• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Future of the Forum

Planigale said:
You sound quite inspiring. Better to go with ambitions for growth than wither on the vine.

Being sceptical the highlighted is an issue for many not for profits; they become self serving as they become older. They have real people with real lives who have to earn real money to staff them. Their prime objective re JREF should be education with the funding secondary to allow this. I was involved with a small charity, the charity had ambitions to grow, the professional fund raisers brought in cost more than they raised, the charity folded.

Many charities would have leveraged the equivalent of the forum. E.g. ask you to sign up to get emails from them, fund raise etc. I guess from what you say the Foundation board decided either the cost of hosting the Forum was more than the potential benefits to the Foundation, or as seems to be hinted at the risks of litigation and consequent costs are a risk that the Foundation could not bare. The latter seems a better explanation than the former, one aggressive litigant could easily screw the finances of a small organisation; if they have legal insurance then I can easily see the insurers saying that dumping the forum will reduce your potential liabilities and make the insurance cheaper.

FWIW I would sign up to transfer to the new forum. I am not convinced that the US is the best place to host the server but understand the bulk of membership resides there.
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Of course the JREF was created in order to educate. However, the organization's plans to educate cannot be accomplished without funding. Therefore, funding is of the utmost importance, because it allows the JREF to educate. That's a chicken-egg argument. It doesn't actually indicate the JREF is "self-serving".

As to the rest, you are forgetting one major thing - the forum is labeled 'JREF' which means the content needs to comply with the JREF's brand (and the JREF *is* a brand). While having a forum liaison to set rules handed down by the JREF allows them to exert some kind of control, rules can't be set for things like tone, style, and content beyond general guidelines like "no smut" and "no cursing". When a believer comes in here, sure, there are some fantastic posters who present well-reasoned arguments and treat the newcomer with respect. There are also a high number who only stop in to snark, bully, etc. That isn't a great branding strategy for an organization concerned with outreach.

The JREF has to be concerned with public perception. Do we put a good face on the JREF? We couldn't even stop ourselves from sniping at a JREF staff member whose intention was to help.

Now, if we were the majority of the JREF - if we all had memberships, and we were all donors - maybe that wouldn't matter. It would certainly offset the damage that we can do. But we don't offer that value. So, explain to me, why would the JREF want to keep the forum?

And again - I wish the JREF had massaged the forum into a better place. It's kind of a free-for-all in here. Lots of snark, lots of infighting, people skirting the rules so that they can still get away with calling other posters stupid like somehow that's a meaningful contribution.

Maybe if we had celebrity AMAs we would put on a better face, or if we had a goal for the forum as a whole we would be united. But let's keep in mind here that the mods had to start up a rule disallowing threads on GUN CONTROL, of all things, because users were starting them only to continue infighting.

And what I'm trying to say is - this is our chance to be united. This is our chance to have opinions and be heard and lead this somewhere other than an internet fight between a tiny population of people over things that are essentially meaningless because we never actually DO anything about them.
 
arthwollipot said:
If there is one fact about the internet that I wish more people would understand, it's that different people don't see the same results in google. Google customises its search results according to each user's search history, location, shopping habits and shoe size (probably).
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That only applies if they sign in. If they remain signed out then they should get the same Google results if they are using Google.com (/ncr)
 
How do I formally request removal of my user account and all associated personal private information?
 
zooterkin said:
My impression, because it's one thing that keeps being mentioned, is they see the forum as a litigation magnet. Of course, it's more than that, but it's probably the only thing that brings the forum to their attention.
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jj said:
Um, how? I have to ask HOW. Maybe some posters could be litigation magnets, but the forum?
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Any chance of knowing just what litigations have been spawned or even threatened because of something posted in the forum?
Yes, I'm familiar with the 'George' farce.
 
RemieV said:
When a believer comes in here, sure, there are some fantastic posters who present well-reasoned arguments and treat the newcomer with respect.
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Yes worth saying.

There are also a high number who only stop in to snark, bully, etc. That isn't a great branding strategy for an organization concerned with outreach.
...

And again - I wish the JREF had massaged the forum into a better place. It's kind of a free-for-all in here. Lots of snark, lots of infighting, people skirting the rules so that they can still get away with calling other posters stupid like somehow that's a meaningful contribution.
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As is that. I see it as mainly being a small but vocal minority that loves throwing abuse rather than having some form of discussion. Perhaps with the tone of a fair few threads we should take the E out and just call it JRF.
 
Belz... said:
Really ? After all this time ? :(
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I consented to the JREF's requirements to remain a member of this forum. I do not feel obliged to extend that consent to anyone other than the JREF.

If this forum is being removed from the direct control of the JREF and the database is transferred to another server under the control of unknown parties--and the question of whether or not the JREF has the legal right to transfer a database containing personal private information to third parties is a whole other issue that august personages other than myself might deign to explore--I do not feel that the non-JREF forum management will have any legitimate need for my personal, private information.
 
The JREF does now appear to understand there are potential issues with the personal information it holds being transferred to new ownership. I'm not in place to speak with any authority on the matter but I would be shocked if they don't purge that information before the transfer. Remember the personal information consists of real name, country and state if in the USA, if folk have added anything else into their profile that is public and would not be covered by the JREF's privacy statement or the registration TOS.
 
Pyrrho said:
I consented to the JREF's requirements to remain a member of this forum. I do not feel obliged to extend that consent to anyone other than the JREF.

If this forum is being removed from the direct control of the JREF and the database is transferred to another server under the control of unknown parties--and the question of whether or not the JREF has the legal right to transfer a database containing personal private information to third parties is a whole other issue that august personages other than myself might deign to explore--I do not feel that the non-JREF forum management will have any legitimate need for my personal, private information.
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My subscription is to the forum, not to the JREF.

Of course, you must do as your conscience dictates.

I don't remember any "private" information I have ever provided the JREF aside from my e-mail address.
 
Christian Klippel said:
Are SSD's reliable enough nowdays, given the intrinsic limitation of the number of write-cycles for the used flash memory technology?
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Yes, absolutely. In fact, given the performance difference (two orders of magnitude) you'd be crazy not to use SSDs for any busy database. (Speaking as someone who manages a server cluster with 240 SSDs.)

Since OCZ went broke, there aren't many cheap and nasty drives on the market any more either, though I'd recommend Intel, Samsung, or Crucial / Micron over the others.
 
icerat said:
I'm in Sweden, our main servers are actually in the UK but at this stage it's planned to setup a new server in the US, which is where most of the traffic comes from.

It has been suggested it may be more sensible to set the forum up somewhere where it's better protected from the regular legal threats it receives.
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Yes, it would be more sensoble. But no, the UK does not seem like such a place. I, too, would also prefer Sweden.

Greetings,

Chris
 
Aepervius said:
Yes it can be about trollling.... But it could be about admitting youa re lesbian and then it turns out later you live in Arabia Saoudite. Or a country where homosexuality is a death penalty.
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So out of thousands of members, maybe 2-3 get hung. I can live with that (but they can't).
 
Pyrrho said:
How do I formally request removal of my user account and all associated personal private information?
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Look kids... A "prime". One of the ancients of old.... User # is 38, so he was here on day one when the stars and heavens were being formed.

Listen to him, for he speaks the wisdom of the ancients.
 
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