Garage Gazzette

[34_40]

Would anyone here know when it went down? And is it coming back?
Uncle Buck perhaps??

[34_40]

No one else goes to the garage gazette? 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

still down for me...........

[TerryWerm]

I have not heard anything and have not contacted Uncle Buck about it either. I was in there just a couple days ago and posted in the staff lounge about cross-linking to our forum, but nobody even responded to it to say yay or nay.

Cross linking - posting links to each other's sites - is a good way to boost both site's rankings in web search engines, but UB doesn't seem to be too interested in the idea. I've done my part and added links to GG here, but nothing over there yet. If they can't reciprocate, their links here will be short lived.

So, if GG has been down for more than a day, I suspect that Rusty is unaware. I do have admin access over there on the forum itself but I have no access to the hosting account or any of that, so there is nothing I can do to help them. I also suspect that since Rusty has been out of circulation so much that they do not have a recent backup of their site. If their system got hacked or just crashed resulting in data corruption, they've got a mess on their hands.

I sincerely hope the problem is much simpler than that and they get back online soon and that they can continue far into the future without losing anything.

Lastly, Uncle Buck asked to have his account removed here once he realized that none of us were interested in having a politics forum. His plan is to start a second 'arm' of GG for hobby machinists, making GG sort of a dual-mode forum. I don't think it will gain much traction, but you never know. I believe it would be similar to how we have a board here for foundry related posts. We get a little activity there, but it will never be a huge draw. There are forums out there dedicated to home foundry topics and they would naturally have the bigger draw. I suspect that his machining section of GG would end up being similar to our foundry board here: some activity from current members but it will never be a high activity area. So, I doubt we will see Uncle Buck showing up here, but he is welcome if he wishes to. His account is still intact but his access is limited. All he has to do is PM me or make a post in the Forum Support section and I can give him full access once again.

[Adasha_Machining]

Interesting turn of events with UB.

[34_40]

Interesting indeed. I guess the old saying is true, there's no accounting for a person's thoughts! Shame really to lose him as he surely added a certain spark to the place!   

[TerryWerm]

I agree, I liked having him around, but for whatever reason he felt that this place wasn't a good fit for him, and our desire to have no politics seemed to be the final straw for him. He wasn't present at MG when we had a bunch of trouble with a member or two because of politics, so he never saw what the staff went through. 

I guess I don't understand why he didn't just open a politics forum - just politics - nothing else. Personally, I wouldn't want to be a staff member in such a place, but it might be fun just to be a lurker and watch the show with a big bag of popcorn. I hate to think of how ugly it might get from time to time but I would be very happy to not be stuck in the middle of it as a participant or a staff member. Watching from the sidelines would be like an impending train wreck - you know what's coming but just can't bring yourself to look away.

Needless to say, I much prefer a quiet and stable environment, much like the 'small town' feel we enjoy here. Yes, it would be nice to increase our membership, but we will get there. Rome wasn't built in a day ya know.

[Piggiron]

I don't know. During COVID, I was one that liked posting in the Politics section of MG. Probably because I couldn't believe all the crap and stress that went along with it.
Since all the COVID politics have subsided, I really don't have the desire to debate policies I have no control over.
Right now I'm content to sit back and enjoy my little slice of the Garden of Eden I'm blessed to own and ignore all the BS. I'll just sit back, drop a line in Ol' Spoon River and burn my buns in the summer sun.   

[Der Bugmeister]

Hey folks...no idea what's happening with the Garage Gazette at this point.  It's been down for 3 or 4 days now.  I've just emailed Uncle Buck to see if he can shed any light on things.

Rusty re-appeared and posted a couple of days before the site went off line.  Seemed to be very positive, so I have no idea if the two events have any relation.

Stay tuned, I guess...

BTW, thank goodness for Google or I never would have got past the security questions!

[TerryWerm]

Sorry the security questions were a little difficult, but let's face it Clay, they are um....  security questions.  

Since I know you are a known 'good guy' I will move your post count up so you don't have to mess with those questions any more, but please go to our Welcome section and post an intro about yourself.

I don't believe that Rusty ever gave Uncle Buck admin access to the hosting account or the files on the server, so we are hoping that Rusty comes around and gets things going for you guys again.

[34_40]

A politics forum??? Ugh 😩 I will limit my written words to no thank you!

[Der Bugmeister]

Sorry the security questions were a little difficult, but let's face it Clay, they are um....  security questions. 

Since I know you are a known 'good guy' I will move your post count up so you don't have to mess with those questions any more, but please go to our Welcome section and post an intro about yourself.

Much appreciated, Terry.  I may know something about a lot of things but my machinist knowledge is pretty sketchy at best!

I don't believe that Rusty ever gave Uncle Buck admin access to the hosting account or the files on the server, so we are hoping that Rusty comes around and gets things going for you guys again.

I don't know if they had a chance to exchange any information before the site went down or not.  Still waiting for UB's reply to see if we're gonna get the band back together!

[TerryWerm]

A politics forum??? Ugh 😩 I will limit my written words to no thank you!

Nobody ever discussed politics there. Instead it was full of political jokes and cartoons which in my estimation have no place in a machining forum. Uncle Buck insisted on having it though and for quite a while it caused no problems. Eventually one member went off the deep end and was VERY disrespectful toward members here that did not agree with his line of political thought. Staff told him he had to clean it up and be better toward others, but he would have none of it and left the forum and never came back. Of course this all happened during one of Uncle Buck's long absences and the moderation staff was left to deal with it. It was a big pain in the backside. 

From a moderation standpoint I am very happy that we do not have a politics forum here! 

I can discuss politics with others and remain respectful of their opinions, but some folks get overly passionate about their beliefs and that is when things get ugly. Discussions turn to finger pointing and placing blame followed by arguments, name calling, and rage. Nope, not having it. I can walk away from a face to face discussion if it starts to get out of hand, but I cannot do that here as a staff member. So, the best way to prevent such a problem is to not allow it to start in the first place.

"And that's all I have to say about that." - Forrest Gump

[TerryWerm]

Sorry the security questions were a little difficult, but let's face it Clay, they are um....  security questions. 

Since I know you are a known 'good guy' I will move your post count up so you don't have to mess with those questions any more, but please go to our Welcome section and post an intro about yourself.

Much appreciated, Terry.  I may know something about a lot of things but my machinist knowledge is pretty sketchy at best!

I don't believe that Rusty ever gave Uncle Buck admin access to the hosting account or the files on the server, so we are hoping that Rusty comes around and gets things going for you guys again.

I don't know if they had a chance to exchange any information before the site went down or not.  Still waiting for UB's reply to see if we're gonna get the band back together!

I saw Rusty's posts and he divulged that MG had been on Porkbun and GG was hosted I forget where, but we already knew all of that, it was useless information. If Rusty shared the keys to the kingdom with UB I am sure it would have been privately but I do not know if that ever occurred or not. None of it was ever shared with me by PM or by email and I didn't really expect it to be.

I sure hope that Rusty and Herb get together and get things squared away. I would really hate to see GG go the same route as MG! Knowing that Rusty is at least alive and reasonably healthy, I would think that he would find the site down before too long.

Thankfully I have a spreadsheet of the members list over there at GG, but it will be missing any new members that joined over the last month or so. I will happily share it with you Clay if you wish to have it, but that will need to be done privately.

[Der Bugmeister]

Thanks, Terry.  I'll PM my email address to you.  I thought I had Goodfellow's email but can't seem to find it now.

You said a mouthful regarding the political board.  Couldn't agree more!  It can be divisive and drive people away.