Wow!! What a deal! Will we know what to do with this new board? I am sure that we all will be able to learn. I am sure that Ray would find it quite amazing.

I'm glad it's up and running. We'll all have to play with it. I am a bit averse to change. This is another one of those things where I'll have to adapt or die.

Hmm!??
I just posted a photo of Sam Weller and several others on a 'photo album', (listed under NEW) but it...disappeared somewhere. And as well with the post in 'Miscellaneous' in 'Legacy'. Well, this is too early for everything to be working smoothly, right? The photo, if it comes up here, is, from left to right:
Keith, fellow fan of Ray Bradbury, Nard, Sam Weller, and Richard, who frequently posts here. (An expanded caption is floating around here somewheres as well...)

DSCN3008_0032.jpg (18 Kb, 47 downloads)

Very neat. Where was the picture taken again? Circumstances? Why am I always left out????

The photo attachment, post above Mr. Dark's, of Sam Weller, etc. was taken, September, 2004, at the Lisle Library, In Lisle, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Sam introduced his forthcoming biography of Ray Bradbury to those attending, and surprised us all with the first look at the book cover. Nice! (I have other photos of Sam at the time conducting an interview with Bradbury over a make-shift communication hook-up. Will post them in a few days, once I get a hang of how this works.)

ALSO: Wow! You can go over to "find" ...and with a key word, find that key word or phrase in ANY post on the website. That's AMAZING!

Hey, this new Board is pretty "spiffy" ! (Do people still use that word?)

Nard, thanks for the posting the picture of you, Sam, Keith and me from the talk Sam gave last year in Lisle. It was a fun evening!

Chicago's Mayor Daley has proclaimed April 18, 2005 to be Ray Bradbury Day in Chicago. Sam Weller is scheduled to speak at the Harold Washington Public Library on that date at, I believe, 6 PM, and will be hooking Ray up by phone as well. It is my understanding that Sam's new book will be on sale at the event.

Well, this new format does have some nice features. I posted a photo in a photo album, but I couldn't get it to be part of a reply. I'm sure I'll figure it out...
I'm really looking forward to the new book, AND the movie!

They, whoever is behind the board, should list instructions as how to use all of the many features that it has. Undoubtedly it is going to magnify the capabilities for all of us many times over.

Wow! I thought that I was going to be able to type in green, but it didn't work. If I weren't at work, I would explore this whole thing, but who has the time?

Neither the Feedback nor the Support forms supplied by the Powers that Be were of any use whatsoever, but I did manage to post a message of strong concern and complaint on the message forums over at their site. I'll be back in awhile to see if my concerns were justified, and my complaints addressed, before repeating any of that here.

P. S. I logged into my new account with a capital "D," but see I am still here under that stupid small "d."

How creepy. Those last two posts appeared with a signature, though I distinctly recall NOT filling in the signature field on the form...and it's got my RIGHT nickname, not my handle, as the signature! Big Brother REALLY has your number!

Okay, I tried to post this on a forum on Infopop's Message Boards, but since my language is supposedly so abusive it awaits their approval. Thought I'd pass it on for the edification of others.

It's somehow terribly appropriate that this is all happening on April Fool's Day, as I've spent most of it in the Twilight Zone here.

Here's what happened to me. I came to the website of this company, which administers a message board (two, actually, but we'll get to that) near and dear to me, and tried to post my concerns on Feedback. It wouldn't go through. I tried to post a Support form. It wouldn't go through, my computer froze up, and I nearly lost my post!

I went to a forum on the site's message boards, where a heading implied that the person who posted it was experiencing my same problem, so I left my post, which I had barely managed to retrieve, there. I got a snippy response saying my language was abusive and my post removed. There were NO swear words in my post, and no language I would, as a moderator, edit or delete. I wrote a reply asking well, what am I supposed to do about my problem? I received a reply saying I hadn't addressed a real person--a robot was answering. (At least two "Twilight Zone" episodes spring to mind instantly, possibly more.)

Notice I haven't even described the PROBLEM yet! Just the problems trying to address the problem! So I came back to the forums here at this site, found the place where I'd posted before, and it turns out the person there was trying to do the OPPOSITE of what was AUTOMATICALLY done to me and was told she COULDN'T DO IT!

Here's where "Star Trek" enters the picture. Remember when the transporter malfunctioned and Captain Kirk was split into two identical-appearing entities--a "good, but weak" one and an "evil, but strong" one? Well, that's EXACTLY what happened to the message board I've frequented for four years and moderated most of that time! Appropriately enough, it's the message board for the official Ray Bradbury website!

For years the faithful members there were complaining about problems related to not enough memory on the board. (I have another concern related to that but am not bothering to type out a description of another problem till I see if these more pressing issues are addressed.)

A few weeks ago, the board abruptly disappeared! (Cue "Twilight Zone" music.) Needless to say, we were more than a little concerned as we had about 30,000 posts there!

The board then miraculously reappeared, seemingly exactly the same, but with more memory, minus the freezing and other problems. Those of us accessing it through the old link, still in our Favorites folders, were obliviously happy. Little did we suspect, let alone know, until informed by our friends, that a PARALLEL UNIVERSE had been created!

Yes, the "split" effectively ruptured some vital connection in the time/space continuum, creating an entirely "new and improved" version of the board which is now accessed through www.raybradbury.com!!! All of the old messages up until the "split" are preserved there. The old board also still exists, accessible through the old link but NOT THROUGH THE SITE, and all of the old posts exist there, too, EXCEPT

(hideous scream of revelation)

SINCE THE SPLIT created by the appearance of the new board, all posts on the old board DON'T appear on the new one, and all posts on the new one DON'T appear on the old one!

YES, THE BOARD HAS BEEN CLONED! IT HAS BECOME TWO ENTITIES LEADING SEPARATE LIVES!

Now, all I can think of is to contact every member who hasn't accessed this Brave New World, request that they join the new board, with instructions to do so, and hope that once everyone has, all will be made right and the old board will simply disappear. (Since I haven't the slightest idea how to access all their profiles at once, this will mean contacting 2,500 or so entities individually--a daunting task!)

What I want to know is, will the old board disappear either
1. When all active original members have joined the new one?
2. After a set date or time, and if so, when?
Or 3. Will they continue to exist as separate entities throughout all eternity, or at least the life of the internet, whichever comes first?

Someday years from now when everyone is hanging out on the new board, will some lost and tormented soul come staggering onto the old one and ask, in the immortal words of the first episode of "Twilight Zone" (which, by the way, Ray Bradbury insists to this very day was ripped off from a story of his),
"WHERE IS EVERYBODY?"

Here my problem enters another dimension. I moderated on the old board for years as I had been given capabilities to do so, which I presumably still have...THERE. I haven't tried to moderate anything on the new board as I've spent all my online time so far today sorting through these mystical enigmas!

To go into "Star Trek" terminology again, the old board is the "good, weak" one, and the new board is the "evil, strong" one. Remember how the "good" half of Kirk couldn't make decisions? As of now I have no idea whether I'll be able to moderate on the new board! Almost afraid to try! If I could get at least a RESPONSE here maybe we could WORK with whatever's going on!

So my question is firstly, has this phenomena been observed on any other board which has been "improved" by Infopop by way of Groupee? Or could this happen only on a Ray Bradbury board?

Wow, this is confusing, but fun. I was just at the old board (I think), and now I found this one. I feel like I fell into the middle of some strange sci fi episode here, with parallel universes, clones, etc. Or perhaps I have fallen down a rabbit hole? Anyway, I've really missed the board and will try to learn how to use this one. I am anxiously awaiting April 5, which I believe is the release date for Sam's book. I can't wait to discuss it with all of you.

dandelion:

You are seriously funny!! It'll all work out, I'm sure.

In the meanwhile, I can't get over the "Find" file...where typing in a word or phrase will access '''all''' the postings of that word or phrase ...in any post in the archives ...where it appeared.

I am not especially excited about everyone online having their name sitting front and center, like some eye from space looking at your every login on the Bradbury website.

By the way, what has happened to the profiles? Are we not going to have one of those? I thought they were important, and discreet.

Otherwise, this is a vast improvement. A little slow at times, but there are so many more features on this system than before.

Finally, are we to suffer 'nostalgia' for the old website so soon, perhaps even tomorrow?
Nah!!

I'm already suffering from nostalgia. I miss the profiles, too.