Well, we've got Smiffy who's rivalling Jonathan Ross in terms of number of film critiques, so that's a start.

I know a few people here are into photography, so that's something else to discuss and post stuff for a bit of a talking point.

That reminds me, on a hobby note I recently liberated an old board game from my Mum's house, she was having a clear out and found the HeroQuest my brother and I had. It was semi produced by Citadel Miniatures and came with a little army of orcs et al. I thought I'd have a go at repainting some of the figures as my 12 year old self had three pots of (brown) enamel paint and what must have been the modelling equivalent of a 4" decorators brush. Never been into wargaming/warhammer etc, but I like me a bit of modelling, so it's turned into a nice little distraction. Plus my boys are wanting to play the thing too, so it's pretty cool they're liking something I liked as a kid. I have no idea if how I'm painting them is any good, so if anyone's got an expert opinion, let me know.
 

The last thing I heard about Delphi was they were trying to mimic Facebook, and going to drop the classic layout many of their users prefer. If they do drop the classic layout, I've offered hosting at BeehiveForum.US to any who want off Delphi. A lot of people I know are not liking the idea of being forced to use something they don't like, and I can't say I blame them.

One guy told me he'd thought about Beehive, but thought it was too buggy. I asked him when he last looked at it, and he said years back. I told him he needs to take another look, because he's wrong. I also told him he should've been in Delphi back when they were inventing buggy forums and chats. I told him I can remember when nothing worked and entire forums were lost. Days on end of downtime and no one could access Delphi at all. He couldn't believe we were talking about the same place, until other people confirmed what I was telling him. He seemed to think Delphi just popped up all pretty and nice. I told him, as far as I know, Beehive's track record is a lot cleaner and stronger than Delphi's.

I've had few real issues with it, and when I do, it's usually my tinkering. lol Not Beehive, plus when you contact Matt for help, he actually gets things sorted. Delphi staff has never struck me with being truly responsive to user needs or issues, just what they themselves feel like doing for themselves.

You can tell Matt cares, which is a very big plus for Beehive and anyone who uses it.

Delphi can bite me. I LOVE BEEHIVE AND AJAX CHAT! :-D

 

It was Delphi going down the paid route (DelphiPlus) that was one of the catalysts for Matt, Rendle and others to create Beehive in the first place I seem to recall. My main memory of Delphi was of really silly and obvious bugs that they never seemed to fix - like the "display 20 posts" option that didn't work. I wonder if they ever did get around to fixing that?

I think they did, but I couldn't tell you when it actually happened. I remember a bunch of people who couldn't get into chat for the longest time. I don't know if they ever got that fixed or not.

The only issue we've had with Ajax Chat and Beehive is when someone actually logs out of chat they can't get back into it until they dump their cookies, then log back into the forums. So we just go rid of the logout button in the chat and told people not to log out. The system eventually removes them from the room, but they can still come back in later, unless a mod kicks them, then they're out for 24hrs.

I go through Delphi once in a great while to say Hello to a few and drop promotional links. Otherwise, I don't bother with the place. The final straw for me was when they started the member packages and I paid for one, then they changed it the next week and took away half of what I paid for in the process. I asked for a refund, and got crap about it. They'll never see another cent from me. In my opinion, they can't be trusted in any sense of the word.

I did get asked at one point why Beehive wasn't automated like Delphi, click a few buttons and set up a forum, and I told them Beehive is set up to give the users freedom but the site owner control. This makes it possible for the site owner to protect the site and the people who use it. I'm glad Beehive isn't automated creation of forums by any member. I like being able to tell bad people you can't have a forum on my site, like pedophiles and such. I hope Beehive never becomes automated like Delphi and similar places. Beehive is a much better system all around.

Boo.

 (rar)  (woot)

Where am I and who are all these people? :S

"who are all these /fabulous/ people"

FTFU

(hairy) arse!

Check in semi-regularly and have a thread or two to add but too busy with work. :(

I would check in more often, but I'm too busy getting the preparations for Teh Forum Awards 2007 sorted out. Takes time, y'know? Had been planning on getting PWC involved, but after the Oscars, I think they might be a bit shambolic, and we don't want that, do we?

I still pop by occasionally but I'm trying to live my life according to the idea that it's pointless saying anything unless what you have to say is interesting.

Which it usually isn't.

And I find it easier to deal with my moodiness/depression by never talking about it and screwing it into a tiny ball of frustration and then storing it in some deep dark corner of my psyche while avoiding people who might, conceivably, be bothered about me.

But we do miss you being in here (YJ)..

'lo. I pop in every few months but I've just added Teh to my startup tabs in Chrome, so will be here a lot more now. Been busy, got married, had a daughter (that hurt), lots of adulting, work etc. Glad to see so many familiar usernames.

As everyone else is meandering down Memory Lane... I joined the PCF Forum after installing Steve Guntrip's Doorz 3000 explorer.exe-replacement shell from the cover-disc and wanted to find out more. Or maybe wanted to change it back, I forget. It was very yellow.

I think I earned 5 dragon points when that was a thing. They were a lot harder to redeem for goods and services than the tremendous artwork would lead you to believe.

I met Xenophon once, like IRL, he made excellent tea, and we discussed why mint was considered to be a fresh smell. We eventually mooted the concept of bacon-flavoured toothpaste.

Excellent! I really feel this could be a great place again :)

5 dragon points? I think that means you get to peek up Simon's kilt.

What a treat!

A bit of a dust and a vacuum and Teh will be good as new.

Congrats on the offspring, the missus and I were following William's surgeries on Facebook practically in tears. The phrase "you won't know until you're a parent" really is a truism.

Looks like you're driving the old paraffin budgies now too. You should start a thread about that! #MoarThreads

Hallo. I'm still here, too. I just don't have much to say, and I know fuck all about electronics and Raspberry Pis and such, which is what a lot of the chat seems to be about.

Anyway, still doing stuff. Living in sunny/windy/rainy Auckland in New Zealand. Fixing networks by day, and generally doing that by night too (God damn those out-of-hours jobs). Weekends generally involve bemoaning the lack of whitewater within a four hour drive, and having to make do with sea kayakking or climbing a local volcano instead.

I met Xen, too, at least once. Lovely chap, he was. Right up until I refused a cup of tea. That was awkward.

Wait till you're a grandparent!  Revenge!

Fixing networks in that kind of environment sounds like something even I could do.
On the other hand, if I were to do that then your competition in NZ would increase by, what, 200%?  :-&