Anomalies.Net 404?

[Backstop]

Looks like it's down again.

Went there to search for an old IM.

[American Patriot]

Ain't been there in weeks. Since the software change (again) I gave up.

Suspect that's why Darby has been here more and more....

[Backstop]

Still DRT.

[Phil Fiord]

Only a guess here, but perhaps Olav is fixing the formatting.

[DarbyII]

I cull the spammers. At one time we had the reg set to require my personal verification of every attempt to register a new account. The problem was that 99.999...% were autobot spammers. So I spent an hour a day reviewing and rejecting reg atempts. Then I asked Olav to turn Captcha back on. He did but whe he upgraded UBB Threads from 6.1 to 7.5 he did not activate Captcha, thus the spam registrations that got bye me.

On top of that, on 7.5 the protocol for setting column width in the forum panels is not the same as in 6.1, That's why the forum is all scrunched up into the right column. Olav knows about it but I don't think that he knows how to fix it. I sent him a how-to that I picked off of UBB Threads' forum. So far no joy...and, not surprisingly, no one is using the site.

My feeling is that it is a gonner. I'm still there every day but there's nothing to do with zero posts entered.

My other feeling: it was a mistake to seperate the forum into two seperate websites. It killed AN and this forum is 99% a private forum where the half dozen regular members are AN expatriot Mods who rarely post their own thoughts. It's all reprints of news articles that can be found elsewhere on the Net. It hasn't been a very successful situation for either site.

[American Patriot]

Absolutely true, Darby. However, understand that we're not expatriots... while all of us were at one time mods or admins over there on Anomalies, I only came here finally after the big tiff with Olav over the five players who wrote him under a couple dozen email address as "other accounts" complaining about Rick.

In fact the proof of that is in the date I signed up for this site, then actually started posting. I signed up many months (as Ryan can attest) before I started posting regularly. The rest of the guys were more interested (and that proof is inthe number of posts made by them in the "politics' and news related forums on Anomalies) than in the Anomalies crap and Conspiracies.

Ask anyone.

I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea to separate the stuff into two sections at first, then after a time relented and did it on Anomalies, and everyone of us knows that the activity was in the news/politics section, a tad in the time travel and very little anywhere else.

)
Olav's vision for anomalies was to have folks have an "Open Forum" and to be able to "say what they wanted" (even if it was utter bullshit).. and he got that. Look where it got anomalies.

This site is locked out. Ryan is careful whom he lets on. Everyone is free to register, but they have to follow the rules.

At least ONE of us has LEFT (again because of Rick!) but his reasoning was wrong, ill-informed and completely on his own and truly had nothing to do with me personally though he's blaming me for it. He's blaming for a LOT of things (privately) that aren't true (on his part).

Being reasonable seems to have gone by the wayside and to be honest, *I* don't give a fuck any more about it, or anyone who calls me names.

Truth is, had Olav left things alone and actually listened to me, and looked at my proofs over the "Many-Accounts" people he would still have a very viable site with a lot of activity.

Nothing on the Internet remains "the same" as the original vision.


People go where the truth and information resides. They also chose things that are "in their venue" even if it is wrong.

Thus, you will find the conspiracy bufs MOSTLY off this site and in other places. The few that remain behind get shit from me, Ryan and others. Mostly me.

[Phil Fiord]

The column issue on AN is a serious matter, no matter what else can be said from the past or now. Well, that and that awful white glare from the monitor. I use Google (white background) as a start page and go from there. I do not stay on Google for hours.

That said, I do check there every long while and in the last few months a little more. I still care about AN and did reply to a post I was messaged about.

[Ryan Ruck]

My other feeling: it was a mistake to seperate the forum into two seperate websites. It killed AN and this forum is 99% a private forum where the half dozen regular members are AN expatriot Mods who rarely post their own thoughts. It's all reprints of news articles that can be found elsewhere on the Net. It hasn't been a very successful situation for either site.

Darby,
That's a big part of why I started the site. I wanted a place to collect open source information, consolidate it, archive it, and present it to help others connect the dots.

The discussion about such topics is an added benefit. And while we may have more news articles posted than pages of discussion, there are a number of low/no post members that do read.

I know I might be biased but, I think it has indeed been beneficial to the serious participants who came here from AN. We have a much improved signal to noise ratio here and don't need to deal with all of the posts that AN brought.

[DarbyII]

The column issue on AN is a serious matter, no matter what else can be said from the past or now. Well, that and that awful white glare from the monitor. I use Google (white background) as a start page and go from there. I do not stay on Google for hours.

That said, I do check there every long while and in the last few months a little more. I still care about AN and did reply to a post I was messaged about.

I know nothing about setting up UBB Threads. I can only hope that someone out "there" (here?) has some knowledge and can help Olav get that glitch fixed. Until then no one is going to take a second look at AN.

And I agree about the overall look of the site. It's bland. I've seen several demo sites set up by UBB Threads forum members that look very slick. Good eye candy and very readable.

Olav's problem is that some of the UBB 6.1b set-up protocols changed with the new version and when he ported the old database into the new software it didn't go as planned (to say the least). Another very annoying problem for at least two years has been the load time for the site. The site is forcing a boatload of extraneous data downstream to the end user's PC and when you log on the load timer icon spins...and spins...and spins trying to load all of the crap. I've tried IE 8, IE 9, Chrome, Firefox and Silverlight plus WinXP, Vista 32 & 64 and Win7 Pro with each browser to see if it is the site or IE that is causing the problem. The problem is the same on every browser and OS that I've tried, even in compatibility mode. Marginal Windows systems with minimum ram even crash trying to load all of the stuff.

Time Travel Institute, on the other hand, is still using UBB Threads 6.1b, has a ton of widgets and gadgets running for Raul and it has never had a problem like AN. It's still the boring default look that AN had but it does work as expected.

Not good. But the site has been up for four consecutive days this time. If you do try to log on and the site is down please email Olav@anomalies.net and let him know. Olav rarely checks the site.

[New Guy]

i know where the problem is if you can get me the code access to change it. needs to be done in the code, not css.

[Phil Fiord]

Oddly, I went to that link and the page was laid out correctly until I logged in. Then it scrunched up again.

[Phil Fiord]

Maybe its a sign that we need a shrink.

[Luke]

Anomalies still has a bunch of red x's. I hope it can be revived, I miss some of the posters over there. Although most of my electronic fiends haved moved to TAA.

[Malsua]

I get it as well.

[Ryan Ruck]

Uh oh... Looks like someone's domain expired.

[Malsua]

Uh oh... Looks like someone's domain expired.

How do you figure?

Creation date: 04 May 1999 08:41:44
Expiration date: 04 May 2014 08:40:00

[Ryan Ruck]

Interesting... I've only seen that screen on sites with expired domains. Didn't bother to actually check the domain registry.

Wonder what the problem is then.

Just tried going there myself. IF and FF just sit there trying to resolve the domain. Maybe a DNS problem?

[American Patriot]

Just so everyone knows...

I received a contact message from Darby asking for help in trying to contact Olav.

The site, as you all know has been down a couple weeks now.

Olav has not responded to my email. Apparently has not responded to Darby either.

I just checked registration and it is no longer registered to Olav Phillips, instead it is registered to some company....

I do not know Olav's status, do not know why he is not responding. I have heard nothing from him in a year or so and don't know the status the web site, files or any other data about the existing servers - other than they were located near San Fran (I believe on the other side of the bridge from Oakland).

At this point, I don't know what to tell anyone.

I've tried though, to find out what has happened to no avail.

[New Guy]

looks like someone bought it when it expired on 4 may. i'd be happy to host the forums on my hosting account if you can find the data... very sad that all that info may be lost.

the url looks like it is gone though since someone scooped it up.

[American Patriot]

I've been in contact with Darby only on this thus far. I sent him a couple more notes this weekend and this morning. Maybe he has more information?

Either way, I've tried several avenues to get to Olav with no results at this point.