We should stop posting on Brass Goggles and migrate

[Avalon Skyboat]

Hey guys, thanks for your assistance! I've been able to successfully log in, all good.

[Xenos]

So... Is this an instruction to stop posting here, and migrate back to Spare Goggles for the nonce? I'm happy to do whichever, as long as it benefits the greater good.

[von Corax]

It's more an opinion, as plans are afoot to refloat Brass Goggles.

[Rockula]

I'm staying here.
I'm not really interested in links to Whatsitgram or any of those others any more than I have long conversations on Fleecebook.

If it stays alive I'll continue. If it stops being a Forum and just a series of links to other platforms I'm out.

I have Spare Goggles in reserve.

That's just my position.

[Xenos]

It's more an opinion, as plans are afoot to refloat Brass Goggles.

Well, as stated, I'm good for whichever serves the greater good. Give me marching orders, and I'll carry 'em out.

I'm staying here.
I'm not really interested in links to Whatsitgram or any of those others any more than I have long conversations on Fleecebook.

If it stays alive I'll continue. If it stops being a Forum and just a series of links to other platforms I'm out.

I have Spare Goggles in reserve.

That's just my position.

I mean, as  much as I would love to stay here as well, that just doesnae seem feasible at this point. To every season, all that. And while I'm not particularly fond of the idea of a Pintrest or whatever, it's certain I am I can learn to use the system if it means maintaining a functioning account with whatever form BG ends up taking.

[Lazaras]

Well. The initial posting was made because I had seen a lot of plans instantly seem t ogrind down to a halt once here opened tis doors back and found that to be rather.... shortsighted given how little we had known.

And while plans DO move forward to refloat the place, and if that works out awesome? I'm a rather big fan of 'two is one. one is none.' Have fallback positions in place that are known within the community.

[von Corax]

And while plans DO move forward to refloat the place, and if that works out awesome? I'm a rather big fan of 'two is one. one is none.' Have fallback positions in place that are known within the community.

Sounds prudent. Carry on.

[Lazaras]

At the same time thigns do not seem as dire as they appeared when i made the initial posting. 

By the by, congratulations on the administrative promotion, or is it condolences? I always get those confused.

[Prof Marvel]

Do not be fooled. Things ARE dire, and the BG forum will not last much longer as it stands.
The money has run out, and all we have is a grace period.

SO: i suggest we all bite the bullet and prepare the inevitBle transition to spare goggles.
But there is more hope that a proper backup or export can  be performed before the the parking meter expires.

The archive continues unattended btw….

Prf mrvl

[von Corax]

Do not be fooled. Things ARE dire, and the BG forum will not last much longer as it stands.
The money has run out, and all we have is a grace period.

SO: i suggest we all bite the bullet and prepare the inevitBle transition to spare goggles.
But there is more hope that a proper backup or export can  be performed before the the parking meter expires.

The archive continues unattended btw….

Prf mrvl

The situation is not quite so dire as that. We now have the potential to move Brass Goggles entire to new quarters once I get off my stick and finish researching hosting providers; if that move cannot be completed before the end of February I'm certain I can make financial arrangements with the-wizard to extend our deadline by a month or two.

The most dire issue at present is that of domain registrations, which we cannot currently access and therefore cannot update when we move. The Corsair has, however, registered brassgoggles.net for us and pointed it back here. Worst case is that we lose the domains brassgoggles.co.uk and brassgoggles.org and continue on either temporarily or permanently as brassgoggles.net. I have placed a backorder on brassgoggles.org, but have not yet found a backorder service for .uk domains.

[Xenos]

Do not be fooled. Things ARE dire, and the BG forum will not last much longer as it stands.
The money has run out, and all we have is a grace period.

SO: i suggest we all bite the bullet and prepare the inevitBle transition to spare goggles.
But there is more hope that a proper backup or export can  be performed before the the parking meter expires.

The archive continues unattended btw….

Prf mrvl

The situation is not quite so dire as that. We now have the potential to move Brass Goggles entire to new quarters once I get off my stick and finish researching hosting providers; if that move cannot be completed before the end of February I'm certain I can make financial arrangements with the-wizard to extend our deadline by a month or two.

The most dire issue at present is that of domain registrations, which we cannot currently access and therefore cannot update when we move. The Corsair has, however, registered brassgoggles.net for us and pointed it back here. Worst case is that we lose the domains brassgoggles.co.uk and brassgoggles.org and continue on either temporarily or permanently as brassgoggles.net. I have placed a backorder on brassgoggles.org, but have not yet found a backorder service for .uk domains.

I knew I should have paid more attention in Computer Engineering & Tech (sorry, the lovely blue eyed lass two seats over was a *major distraction* (and is now my lovely wife)), I've always thought registering a domain was simple as "Go online, pick the name, see if it's taken, pay the shady back alley hosting service, hey-presto, new domain!" Please, forgive my ignorance on the matter. I may can build a computer and NAS that make even the GODS blush with how awesome and powerful it is, but I know less than nothing of the Arcane Science of Networking.

All that said, I can grokk that what you're saying is mostly good news, it's just the fiddly bits need fitting into place. Take your time with it, if you feel overwhelmed, step back, have a nice I would say cup of tea, but something that makes the corners a bit more round may be in order.

Either or--we're on the right track or so it seems. I shall continue to cheer from the sidelines (as that's all I'm good for here), bubbly on ice, and await your imminent success.

And Dear Professor, glass half full chap, glass half full!

[von Corax]

I've always thought registering a domain was simple as "Go online, pick the name, see if it's taken, pay the shady back alley hosting service, hey-presto, new domain!"

If the name isn't already taken it is exactly that simple. For a domain that already belongs to someone else, such as brassgoggles.co.uk, it is far more complicated

[Sorontar]

Von Corax also has me now as a drop-dead deputy. I believe I have full Admin rights, have shared various email contacts with the BG Moderators and phone details with von Corax. Hopefully we won't have the same issue again, considering that I am the sort of person that keeps old bookmarks around just in case and continually revisits old wikis I moderate even if they haven't been updated for a while.

Sorontar

[Lazaras]

Feeling better about things than I had a week prior;

Dire, but not doomed, and at an absolute worst case we have the capacity for a whole site backup either as a searchable archive, or revival under differing hosting arrangements.

Given this place is rather old (by internet standards it is positively ancient) and has deleted comparatively little.

That's... quite a lot of material to host.

[Xenos]

Von Corax also has me now as a drop-dead deputy. I believe I have full Admin rights, have shared various email contacts with the BG Moderators and phone details with von Corax. Hopefully we won't have the same issue again, considering that I am the sort of person that keeps old bookmarks around just in case and continually revisits old wikis I moderate even if they haven't been updated for a while.

Sorontar

This is good to hear. More than one hand in the engine room is a good thing. I myself had thought to throw in at least for mod duty, but... I'm so itinerant recently, even if my new state of... well, disability let's call it what it is, leaves me homeboud more oft than not, I don't know how effective I'd be at the job, really.

As to administrative duties, I don't even know where to start with that. I could probably learn, should another body be needed for it and none step up. Would certainly give me a reason to stake my flag here on a more permanent basis--there was a time BG was my interwebs homepage...

Perhaps it's time to make that so again.

[Sorontar]

Running the admin side can sometimes depend on how much hands-on work is required. Many server hosts use some webpage dashboard interface that restricts the options available to the Admin. The interface only allows you to do what they tell you that you can do. The other extreme is for the hosts just to provide the hardware and basic backup services and it is up to the Admin to install and run everything themselves, including setting up and running any databases all by themselves. In that case the hosts are pretty much hands off, so having good Admin is vital (i.e., someone who knows something about systems engineering). The middle ground is what I hope BG has - it certainly has a complex dashboard but hopefully we can look at the system directly and run some of our own code. I, like von Corax, have a lot of reading to do so that I can provide help should it ever be required.

Sorontar

[The Corsair]

I'm staying here.
I'm not really interested in links to Whatsitgram or any of those others any more than I have long conversations on Fleecebook.

If it stays alive I'll continue. If it stops being a Forum and just a series of links to other platforms I'm out.

I have Spare Goggles in reserve.

That's just my position.

Just as a note, the strategy that's been discussed would be the reverse. That is to say, we would be using those other platforms to point people toward here so as to revitalise our userbase a bit and also 'centralise' Steampunk. The sorts of people willing to ditch wherever they found the link to us and stick around will be the sorts of people we want here anyway, and those who don't see the point of a forum will just ignore us. My point is we won't risk bringing down the quality of the community here.

[MWBailey]

OOkay...

Sorry, things got a bit dicey and unpredictable over here in my corner of the internet and the world et al, so I've been logged out everywhere.

I read something over on Spare G that the the forum is back up again or something? What gives?

[von Corax]

OOkay...

Sorry, things got a bit dicey and unpredictable over here in my corner of the internet and the world et al, so I've been logged out everywhere.

I read something over on Spare G that the the forum is back up again or something? What gives?

Short version: BG came back in mid-January, and shortly after that the chap who owns the server BG runs on contacted us to say he'd lost contact with proteus and could we please take the site off his hands? The Moderators elected me Senior Administrator, and I appointed Sorontar Assistant Administrator. Right now I'm searching for a new hosting service and trying to figure out if there's a way to take ownership of the domains brassgoggles.co.uk and brassgoggles.org. We've also registered the domain brassgoggles.net (which you should bookmark immediately) in case we lose the other two domains.

[MWBailey]

OOkay...

Sorry, things got a bit dicey and unpredictable over here in my corner of the internet and the world et al, so I've been logged out everywhere.

I read something over on Spare G that the the forum is back up again or something? What gives?

Short version: BG came back in mid-January, and shortly after that the chap who owns the server BG runs on contacted us to say he'd lost contact with proteus and could we please take the site off his hands? The Moderators elected me Senior Administrator, and I appointed Sorontar Assistant Administrator. Right now I'm searching for a new hosting service and trying to figure out if there's a way to take ownership of the domains brassgoggles.co.uk and brassgoggles.org. We've also registered the domain brassgoggles.net (which you should bookmark immediately) in case we lose the other two domains.

OK, thanks. That's what I had more or less managed to headbutt my brain into realizing (ha!), but I was out of the loop just long enough to have missed the investment of the .net address. I saw Corsair's and your and Sorontar's posts about pointing things over this way before I had to drop everything and take care of Mom (she's much better now) and Dad, but I guess I just didn't quite twig to it after.

Thank you, thanks, and bless you, and everyone. You've saved my home on the 'net, or the very least have shored it back up again. About all I can offer for help is my jumbled, scant and pedantic memories of what came before 2009 (I was here in 2007; long story involving erasing out, reregistering, etc. behaving embarrassingly et al, which is why there're white "guest" posts with my name on them in a couple or few places dated thus). Similarly to what Xenos said of himself, about all I know about these Islands of Culture is the history of where they came from, and how to post on them. I guess I could do Mod duty in a limited fashion, but past experience causes me to think I'm not terribly well-suited for the task (not sure what I'd be doing, or how, etc., and what with the folks and performances and all, not sure I'd have the time).

[MWBailey]

OOkay...

Sorry, things got a bit dicey and unpredictable over here in my corner of the internet and the world et al, so I've been logged out everywhere.

I read something over on Spare G that the the forum is back up again or something? What gives?

Short version: BG came back in mid-January, and shortly after that the chap who owns the server BG runs on contacted us to say he'd lost contact with proteus and could we please take the site off his hands? The Moderators elected me Senior Administrator, and I appointed Sorontar Assistant Administrator. Right now I'm searching for a new hosting service and trying to figure out if there's a way to take ownership of the domains brassgoggles.co.uk and brassgoggles.org. We've also registered the domain brassgoggles.net (which you should bookmark immediately) in case we lose the other two domains.

OK, thanks. That's what I had more or less managed to headbutt my brain into realizing (ha!), but I was out of the loop just long enough to have missed the investment of the .net address. I saw Corsair's and your and Sorontar's posts about pointing things over this way before I had to drop everything and take care of Mom (she's much better now) and Dad, but I guess I just didn't quite twig to it after.

Thank you, thanks, and bless you, and everyone. You've saved my home on the 'net, or the very least have shored it back up again. About all I can offer for help is my jumbled, scant and pedantic memories of what came before 2009 (I was here in 2007; long story involving erasing out, reregistering, etc. behaving embarrassingly et al, which is why there're white "guest" posts with my name on them in a couple or few places dated thus). Similarly to what Xenos said of himself, about all I know about these Islands of Culture is the history of where they came from, and how to post on them. I guess I could do Mod duty in a limited fashion, but past experience causes me to think I'm not terribly well-suited for the task (not sure what I'd be doing, or how, etc., and what with the folks and performances and all, not sure I'd have the time).

Not to mention, "there needs to be a few indians in the tribe, or else we'll end with everybody being chiefs."

I'm not sure who said that (I'm not that original), but I think it's true.

[The Corsair]

Not to mention, "there needs to be a few indians in the tribe, or else we'll end with everybody being chiefs."

I'm not sure who said that (I'm not that original), but I think it's true.

I'm very much in agreement there. We'll see to it that everything's being covered by reasonable active mods, but I don't think we should be recruiting more until we start growing again.

To that end, I think the next order of business (as hosting etc is being resolved) is to start sending those 'internet tendrils' out to start making this site a bit more 'known' elsewhere on the internet.

[Sorontar]

As von Corax has said, while we might have current stability with him (and sort-of me) in control behind the scenes, the next step is security, which involves any changes to the url and hosting, updating and cleaning the machinery, etc. Publicity and improved facilities can then be investigated (unless they come with changes due to the updates/changes).

Of course, we need to keep on posting throughout all of this. Online communities can still continue without being super active.

Sorontar