About this forum...

[Seob]

Not even a page from the webhost

[Rene_G7400]

It seems to be back again. (How many more times is this going to happen?) 

[Seob]

It's up and the forum is back on again, and of again.

[Sweersa]

I just got Freedom Fighters, it is taking me some time to get good at it, with one controller lol using two is hard for me, the FX are awesome though, the explosion effect rules, and the flying purple guys look 3D.

It rules!

[Ozyr]

It seems to be back again. (How many more times is this going to happen?) 

This last time was probably just a glitch at the hosting site. I've gotten that problem a few rare times with my service. However, I'm not usually down that long - more like minutes, not hours.

[Ozyr]

Nooooooo.......... We dont need 2 forums!!! Man what a pain in the bollocks to keep checking 2 forums!!! Lets just have one!! I'll skim the old forum but I like this one. More stuff seems to get done on this one!! Does that make sense!! However things pan out I'll support the o2 community, Richard needs to tell us what's happening and not blow things.

I've been thinking about this for the last week now, and I'll have to admit that my mind is changing (yeah, I don't stay static that much - my mind likes to wander around on its own).

At this point in time, I think we should just keep the two forums up for now (I'm sure Janzl would like that - I know I would if this were my forum here). Main reasons for my change of mind...

1 - The old forum is rather dead at this point in time. No big fanfares, or welcome back - it just pops up again. Almost everyone is posting here now, period!

2 - I am sure this is the case for several reasons...
2a - No word from Richard yet (except a CCC comment about waiting for him...)
2b - Site has gone down at least once since coming back.

3. After taking some time to warm to this new forum software, I have to admit that I like this better. Yeah, some things about phpBB are great, but this one is better in many ways - and much snappier too!

4. In the long haul, I think most O2/VP fans will make their own choice of forums. Personally, at this point, I think the old one may be on its way out - I hate saying that, but that is what it looks like. But, it's nice to have it up for the older resources on it... whatever I guess.

5. Last, but not least, Mr. Janzl has not shut this forum down as he was going to do!
5a. I think part of this is because of the activity here. I don't blame Janzl for keeping it up, as it is doing well.

That's my two bits for now. As those who know me online well enough, I speak my mind (or at least type my thoughts). For those sensitive folks out there, deal with it!

end-of-line

[Janzl]

Let me reply to this...

Point 1: This might be a restarting issue I don't know if Richard is planning for more activity here. As CCC said he had some personal problems so they could be in the way of being as active as Richard wishes to be.

Point 2: see reply to point 1

Point 3: Of course I am not impartial here... so I shouldn't give my opinion... but i have to agree 

Point 4: I think this indeed depends on the choice by the forum(s)members themselves.

Point 5: Yup, the activity here is plenty so I just can't just shutdown this forum.

[ANDYRYALS]

Well I'm staying out of this! But just to say that if Janzl shut this forum down I would have to send a Ninja death squad around to steal his Videopac and all his games. 

[fernandotcl]

I'm gradually getting used to SMF. I've always frequented phpBB forums, and I must admit I'm much more used to phpBB. I've never been a forum admin, but I guess SMF is more modern and therefore easier to tweak and maintain. There have been several security issues in phpBB as well, so perhaps an SMF-based forum might really be the best choice.

I find this whole situation very weird. It would take Richard 5 minutes to say "sorry, I had personal problems, but now I've got time to put the site back up and things are gradually getting back to normality". If he doesn't even have time to post something like that to the forums, I don't think he'll be able to keep videopac.org running for too long. I might be wrong, though.

We should all thank Richard for his work on videopac.org, it was really fantastic. However, videopac.nl seems to be much more reliable than videopac.org at the moment, this place is also much better organized and Janzl is always trying to improve it, so I don't see a good enough reason to come back to videopac.org.

Just my R$0,02.

[Ozyr]

I wonder if this topic could be changed to 'War of the Forums', instead of About this forum. Most talk is about both...

Ha, I still likes ANDYRYALS comment on staying out of it. By posting, you are part of it! 

I still hate having two. But, that is how it goes. Don't forget, I'll be starting a third one by year end. 

[grgh]

I not going to comment either 

[Sweersa]

The other VP forum had a lot of dead links in the information sections of the games.  This forum seems much more.."crisp"

[Seob]

In the videopac.org forum richard was talking about a change in broadband provider. I know it was in may our something arround that date. Maybe that it also included changing the website provider. Maybe it did take a little longer to get evrything back working again? But it is still strange he has not replyed yet.
For the "forum" war. I like both forum's but the last time i seem to like this forum more. It just looks nicer.

[ccc---]

Richard's personal problems still keep him away from his forum and the web generally. He brought his site and the forum back up which is good, because we have access to all the old posts, and I was able to make a backup of the database. So nothing from the old forum will ever be lost, even if videopac.org should go down again. I am planning on importing the whole videopac.org forum to my website, but just read-only for now.

Regarding Richard's situation: At this time I don't think that Richard will be active on his website or the videopac.org forum in the next time - maybe even never again.

And here is my 2 cents on the whole situation:

The Videopac community is a very small one (compared to the Atari community for example). Many of you know that in the big Atari community there are different "groups" that are "not really friends". This is probably a natural thing in a big community. Now it seems that the same happens in this small Videopac community. No big thing, but still: The behaviour of some people towards Richard after the site went down is beneath any contempt. He managed the old site and forums for many years on his own cost and now there is only bashing and "the old thing was always crap - this new thing is much better". Of course he made faults, but as he told me he is going to ship all the items that were already paid, or he has already shipped them.

Janzl was the first to jump on the wagon after the old one crashed, and you can't be mad at him. It was a brilliant opportunity to make a previous unknown site famous, even though I am sure that was not his intention - he just wanted to give all the people from the old forum a new home.

Anyway, both forums, the old one and the new one, have advantages and disadvantages. I don't like SMF forums and I don't like those Munchkin smileys, but that is my personal taste of course. There are also things in the old forum that I don't like ...

Conclusion: I hate this situation with the two forums - and that is one reason why I am pretty much inactive at the moment. It could be much easier with one forum. But the situation is changing: the community decides - and it has decided that this forum will be the new Videopac forum. In my opinion the old forum will just be an information source in the future, not more. Janzl seems to have much time and enthusiasm for the forum, so this is probably the best solution and as the old forum is dead, this will be the Videopac forum of the future.

[grgh]

At this time I don't think that Richard will be active on his website or the videopac.org forum in the next time - maybe even never again.

I really would like to know what has happened so serious that it may stop his videopac and web stuff so completely. Hey, do you think he'll sell me Radiola 45   Just kidding, I hope everything works out for him whatever his troubles are.

Many of you know that in the big Atari community there are different "groups" that are "not really friends". This is probably a natural thing in a big community. Now it seems that the same happens in this small Videopac community.

I don't think there is anything unfriendly or malicious, or a situation with two separate camps. Some people voiced their unhappiness at the loss of the site and the non-delivery of stuff they had paid for, but I think that was frustration.

Lets remember the good, as you say he paid for the forum to be active, and move on, too enjoying what we are all here for. Lets just be thankful that Richard gave us the opportunity to see all that old info when he hasn't even got the time/opportunity to be online.

Lets not start a he said / he said debate, lets move on and play some videopac games..... or maybe knock ozyr off some of those arcade top spots he has held for too many days.