible new websites. Many of my forums have the word “talk” in them, which makes this doubly funny.

List of New Forum Ideas

Yes! By all means, please re-open Argyle Sock Talk, Cabbage Recipe Talk, Quantum Mechanics Talk, Beefarino Talk, Linens-And-Things Talk, Perfume Talk, Barbie Doll Talk, Miniature Poodle Talk, Oh, My Aching Back Talk, Urinary Incontinence Talk, Halitosis Talk, Modern Toothpick Design Talk, Atheism Talk, Existentialist Pet Groomer Talk, Small insect Talk, Big Fat Insect Talk, and MisteRogers Talk!

I was just informed my forum network hit the one million mark for queries last month. Still a fraction of our former traffic – but a very good sign considering we’re only running a portion of them. I’ve been waiting to hit that mark before expanding, so now I’m going to open up ALL former forums. All those niche subjects that many of you had a passion for will be up and running within 10 days.

After that I’ll be reformatting the ecommerce networks. Ah….life is sweet.

Recently we had some individuals open a site meant to be an adjunct of one of my own. Only problem is they didn’t ask me about it before they did it. Adjunct sites that spin off my network and are advertised on my network are considered spam; just as if they were a seperate site spamming links.

In fact, they ARE seperate spam sites if they are not approved. My networks have been running for over seven years now and it has been an arduous task to keep them running, many as free public services. It’s not taken kindly to glom off of my networks as jumpads for websites outside the network. Many people have done this in the past, and most claim the best of intentions. I still don’t understand how they can genuinely think it is helpful.

That’s my stance. If you had been through what I have been through the past seven years committing to these networks, I’m confident you would feel the same. For the record, the “Am” referred to in this graphic was reinstated. We have an understanding now.

One more thing. Many people that create the spinoff sites are friends, or at least were friends prior to the spinoffs. It causes hurt when they are blocked on my networks. I think it may be partly that they do not realize how large my networks really are. Everything I do has to be done in runs; it’s like herding sheep. When I make a change to one I make a change to all – so committing to changes is time intensive and something I think through at great length before doing.

In addition, many people do not realize security issues at risk with some of their requests. I do not post the details of those security issues, because (duh) it kind of defeats the purpose.

I have had the experience in my life of being on the very top, and also being on the very bottom. I have noticed that the more you move up, the more people glom off you and use you as a target. You are a target because you are noticeable. That’s just the way things are. As our networks continue to expand, things will get more complicated; not less. With increased traffic there is always increased problems.

Members banished from RD may start fresh at Life-Convicts.netÂ

Please play nice in the sandbox.

WordPress has been updated on all servers to version 2.2.1

Someone give me a hug. This is SO boring. I’d much rather be conducting….

Servers have been upgraded to mysql 4.1.20 and php-4.4.7

Boring stuff, but this will allow for additional software updates that are soon to be released.