PM archives going away in 2 days, really?

Just received notice from Trawler Forums that my PM archives are going away in 2 days!

To the new management,

Come on people what are you thinking about here? How long have you known that the archives weren't going to import? I don't care that they aren't going to import. But giving people only 2 days to save their material is just asking for a ration of sh*t. Hello, this is a forum where people go cruising and leave civilization and the Internet behind for a week or more at a time! 2 days, really?

I'm much more active on other non boating related forums. Have seen several forums change ownership. A couple were seamless; others were disasters. The disasters were the result of focusing on generating a revenue stream and failing to analysis how their members view the changes imposed by new ownership. I'm sure you all are doing stuff that I will like and don't see, but every time you step on my toes I just seam to notice it more.

*

Ted

O C Diver wrote:
Just received notice from Trawler Forums that my PM archives are going away in 2 days!

To the new management,

Come on people what are you thinking about here? How long have you known that the archives weren't going to import? I don't care that they aren't going to import. But giving people only 2 days to save their material is just asking for a ration of sh*t. Hello, this is a forum where people go cruising and leave civilization and the Internet behind for a week or more at a time! 2 days, really?

I'm much more active on other non boating related forums. Have seen several forums change ownership. A couple were seamless; others were disasters. The disasters were the result of focusing on generating a revenue stream and failing to analysis how their members view the changes imposed by new ownership. I'm sure you all are doing stuff that I will like and don't see, but every time you step on my toes I just seam to notice it more.

*

Ted

Click to expand...

Ted

I have no dogs in this fight but I think it has been stated before at least twice that the PM were no going over to the new site.* So that's more like 2 months.*

I think the death of Pm was caused entirely by their computer geeks , what worked was destroyed for ???

Because it could be done?

Wow what an advance!

JD is right, we were told a few weeks ago. The email was just a reminder.

FF wrote:
I think the death of Pm was caused entirely by their computer geeks , what worked was destroyed for ???

Because it could be done?

Wow what an advance!

Click to expand...

The death of PM*was caused by several things as I see it.* One was the introduction of this forum, a good thing. Another was "computer geeks" to some extent.* They did things that were supposed to help but didn't work.* Then when someone pointed out it didn't work, due to the work load caused by being*short staffed or by a*"I don't give a flying ****"*attitude nothing got fixed or it was totally ignored.

We posted in the past about the PMs not being able to be imported. Although technically it's possible, the current forum host will not export the PMs and thus we cannot import them. Even though we posted about the impending software conversion in the past we are moving more quickly then normal so we can open up the OTDE again.

I understand that loosing PMs is not ideal and wish there was another solution. This hosted platform is very limited as a foundation for future growth so we have decided to move to a more common forum platform called vBulletin. The new platform is more robust and even has a PM export feature for backing up your PMs (but that's a moot point because we won't need it after this conversion). vBulletin will allow us to add various other features with the most important being iPhone, Android and Tablet apps which allow for streamlined communication from slower connections. Other features will include boat profiles, better search features, new ways to group discussions, etc.

Since 100,000 BC, humans don't like change unless it brings more easy sex, wealth or*perceived health.*Andy and group acquired TF intending to change things,*hopefully to satisfy the current users, bring in new*and to make money. In this age of FB, Linkedin, Twitter et al, old fogies like us may or may not stay here as we can be change intolerant. TF users are probably amongst the oldest members of any website save AARP. Oldies don't like change and losing links to the past (ARCHIVES). Oldies have also heard more than youngsters, "take your medicine this will be good for you."

I was just advised that PMM is once again changing their useless format - who cares. Lets hope for a better fate for TF.*TF is not my money, not my life and not really necessary in the big picture given teh plethora of other site choices.* But I have learned a lot, met in person some very nice people in many different countries and I hate to lose the social networking. So Andy good luck and I'm hoping for a better TF.

PS - Andy why are you changing things? I hope it is for money, sex or health! If not you are in big trouble. Altruism just doesn't work.


-- Edited by sunchaser on Wednesday 28th of March 2012 09:09:29 AM

FWIW. I just copy and pasted my PM archives to a Microsoft word document in less than 4 minutes. For hose of you without a word processing program(or the desire to learn how to use one) you can also cut and paste them to an email and send the email to yourself. I would be happy to offer a brief tutorial for any of the members who do not know how to cut and paste a document. It is a technique I showed my mother during a recent visit. At the young age of 72 she decided to buy her 1st computer.

*

Or if you would like this tutorial can help too.

*

http://personalweb.about.com/od/basicwebdesigntips/a/00cutcopypaste.htm

Greetings,
Mr. sunchaser. As I understand it, the only thing not being carried over to the new format is the Private Message archives. As Mr. CPseudonym mentioned, copy and mail them to yourself. As to the news PMM is changing yet again?????? Who gives a sh.... C'mon OTDE!!!! Oh and sometimes a change is as good as a rest.

Who runs vBulletin?* I bet they are too lazy to import what they say "can't be done."*** I know that is harsh.* But for them it is true, I know they know of a way to do anything and just are not willing to do it.* No big loss for me, just sayin'

Woody,

vBulletin is commercial software that we are moving to. We have converted many other sites to vBulletin and were able to import the PMs. The issue here is the current host which is a shared platform and they are unwilling to export the PMs for us. Since they are unwilling to give us that data we cannot import it.

Andy

Does the Passagemaker forum even exist any longer? Somebody mentioned it the other day and I went over there to see what had happened to it. I couldn't find it, so assumed it was finally gone. Just as well. Remember when their webmaster was posting all the links to his site over here? Baker had to nuke him.

It quietly disappeared last year - summer 2011 I think - after an abortive restart that came replete with porn spam.

just a test to see if my avatar worked.



PS. The file showed as failed so I'm surprised and glad.
Had a few false starts last night about resetting and getting on the site at all.

So the new site looks good

C lectric said:

Had a few false starts last night about resetting and getting on the site at all.

Click to expand...

I am glad you got back in. We will send out a mass email to members who have not signed in early next week proactively sending them a password reset link. We want to work out as many kinks as possible before doing so (that's why we are waiting a few days). Hopefully everyone will get back in okay and we are on alert at via the help desk to help any with trouble. If you all hear of anyone having issues, please have them email support [at] trawlerforum.com for more help.

I've found the "help desk" to be very helpful.