Anybody here? Where is everybody? - hmm, this place could use a 'community' forum for general off topic talk like this...

Ooh, and while I'm suggesting improvements anyway, a link back to the forum from the reply and post new topic pages would be handy as well. There is of course always the back button, but still...

*pokes around* hey, administrator/moderator-type person for this board, where are you...? Take it from a veteran of a quite few dozen message boards, 't would be kinda nice to see you around as well...

Aan`allein--

Not only is there a lack of moderator, there isn't even an email address listed under "contact us." Truly, I want to exchange ideas concerning Bradbury and his delightful works, but I, like you, sense an eerie quiet in this forum. Almost like a ghost town . . .

*watches tumbleweed blow down the street*

Just sent an email to "authors on the web," the organization supposedly responsible for the maintainence of this site. We'll see what happens now.

*listens to the lonesome cry of a coyote*

Hmm, so the site is still being worked on. I'm certain those links to harpercollins and authorsontheweb weren't here a few days ago...

*pokes around some more*

Yo webdesign persons! I design websites myself. I know you can't resist poking in here to see what people are saying... Come on, show yourself!

'course, regardless of any activity from the powers that be, 's gonna take time for people to find this place and discussion to really get started. Haven't encountered any references to it yet besides what I posted myself at Tad Williams' message board at Shadowmarch and the link to this place in one of the dozens of newsletters I subscribe to... which one was it? DRIN? *ponders* I don't know, they're all the same... (though useful)

How new is this site and forum? I just stopped in today.

quote:

Originally posted by Valancy:
How new is this site and forum? I just stopped in today.

I think it launched around the release of From the Dust Returned, which was the first week of October.

Thanks. I just read "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and surfed my way here. It's so quiet here, it made me wonder if the site was new. I guess I haven't missed much then.

Hi,AAn (Sorry about if Imiss spe;;ed-Im no dictionary)

Im really SUPER new here,as in, I registered like 5 seconds agoo.......and I think they ought to have Ray Bradbury's EMAIL addy on this site....on second thought,if they did,his email box would be over exploding on the first day.......and hey Valancy,isn't "Something Wicked This Way Come" AWESOME??????!!!!!

Oh look, seems this place is finally getting some more activity. And the reply and post new topics buttons have been fixed. Good...
*looking around some more*
AND the 'contact us' link now has an email address associated to it. Looks like one of the powers that be actually did take the trouble to read some posts here...

Valancy: the site came online late October 1. Though Greg Miller probably was the only visitor that day (or at least the only one who registered).

Is there anybody out there? Who conciders themselves anything but pleasantly and ecstatically startled to actually find a well done website on Ray Bradburys life and work. I have to say I was waiting anxiously for his next book to rise not uncharacteristically before Halloween to celebrate The Elliots and their breed. The Halloween Tree is another wonderful example of the poetry in print of his written talent of bringing for me the images of Halloween, and its beginnings to life in my minds eye.
I hope that more readers will write about this site and register to compare notes or just do justice for a man given to a passion of letting his mind wander out his hands and make messages that have made me squirm and enjoy the odd taste for a visuallity that only he could put in print.

YES!!! I am astounded!!! Just joined five seconds ago when I found this place, and if you think this message board is bad, you should have seen the one I used to frequent, before the webmaster took it down. The posts were all like, "I have a paper due at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning" and would continue "I haven't even read the assignment" or "I read every word of this book and can't understand one. Will someone please explain what it's about?" About the only difference is most of them weren't that grammatical or well-spelled. Now, the ones who didn't do their homework I could at least sympathize with. Kids do have more on their plates nowadays than when these books were published 30, 40, 50 years ago, and if they admit they haven't read the assignment they at least have some excuse for not understanding it. The ones who read it and didn't get it, on the other hand, I found just...plain...SCARY! I guess it depends on the story. A lot of those that went over my head as a teenager I had to reread as an adult. As to the presence of an official website (as opposed to the extinct board, which was unofficial) on Ray Bradbury, what can I say? I am stunned...floored. WHO created and maintains this website? Who talked Bradbury into approving it? I mean, who do I thank? From what I gathered from the one sign of intelligent life on the ex-board, RB is almost as dead set against computers as, well, planes, cars, elevators, and just about every other gizmo you might expect an SF writer to like. To my understanding, he has never advanced past an IBM typewriter (at least it's electric,) and doesn't even HAVE an e-mail address! He supposedly has a "rant" against internet chat rooms. I have no idea what the "rant" is, but I can probably guess. In the old (pre-internet) days, it was very hard to find a public forum for one's ideas. RB beat his head against the wall for years, first to be accepted in print, then to be accepted by the "slick" vs. "pulp" mags (how's that for old-style terminology to 21st-Century screenwatchers), then to be accepted as a serious literary figure. Nowadays, any idiot can exchange views with any other idiot at the touch of a button. (To anyone who does have his "rant": was I close?) I really only went online just to see if the new novel was in print yet. I can't express my thrill at finding this site, and at knowing it is so new I haven't missed much yet!

Not only is Mr. Bradbury, as far as I know, not online himself, unfortunately neither are some of his best and most eloquent fans. We will just have to do our best here.