Neil

Ah, cool. No bother then as I've already e-mailed her the correct link to the forum.

Just received an e-mail from a confused punter trying to access the Dr. Drakes forum using the link on your web site. Looks like you need to update it. The correct link to your forums is as follows: http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3

I can only give a band their own forum is they ask for one themselves.

There will be an annoucement regarding this that should help clarify things. Keep an eye for a new post in the Official Annoucements forum. In short, all forum moderators will have the ability to post news (there is no way I could open this to all members - people would just take the piss). But all members will be encouraged to send music scene news that they would like posted to the forum moderators so that they can post it for them on their behalf.

Yup, of course. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going set-up a forum and then keep it going even though no-one ends up using it. The bands get told they will loose their forums if they don't get used frequently enough and so the same should apply to all the other forums as well. I'm always going to be tweaking and changing things around as long as the web site continues to grow. Sorry. But if a new forum doesn't work out then Im not afraid to admit I got it wrong and will either get it renamed, removed or merged/seperated into other forums. As for the Feedback forum then I think it is a bit early to examine how well that is doing so far but the AUBL guys have come up with a good alternative plan for that forum that Im strongly considering at present.

Fair point Kai. The reason I moved these old threads in here was just to provide example of what kind of threads should be posted in this forum. Once people start using these new forums then it should become obvious to you what threads and posts are new (as they will be displayed as such) and eventually the old threads will be pushed off the first page and deleted when they reach a certain age (currently 60 days old for these forums).

Possibly. I'll see how this forum gets on and may remove it if things just get too confusing or if no-one uses it. Remember most of the promoters do not have their own forums and there certainly isn't anywhere for bands looking for gigs to post in. That is the gap that this forum tries to fill.

There will be aberdeen-music.com t-shirts and other merchandise soon when the new online store opens in a few months time.

Done.

Signature images will never be brought back unless there is an effective way to control them. Unfortunately, there is no way as yet to control the size of signature images. What The Dark Knight has discovered is that the gallery software, PhotoPost, ignores the vBulletin signature image settings and allows signature images even though they are still disabled in the forums themselves.

This has been suggested before and is a great idea. Unfortunately, it requires a lot of work to implement (it is possible though) and I'm not going to bother doing this just now until the web site has been upgraded to vBulletin 3.0 as I would have to do the work all over again after the upgrade. This suggestion is on the "to-do" list though.

Because people will always post off-topic content on forums. Just look at any other forums on the Internet to see what I mean (most of them will also have a dedicated off-topic forum or forums set-up to deal with the problem as well).

A general "Links Directory" section of the web site has been on my to-do list for sometime. My priority just now is to get the forums upgraded to vBulletin 3.0 but once this is done and out of the way then I will certainly look to getting this implemented as it is a fine idea.

Yes. Because when you are banned you are banned for good.

Firstly, being lazy is not an excuse for posting threads in the wrong forum. So please stop doing it. Secondly, the galleries will be open when I fix them and I don't see that happening for at least a few days as I don't have much free time at the moment.

Never going to happen. There is simply too many people that use this web site now to make this workable.

Nope, it isn't your imagination. The web site should be much faster now as it was moved to a more powerful web server with better Internet connectivity.

If you are seeing this post then you are now accessing aberdeen-music.com on the new web server! The move has gone much better than expected and I have now been able to open up the forums for business as usual a bit early. However, a few sections of the web site remain offline while they are moved/reconfigured and in the case of the Gallery, upgraded. This is what is working/not working at present (this post will be edited as the other sections re-open): Forums (open and working) WAP Access (open and working) Gallery (open and working) Ad Server (now working) As always there may be a few teething problems here and there so if you spot any problems then please post them in the Technical Problems forum and if you have any feedback regarding the upgrade or changes then please post in the Comments & Suggestions forum. Thanks.

When: From 11pm Saturday 28th, February till Monday 1st, March. What: The aberdeen-music.com web site in its entirety is moving to another new, dedicated web server with another hosting provider. During the move all sections of the web site will be closed and inaccessible to the public and registered members. Why: A better dedicated web hosting provider has been found that offers a more powerful, dedicated web server with a better network infrastructure and most importantly is cheaper than the current provider. This move will be a fairly complex operation and there is bound to be a few teething problems on the new web server once the web site has been re-opened on there. So please be aware of this. All data will be exported to the new server and so no posts, private messages, photos or avatars etc should be lost. There will be no requirement to re-register on the forums when the web site re-opens. Although the web site *should* be open and working again on Monday I cannot commit to a time of when this will be. As the web site is moving hosting providers then DNS information needs to propagate around the Internet and this can take up to 48 hours to complete. Due to the superior server and network infrastructure you should all notice much quicker access times and loading speeds when browsing the web site.

I intend to upgrade vBulletin 3 after the fina version is released (it is at RC4 just now) and after the new web site style has been completed. No, you won't have to register again and all posts/private messages/photos will be transferred over.

Because in my opinion vBulletin has better features, better support, better scalability and a bigger development/hacking community than those two alternatives.

It will differ massively from what we use now as nearly every element of the forums has been changed or updated. Just some of the new/revised features are as follows: General * Quick registration system...username, password, email and any required custom fields and timezone * Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when new buddies come online. You'll find a link in the temp buttons top right in the nav bar. * Show the title of the last posted to thread for each forum on index.php * Subscription to Threads/Forum without receiving e-mails * Favorite threads - you don't get email from these either. * User rating - Karma * User ranking * Password break-in watches -- too many failed attempts warning with a preset wait after too many failures. * Threaded view * Password protected forums * Similar threads display * Send an email "thanks for registering and welcome to .." on user registration (welcome email) * Validity check for homepages * Search engine friendly archive of open forums * Happy b'day emails * Much improved calander system (too many changes to mention) * hit counter on announcements * Digests: new posts/threads in selected forums daily/weekly/monthly * "excerpt of message:" are now in the new reply email notifications * 'report post to mod' sends anonymous copy to the original poster of the message * Restyled FAQ section now looks similar to a forum Posting * WYSIWYG Editor for major text input fields (IE 5.5+Only) * Minimum number of characters in post * Insert smilie/vB code where cursor is (IE 5+ Only) * Preview on edit * Ability to add attachment when editing a post instead of just when creating * Reason for editing * Reason for deleting (for admins and mods) User CP - Profile * User Pictures - user can upload a personal picture. This picture is shown in the profile of the user. * Completely revamped PM system * Longer signature field with optional limit Search * Get daily for just one category * Search only in subscribed forums * A list of ignored words or words used in a search are added to the results page * Option to find only started by 'username' * Display matching forums in results * Support for searching custom profile fields * Search for exact username (e.g. turn off wildcards) Polls * Option for users to see who voted for which option (public vote) * When you vote your name is highlighted when viewing results * Poll results ordered by most to less voted * Ability to post a poll AFTER a thread had started Usability * Hitting the back button no longer necessary when you have too many images * Option to save cookie *on this computer* when logging in * Login/logout ability in all pages, with user/pass form -- single login system And lots, lots more.

Because The Wasteland is for all off-topic posts ONLY. i.e. the nonsense that doesn't belong in any of the other forums. There are plenty music-esque posts in the aptly named All Music Discussion forum. However, I do agree about forum moderation being inconsistent. This is partially my fault for not giving the other forum moderators the guidance they need and also a little to do with the fact that I seem to be the only person that bothers to moderate The Wasteland forum (any of the moderators can move topics). As I'm not online all day long then obviously a number of topics will get missed and remain in the forum when they should in fact not be there. Come the new web site I hope to address this issue among others. There will be new rules and guidelines fully published on the web site and changes to forum moderator assignments where necessary.

hmm...what your describing is pretty much what a discussion mailing list does is it not? I certainly wouldn't set-up such a thing on here as it would just be impratical. There are way too many posts made and if you could reply via e-mail then that would just open up the web site for being spammed to death.

Yep, it is a good idea. Once I've got vBulletin 3 up and running I'll look into getting this added as well.