Policy Please Stand By. We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties.

In response to the loss of @LAJ_FETT as our long-serving and long-suffering Tech Admin [Announcement Here], the remaining Admins have had to make many difficult choices as we attempt to map out a path forward. We have experienced a tension between taking necessary time to grieve while also understanding that the best possible way to honor LAJ is to not let the forums fall apart due to our inability to proceed. However, there is very much a glaring "inability" on our collective part, which will require patience and understanding from the entire community.

Full transparency: I named the discussion between the Admins, on what our next steps should be, "How Many JCF Admins Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?" because not one of us... between @GrandAdmiralJello, @devilinthedetails or myself... has much experience in code, templates or any meaningful facets of forum construction & maintenance in general. These forums were blessed to have a literal tech industry professional volunteer her time and services here from 2007 until November 2023. Even if I would ask how something worked, she would say "You don't need to bother with that. I'm here". Unfortunately... on so many levels... we now find ourselves in a situation where she is not. But, we need to keep this thing chugging along. Which leads to new roles on here.

For the next 6 months, @devilinthedetails has agreed to be our Interim Tech Admin but... and I cannot express this enough... she will be learning on the job. She will spend nearly as much time studying the schematics of Xenforo forums and watching tutorials as she does actually managing the various technical aspects of our little home here on the internet.

You (Yes... YOU reading this) now also have a new role: BE PATIENT.
Things will inevitably get glitchy or cease operating optimally. We no longer have a professional at our disposal who understood each issue, and how to resolve it, before we found the correct wording to explain it to her. We are in true "volunteer" territory and we need each of you to be patient and generous with devilinthedetails as she attempts to find answers to your questions as well as the solution to whatever requires resolving.

We are all in this together and, if you care about this online community, you will exercise what patience you can muster as our new Interim Tech Admin starts from scratch to figure out how all of this works so that the rest of us can be irrationally impatient about all of the other topics we debate and contribute to on here.

By no means can we ever "replace" or "move on from" LAJ_FETT. But we have recognized that she would haunt us mercilessly if we did not take steps toward keeping this together just because we may be laboring to keep ourselves together in response to losing her. So, this is the plan. As of now.

devilinthedetails will learn on the job.
You will be patient. Or be maligned as a terrible person.
We will all keep the forums going.

 

I am launching a backup AOL Chat Room. Be sure your dial-up is operational.

 

I’ll see about getting a landline reinstalled.

 

Honestly, what even is the point of getting on the interwebs and chatting if it did not take 35 minutes to load and sound as though a family of robots needed to be sacrificed in order for us to connect?

 

A new SW trailer was a lot more exciting when you only got to watch one more second of it after ten minutes of buffering.
In glorious 144p QuickTime.

 

I have discord....................does that help? This place can survive, it may not be pretty, but we as a team can do it, and we're a big team with all the members pulling their weight in the patience thing.

Not sure I can even find a machine in the house that would dial up, but getting a land line again!??! Near impossible!

 

Like Chorus said, I will not be able to fill the role of LAJ, because she is a very hard act to follow as tech wizard, but my intent is to be as good a resource as I can be for all the users on this site at this time.

I will be doing my best to solve any tech issues you encounter or answer any tech questions that you might have while learning on the job.

Please feel free to approach me with any tech-related issues or questions you encounter.

I only ask that you be patient and understanding with me if I take some time to solve your problem or answer your question as I very likely will need to do some research in order to solve these problems and answer these questions.

But I am always here to help to the best of my abilities!

 

Finding someone with technical skills and having them completely bypass being a Moderator and handing them the keys to the entire system would be... I'm not certain the appropriate word exists.

 

Thank you. We had completely neglected to consider that as an option before making such a massive decision.

 

An appropriate video does exist though!

 

Thank heaven for you guys. We really had no plan or long-term alternative in mind. Get your schedule in order, we may replace the entire staff with you tomorrow.

 

Comms without busybodies would be...

...


... productive.