To ex-Andy

[Methuselah]

“Post by ex-khobar Andy » Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:54 am
Meth you've only just got here after a long absence. Most of us are quite content with what we have and we appreciate the work that Gob puts into making the board function, at some cost to himself. Some of us are happy to chip in a pound or two come time to re-up with GoDaddy (or whoever) and don't really care if there are others who cannot.

I'm sure Gob welcomes suggestions but can we leave them as offerings for consideration? 'QA Report' sounds a little high handed for my taste.”

Andy, I appreciate Gob’s work too, and am telling him in private emails that he is being overloaded here. He should get some help, it is not a one-person job. I’m volunteering to be one of the helpers. Andy is facing a common crisis in software development, and QA procedures are the current method of calming down this crisis. Giving it a proper label is the first step in developing a better method of control rather than inventing it from scratch. Regarding ‘chipping in” I’d be glad to chip into any fees the persons who generated this excellent package they sell to give Gob some assistance in getting the “Contact Us” feature to work for him. They’d probably be glad to learn why it is a “Pita”. They may request a reasonable fee for this service, which I’d be glad to pay. Modern help today can be quite painless. If PPHbb is keeping up to date the market leaders today can ask Andy to let them watch at his computer window. They can watch him try to input his email address fix on “Contact Us” and tell him why the way he’s trying isn’t working, and then offer to fix the input themselves while he watches. He should learn how to do this the next time it’s needed, and it certainly will work the first time they try. This will spare Gob needing to read a lot of user instructions that can’t be too good, or he wouldn’t be repeating all those failed attempts.

[MajGenl.Meade]

“Post by ex-khobar Andy » Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:54 am
Meth you've only just got here after a long absence. Most of us are quite content with what we have and we appreciate the work that Gob puts into making the board function, at some cost to himself. Some of us are happy to chip in a pound or two come time to re-up with GoDaddy (or whoever) and don't really care if there are others who cannot.

I'm sure Gob welcomes suggestions but can we leave them as offerings for consideration? 'QA Report' sounds a little high handed for my taste.”

Andy, I appreciate Gob’s work too, and am telling him in private emails that he is being overloaded here. He should get some help, it is not a one-person job. I’m volunteering to be one of the helpers. Andy is facing a common crisis in software development, and QA procedures are the current method of calming down this crisis. Giving it a proper label is the first step in developing a better method of control rather than inventing it from scratch. Regarding ‘chipping in” I’d be glad to chip into any fees the persons who generated this excellent package they sell to give Gob some assistance in getting the “Contact Us” feature to work for him. They’d probably be glad to learn why it is a “Pita”. They may request a reasonable fee for this service, which I’d be glad to pay. Modern help today can be quite painless. If PPHbb is keeping up to date the market leaders today can ask Andy to let them watch at his computer window. They can watch him try to input his email address fix on “Contact Us” and tell him why the way he’s trying isn’t working, and then offer to fix the input themselves while he watches. He should learn how to do this the next time it’s needed, and it certainly will work the first time they try. This will spare Gob needing to read a lot of user instructions that can’t be too good, or he wouldn’t be repeating all those failed attempts.

Hi meth . . . could you reply to people (a) in the thread to which you are replying to avoid creating new and superfluous threads, and (b) use the effing "quote" function so we can see the difference between their words and yours. (Hint: it's the inverted commas thingie in the top right corner of THEIR post)

Thank you nicely

ETA: and yes, I see your rationale in the QA thread. You can still use quote function; copy the result; post it in a different thread. If you must

[Methuselah]

Major-General. There ARE quote marks there. I had to look up the meaning of ETA. I don't see a definition that makes sense in this context. The closest I could find is [Quote looks like this in my computer "]
ETA (separatist group) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › ETA_(separatist_group)
ETA, an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna was an armed leftist Basque nationalist and separatist organization in the Basque Country." If this doesn't satisfy you I give up. 'Thuse

[BoSoxGal]

ETA = edited to add

[Methuselah]

Thanks, BSG

[Bicycle Bill]

Major-General. There ARE quote marks there. I had to look up the meaning of ETA. I don't see a definition that makes sense in this context. The closest I could find is [Quote looks like this in my computer "]
ETA (separatist group) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › ETA_(separatist_group)
ETA, an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna was an armed leftist Basque nationalist and separatist organization in the Basque Country." If this doesn't satisfy you I give up. 'Thuse

Well, don't I feel foolish ... ETA, to me, was always Estimated Time of Arrival.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Thanks, BSG

Thanks, Miss Andry? Miss Ageism?

[Methuselah]

I'll keep those re-names on hold for a more appropriate occasion. I've always thought mean girls were that way because they'd rather cause fear than be ignored.

[Gob]

Gob is not;

being overloaded here.

Gob is keeping a board going for a few old mates from other boards.

Reality Bytes and Daisy still chip in with help if needed, despite not being active members any more, which is very kid of them.

I don't know what your role was on Car Talk Meth, but you certainly seem to be developing one here.

[datsunaholic]

I don't know what your role was on Car Talk Meth, but you certainly seem to be developing one here.

Unfortunately I remember. And it got rather nasty.

[Guinevere]

I don't know what your role was on Car Talk Meth, but you certainly seem to be developing one here.

Unfortunately I remember. And it got rather nasty.

Correct, dats.

Not interested in giving this poster the “keys to the kingdom.” If that is going to happen, please notify us all in advance, so we may protect our personal information.

[MajGenl.Meade]

ETA = edited to add

Tku

[ex-khobar Andy]

“Post by ex-khobar Andy » Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:54 am
Meth you've only just got here after a long absence. Most of us are quite content with what we have and we appreciate the work that Gob puts into making the board function, at some cost to himself. Some of us are happy to chip in a pound or two come time to re-up with GoDaddy (or whoever) and don't really care if there are others who cannot.

I'm sure Gob welcomes suggestions but can we leave them as offerings for consideration? 'QA Report' sounds a little high handed for my taste.”

Andy, I appreciate Gob’s work too, and am telling him in private emails that he is being overloaded here. He should get some help, it is not a one-person job. I’m volunteering to be one of the helpers. Andy is facing a common crisis in software development, and QA procedures are the current method of calming down this crisis. Giving it a proper label is the first step in developing a better method of control rather than inventing it from scratch. Regarding ‘chipping in” I’d be glad to chip into any fees the persons who generated this excellent package they sell to give Gob some assistance in getting the “Contact Us” feature to work for him. They’d probably be glad to learn why it is a “Pita”. They may request a reasonable fee for this service, which I’d be glad to pay. Modern help today can be quite painless. If PPHbb is keeping up to date the market leaders today can ask Andy to let them watch at his computer window. They can watch him try to input his email address fix on “Contact Us” and tell him why the way he’s trying isn’t working, and then offer to fix the input themselves while he watches. He should learn how to do this the next time it’s needed, and it certainly will work the first time they try. This will spare Gob needing to read a lot of user instructions that can’t be too good, or he wouldn’t be repeating all those failed attempts.

Wow - a whole thread just for me! Thanks Meth.

Andy Gob is facing a common crisis in software development, and QA procedures are the current method of calming down this crisis. Giving it a proper label is the first step in developing a better method of control rather than inventing it from scratch.

Well. The current crisis in s/w development is that legacy systems are not talking to new systems. That's been the problem for decades and it's the reason for much that can and does go wrong. Businesses and governments upgrade all the time. They find that the cost of the new supercool system on the box before they open it is $XXXXX. But because they have to now beef up a plethora of sub systems which feed information to the new kid on the block, the actual cost is $XXXXX x 3. (I am not including training costs.) And although the new system is better than the old system at 97% of the jobs it has to do, you can bet your boots that that 3% is a sticking point for lots of the employees.

BTDT many times. But I don't think that applies here. QA procedures is now understood (properly IMHO) by many to mean management procedures rather than the guy in the office three stops down the corridor. I'm a veteran of the TQM wars and have the scars to prove it. Deming, Juran and Crosby were a great band with some good early albums and I have most of them.

This is a board Gob set up years ago as a way of sharing his pictures (he is a talented and keen photographer) with his friends and family back home. When Cafe d'Arte folded and we all moved en masse to various successor boards which in turn folded due to poster misbehavior or (tragically) death (Denniz and Tess - RIP and thanks) many of us settled here and found a little stability. Gob's a youngster compared to many of us and he runs a tolerant little pub where most of us either get along or ignore each other. He has a shotgun behind the bar but rarely pulls it out. (Maybe I should rephrase that.).

I wouldn't mind seeing a few new members but if I want a free for all I'd go to Munich in October. (Actually September but that's a thread for another time.). Meth it's not your board and it's not my board. If Gob wants more people here it's his absolute right in just the same way that if he wanted to make some dosh he could plant ads here so that every time you lurk an emu or a gecko (sorry Gob - a US-centric reference) would come out of the bushes at you. And it would be your choice and mine whether to stay or drink elsewhere.

I miss Ray and Jim (and Denniz and Tess and Fafhrd and Gardening Fool and Omar and jimclark25 [frequent poster on the Guardian who suddenly stopped on October 3]) because they added to my life. If your suggestion is that we invite selected friends who might fit in (and I do NOT mean just elderly liberal-ish white guys) I'm all for it. But let's have a discussion. Gob has a veto. (He can just refuse to accept anyone and that is his prerogative.). But please lets's not just open the doors to just anyone or we run the risk of a Car Talk style meltdown or that other board whose name I can't remember where we gathered for a year or two maybe around 2007.

[Gob]

I'm happy for anyone to join, they can stand and fall on their own words.

This board was never meant to be a "success" in the way Meth seems to envision it. It was just meant to be a small corner of the net, where refugees from certain boards, (any Darwin Awards" folk here?) could meet up and chat and ignore modern shite like Faceache or Instagram.

[Scooter]

I was a Darwin Awards person until I couldn't manage a single more thread being turned into a objectivism/subjectivism debate.

[Methuselah]

Gob, if I had found a statement of purpose like this on this board when I first tried to register and get accepted I would just have gone away, and left you all alone. If you post this it will keep people like me from trying to join. For the record, I forget how I got here in the first place. It happens when you get old.

“. . . post by Gob » Sat Nov 14, 2020 7:57 am [as edited by Methuselah]
I'm happy for anyone to join, they can stand and fall on their own words.

This board was never meant to be a "success" in the way [***] seems to envision it. It was just meant to be a small corner of the net, where refugees from certain boards, (any Darwin Awards" folk here?) could meet up and chat and ignore modern shite like Faceache or Instagram.

[Understand before you join you must accept that this is a private place, determined to stay private. If you can figure out how to register [easy] and get accepted [difficult, you have to get a recommendation from an existing member] you may make suggestions and ask questions but you are not entitled to an answer. If you persist in asking the same question that will be a futile exercise. We use the Trump/Covid method of dealing with problems here. If we don’t talk about errors or other problems they will go away. If you persist in asking you’ll be booted.]

[Scooter]

Oh look, here not even a few days and he's already gotten all butt hurt and is lashing out because no one is jumping at his beck and call and bowing to his superior wisdom. Imagine my surprise at having predicted it. I really should play the ponies.

[TPFKA@W]

Now you’re being asinine Methman.

[ex-khobar Andy]

. . . you may make suggestions and ask questions but you are not entitled to an answer.

Bingo Meth! You and I and everyone else who posts here except Gob, are entitled to nothing! Gob is not our employee and we are not his clients. Those of us who have the means put a few bucks in the kitty when Gob lets us know that GoDaddy is banging on the door, so we can keep the lights on and the snow plowed in the parking lot (or ploughed in the car park, if you prefer).

I'm happy with that arrangement. If not I can move to Reddit: no-one is stopping me.

Having said all that, I have a friend - retired - who made her living as a respected and very capable bacteriologist/virologist. Under current circumstances, it might be useful to have some actual expertise around here so I'll send her a link to see if she'd like to join us. Please all, be on your best behavio(u)r for a few days.

[Methuselah]

Noted, ex-Andy. Let us know if your friend ever gets accepted, and how long it took. Give the rest of us what methods work best on getting the machinery working on the acceptance process mentoring. Thuse