NEW CASAA Forum

[Thulium]

Playing Devil's Advocate:

Hey! I thought we established that was MY job!

I do worry about watering down our representation across so many forums outlets. Running a forum is a LOT of work and ECF, VF and RtV already have established communities and members. There seems to be a wide overlap of members who cross between the forums enough to keep everyone on topic and the diversity of each forums membership would allow for a wide range of views to be expressed without re-inventing the wheel so to speak.

To correct this, perhaps we should consider expanding the management of CASAA beyond the 12 voting board members. My suggestion is to establish a "United Nations" style ambassadorship with positions open to any organization (message boards included) with compatible goals. Allowing a representative even from seemingly rivalrous organizations like FDA, Pharmaceuticals, tobacco, and anti-smoking groups like ASH would give us the advantage of hearing all sides of the issues while maintaining a professional separation of interests.

 

[jj2]

yeah, you should get an activation email, too.

anyone else who get's the spam message before registering, just blank out your email info before completing registration.

I got one from Overstock too. I used my hotmail address to sign up. When I saw it, I marked it as junk.

 

[Webby]

I got one from Overstock too. I used my hotmail address to sign up. When I saw it, I marked it as junk.

So....what's a case of 510 attys going for on Overstock these days?

 

[BigJimW]

Not to be a wet blanket here, but generally from personal experience, free forums like this hosted on free servers usually get turned off by the host if they exceed bandwidth.

If CASAA turns into a major site, which it probably will, then this could very well happen. I'd suggest a virtual server or other monthly service that you can monitor bandwidth.

Just to give you a heads up.

 

[BigJimW]

As a heads up, for those who received an email from Overstocked, just to give you a heads up, you automatically subscribed to them when you register. Hence the Overstock email you receive.

And I have not received my email from CASAA to activate my account.

This is why the board is free.

 

[seminolewind]

As a heads up, for those who received an email from Overstocked, just to give you a heads up, you automatically subscribed to them when you register. Hence the Overstock email you receive.

And I have not received my email from CASAA to activate my account.

This is why the board is free.

Yup, I guess someone has to pay the bills!

 

[BigJimW]

I can set you up with a reliable forum. Just ask and you shall receive.

 

[BigJimW]

Yup, I guess someone has to pay the bills!

True, but when there are people like myself who will be willing to get a forum running, with no ads, auto subscriptions, reliable, etc, we don't even have to worry about those bills.

 

[SLDS181]

I like the idea, a few thoughts:

• The intent has always been to link to ALL the forums and respectfully request a CASAA subforum on each.
• Develop foreign language forums - I speak Spanish and Portuguese, and have many customers in Central and South America who struggle with English. A written forum would allow them to participate wher many of them currently can not.
• a seperate cassaforum is fine as long as it doesn't dilute from participation in the other forums or become convoluted and spam filled. having a moderator or retro-mod would be vital or spammers would overrun it.

My only strong recommendation is that the cassa.org events calendar be in ONE place (for obvious reasons) You never run more than one database of vital information like gatherings and events.

Great ideas! Keep 'em coming!

The issue with subforums is duplicated efforts. If an idea comes up on one forum, and the idea is approached differently on another, and membership is mutually exclusive between those two (or even mostly mutually exclusive), we'll end up with wasted effort.

I don't think the idea of a CASAA forum is to take away anything at all from any forum, but instead provide a single location to discuss CASAA issues and ideas. Having one location for this, without any specific affiliation to any other groups, forum membership, etc, aside from CASAA makes it a welcoming place for all to discuss CASAA specific issues.

Atleast, thats how I see it used.

halfevildruid and myself are currently assisting kristin with moderation.

 

[BigJimW]

Still haven't gotten my email to activate my account, yet I already got 2 email from Overstock.

Unsubscribed. Thanks but I'll pass.

 

[Webby]

halfevildruid and myself are currently assisting kristin with moderation.

Sounds good. I'm certainly not saying this is the case, I've just watched a lot of well meaning folks in various organizations over the years rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Glad to hear your helping with the mod, one thought - we have some good PHP minds in CASAA and forums are right up that alley. Having our own copy of one of the PHP forum apps out there may be better than relying on a sponsor based "free" app.

 

[SLDS181]

Sounds good. I'm certainly not saying this is the case, I've just watched a lot of well meaning folks in various organizations over the years rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Glad to hear your helping with the mod, one thought - we have some good PHP minds in CASAA and forums are right up that alley. Having our own copy of one of the PHP forum apps out there may be better than relying on a sponsor based "free" app.

Oh I absolutely agree there.... especially if membership on the forum is linked to site membership

 

[mtndude]

I'm sure Jim has more to offer in regards to setting up a forum, obviously.

but as far as a free and simple to set up forum, Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is easy to get up and running.

just need the host

 

[lotus14]

Sounds good. I'm certainly not saying this is the case, I've just watched a lot of well meaning folks in various organizations over the years rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Glad to hear your helping with the mod, one thought - we have some good PHP minds in CASAA and forums are right up that alley. Having our own copy of one of the PHP forum apps out there may be better than relying on a sponsor based "free" app.

CASAA definitely needs a forum dedicated to CASAA issues, not where to buy PVs, etc, though a separate, off-topic area for general discussion and chat would be nice as well. I would agree with Webby that a free PHP based, ad free forum should simply be integrated with the main CASAA site.

Issues of interest to members of ECF, and all the other forums, could simply be posted in those forums and linked back to the CASAA forum, thereby centralizing things somewhat.

 

[CJsKee]

CASAA definitely needs a forum dedicated to CASAA issues, not where to buy PVs, etc, though a separate, off-topic area for general discussion and chat would be nice as well. I would agree with Webby that a free PHP based, ad free forum should simply be integrated with the main CASAA site.

Issues of interest to members of ECF, and all the other forums, could simply be posted in those forums and linked back to the CASAA forum, thereby centralizing things somewhat.

That's what I thought Kristin was doing...or is this just an interim type forum until CASAA gets up and running? I thought there was going to be a forum that would be part of the CASAA website and accessed through there. Is my thinking right?

 

[BigJimW]

Never got my activation email. But Overstock made sure I got enough ads to last me a lifetime.

 

[CJsKee]

I still haven't received my activation email either

 

[mtndude]

maybe try clicking on login, then select the resend activation email option?

 

[Niniane]

Not sure what's up with people not getting activations, but as far as Overstock mailings go, just opt back out of them. I got one email from them, opted out, haven't gotten another. Kristin has since paid to have the ads taken out now, as I understand it.

One central location (whether temporary until a different official one is setup or not) for just CASAA info/discussions outside of the usual forums makes sense and seems like a good idea to me, and should be nothing to flip out over imo. Thanks Kristin

 

[kristin]

Sorry guys - I've been getting the dreaded "Server Busy" and couldn't get in to update. Another good reason for our own forum.

I paid to have the ads removed, so that should avoid any more confusion with signing up.

I saw everyone who waiting in the approval que and approved them, so you should be able to just log in now. Would someone please test this theory?