Post by Mavro on Oct 18, 2005 8:36:54 GMT -5
As heckboy mentioned, all the posts that had any meaning in the "What's up with the forum!" thread were deleted. Luckily I saved my post from that thread so I'm copying it here for your viewing pleasure. I also re-posted it in the "That forum which shall remain nameless" in the hopes that our gripes are not forgotten.
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As originally posted on www.pbownersgroup.com
Thread: "What's up with the forum!"
Date: 10/16/05
Status: "Lost" in a recent forum hiccup
You know what? I'm tired of copying and pasting important threads into new forums. "That forum which shall remain nameless" management is playing games with us and I'm starting to take offense to it. I have neither the time, nor the patience, nor the will to sit around and reload all of my posts every time the admins decide they want to make database changes. If you guys want to delete posts...fine. YOU go back to the old site and copy everything back in. Don't ask us to do it. The atmosphere of the forum is forged in all the posts, not just the ones deemed important by the powers that be. Every post is as important as the next. They log the interaction the members have with each other. That's how the atmosphere of the forum remains positive. If we stick to the facts and lose the conversations, we lose what the forum is all about... friendship.
Lecture time...
I've been an IT auditor for some time now, so I can tell you a thing or two about application management. Look up the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC), and tell me how much of those procedures were used when developing the "That forum which shall remain nameless".
1) Databases should always, always, always be backed up. The first time the A5OG crashed, it should have been a major indication that daily/weekly backups should be initiated. Blaming the loss of tons of information on a mere system crash is unacceptable. If all of the information from a database can't be safely moved to the new platform, the upgrade isn't done. It's that simple. Can you imagine the chaos if a bank updated it's systems and lost all of their bank account information?
2) Switching over to this new "That forum which shall remain nameless" setup without consulting the members was a bad move. There should have been at least two month's worth of user acceptance testing (UAT) by regular members; not just the few privileged members that are the admins'/mods' buddies. This way, management would have had plenty of feedback and time to make all the necessary adjustments BEFORE moving the new forum into production. The A5OG would have continued in its normal manner until the "That forum which shall remain nameless" was ready and accepted by all. The transition from the former to the latter would have been considerably smoother.
3) Quote from mobey: "Guys, Try to hold on and remember we are really just in a Beta version (as we are not open to the world yet). " Mobey, this is totally not our problem. I didn't ask to be a guinea pig and I'm sure no one else on this forum volunteered for the job either. You can't deliver an inferior product to a client, then suddenly decide it's in beta when the client finds that it doesn't work the way it should.
Had the "That forum which shall remain nameless" been the subject of one of my IT reviews, I would have shut the whole place down in a heartbeat.
...end lecture.
Now it's opinion time...
I come to this forum to learn things about my marker and to meet people with similar interests. I visit the forum to relax a little and detach myself from work. For the past two months I've learned nothing and find myself leaving the site with more stress than I did coming to it.
Quote from wings: "The A5OG as we all knew it is not going to come back. The "That forum which shall remain nameless" was the next logical evolution and is here to stay. Compaining about what is and wishing for what will never be is not going to help. This forum could have the same feel and family atmosphere that the A5OG contained if the members work together to make it so. As this forum grows we need all those who made up the A5OG to help keep the same level of professionalism, respect, and knowledge we had."
Management tells us that the members are the ones that make the atmosphere. True as that may be, don't blame us because your new business venture is heading down the tubes. Most of us are unhappy. You ask us to inform you of our problems. When we do, all you do is scold us for not being the good little children we were in the past; listening to our parents because they said so, not because they were right.
Members have expressed their opinions and our only response runs along the lines of, "too bad. Suck it up because we're going to do what we want regardless of what you say."
I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm seriously tired of the games and have become turned off to this site. When you guys finally grow up and decide to take this forum as seriously as you once did, shoot me an email and I'll come back to participate as professionally as I once did. My email address is crossfirev8@yahoo.com. I hope this post didn't just buy me a one-way ticket to the "Banned Members" section. If it did, I'm sure I'll see more of you there as your opinions start to take light.
Take care, everyone,
Mavro
---------
As originally posted on www.pbownersgroup.com
Thread: "What's up with the forum!"
Date: 10/16/05
Status: "Lost" in a recent forum hiccup
You know what? I'm tired of copying and pasting important threads into new forums. "That forum which shall remain nameless" management is playing games with us and I'm starting to take offense to it. I have neither the time, nor the patience, nor the will to sit around and reload all of my posts every time the admins decide they want to make database changes. If you guys want to delete posts...fine. YOU go back to the old site and copy everything back in. Don't ask us to do it. The atmosphere of the forum is forged in all the posts, not just the ones deemed important by the powers that be. Every post is as important as the next. They log the interaction the members have with each other. That's how the atmosphere of the forum remains positive. If we stick to the facts and lose the conversations, we lose what the forum is all about... friendship.
Lecture time...
I've been an IT auditor for some time now, so I can tell you a thing or two about application management. Look up the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC), and tell me how much of those procedures were used when developing the "That forum which shall remain nameless".
1) Databases should always, always, always be backed up. The first time the A5OG crashed, it should have been a major indication that daily/weekly backups should be initiated. Blaming the loss of tons of information on a mere system crash is unacceptable. If all of the information from a database can't be safely moved to the new platform, the upgrade isn't done. It's that simple. Can you imagine the chaos if a bank updated it's systems and lost all of their bank account information?
2) Switching over to this new "That forum which shall remain nameless" setup without consulting the members was a bad move. There should have been at least two month's worth of user acceptance testing (UAT) by regular members; not just the few privileged members that are the admins'/mods' buddies. This way, management would have had plenty of feedback and time to make all the necessary adjustments BEFORE moving the new forum into production. The A5OG would have continued in its normal manner until the "That forum which shall remain nameless" was ready and accepted by all. The transition from the former to the latter would have been considerably smoother.
3) Quote from mobey: "Guys, Try to hold on and remember we are really just in a Beta version (as we are not open to the world yet). " Mobey, this is totally not our problem. I didn't ask to be a guinea pig and I'm sure no one else on this forum volunteered for the job either. You can't deliver an inferior product to a client, then suddenly decide it's in beta when the client finds that it doesn't work the way it should.
Had the "That forum which shall remain nameless" been the subject of one of my IT reviews, I would have shut the whole place down in a heartbeat.
...end lecture.
Now it's opinion time...
I come to this forum to learn things about my marker and to meet people with similar interests. I visit the forum to relax a little and detach myself from work. For the past two months I've learned nothing and find myself leaving the site with more stress than I did coming to it.
Quote from wings: "The A5OG as we all knew it is not going to come back. The "That forum which shall remain nameless" was the next logical evolution and is here to stay. Compaining about what is and wishing for what will never be is not going to help. This forum could have the same feel and family atmosphere that the A5OG contained if the members work together to make it so. As this forum grows we need all those who made up the A5OG to help keep the same level of professionalism, respect, and knowledge we had."
Management tells us that the members are the ones that make the atmosphere. True as that may be, don't blame us because your new business venture is heading down the tubes. Most of us are unhappy. You ask us to inform you of our problems. When we do, all you do is scold us for not being the good little children we were in the past; listening to our parents because they said so, not because they were right.
Members have expressed their opinions and our only response runs along the lines of, "too bad. Suck it up because we're going to do what we want regardless of what you say."
I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm seriously tired of the games and have become turned off to this site. When you guys finally grow up and decide to take this forum as seriously as you once did, shoot me an email and I'll come back to participate as professionally as I once did. My email address is crossfirev8@yahoo.com. I hope this post didn't just buy me a one-way ticket to the "Banned Members" section. If it did, I'm sure I'll see more of you there as your opinions start to take light.
Take care, everyone,
Mavro
.
