--keeping in line with what Mrs. D about answering questions wherever they are posted. (I also spend time at the forum of the Neuropathy Association for the same reason.)

I too am wary about posting data at OBT--I have set up some general data sites in a "sticky" there (similar to the one I put in the "sticky" here), but little else beyond some sites about imparied glucose tolerance and neuropathy (in response to a questioning post). I fear it being lost again.

Moreover, I am not sure yet if OBT has regained enough trustworthiness to get my allegiance in the sense that I would refer people to it who are new to neurologic disorders. I used to do that constantly, and would link them to threads on Braintalk, but I am loath to do so now, at least until we accumulate more evidence that the board will be monitored and administered fairly. (I was one of the people who argued long and hard, in the Forum Feedback area, that we had been ill-served by the recent developments and lack of communication about them, and I tried to advance the proposition that John Lester owed the community he founded but that we built not only attention to technical aspects, but adminstration decisions that were not arbitrary. I also argued this was owed to us as we, by making the forum as famous as it was, indirectly helped him set up others, including the Brigadoon Island in Second Life, and that this fame had also led to many lucrative opportunities for him. This, of course, met with a mix of responses.)

I am fully aware that no one has any legal obligation to run a website democratically, but I still hold out that there is a moral obligation to do so.

I haven't posted much anywhere lately, but that is due more to my shoulder injury and my inability to sit at the computer for long periods in a keyboarding position. The torn muscles are just starting to heal six weeks in, with the help of a lot of physical therapy (acupuncture, ultrsound, myofascial massage). I'm now able to at least sit at the keyboard for some length of time.

Some, of course, may argue that given my usual long-windedness, my injury was a boon to the boards.

I noticed we have a new member posting here and just wanted to say Hello and Welcome!

I think I've seen most of the other users around awhile- but just in case you didn't get a welcome when you joined...
hello & welcome

I have wondered about Dan Hicks too? knew him from the general forum topics section at OBT

One gets so used to seeing some of the faithfull members,that when they disappear it's a bit unsettling. I also wish that this new Forum would be the forum everyone used. I don't like going back and forth. I only lurk on the old one now, with no posts as of yet.

Glen, I am glad to hear that you are slowly recovering. I'm sure this was the last thing you needed. How is your PN holding up in all of this?

I think Dan Hicks had not been posting at BT for quite a while before it crashed. I couldn't tell you exactly when he stopped or why, but I had noticed his absence for some time.

We have a split board with Gluten Sensitivity/Celiac Disease, now too, and we completely lost a fair number of members during the 'outage'...some people just found other places to post and haven't returned. (or they broke that addiction...lol...don't they say it takes 21 days to break a habit? we were without a forum for longer than that)

I really like it here, too. We have been assured we are here to stay, and because Doc John leases the servers (rather than own) there is much less risk of any extended downtime and data loss. I also like the moderation team concept here, and think there is much less risk of things going wrong in that area, as well.

But... I found it hard to walk away from BT completely. Old members still trickle in there, and some new people find their way, too. Some boards have mostly moved back there (like child neuro), and have members who might like to cross post within BT. Google will bring new people into both boards. I can't stand the thought of someone entering an empty forum and not being welcomed, so I check in on both forums daily...to answer questions, direct to information, etc. My loyalty is to spreading the word about gluten sensitivity and neurological disease. I can certainly understand those who have bigger problems with things that happened there, who have no desire to go back or look back.

I put most of the information important to me into The Gluten File (website edition), so that is how I solved that issue for the information I collect and maintain. I don't think anyone will be building any stores of data at BT, though, at least not without keeping their own back ups. It is a lot of work to rebuild it. I've done that a couple of times, and frankly have lost the motivation to keep rebuilding.

It has been hard for everyone . It is still hard for some, but life goes on and the sun will shine again .

Welcome Diana!

Sorry to hear about your shoulder, Glenn . Hope it will get back to normal soon. I don't mind your long-windedness at all (from one lw to another ).

Cara

I have been jumping one to the other too. not knowing what to do.
The bit what i couldn't understand is why it took so long to get Braintalk up and running again, like if i have a hardware or even a software problem on my PC , its normally fixed that day and i have to travel 40 kilometres to get parts for it.
Backing up important files is so easy to do, its not very time consumming just a couple flicks of the mouse or shrink it and through a cd in the cdrom,or a few cd's ,big deal., crikey it only takes me about 5 hours to build a pc and have it up and running in that time, and i have no computor training what so ever, i am a retired coach driver, most school kids could probably do it quicker than me.
I have no idea what the setup is to run something like Braintalk, i would imaging that there would be lots of hardrives backing each other up all the time, maybe Wings42 [David] could explain it, i am pretty sure he was a professional computor bloke, he may be able to explain what it takes to set it all up & why its taken so long.
Anyway i am comfortable here as well, but i wish everyone else was here, not split up the way it is now.

I can't imagine why it would take so long to bring the system back up, and why the database was lost.

At every place I worked, we had disk mirroring (two or more identical disks being written to at the same time so that if one crashed, the other[s] would have all the data), periodic and frequent multiple backups stored off site for complete restorations (except for entries after the latest backup), and transaction journals on the databases to complete the data restores for transactions after the last backup.

Given the extreme length of time it took to bring BrainTalk back up, the failure to restore the database, the lack of communication with us during the crash, and the poor communication since, my opinion based on 20+ years in the business is that neither John nor anybody else tried to bring BrainTalk back up for a long long time, that backups weren't made, that crash safeguards and procedures were not in place, and that BrainTalk and it's client community were an extremely low priority to John and his staff. The slow response or lack of response from BrainTalk moderators and from John himself may very well be because they aren't there and don't care. After all, they have a real job at Linden Labs now.

I've written them off. I'd like to get back on to BrainTalk to let people know about NeuroTalk, but I'm not desperate either, thanks to Dr. John. The one thing I am desperate about is getting the old "Stickies: Useful websites" back. That was a precious resource for all of us that took years to build.

Thanks David, that really shows the lack of consideration they had for those caring people who put so much of their valiable time into making Braintalk what it was, it was mountain of valiable information that was critical for so many people that were struck with this horrible disease.
That really gets under my skin

. . .even though, like jcc and Mrs. D., I do sort of feel morally obligated to continue to check OBT and to provide info/answer questions when approrpriate, especially to newbies.

BTW, if anyone is interested, I basically tore the right trapezius muscle off the shoulder blade while weighlifting. I also apparently tore part of the rhomboids (deeper muscles) on that side. The physiatrist who first examined me, in my question mark position of pain, said that this took considerable talent. (I've apparently overdeveloped some muscles at the expense of others over the years of lifting, and applied too much torque--as I've said before, my workout motto is anything worth doing is worth overdoing.)

The pain was enormous, but it wasn't neurological pain. It was good old-fashioned nociceptive pain, with a lot of tightness and pulling besides. The neurological symptoms, though, were the most intriguing part of this--not my "usual" small fiber pain, but a tingling numbness in the back of my right hand near the first knuckle and extending into the webbing of the hand and up the inside of the thumb and forefinger to their tips. It became obvious I had compressed some part of the medial nerve branch in the nerve root area near the displaced shoulder, and/or possibly in the area where the arm extends from the shoulder. This symptom is still present--a little bit improved; I imagine with the "crush" phenomenon and the fact that all of us with nerve damage are far more prone to compressive effects than "normals", this symptom is going to be of long duration. My priority is getting the anatomy back to its former place to take the pressure off the area.

A most interesting thing in all of this has been attempting to educate the physiatrist and physical therapists about these symptoms. Some are more open to listening to a patient than others. I often have to pull jargon on them. (They didn't know my background; you can be sure they do now. )

Hi,

I am new here but am also a member of BT. I normally post in the Spinal Disorders forum but also have PN. What I really want to say is that I have read everyone's posts here and I think things have been very well said! I find this site much more friendlier and welcoming. I also like the Mission Statement here along with how moderation is handled. So, I just wanted to stop in and say hello and I think I am here to stay.

Ouch! Glenn! That sounds horrible, and like it may take a long time to mend. Is there a chance you will need surgery to repair anything, or just time...lots of time?

Hi Kathi49! Nice to meet you. I think everyone has expressed some valid viewpoints here, too. We all have slightly different perspectives on things for various reasons, depending upon our experience and circumstance, and that's ok . It is a really nice place here, and I'm glad you have decided to stay!

Cara