Hi everyone.
A number of people have written to the Isaac Brock Forum saying that they can’t get onto the forum. Now I want to mention that I am absolutely ambivalent as to whether this forum even exists. It was created out of a desire to serve people in a different format than what this WordPress blog. That’s ok with me, but as adminstrator of this blog I definitely have my hands full, and therefore, I retreated from involvement there.
Now the person who kindly set up the forum has not accepted to be its on-going administrator. So I wonder if someone that we know here would be willing to do it. This announcement has been up at the forum itself but no one has come forward.
The Isaac Brock Society 
Petros,
I am willing to help — but I am not sure if I am good/smart enough to be an admin.
I do have extensive system admin experience for our computer system (Linux).
Hi all. I benefited from your help back on the old Expat site before we were booted off. I was mostly a reader, but posted occasionally. I was the sucker in Calgary who went into the OVDI meat grinder.
One quick way to build a forum is to use the Reddit site. It allows for posting articles, free discussions, easy sign-up and easy moderation.
I’ve created a sample group at: http://www.reddit.com/r/issacbrock/
Please give it a try and see if you would like it as an alternative forum. If so, I’ll set up the most active posters as moderators and the forum will pretty much take care of itself. Just click the ‘Submit a Link’ button on the right of the page to start discussion.
I’ve found the content and discussion you’re all having very useful and would hate to see it fade away due to the hassle of system administration.
Hi IJ: Ok, you sound overqualified.
Concerned Canuck: I don’t think there is a problem with the package. It’s just we need someone besides me to troubleshoot login problems.
Petros,
I just signed up the forum, and it seems not so user-friendly. Reading each forum needs another password. It does not make sense to me for having a public discussion forum to be so secretive, and after all we are not bunch of folks who want overthrow US government, but to improve its policy for the better.
I’ll second ij’s nomination. I’ve known him almost one year on Jack Townsend’s forum. He’s a good kid.
@ij I agree on the difficulty in using the current forum. I work with computers on a daily basis and found getting access to difficult. Secret passwords? I think more interested people are being turned away than spammers.
@petros If everyone is happy with the current forum and you find someone to spend the time and effort to maintain it, great. I suggested Reddit as an alternative as it requires virtually no “system administration”. More importantly, the barrier to entry is very low compared to the current forum. This means that more people will actually participate and the message will spread. I’m easy with whatever is decided though.
@concerned… I don’t know how people can POSSIBLY have password issues. There ARE NO secret passwords for the forum anymore. Once someone registers, all the have to do is click on the activation link that they get in their inbox.
Then after that, they just use their password that THEY SUPPLIED on the registration page.
@geez,
Are you talking about this forum ?
http://isaacbrockforum.com/index.php ? I have never been got into each of them –asking another password, that I don’t have. Do I need 2nd password ? It needs a hacker’s skill to get into.
@ij I also had trouble with my login. If I use Chrome, I’m fine. But a last week I switched to Firefox, and I can’t use that browser. I can login, but the various threads ask for a password that I cannot penetrate. The old forum password doesn’t function, nor does my personal password.
Petros,
I just wonder if we really need that forum at all. Why not just keep everybody here. The secret forum can be replaced “Concerned Canuck” http://http://www.reddit.com/r/issacbrock/
@ ij It is working well for everyone who is using it. I’m not getting so many complaints about it. So it’s not broken but needs a little fix here and there. The other thing is that when someone does have a problem, and that may be a user error like inputting the wrong password, then it helps to have a responsive adminstrator who can reset the password. I don’t think it would be a good thing to add another forum. The one we have here is working well, and I am loathe to dilute what we do further.
Isaac Brock Society has become the forum, for better or for worse. Trying to put the same thing in two or more different places is a recipe for confusion.
Forum software is ugly. IBS is bad, Expat Forum was worse. I say that as a professional with lots of experience in things like user interface and information architecture and navigation.
For less public discussion, a listserv might make more sense than a forum? If moderation is wanted, listserv also offers that opportunity. And anonymity is still possible by participants having a separate dedicated email account with IBS moniker.
I can help out too. I spend a lot (too much) time on the computer (I am IT administrator at the school where I teach). 🙂
The forum for me, technically speaking anyways, is great. There are just some mysterious happenings there I have always wondered about. For example, I just logged in and was surprised to see that there are almost 1500 members registered, yet the low post count does that reflect that number at all.
Also, I asked this once in the forum but never got a response, why is it that, without fail, everyday there is a list of 6-7 people with a birthday who are all aged between 23-27? I have never seen anyone with a birthday outside of this age range. Is this an error or what? Are these 1500 members all real people? It just seems fishy to me!
I don’t think we need anything else because — I am coming here less and I’m seeing many people posting less and less. If nobody is using the forum then it will probably be taken offline at renewal.
I think everything will be fine with Petros’ $2/month WordPress account. The only thing I DON’T like about the WP system is that comments are lost easily.
The forum recently asked me for a password to get into one of the topics. I used the secret password which I assume everyone knows and it worked.
@ geeeez An author on the blog can search comments by going to dashboard, comments, and using the search feature. FYI
PS, Petros is one of my humans. I am a cat.
@geeez
I think that is just because for some of us (myself at least) are now rather burnt out by the whole lot. I don’t really have much more to contribute/discuss at the moment and am just at the stage of waiting for my renunciation appointment to be scheduled, whilst concurrently following any recent developments on the site. I am now focused mainly on simply getting rid of US citizenship and moving on with my life.
I will continue to follow the blog and contribute though as this resource remains as important as ever, especially for anyone who has just discovered this nightmare: It took me almost a year of active research, blogging, forum participation, legal advice and talks with my banks to finally feel like I understood what is going on and what I needed to do. I have a single Globe & Mail article that I randomly saw one day on the internet last year to thank for alerting me to this disaster and being able to nip it in the bud before it could grow and fester. People just discovering this mess now who happen to find this website have the benefit of being able to access of the relevant information AND be able to talk with others who are also affected. A year ago the information was sparse and I felt like I had absolutely nobody to speak to or share my concerns with. I would have killed for a site like this a year ago when I was in full panic and had no idea what to do, so I think that this resource remains invaluable as more and more people receive the information that they desperately need.
I don’t know the first thing about how to do it but if someone could talk to me a little bit about it, I’d be willing to give it a try. I like the forum and think it offers some opportunities that I would hate to see dissolve. I was going to offer before but thought I’d seen a post indicating it was all fine so I never said anything.
@Don, I think I know what is going on there. If you look at the profiles for some of those, you will see they are spammers. They apparently have not activated their accounts in order to post but I think they are counted as members, etc. And their birthdays are the same as the day they became members. Bogus, bogus.
@geeez, I never have any problems logging in to the forum but I am always asked to enter “warof1812” before it will let me read or post.
@all a number of us preferred a level of security that is not possible here. Some have perhaps, let on a little bit too much about themselves and were feeling the need, if we were to continue, to try and address that.
@Don, the answer to your question is there. Those are ALL spammers who never confirmed their email accounts. Crazy isn’t it? Why do you think there is an activation email that is sent?!!
I, for one, really rely on this place. I know some of you have been doing this for years now, but I, believe it or not, only found out about this bizarre mess about 6 weeks ago. This forum has been quite literally a sanity saver. I just started my own blog at the same time, using WP, and so am a novice at this, but am willing to help where and if I can. Please please don’t let this go away… Even those of you almost through the process are offering valuable personal experience to us that are new to it. I’m not sure I’m experienced enough to be the administrator right now, but I am certainly willing to help in the hopes of learning enough to take over. I can understand how someone might get burnt out on it, so perhaps if those of us who value this site are willing to step up and help and learn with an eye to taking over as admin? A tag team approach, maybe?
@ outraged Please note, the above post is not about the Isaac Brock Society blog, of which I am happy to serve as an administrator. The above post is about the Isaac Brock Forum, which was created (1) because some prefer the format; (2) because it would allow for less public (though not private) conversation; (3) it permits members to contact one another without the need of an intermediary.
This post is looking for an administrator for the “forum” who would deal especially with new members who are having trouble logging in.
This blog isn’t going anywhere. If the United States or Word Press ban us, we will find another server in a foreign country. Cheers, Peter W. Dunn
I’m not qualified to be an administrator and I know enough not to volunteer for something that I’d just mess up. So I’m not volunteering.
But I for one want that forum to stay functional. I can send and receive private emails on it, which I can’t do here, without my email or identity (or those of the other person) being revealed or risked. There are some sensitive discussions on certain issues that I am willing to engage in one-on-one on a password-protected “masked” private mail feature that there’s no way I’m ever posting on this public forum. So that other forum does serve a useful purpose, for me and I think for some others. Expatforum had a “private mail” feature but I never trusted it, partly because near the end it was obvious we couldn’t trust the admin or some of the moderators on that forum, and partly because I was concerned about the prospects of IRS or other USG trolls being able to access private mails, private folders, etc. Maybe that’s also a risk on the Brock forum, I don’t know, but the fact that there are a couple of password hurdles on it don’t bother me. I feel much better about that.
Things that I feel comfortable saying in public I say here. Speculative things, or private queries to try to figure out what is going on inside the Evil Empire with the CLN processing delays (to name but one issue), I don’t mind doing via private email but there’s no way I’m broadcasting those details here where anyone on the planet can see them, including orcs in DC.
I vote for keeping it, while recognizing that it’s not the mainstream thread, it’s for some more tentative and personal explorations that don’t IMO belong on the main forum.
Thanks for clearing that up, Petros. whew. I did try to join the forum, but haven’t made much progress 🙂 so obviously maybe not such a good candidate for administrator. However, I’m still willing to try and help. I am complete committed to educating and fighting and this blog, and the forum, are good tools for doing so.
I’ve always had trouble opening the forums, so I’ve never participated. I have a forum account, and have reset my password several times, but can’t get into any forum, so I gave up! : (