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Author Topic: A Question For Colin  (Read 37855 times)
Cocker Freeman
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« on: October 01, 2004, 03:57:16 PM »

Colin,

You have provided this forum on the web and it has 1173 people registered on here either to glean information, learn about certain musicians and their music, or have a pint of virtual ale in the most convivial of circumstances. For all this you should receive high praise!

Why did you do it?
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YaBB Master (Colin)
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« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2004, 09:36:26 PM »

So it's the easy questions first.  Undecided

How did I get involved in this? I was the victim of a series of accidents.

The big mistake was sending a fax to Peggy, asking where I could buy David Hughes CD's (in 1996). This directly lead to me being involved in the release of David's next CD. (50 Yards of...). Then David went on the winter tour with Fairport. So I got involved with that bunch of ne're- do-wells, at about the time that the official Fairport web site collapsed. So I took that on.

Faced with unreliable ISP's I decided to do it all myself and run my own servers, directly on the web. So this gave me industrial strength access, that the web sites barely scratched.

Then I discovered YaBBse (Yet Another Bulletin Board) so set that up. It quickly grew and with the introduction of 'The Corporation Arms' (David again), became the phenomenon that it is. The success is also largely due to the Glo-Balls, who were selected using the late night beer method and have turned out to be an inspired choice.

Fortunately it's all running on servers, that are allowed 2TB of bandwidth a year. So it can be run professionally, with no adverts, pop-ups, or other nuisances, that have been the death of many a board.

Well that explains how, but not really why. More beer methinks.
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but BEING PAID -- what will compare with it?
Amethyst (Jenny)
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« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2004, 09:44:36 PM »

Colin how much of your time does running the Board take each day??

Amy
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« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2004, 09:48:06 PM »

Seriously Colin, how often do you think "WHY am I doing this?'. I DO know there's an awful lot of work goes into running the board: a lot of hassle and little reward.

Basically, therefore,...are you mental? Grin Grin Grin

Carey
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« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2004, 09:58:49 PM »

Colin how much of your time does running the Board take each day??

I've no idea. It's just one of the things that's open on one of my computers. Some times I'll check it and tinker with it all day. Other days I don't. Some times I'm in Spain for a week and nobody notices.
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Nick
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« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2004, 11:13:24 PM »

I notice! That's usually the time when things go wrong and we don't know how to fix them  Embarrassed
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jOhN
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« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2004, 06:24:27 PM »

Colin,

Exactly what is the equipment you use to run the board & how easy was it to set up?

How much looking after does it take?
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« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2004, 06:29:16 PM »

Colin

Quantum Physics. Any ideas ?
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« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2004, 08:31:22 PM »

Exactly what is the equipment you use to run the board & how easy was it to set up?

It runs on several Sun Cobalt RaQ servers (Linux). The main board is on a rented machine in Carany Wharf. This was chosen because it is relatively cheap, for high bandwidth (1TB/year), but does have very poor support. There are a total of five other servers, in two locations, doing everything else (including DNS). As soon as I can get SDSL, I'll be hosting all my own servers.

All of this isn't difficult to set up, just time consuming. Nick has commented on the number of parameters needed to configure the boards software. This is run on a program called 'Simple Machines'. This runs using two applications called PHP and mySQL. These use a web-server program called Apache, which runs under Linux.

Quote
How much looking after does it take?

It would take a lot less time, if I didn't tinker with the servers, quite as much.
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« Reply #9 on: October 03, 2004, 08:48:51 PM »

Hi Colin

What do you do when you're not looking after the board?

And which is your favourite part of it?

Ta
C
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jOhN
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« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2004, 10:06:52 PM »

Thanks Colin,

Here's another.....What happens to the people who have registered but never post or have never revisited the board?

Are they deleted after a set time or are they just left as is?
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« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2004, 10:37:55 AM »

What do you do when you're not looking after the board?

I am a designer of bespoke electronics. Mostly industrial control systems and occasionally consumer stuff. I've been self employed for 25 years and am probably totally unemployable.

I also take a lot of holidays.
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« Reply #12 on: October 05, 2004, 10:48:18 AM »

Here's another.....What happens to the people who have registered but never post or have never revisited the board?
Are they deleted after a set time or are they just left as is?

The board hasn't been going for that long.
I do occasionally have a clear out of the very obvious ones. So far about 100 have been deleted.
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« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2004, 11:42:14 AM »

Colin, how do you record radio programmes to MP3? Stream conversion? Clever tool?
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« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2004, 12:07:11 PM »

Colin, how do you record radio programmes to MP3? Stream conversion? Clever tool?
It's recorded directly from the fibre optic output on my DAB receiver, into my PC.
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fat Billy(Bill)
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« Reply #15 on: October 05, 2004, 01:28:54 PM »

Colin. can you get me samanthas phone number please?
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« Reply #16 on: October 05, 2004, 06:17:25 PM »

Colin, how do you record radio programmes to MP3? Stream conversion? Clever tool?
   Foxy mentioned,in the computer advice thread,a thing called freecorder that enables you to record directly what plays through your speakers.Had a quick look..... haven't tried it yet but it sounds very handy!  Wink
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ollythedolly
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« Reply #17 on: October 05, 2004, 06:46:34 PM »

Colin, how do you record radio programmes to MP3? Stream conversion? Clever tool?
   Foxy mentioned,in the computer advice thread,a thing called freecorder that enables you to record directly what plays through your speakers.Had a quick look..... haven't tried it yet but it sounds very handy!  Wink

http://www.talkawhile.co.uk/yabbse/index.php?topic=5426.0
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Steve J W
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« Reply #18 on: October 06, 2004, 10:58:11 AM »

Colin,

You're doing a great job mate but....(don't you hate  Angry it when people start sentences with that)...

Can you do anything about the spell checker? It would be good to add the work "Cropredy" at least - and ther's probably more.

Thanks

Steve
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Jim
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« Reply #19 on: October 06, 2004, 12:43:34 PM »

how about: word and there.
 just for steve's sake
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