[DocJohn]

It's generally far less costly, more reliable, and easier to maintain to lease servers at a large hosting facility that does this stuff for a living than it is to own your own server and be 100% responsible for it. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are few and far between unless you're a large corporation with a 24/7 IT staff.

[Bobbi]

Thank you, DocJohn. I thought so, yet was still in that wondering state of mind .

Too, it is very kind and generous for you to have established BT2 while our BT is getting back on its "feet" .

[anonymous]

Many excellent recommendations have been suggested here! JL has done an outstanding job over the years supporting BT, but with 50,000+ members and thousands of posts every day, BT has grown so large that 24x7 support (or close to it) is a must! I had suggested (on another thread) that perhaps the site/server should go back to the MGH IT organization (from which it originated via the work of JL, as per my understanding). DocJohn’s comment above regarding leasing servers from a 3rd party hosting facility is also an excellent idea. One thing is certain though, if nothing changes at BT1, the question will not be as to if, but when the next server crash will be.

As it is possible that we may not be able to solve this issue here, I propose a new forum (or at least a thread) be added at BT1 (after the site is back up) to continue discussion as to how 24x7 support might be implemented. If the BT administration (JL, board members, mods, etc.) would choose to limit discussion to among themselves (due to practicality/logistics, etc.), I propose that a space be set aside on BT for periodic reports from the administration detailing plans, finances, logistical considerations, timeframes, etc. required for moving forward toward 24x7 site/server support.

I believe such action would go a long way in regaining the user community’s confidence in the reliability of BT. If the user community sees progress in this area and financing is an issue, I feel confident that the user community would be more than willing to help. BT is not like other boards where people discuss things like video games, sharing food recipes, etc., it is a community where people with potentially life-threatening medical issues share information, comfort, and support (and the best of its kind on the internet!). I believe keeping the server hardware/software in a basement/attic (as I understand is the case) with only one person holding the key will continue to place risk regarding the viability of the BT community.

P.S.
Please note this post has all positive intentions! As most of us, I am attempting to make positive proposals with specific details, similar to how a Project Manager would handle a business situation.

[Doody]

One thing is certain though, if nothing changes at BT1, the question will not be as to if, but when the next server crash will be.

It doesn't seem like all that long ago that donations were made to upgrade Braintalk. Not long ago at all. I know one dedicated Braintalk person who contributed to that. Not long after that, this dedicated person was banned for reacting to someone who was obviously trying to stir up trouble. I doubt they will feel like contributing again, especially after that upgrade didn't last very long. Then again, maybe it's true that during that time after the upgrade Braintalk grew with a huge momentum

It would be nice to see it up and running again. With the lack of announcements in the last month I thought it was probably gone for good. And I had no idea this place was here until today.

Glad to see there are folks here with good ideas, because I don't have that expertise!

[stumps]

on following the link under DocJohns signature and finding the forums..

Meet the Moderators and Administrators!

Now that thread ...wow..that in my opinion is how things should be, more openess maybe in just who is who on Braintalk would possibly have prevented an awful lot of trouble. I have never been on forums/boards/groups before where the Mods hide behind a veneer of secrecy as they do on BT. Maybe a lesson could be learnt from Psych Central by BT admin.

[Doody]

Wow Stumps! That is pretty cool! WTG DocJohn, I like that!

See if this link works so they can see what Stumps is talking about...

http://forums.psychcentral.com/showf...b=5&o=&fpart=1

[stumps]

Yes ...the link works...I think it is fantastic, open and honest, for me it would give more of a feeling of safety, protection knowing who is who
Gillian

[Parsi]

Eons ago BrainTalk was sponsored by MGH. But if I remember correctly they were not thrilled to have discussions other than those medically related be brought up. Finally JL broke the official connection. I believe it was when he switched to the vBulletin software (?). He did start selling merchandise to raise funds.

Sometime later I saw David's name. By that time I had more or less stopped coming so I was a bit confused about that.

I would suggest not ask a drug company. You may find that discussions of other drugs or alternatives would be sadly curtailed.

Getting a governance board would make everything more unwieldly in my opinion, not easier.

Instead of a set of mods trying to handle the entire BT communities, it is possible to set up mods for individual forums. Two for each forum should be more than enough. For the slower moving forums, mods could do double duty.

However, having someone(s) actually answer emails/PMs and direct them to the appropriate people would be highly desireable.

[jccgf]

Originally Posted by Parsi

I would suggest not ask a drug company. You may find that discussions of other drugs or alternatives would be sadly curtailed.

Getting a governance board would make everything more unwieldly in my opinion, not easier.

Instead of a set of mods trying to handle the entire BT communities, it is possible to set up mods for individual forums. Two for each forum should be more than enough. For the slower moving forums, mods could do double duty.

However, having someone(s) actually answer emails/PMs and direct them to the appropriate people would be highly desireable.

Great post. I agree.

Individual forum moderators may not even need full moderator privaleges, but could stay alert to any problems, try to resolve them, and correspond with the administrative moderators when necessary. Individual forum moderators would have an insight about the members involved, their 'record', and history of ongoing problems, if any. I would think an individual forum moderator should not have authority to ban, but might be given authority to delete or temporarily block a post in order for a quicker response to spam or something really offensive, until a higher level mod could respond.

And there should be some sort of method that if the majority of a forum felt the forum moderator was not acting fairly...there was some way to voice that. Of course, you can't make everybody happy all of the time, but the majority should be most of the time. No system is perfect, but I do think it is time to consider trying something a little different.

Cara

[The Godfather]

A simpler solution - If anybody misbehaves, I'll get the boys to put a horses head in their bed. If we run out of real horses heads, we'll use pantomime horses heads instead.