BT is having problems again?
 

Everything is loading fine on my computer these days except BT.

Anyone else notice recent issues?

Heheheheee I thought it was just me ;)

Nope, it's slooooooooow. Hmmmm, I guess they better turn off the posting option next. That should speed things up :D

Not only that....
 

but they have blocked links to here from there.

any NeuroTalk link appears as ******************* if you put one in there.
I asked Mike Weins (admin) and he said he didn't know about it! hmmmmmm?
you can draw your own conclusions about THAT...

I have a few (not many) links to here, as I don't want to spend time copying over there...long information....

LOL Al, yes I was wondering what other things would "go" to speed stuff up.

You know they were down just before this new change...David H posted he was checking statistics etc... pretty suspicious if you ask me.

I wonder how many months it will be this time?

I am trying to load "Forums Home" to see how many viewers are active right now. I have had to load/refresh it 4 times so far,
and cannot get past "H" in the list.

Very slow over there. I wish folks would come back here for good! :D;)

MrsD, OMG - I can't believe that....well...I actually can, but... UGH!

As far as posting stuff, I won't post anything that I might want to edit later on. I'll post it @ CF and post a link at BT [the same goes for NT too].

It's sad, really sad. It's just a mear shell of it's former self [IMO]. I'll stop - I've been trying to be good about the situation...

Can't even bring up BT today. Glad my friends are here :grouphug:

I was really giving BT a second chance but now...... unless they give a really good explaination I am not sure I want to return. I will find a new home. I also don't like to hear that they are blocking links. Good grief, there are other forums on the web. Are we so stupid that we won't discover them if links are not allowed? Give me a break! Why not make the forum so attractive people won't want to leave. Making it restrictive is certainly a good way to get people to go.

Anne

Maybe that's what they want...

Dead braintalk! Again?!?!?
 

>My< "braintalk" began having seizures....again, Friday, early morn....now can't even bring it up! I thought it was my laptop hiccoping again, so kept trying....then got out of bed to our main computer...found another BT freind emailed me saying they too couldn't log onto BT.

Does this mean its really going to die for good?
Maybe I shoulda stayed here in first place....I assumed everyone went back there after it got "fixed"...but noticed not the same folks as before.
I rely on these forums...my only way out of myself and my world of pain and daily sufferings.

I just cannot understand why such an important web site could have so many problems, be down for soooo long and not one word of update...that was sooooo cheeeezy....big time unproffessional!
I'd be more than happy to pay dues each month just to ensure its proper functioning....I realize it takes time to operate such...and wouldn't ask for someone to work for free...all they have to do is ask!
Maybe I should stay here for good...but does it have the same good info as the old/new Braintalk?
I just began this GF "diet" a month ago....am finding some changes...finally!
But it took a lot of gentle persuesions just to get me to try it. Thank God they never gave up! I'm sooo stubborn!
Do any of you remember me from old BT?
I had first contacted back in late August...was 100% bedridden, too fatigued to flush the toilet, needed help with grooming, PN over entire body, twitching, and spinal cord involvment...took Rose's advice on Methyl B12, miraculously gained back most of my life....then finally getting near total releif from left over burning....now just bottoms of feet...thats "almost" gone, about 85% gone...with going GF! But...I keep "cheating" with a bite here and there with gluten...sometimes accidently, sometimes on purpose!
Many times while cooking hubbies food....I'm having to run to the sink to spit out the forbiddens...usually just mindlessly tasting...see if flavored ok.
Anyway...if you'll remember me....I NEVER post anything short! LoL!
I'll go get Buttons and Joy....drag em over here!
Hugs, cheryl
here's a pic of the avitar I've been using on the new/old BT forum this last year.

That it is interesting thought.

You can still get in....you have to click several times...refresh etc.
Forums home will not load at all..the index (I wanted to see the inflated
viewers...which we know are nil since none can get in!!!) but I couldn't..I tried for 1/2 hr.

here is the quote from David H.
Looks like a long haul to me ...again....:rolleyes:

I can get in - it just takes time.

I don't buy the power outage excuse.

Cry - I know you're pretty new to BT, but the data that is there now...is no where near what it was before the "crash". The benefit of NT, is that most of the people at BT also come here [or would come here]. Most of the "static" data can be re-created [we've done it before - too many times IMO].

I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but I still believe starting a forum that is controlled by "us" is the best way to go.

Yeah, I was sad to see everyone leave here to go over there. They've got a history, ya know?

I too am suspicious of the reasons given for the slow response at BT.
 

And I am even more suspicious of the lack of maintenance and attention being shown there given the fact that BT just got considerable positive publicity (as did this board) through the Neurology Now article. I imagine due to that more people are trying to find BT and join it, as they are here--it IS almost as if membership is being indirectly (not overtly) discouraged.

I wonder if the power that is there would rather see BT fade (as other projects are being worked on that hold more interest), but if an outright shutdown was attempted, there would be too much outcry/bad publicity, so the way to do it is to weed people out by making the site difficult to use, until no one posts there any more and the site can be shut down quietly.

I too have been having problems with BT for the past 2 days. Very slow loading, and very slow opening of the pages.

Certainly hope that it doesn't go down again.

Marilyn

BINGO!!!!!!!

Well, I can't get it to work at all, at all! For me it's not just slow, it's glacial.
I hope more old friends from BT find their way here, now, like cheryl. Not that I knew cheryl on OBT, (my loss, I'm sure) since I mostly posted and read on the MG forum there, but NT has a wonderful way of making us all friends, right? Cheryl, who are Buttons and Joy? I look forward to meeting them.
Hugs,

I frequent both sites, there are some here who would not go back to BT. I think many of us felt a loyalty to BT and now, they are just showing us what our loyalty stood for. Nothing is the same there anymore. I used to enjoy the chatroom, now I rarely go there, just as many never go there. It's very secretive on BT, you aren't allowed to know who the moderator's are which is unheard of in most forums. Why the secrets? I wish everyone would make their home here.

perhaps
 

BT is moving for a summer off, like last year? LOL

Seems to me the slowing down started around spring and early summer
last time.

I finally got Forums home to load, and 8 members were signed on, with about 80 guests. Those 80 must be very patient souls! :rolleyes:

My guess...those 80 are spammers. I see "guests" at CF, some are googlebots/searchbots, some are spammers/spambots, some are real people.

The last time we discussed moving somewhere else, Cara had brought up the really good point that a lot of people with neurological/brain and other disorders are more easily exposed to the possibility of food alterations helping them in a forum like this, where that type of people can collect with all kinds of 'afflictions'.

That said, I do think Al is right about something that we control... but we have that don't we... Al, isn't this place yours?--http://www.celiacforums.com/index.php

I like having two gs homes on the net, honestly... and I just went in to Al's this weekend and it's really booming!

So, that said, I'll still be posting here because I agree with what Cara said about being able to reach people who otherwise wouldn't consider a gluten free lifestyle... but at Al's too for the company and freedom of expression that is available there.

(I don't appreciate the lack of editing ability here either.)

Do I post there...do I mod & admin there...YES. Is it mine? NO. This site belongs to Gluten Free Pantry. I just kept bugging Admin enough to clean up spam that he gave me admin rights to do so.

However, just for fun, I recently setup a board - just as an experiment. That can be found here: www.gfnavigator.org/forum/. There's nothing really there yet. I needed space for my disney pix, so I got my own domain and webspace. The discussion board software I used is free. Vbulletin costs about 80.00 per year. Hosting costs about 5.00 per month. This is a "home" [ie small] type package, so a larger one would cost more. The database at gfnavigator can only hold 100mb.

Here's the little web page I put up just for fun too...www.gfnavigator.org/


As far as outreach...I'll expound on that later...gotta work :(

dont ya guys like us here:(

why move???...we love having you here and I think we have proved we try to be very accomodating.

if there is anything you would like us to do to make this a good "home" forum for you...just ask :) If it is doable...it will be done!

and as you have noticed, DocJohn here takes real good care to keep us up an running:D

Why move? limited editing time on posts...that's my big problem. Plain and simple. We fought for it once, it stayed for a few months. Then it was gone. Unless edit time can be adjusted per user, I don't see that changing.

We are probably unique in how we use these boards. It acts as database for us. We are constantly updating info - and to have to ask a mod to have our posts updated - just doesn't cut it.

Al
has anyone PMd Doc about your unique needs here?

It is hard on the editing as, where we sure understand members who use it in good ways, like yourselves, we also sadly have those who use it in ways that make an enormous load of work for the mods trying to keep spam and battles off the boards.

but, as mentioned before, Doc is always willing to hear member concerns directly (He is just a PM away) . Sometimes posts can lose impact in long discussion threads, but a PM, clearly outlining the probelems you have re the edit time, sent to any admin or direct to Doc can help clarify the needs of a forum/member and Doc can weigh in on how the impact is for the community as a whole.

I cant speak for Doc re his decision on things, but I can assure you he takes legitimate member concerns and problems seriously

Cheri

Another option for edit & updating info
- place the new or updated info as a new post/thread, then when searched for it will come up before the older info post.
Or if the older info is fairly recent you can quote it and make the correction or updates that way.

This is a nice place. Like I said, I'll be staying.

I don't care for the lack of editing abilities but I do like that I don't feel like I've got to watch every word I say, the way I feel over at BT, which is why I don't post there very much anymore.

Chemar, it's really not personal... there's a fair group of us that have been hanging out together for quite a few years. Since the big BT crash, most of us, though we've stayed in contact with eachother, have had a hard time settling anywhere and we all seem to be pining for somewhere that we can do so as a complete group again... the way we used to be.

This has more to do with the amount of data and research (and recipes geared to diff. sensitivities) we had accumulated over the years (to share with people who wanted to know more than just "Do I need to get new pots?"). It was an enormous collection that has not yet been seen anywhere else on the net. We were, I think, 'literally' dumbfounded with our loss.

This has left us in a position where we have not been able to trust anyone else with our data and though we continue to research, it is at less than 1/2 the vigour with which we used to collect abstracts and articles to pontificate over re: validity; applicability to daily life, etc.

This is a great suggestion and I appreciate the spirit in which it was offered. However, it doesn't work for us re: our 'collections' and conversations. You see, when new people came in to our section and started posting 'conversation', we used to be able to ask them to start a new thread for that and delete their one conv. post so that our data files stayed relatively neat and tidy. It would all just be too scattered to do a new post every single time... and then difficult when discussion takes place to allocate, and refer to for example, eight, different threads.

I hope that explains a bit why some of us 'oldies' are still stewing and holding onto old resentments... and the fact that they don't really have much to do with this place at all. On the contrary, we were happy to see 'brain' people who need support, have somewhere else to go. :)

hi al :)

i know when new info comes out ( research data and such) editing old posts is important. but when that is done...nobody really knows the post has new info. it doesn't bump that post up. kwim? not very many old timers go back and check old posts unless they are researching something.

quoting the old post and making the changes will bring it to the top.

I guess the point is, though, that it's not JUST research... we do much more than that... and we've found it cumbersome, at best, not to have edit and delete abilities re: posts.

I won't belabour this topic any longer because we did have our say earlier when everyone at this site had their say... the end result is that this place has decided not to allow edits or deleting of posts. Fair enough.

It just doesn't work that well for us.:rolleyes: That's life... and now we've got to decide what we're going to do.

Yup - I know exactly what you mean. IMO - that's way too messy.

Perfect example: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=2078

When there's a new item to add to this, I will edit it and put it in is proper place - then add a new post stating there was an update. As you can see the last 2 adds where just tacked on to the end - that can be easily missed because it's not with the others. I wasn't going to bother the Mods for edit.

If I had to quote this 1st post each time - it'd be a huge mess to read. Plus - way too big!!

We had built an empire of informative posts that we frequently updated and kept linked in indexes~ always at our fingertips when we wanted them.

We've tried explaining many times and many ways why editing is important to us... so I won't re-hash all that, but we just can't recreate what we had at BT without the ability to re-enter old posts and continually update them. We haven't even begun to try to recreate here what we once had. At first because motivation was low, and now, because we couldn't even if we wanted to.

Then, the split was very difficult on the group as a whole, period. We all had different experiences at BT, and different interpretations of each other's experiences there...but the bottom line... is that some people felt eager to start a new home here and others felt more at home at BT.... and some didn't care where we were, but they wanted the group together.

I don't really feel at home anywhere anymore :(. I still read here and there, and I spent this morning at celiac.com forums. I'm sort of blowing in the wind... trying to hang out wherever most of us seem to be.

Kim, I haven't changed my mind that broader based forums reach a wider audience of people who wouldn't even know to suspect gluten sensitivity. Most of the hits to The Gluten File come from google searches... and often times from things one wouldn't necessarily connect to celiac disease or food sensitivity... so at least that is good.

Anyway, I still long for what we once had... but I'm not sure I see the road back :(.

Cara

This is how I am except that I never went back to BT. I was just waaaay too burned by them to do so.

I honestly don't know what the solution is for us. I find the celiac.com forums a nice place, but it's not quite right. This place, too, has never seemed quite right.

Rachel

I think Al is right. If we want a place the way we want it, we're going to have to do it ourselves... or in my case, wait for Al do it. :D

Why not gives Al's place a go and see what happens? Maybe we can make it like it used to be... but I think we pretty much know, at this point, that it's not going to appear on its own.

I have to say, I probably have a bit of a head start on y'all. I went thru that "home sickness" a couple of years ago. I know what you're going thru. I'll tell you - it takes time to feel at home somewhere. Our group has been together for many years [about 5], we've been thru lots of "stuff" together. It's hard to break those bonds that we have.

Maybe it's due to the bonds we have...but I feel that this group is unique. We were misfits from several of the boards when we 1st started our quests. We're probably not misfits any more, but it's hard to find a place where you feel you fit in. The technical aspect in which this group tends to deal with is not found everywhere. It's been awhile since I've been at celiac.com - that might be the closest. Delphi - again, I don't the the technical/medical spectrum is covered. There really are just a handful of CD/GS boards, and to find one that matches this groups unique abilities, might be difficult. Hence my suggestion to take it "private" [ie it's managed by the group]. Please know that I'm not saying a new home should be anything of mine - it can be anywhere. My GFNavigator forum was just an experiment for myself at this point.

Your data & info should be in more than just one place.
Redundancy I think they call it. A couple back up places in case of crashes or hosting sites going out of business.
I have my lists of favorite info & links here- and on 2 other "free" hosting sites.

Yup - backups are important. Luckily [because we kept individual backups] we were able to reconstruct the heart of our board - The Gluten File.

As for redundancy, pretty much any informational post I make here or at BT, I post to another forum. Well, recently, since the lock down on edit time, I will only post a link to the data that is editable [and backed up].

Again, with having direct control, backups can be made daily if need be. How often is this forum backed up?

Empire...I like that!

No one here has ever stated that NeuroTalk is for every taste, personality, or preference. No one place is, and we can't expect it.

That said, NT has and will continue to cater to the wants/needs of the majority as is possible.

If NT is not something that you hoped it would be, while I hope you stay, I wish you well in finding what you want or need should you choose to find another site.

If you don't want to move from one place to another, why not sit and work out something with the mods/admins that you feel might work for you? It doesn't have to be one or the other with limitations on edits, does it? If so, that's a personal preference and choice that's here to be made. Where there's a will, there's a way? No one place will be everything we need wrapped up into a neat little ball. However, we can make the most of the one that best suits us and work to gain the "more" we desire, or we might *always* be looking and not seeing what we might have at our fingertips. With that, one has a "home forum", but also frequents other sites that partake in additional offerings.

Please continue this conversation in private. I am closing the thread now as it's inappropriate to carry on publicly in my view. If you have questions, PM me.

KD