what's going on?

It is possible to get infopop without the popup ads. I had it for a while and it cost about $30 per month as I recall. It is a partially volume-based charge, but the price seemed quite reasonable to me. You might be able to work out a deal with them. Just a thought, but it might solve part of the problem, as with infopop, the forum is on their server, not yours.

He is a clever lad that Justin. Liam

but is it any good justin? This forum is the easiest I've come across and the fastest to access - when it is working order that is. In many other forums you have to click on each post to follow a thread not like here where the entire thread is on display. Other forums are difficult to follow and as a result have fewer contributions because no one has the time to click on so many posts. The one on getoutthere shows the whole thread but it is so slow you need a shave between page loads. You might as well archive the old stuff Em or Eb or whoever you are today Matthew, because I can only see the last two pages anyway, unless I go searching for something and then you have to remember who the author or what the title of the thread was. None of us seem to bother with a the old threads once they have been on page 2 for a while. 800 users seems a tad fishy to me. Not many posts in the forum. Not so many new uploads at that particular time. Wonder what they were all doing? Reading the wondrous offerrings? or using multiple browsers to rack up hits? no, that's just the conspiricist in me at work.

Yeah, reeks of Grassy Knoll dude. Liam

The MSN Web Communities works exceedingly fast. Our old schol network uses it and guess what? You can click on a thread, read it all the way down, add your own comment and it immediately jumps to the top of the list. I can literally revive a thread from six months - or even a year - ago in a matter of seconds. Brlliant!

I can't spell "brlliant" though.

I'm only suggesting it is worth a second look. It might not be a solution, or might not. Depends on lots of things I don't know.

Justin, I was not criticising, just asking what it was like. I'm all for improving this forum but I would hate to see the format change to something inferior. I had a look at the thoughtcafe forum for example. that format is fine given that they only have a few posts on there. I would imagine that if we all piled in and used it like we do this one the thoughtcafe site would grind to a halt very soon. I think bravenet host forums too. again, the layout is not suitable for the this sort of volume of posts.

sorry, I can't speak english today.

The disadvantages of using an outsourced system are: a) We don't get the traffic so we can't sell ads off the back of it b) A lot of the time, the outsourced people insist on having their own ads on there which may conflict with our advertising policies c) If not, a lot of them (fairly enough) charge big wedges of cash for them d) We may not have enough control so we wouldn't be able to remove offensive posts (OK, it's rare we do this but a very important option for us to have) e) If it breaks we have no control over it at all However, the advantage of it not sulking is a good thing! Current fix seems to be working. Are considering various archiving methods at the moment to help make things better. Cheers Em

This forum is the best I've seen (and, believe me, I've...er...travelled a bit). Bravenet ones are dreadful...most confusing...positively chaotic...can't follow 'em...get in a flap...lose the thread...can't remember what the question was...

Thanks very much :-) Seems to be holding up now too :-) Still looking at archiving options to be on the safe side though...

1.) Would it not be possible to add an index to all threads on the forum list page? 2.) As it is obviously easy to have threads running to hundreds of posts, scrolling down page after page, why is it not possible to have forum topics scroll down also, instead of the nauseating necessity to either enter random 't' numbers or click on the last topic and then go back to the topic list to see the next page? 3.) Finally, as Karl has asked on numerous occasions, why can't we revive old threads by adding to them?

I don't know, I think the ephemeral quality of the forums adds to its charm. We enjoyed the websoap and the desert island thread, but they ended before everyone was sick of them, so that we can think fondly of them. I like the idea that if someone is on holiday for a week they can come back and find seven or eight new conversations. If you're really not done with the conversation, you can always post up a "Desert Island 2" post (or, my secret tip, post it on Writing Tips Forum where no new topics ever get posted and it can remain there adding posts forever. ) A question which arises from the number of users on the forums which is almost unanswerable is - are there lots of people who read the conversations but never post anything ?

Andrew, you seem to overlook the fact that lots of interesting threads faded from view before large numbers of current users were even aware of the site, so those users could hardly become sick of them. Anybody who joined in the last 6 months would have to go prospecting to find inactive threads, and probably wouldn't bother to add anything to one because it won't appear on the front page and become active again. Perhaps there's a case for moving very popular threads to a separate forum where they can flourish ad infinitum. I'm sure that as you suggest, there are many forum readers that never contribute. Why ? I have no idea, perhaps they feel the forums are a bit cliquey.

I'm in sales. I hate sales. But I seem to have been in sales, in one form or another, for a great part of my life. The ability to talk someone - be it blue chip company or private individual - into spending money on something they don't need, don't want and will probably never use is absolute crap, and nothing to be proud of. I'm going off on a tangent here, but I will say in defence of the salesman that for the most part he's as much sold on the product/service/concept as his clients. It's only several months into a new job that someone realises what a crap service he's selling. There is a point to all this. You see in the sales world one has to think fast. You have to be able to pick out the generalisations and deletions in people's speech patterns and ask them to justify them. Your mind is always thinking several steps of where you are now. Kind of like politics in a way. When I started to write, my mind had to slow down. And it was a great feeling. I would sometimes spend all afternoon writing three paragraphs. I'd let the words rush out, and then go back over them time and time again with various thesauruses spread across the desk and swapping lines with others and so forth. I no longer have this luxury, but as a writer (for I'm a really crap salesman) I think very slowly. Be patient please, I'm getting to the point. Now I may read a particularly interesting thread, want to join in but need a day or two to collect my thoughts. Does that make sense? You see, sometimes by the time that I'm keen on commenting on a particular subject, that thread has dropped so far down the list that I know no one's going to read it. So I don't bother. Sometimes at weekends, it's not unusual for as many as 10 or more new threads to be added. If it's taken me, say, four days to gather my thoughts and find the time, that particular thread could maybe be 30 down the list. I know I'm sounding like a broken record here, but it would really be lovely if ABCtales allowed some of us slower thinkers time to revive old threads if we think we have something worthwhile adding.

Threads are often far funnier than anything you can read in books or see on the telly. (have laughed and laughed at cleaning thread) Infact they are a new form of comic literature aren't they? It always feels a privelege to read the forums and I hope none are ever lost/deleted, and that the format - ie reading straight down without having to click on each post -never changes so that the flow of brilliance continues unchecked. I used to think it must have been wonderful to be at a party where Oscar Wilde was, but that is exactly what these forums are like?

OK, short term, how about this for an idea. If there's a particularly good thread that you'd like to revive, mail me and I'll do a 'classic forum discussions' link from the front page (tried this just before Christmas with links to things like the Elf and Unicorn, Ta Chucks and a number of others) In terms of an index, closest thing would be to use the search facility - works pretty well in my experience. To the person who reads (mostly) thanks for the compliment -strong praise indeed :-) Hopefully the forums don't appear too cliquey - certainly, I like the way that new posters who introduce themselves get a steady flow of 'welcome aboard' messages from regular users. But if you're a reader who's worried, don't stress - just dive in and we'll be nice :-) Cheers Em

*refers Em to 'Nice' thread*

Bluntly, there are too damned many of you... The database server was getting clobbered again. 'Sheer weight of traffic' they call it at the AA. I've been restarting the web servers and database servers and tweaking the settings on them to make the current problem go away, and stop the recent habit the site's been developing of slowing down every weekday at close of business. Which is annoying because I have work to do, but there you go. I'm keeping an eye on it... [For those people who have an inkling of technical things at all - I remember there are some - at this exact moment (1652 GMT on Tues), the database has 861 connections open. That's a *lot*.]

Well, charmed I'm sure! We'll all go away then, shall we? *stalks off in huff*

You'll never hear me complain. :-] *Saintly smile*

Too much wool in yer mouth, eh Fecky?

Is that the database of written pieces or the database of forum posts, or a combination? You could always use a service like infopop for the forum and just keep the written pieces in-house. Just a thought.

the price of fame!!!!!!!!!! AJ

Promise we don't want you to go away Andrea (or anyone else! ) We want you to write lots and lots on the site! Love you all (speshly you, Fecky ) and are working hard to sort it out. From the look of things, Justyn, it's the forums that are making the site sulk cos there are so many posts now. Problem with infopop is the pop up ads. However, we may be able to speed things back up by archiving old posts and updating the forum system (Karl will be happy) In the meantime, apologies for any inconvenience. Normal service will eb resumed soon Cheers Em

Hope it doesn't eb too far, Em...