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In a hypothetical situation in which Barbelith ceases to exist, where would we go?

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15:06 / 09.09.08

She's also moving countries this month, with Lurid Archive.

12:21 / 10.09.08

Boboss posted less than an hour ago in the Lab- 13:29 / 10.09.08

Haus of Mystery

13:30 / 10.09.08

Bobosswatch.

Where's Bill Oddie?

trouble at bill

11:16 / 18.09.08

SNS sites are also very much about meeting people and, well, networking- which is not what I want from a board, I want discussion.

Amen to that - i guess that's why those of us who are still here are still here. I'm just starting to think that puts us in a minority.

I've also come across at least two sociologists (Manuel Castells and Jan van Dijk) who have independently argued that IRL society is now more organised around networks than groups. Assuming they're correct, it means that SNS's are closer to the way RL is, so they may well feel a lot more 'natural' for a lot of people.

20:46 / 18.09.08

To @forumz. Hopping from one dying star to another. Webspace Locusts.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:52 / 18.09.08

Chased forever by the $cilons?

11:35 / 23.09.08

Yes, I lurk much more than I post these days, but I haven't drifted away entirely. I decided at the beginning of the year that I should devote the time I used to spend looking at this board to something more constructive, hence my involvement with MO. There’s a lot that I miss about Barbelith – the MO comments section would be far better if it was as challenging as some of this board’s threads have been over the years (I feel like I’m getting stupider the longer I spend away from this place), and I get homesick from time to time – but overall I find MO infinitely more satisfying, enjoyable and interesting than the modern Barbe-experience.

Do miss you guys, though.

trouble at bill

13:53 / 28.09.08

well actually we're all having a perfectly good time without you.

Seriously, the MO seems to be one of the few internet endevours to succeed in the 'Lith's wake, so respek - you guys make up a substantial part of... the Afterlith.

20:01 / 29.09.08

Afterlith

I did laughed!

Now where's LN?

trouble at bill

13:21 / 17.11.08

Today's pet theory from Bill is: now this place has started to function more as a social networking site for a handful of its old-timers than as a discussion board. Discuss. ;>

17:00 / 17.11.08

I'm a new-timer: I use the board to learn and connect, both from current members and archives. I also have joined Liminal Nation to be more involved in magical discussions.

Some stuff here is still somewhat in-depth, some threads are more for a laugh: Depends on how much effort and energy people have whilst posting, I suppose...

trouble at bill

17:44 / 17.11.08

You mean to say you're here to learn about magic? Not ways to glass people? ;>

19:01 / 17.11.08

Potentially one and the same...

19:56 / 17.11.08

'By Cthulu may my glass gouge true!'.
?
I had heard incidents of magical glassings were down.

Hmmm, my interaction with barbelith has always been pretty sparse tending to read a lot more than I post but I have been on here for quite a while. Not living in London, I suppose, always meant that it wouldn't function as a means to social network in my case, at least. And the occassions when I do visit London are normally concerned with visits to family or friends.
As a message board I suppose the level of active membership these days severely limits wider discussion. Its not an accusation of clique-ery but maybe it does have a homogenising effect (no longer capitalizing on a wider range of members). I could easily stand corrected, though.

16:25 / 18.11.08

It's pretty much an archive now, no? With a tiny little bit of that social networking thing, but only a *really* tiny little bit of it.

02:34 / 19.11.08

There's nothing wrong with being an archive.

07:58 / 19.11.08

so, erm, repeating it really, but, why not do both? i mean, none of us actually want to let the lith go just like that, so why not do both things: find a place we can move the board to with healthy architecture and proper functionality (as a group of people, if need be) and simultanously extend lith's fingers into the area of web2.0 and web3.0?

it's like giving the board a technical once-over it needs so badly (at least that's what most people in the know say) and get some fresh attention.

% or am i just being hopelessly romantic? %

trouble at bill

09:28 / 19.11.08

well, I for one would support that. However, the other attempts at moving to a new home don't seem to have worked, and not for any technical reasons AFAIK. Which just leads me back to my social-networking theory. I have to suspect that a lot of the Lithers of old have just given up on discussion boards, period.

11:48 / 19.11.08

However, the other attempts at moving to a new home don't seem to have worked, and not for any technical reasons AFAIK.

Debatable? I think the only very serious thing that was up was the Breefield project, and it seemed that that got a substantial way into development and was then abandoned. People were invited to have a look around, make suggestions and point out problems, and it all seemed rather lovely, but as far as I recall it was all still something contained within policy, which never reached the stage of actually trying to properly move people over.

trouble at bill

17:03 / 12.01.09

Hmm, I was under the impression that there were a coupla other experiments which haven't worked.

I'm bumping this in the light of all the other threads warning of impending doom just to ask again, where is everyone these days? Is there another board to migrate to? Or are people FBing and LJing?

Personally when not here I am either on Facebook or lurking on Urban75 and Liminal Nation.

I think if other people could just mention where they're currently hanging out it'd be nice, just so we can have some idea where everyone's headed off to if the board is suddenly read-only one day...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:07 / 12.01.09

Aside from Facebook and Livejournal?

I'm hanging out on some closed lists at the mo--mostly heathen and pagan groups. I'm on Liminal Nation a fair bit. Anyone else?

Closed for Business Time

18:19 / 12.01.09

LN, U75, facefuck. Dunno where else there is. Digital Spy along with St. Oats is an option I reckon...

00:28 / 21.01.09

For some reason, I was under the impression that LN wasn't visible to unregistered people, so I only saw the site for the first time yesterday. It looks great, Vanilla seems a pretty nice interface. Could any of the LN people say how it's working?

02:20 / 21.01.09

Well, it's still very young, but seems to be going OK. The software is really nice, actually. Things do things. Things are configurable.

07:22 / 21.01.09

It's great.

13:10 / 21.01.09

Things do things.

That's my favorite part right there.

13:45 / 21.01.09

Being able to read the thread while you write your post (not being taken to a seperate window) and having handy "Quote" buttons for every post to grab from is great.

16:54 / 23.01.09

It's Friday, I'm moving out of my house this weekend.

I don't know why, but I decided to take a few minutes from my day and make this phpBB board. Admins can configure it, add and remove fora & subfora and set all kinds of controls.

I'm feeling whimsical. If you sign up there and you're a mod from here, I'll make you an admin there. Just to see what you can build.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

01:19 / 24.01.09

I just signed up as Papers. When I'm not at work I'll have more of a look round to investigate.

23:41 / 24.01.09

I see, lure us in and don't allow any posting. How modifiable is the look of those pages? I get a bit tired of the usual phpbb look, though I'd bet it's the easiest to plug in and go with.

00:49 / 25.01.09

Who the heck is Automatina? Maybe it might be good to let me know here if you've logged on there.

Although one name I recognize has filled me with glee.

OK, the fun stuff is all behind the tiny "Administrator Control Panel" link at the bottom of the main page, which those of you I've made admins can see once you log in.

You should be able to post, Tsuga, once you've confirmed your registration - unless I've set some permission for Registered Users wrong, in which case... somebody fix it.

It's possible to either find different styles for phpBB on www.phpBB.com or to just tweak the php config files. I'm not a php guy, although I might be able to change something without breaking everything on the back end.
(And yeah, I'm potentially yet another absentee landlord on that score.)

I'm exhausted from moving boxes all day and will be worse over the next half a week or so. I'm also using a net connection at a friend's house. So don't expect a lot of activity from me.

01:04 / 25.01.09

I'm sorry, moving is a pile of unfun. No, I couldn't post right after I registered, I really only wanted to see what showed up in the posting pane, but it says:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

I am hurt and dismayed, but I'll get over it.

I hope that you find good sides to the moving.

01:05 / 25.01.09

Oh, and I made anyone I recognized as a mod here an admin over there. I made everyone signed up so far member of a group called "First in the flap."

Admins can add members or change permissions for that group under the "users and groups" tab of the Admin Control Panel. "Permissions" = make members admins, moderators, or whatever.

Maybe you all should be builders. Y'all figure it out.

01:09 / 25.01.09

Ah, Tsugas, I see what was wrong - registered users were "read only" in the Conversation forum. I changed the forum permissions. Go and post. You are a good man.

And goodnight. My back is killing me.

(Note, by the way, that these "permissions" mean that one could have a forum of mods-only conversation should one so desire. Others could read it, or it could be invisible.)

trouble at bill

14:31 / 25.01.09

Wow, so mods there can be invisible? You could almost say that makes them... The Invisibles.

I registered there anyway as you can probably see.

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