... time for another round of discussion whether they're good or bad for the board... or did I just notice something that's been back a long time?

/Michael

Nope. I just noticed it, too.

Which made me think of that page that shows who has the most posts. Where is that again?

Edit: Ahhh, nevermind. Figured out that you can just sort on that column in the ``User List''. (And I'm fourth. Damn, that's pitiful. I need to shut the hell up.)

Nope, just noticed it too.

I like it! I still think it's better this way than without them.

So to whoever decided to implement them again : thanks!

I'm glad they're back. I like knowing how active a person is on the board. It may change the way I reply to a post.

I wonder if beer-fueled campfire discussions in Ohio have somehow been responsible for this? Anyway, I'm glad they're back!

I agree, I voted to have them re-instated the day they were removed.

wooohooo

Nope, but tying him up and threatening to dump him in the lake did the trick. And Drakino isn't back yet, he's still at the Cincinnati airport waiting for his flight out. Have a great flight Tom!

Did you have a stake ready in case he would have floated?

Hope you had/ve fun and that all arrive safely back home.

/Michael

Nah, we would have made sure he didn't float

I wonder if beer-fueled campfire discussions in Ohio have somehow been responsible for this?

There was beer?

There was a campfire??

Rob supplied a huge cooler of all sorts of beer and we toasted marshmellows so yes to both. You should have come.

....next year. It sounds lke you had a blast.

We did, very much so. I think next year will be even better especially if more people come. The folks I met were just terrific and it was like I had known them already.

This board is a wonderful group of people.

You should have come.

I did come. I left after breakfast and took the scenic route, remember?

Am I bad? I didn't even notice the name, I just read the post. Sorry. Yes you were there and did you enjoy the scenic route home? You missed out on the geo-caching and the Skyline chili for lunch.

I drove up to Richmond, Indiana, and then headed east on various backroads (I only used about 6 miles of interstates on the return trip). Made good time, saw some interesting stuff and a lot of "not there anymore".

Dayton is empty on Sunday.

I'm back. Not as quick of a return trip as the trip out there was. But the Skyline chili was both delicious and filling!

I did however notice many interesting things along the interstate on the way home, but by far the most amusing would have to be some exit in SW Ohio on I 70. There was not only a Fireworks store (not out of the ordinary I guess) but an Adult bookstore/video store, at the exit for Quaker City.

Laura, thanks again for everything. I had an awesome time - and I look forward to the next meet! It was cool to meet everyone that I only knew from the board, and putting faces to names was cool. You said it best, the people on this board really are a great group of people to know. It kind of felt like everyone was longtime friends even though I was meeting the people at the meet for the first time in person.

Time for bed!

Hmm, I hadn't noticed the tag titles until now... I guess that happened in the midst of that haze of alcohol last night.

Yeah, I hadn't noticed either until Tom pointed it out to me today. But then again I wasn't on the board last night nor did I know about Mark's easter egg for the meet until the competitions when they booted it up. Now I know why Derick and Mark were messing with my empeg with the laptop.

Now I know why Derick and Mark were messing with my empeg with the laptop.

I can truthfully tell you when you saw us with your empeg and the laptop all we did was tweak the baud rate setting for the serial port when the player is in the car, and nothing else.

Yeah, and they were messing with the baud rate settings well after the competitions.

Unfortunately that didn't solve the bootup problem but at least they tried. They had to have updated Hijack on my empeg at some point, because I know that it was a few versions behind. I guess it will remain a mystery as to who did it and when

an Adult bookstore/video store, at the exit for Quaker City.

Now there's irony for you. "Jebediah, make sure you get one with a three-way scene."

Ah yes, The Lion's Den.

Not that I have stopped in there before but I have passed by it myself

Yes, thats the place, you remembered the name!

If I was quick enough, I would have gotten a picture with that and the Quaker City exit sign in the same frame. I think this might top the "Man Chow" chinese restaurant I spotted up in Maine this summer.

Figures I could remember the name of that place but not my stupid cell phone charger, gee......

Nope, but tying him up and threatening to dump him in the lake did the trick.

/me tries to sound as sincere and honest, while looking very scared "I was not forced by anyone to reimplement the titles. I did this of my own free will, and was certanly not influenced by others around me."

:-)

That is true, most of us didn't even know about it until we got back but it sounded like a good story!

I actually meant to bring the subject up, but kept forgetting. I am very glad to see them back. Now I know I have about 300 posts to go to become a Poo-Bah.

Aw, come Mike - it's only so Tony can show off his new "FAQ Master" moniker...

That's actually old. From before he removed the ratings. And I didn't put it there anyway, either Paul or Tom did.

Paul did that I believe. Probably due to the fact that you have so many posts, you are way above the titles implemented.

And I am looking for ideas on the higher ranks, and possibly a few more inbetween the existing ones.

I'll volunteer to be a ``gadfly''.

It seems there should only be one pooh-bah, obviously that should go to Tom since Tony already has a unique title.

I think that once someone hits 1000 posts it would be good to let them choose their own title. Just as small acknowlegement to their contribution. Currently that only applies to 20 members.

Conversely, I think that if someone is trolling on the board, they should have their title and avatar chosen for them, kinda like this guy over at rtcwcentral.

I think that once someone hits 1000 posts it would be good to let them choose their own title.

I'm not creative enough to choose my own title.

I think the custom titles are a good idea. When you get above 1,000 posts or so, you're not really looking to climb any more ladders with your post count or anything, so it'd be nice just to have a vanity title there and be done with it. Setting more titles above 1,000 seems frivolous.

Yeah, but that's probably 'cos you don't have enough posts

Huh? I don't get it. I have 1306 posts as of this one.

I think the custom titles are a good idea.

Fine, then YOU write the PHP code to do it and remember to update that code every time the BBS software is upgraded.

(Sorry, I just spend my work days trying to beat down frivolous feature requests from upper management who have no idea what it takes to implement the features...)

That's irony for you. It's true - you are "creatively challenged" if you missed that one.

Maybe that would be your custom title, although as Tony states - it's unlikely to happen.

I'd prefer that custom titles were conferred by *other* members on the board, to reflect the persona that had been projected by the user.... so Bitt would become "Keeper of the Dictionary", or something similar in nature to reflect upon his expertise in the use of English grammar.

I still don't get it.

Fine, then YOU write the PHP code to do it and remember to update that code every time the BBS software is upgraded.

(Sorry, I just spend my work days trying to beat down frivolous feature requests from upper management who have no idea what it takes to implement the features...)

Ummm.. Lay off the coffee, will ya? I thought it might be doable out-of-the-box with UBBthreads... If it's not, I'm certainly capable of implementing it... In any event I was just agreeing that it was a cool idea.

I've seen many other forums do it also...I'm pretty sure it's not that big of a deal. I wouldn't have suggested it if I thought it would be a major burden. And like I said...only 20 members qualify, and a couple of them already have custom titles.

Anyway...I'm sure Drakino will jump in here eventually and let us know the plausiblity of such a suggestion.

Fine, then YOU write the PHP code to do it and remember to update that code every time the BBS software is upgraded.

(Sorry, I just spend my work days trying to beat down frivolous feature requests from upper management who have no idea what it takes to implement the features...)

On the other side of this coin is "asking management for features" and having them tell you "every time someone complains, it will be your problem". Well, that's fine, but if you want to delegate management responsibility to me, I get to decide when to fix it and when to tell them what they're doing is broken and we're sorry. Like, if you tell me that "DNS names are case insensitive and we'll keep doing them in uppercase and it's up to you to deal with this Java problem which we can't fix because we don't have source for it by breaking your software in ways which are not codified into the standards" then why should I take you seriously when you say "well, they're case insensitive, but changing it might screw someone else and we can't do that". Pick one stance, and stick with it.

Of course, instead the stuff simply never gets done, and I just hate more and more of the people who work at a level above me and are not my superior but lead other groups.

One once commented in the bathroom, and I overheard... "Can't get any two people to work together on anything."

I went to his office a bit later and told him that the people at my level were mostly fine to work with; Sometimes I disagree with their ideas, and sometimes they mine, but we put it all together and make it work. It's only when dealing with the people at his level, the people who are interested in playging politics, when things break down.

I want to do X. X is doable. X can be made doable by me but that isn't my job. I would get in trouble for fixing things so I can do X, and due to turf wars getting someone else to do it is hard. Where of course by hard I mean "not bloody likely".

I understand management is necessary, useful, all that. Stop playing games, and let's get stuff done, if you don't want to get stuff done, fine, stay out of the way of the people who are doing the stuff and play politics with each other, not us.

I can outbitter you any day. Bring it on.

I can outbitter you any day. Bring it on.

You really didn't wanna say that, actually....

We've got a major deliverable due a week on Friday, but still the project lead keeps saying to the developers "Wouldn't it be neat if.." and "I'd really like to see it doing this:...". He seems to regard it as odd that I keep suggesting that the better idea is to finish what we need to get it out of the damn door and add the nifty stuff later, rather than re-coding perfectly functional stuff in the rapidly dimishing time we have left.

Of course, being subcontacted at this job, I'm just a code-monkey who does what he's told (which also keeps me out of the politics), and also (thankfully) I'm only responsible for the back-end, with the contantly redesigned stuff done by others, but it's driving me up the wall at the moment! (And I'm not even going to mention the problems of reconciling a SAP system with data flowing in from external companies - if I find the person who put it in management's mind that you can take a number of flawed datasets and end up with perfect data within a week, I'm going to give them a damn good kicking...)

Bah, not that I'm bitter...

Bryan.

Anyway...I'm sure Drakino will jump in here eventually and let us know the plausiblity of such a suggestion.

It's plausable. I'd probably just do it as a quick hack outside the BBS code because that would be easiest, and would survive any BBS upgrades (though I don't see that happening anytime soon, 6.0 has some crappy features that can't be disabled yet). I have some thoughts on the code in my mind now, so it's officially on the list of things to do.

Ditto.. good to see them again! (thanks Tom!)