response 30 of 334:

Sep 28 23:50 UTC 2010

all I did was make suggestions without any mean spiritedness.  I fail to 
see why slynne thinks that is any more obnoxious than anyone else making 
suggestions.

response 32 of 334:

Sep 29 02:10 UTC 2010

resp:30 If you really want to know...

You said: "I'm saying that in the situation Grex is in, there is no
reason NOT to overhaul the web page."

But there is a reason NOT to overhaul the web page. There might not be
anyone with the skills and the time to do it. There is a difference
between what you said and simply making a suggestion which would go a
little more like this: "It would be a very good thing to overhaul the
web page" 

response 34 of 334:

Sep 29 02:48 UTC 2010

resp:33 The main Grex page is five or six years old. All of the interior
backtalk pages are at least seven years old (I think)

response 36 of 334:

Sep 29 04:45 UTC 2010

Grex also needs to stop this staff verification of new users.  It is 
against the principles on which grex was founded, and I believe that 
if such stats existed, you would see that new usership has dropped 
significantly since Cross put his little patch on the new user 
program.  New users don't stay around waiting for staff members to 
wave their magic wands and decide they are good enough, real enough, 
to post here.  They just go away.  

But everytime I suggest this, it hits a wall.  Staff just doesn't want 
to go there, even if there is broad user support for it.

response 38 of 334:

Sep 29 15:12 UTC 2010

IIRC the issue with verification is this: If we don't verify, we tend to
have problem users taking the system down. If we had more staff
resources, we could probably handle this. But we don't. Still, I recall
that it was a short term solution and in the long run, if we don't make
it really easy for new people to sign up, there is no future. On the
other hand, if the system keeps being brought down by malicious people,
there is no future. 

response 40 of 334:

Sep 29 17:04 UTC 2010

In terms of verification, yes that was a user vote a while back, so the
users at the time agreed enough with it to approve it.  See the coop
cf for background and proposals for this (item 23 covers a lot of this
policy, there may be other items that apply).

Note that if you want to change this policy you can propose a new policy
(see Grex by-laws for how to do this).  If you're not a member (hint
hint), though, you can't vote on it.

For the restricted access for new users, yes, it is due to trying to
keep the system protected from malicious people.  It works, but I think
it may be chasing a lot of non-malicious people away.  Unfortunately,
we need something in place to help, otherwise we'll be up and down all
the time--which users complained about (rightly so), and our staff will
spend most of their time dealing with the situation.

If there is a better alternative to leaving the system open to malicious
users, let's hear it.  I'm sure we'd all like to go to a more open
system, but not at the cost of being frequently locked out due to system
downtime and/or inability to use the system (denial of service).

response 42 of 334:

Sep 29 18:07 UTC 2010

There are a lot of things Grex could do to attract new users.  Some of
them may be compatible with doing what it does now, the things which
keep us all here.  How about a smart phone app?  Bring back the
multi-user Unix games like Phantasia.  Acquire a bigger computer and
host video messages in place of text based messages.  Attract some
people who will make the specialty conferences interesting.  It can be
done; it was done some years ago, and we haven't devolved *that* much as
a species.

I like Grex as it is.  I'm not going to devote any resources to changing
it substantially.  I'll toss out ideas, though, if I think of any and
there is any interest.

response 44 of 334:

Sep 29 18:47 UTC 2010

Helium, on the other hand...

response 46 of 334:

Sep 29 19:32 UTC 2010

re resp:43: Thanks!  I thought baloney was the most common element.

(Hydrogen is limited, just not as limited as anything else.)

response 48 of 334:

Sep 29 21:42 UTC 2010

Hydrogen is certainly common in the universe, just not on earth. Molecular
hydrogen, that is. The hydrogen in water is already burned and cannot be
recovered as molecular hydrogen unless you expend more energy than you will
get in using the hydrogen as a fuel, or whatever. 

response 50 of 334:

Sep 30 00:46 UTC 2010

To my knowledge, there is not a lot of support for a virtual Grex on
either the Board or staff, for various reasons.  I agree, it would be
good to lower our cost of co-location if we can.

Yes, we've been saying for the better part of this year that we have
a year plus a little more before we run out of money.  So for those
who said Grex has too much money as the reason they would not become
members, I'll ask again: at what bank balance will you consider Grex to
have not enough money and will become a member to help support Grex's
operations?

response 52 of 334:

Sep 30 15:21 UTC 2010

I think you need to have a viable idea to not get "bitch slapped".

I think Grex should get a million dollars. Money is very important in this
day and age, and the more money Grex has, the longer Grex will be around. If
we don't get a million dollars soon, I just don't know what could happen.

Wait... you want *me* to help get a million dollars? But I don't know anything
about having a million dollars! I'm more of an "idea guy". Stop shitting on
my awesome idea that nobody's had before!