Lufty

Dear All Whilst we work through the teething problems with the new software it is really important to receive any feedback whether negative or positive. At the moment the only technical problem that has been reported is from a couple of members who are receiving a blank page after making a post or PM post. Can you please report back on whether you experience this issue or not so I can get a feel for how widespread the problem is and whether it is happening randomly, for specific browsers or specific members. I think we will like the new look and feel once we get over the shock and find our way around however there was really no choice as we needed the latest version to keep us protected from security and hacking attempts. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All Further to my comment about needing a new logo for the forum due to the colour change I am hoping Littlenemo will be able to work some magic to change the current logo to fit in with the new forum design. What do you reckon Littlenemo ? Regards Lufty

Morning everyone I am not getting a blank page when I post a new topic or a reply. Can you describe the blank page in a little more detail please for instance do you see the header of the page etc. etc. Many thanks Lufty

Dear All The forum upgrade is now complete and everything appears to be working fine. Please add to this topic with any comments or questions you have. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All I have finished testing the forum upgrade and revised backup procedures and will overnight upgrade the forum which will result in the forum being offline for a couple of hours. I need to warn you that the forum upgrade gives a very new look and feel with many new features so it will take some time for us all to get used to it. Also we need a new forum logo (or at least a different background to the existing one) if someone who is relatively arty would like to volunteer ? Kind regards Lufty

Dear All Just to update you I tried a new and improved backup solution which has worked fine. However the new version of the Forum software has a completely different look and feel and I do not want to spring this on our members without some prior warning so I have rolled the software back to the previous version for now. I will do some further testing and then when I am comfortable that everything is working I will announce when the upgrade is going to take place. Many thanks for your continued patience while we improve the forum. Lufty

Dear Members Please let me first start by apologising for the forum outage yesterday. I small upgrade unfortunately failed which resulted in the need to restore the forum database from a backup. Unfortunately there was a problem with the backup restoration which was investigated by hosting company who unfortunately had to refer this problem to their second line support who only work Monday to Friday during office hours. I am pleased to report that the restoration was completed first thing this morning back to the early hours of Sunday morning. This means that any postings made since then will unfortunately have been lost. I will be working with our hosting partner over the next few days to ensure that we have a more robust backup system in place to prevent this from happening in the future. Many thanks for your patience during the outage. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All I am really pleased to announce that Call me Jaded and Suze have been asked to join the moderating team and have kindly accepted. I am sure you will all join me in welcoming them to this important role. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All This has been posted on behalf of a member who has contacted me but wishes to remain anonymous and therefore not make the posting themselves :- Please could you help. Our eldest son came back from his friends house (the only friend he has) and announced he had 'shish'. His friend was talking about getting pipes but i am worried as cannibis can be smoked this way through a turkish pipe. We are not completely sure if this is cannibis or not as there is some discrepancy between what has been said and what we found (we had to look) on his phone (while he was asleep). From the messages between the two we found that his friend has mentioned that his mum nearly caught him with the stuff. We are a little confused and worried about what he has got involved with. Its just the two of them and not a group. Not sure if he knows what he is doing. Any advice on how we could handle this better. Some time ago our 19 year old son was also feeling depressed and wishing he was dead. I know he was angry but this latest event has made me think this is the start of a downward spiral. I am sorry about sending this to you but did not want this to be put on the forum. I tried to search if any one had similar problems.I could not find anyone. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. We have the younger one and problems with him aswell so this is something i cannot manage on my own at the moment as our little one is changing schools and we have had a bad few days with him Any help you can offer the member would be appreciated. Many thanks Lufty

Dear All I am really pleased to announce that Call me Jaded and Suze have been asked to join the moderating team and have kindly accepted. I am sure you will all join me in welcoming them to this important role. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All This thread has now run its course and is being closed but to set the record straight I have received two complaints :- 1. Against the humour 2. Against the reaction to the humour Please can I remind everyone that there is absolutely no requirement to continue reading threads you find incompatible with your belief, viewpoint or moral standing. Regards Lufty

Dear all I have reviewed this thread as I have received more than one complaint regarding the posts that have been made. The original post was relevant to the General Discussion forum however later postings have made this much more appropriate to be in the off Topic forum and I have therefore moved it here so that there is no further confusion that the content is intended to be totally humorous and not to be taken seriously. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All I think the general consensus from forum members is that the driving instructor was entitled to decide which clients to continue giving driving lessons to and consequently any claim under the DDA is unlikely to succeed and hopefully this has now answered the original question. Before this thread deteriorates further into personal attacks on members I suggest we let this thread lapse now. Kind regards Lufty

Hi Everyone I have got our ISP (Internet Service Provider) to change the server time which has fixed the problem. Regards Lufty

Dear All For several years now we have used mountains as a way of showing how many posts a member has made. Are you all happy to keep to mountains or would you like to move to a new measure ? Kind regards Lufty

Hi Everyone This is a really interesting thread with lots of useful information and an interesting debate. However please keep the topic on subject and continue offering constructive advice, guidance and feedback whilst bearing in mind that there is not always a solution which fits all circumstances. Threads with differing opionions often lead to public arguments so please bear this in mind and lets not lose sight of the reason this forum exists Regards Lufty

Dear All This thread was started as a discussion regarding whether we have the right number of discussion areas on this forum. Whilst there was no clear consensus I think the majority of you have suggested we should maintain the status quo which is really useful as it validates the view point of admin and the moderators. Evolution is not always in the interest of everyone as I am sure you can appreciate however we always try to maintain our original ethos of providing a forum for members who are touched by ASD. I believe this thread has served its purpose and would hate that a constructive discussion deteriorates into an "us" and "them" discussion on moderation so I will now close the thread. Thank you for all your comments. Lufty

Hi everyone Sorry I had not got around to updating this topic but this morning I gave up waiting for Hotmail to fix the problem so I have changed the email server that the forum uses which has fixed the problem. Kind regards Lufty

Hi Everyone It appears to be a problem with anyone using a hotmail email address. There is nothing we can do about this unfortunately but I suggest you try to make contact to hotmail to see if they can help but I would not hold your breathe The alternative is to change your email address to a non hotmail address if you have an alternative until the problem is resolved. Kind regards Lufty

Dear All Many thanks to all of you for the kind wishes and I never realised the 21st January was such a popular birthday !!! My 21st Birthday on the 21st January has quite a ring to it lol Sorry for the belated thanks but it has been a manic week what with one thing and another ... Take care Lufty

Hi KarenT I have increased the number of PMs members can store to 500 from 150 which should keep you going for a while Regards Lufty

Hi Mumble I have just finished installing the modification and you will now see it at the bottom of the page along with the list of users who have been online today. At present I am unable to put the users online in the last 60 minutes at the top and the users online today at the bottom of the screen. Regards Lufty

Hi Kathryn That is correct and how the forum ranking is configured :- 0-9 is Norfolk Broads 10-49 is Salisbury Hill 50-99 is Scafell Pike 100-249 is Snowdon 250-499 is Ben Nevis 500-999 is Mt Blanc 1000-2499 is Kilimanjaro 2500-4999 is Mt McKinley 5000-9999 is K2 10000+ is Everest Regards Lufty

Dear All A beta (test) version of an update to the forum software has just been announced. I am hoping that this fixes the AOL problems and also the PM message count problem. I will keep you posted but I am guessing it will be another month or so before it is complete and ready to install. Regards Lufty

Dear All I am reluctant to make any security setting changes at the moment as it will impact on AOL users again although the board should be configured so that the remember password option works. It is worth unticking this option and logging in and then logging out and then log in again selecting the remember password option. Regards Lufty