Newmars Users

JoshNH4H · 2011-11-20 16:06:52

We had a really great community of users here before the forum crash, but many of them probably do not check newmars.com very much anymore given how long it's been since it went down. Would it be possible to send a pm or an email to all of the users just to tell them that the forum is back up?

On a related note, if anyone reading this has contact with any of the users, it would seem to be a good idea to invite them back.

Josh Cryer · 2011-11-20 18:26:34

I suggested to jburk that we use a mass emailer that is a plugin to the forums, but I believe he is going to simply scrape the emails from the database and use an emailer that the hosts uses, but it's definitely in the works, it is possible, and it will happen. A day or two tops.

JoshNH4H · 2011-11-20 19:11:06

Cool. We might actually get back a lot of users who were absent for several years.

Fun fact: Newmars is more than 10 years old. Freakin' ancient.

clark · 2011-11-20 22:33:10

older, none the wiser.

JoshNH4H · 2011-11-20 22:38:59

Welcome back, Clark!

James Burk · 2011-11-21 18:46:03

Josh Cryer wrote:

I suggested to jburk that we use a mass emailer that is a plugin to the forums, but I believe he is going to simply scrape the emails from the database and use an emailer that the hosts uses, but it's definitely in the works, it is possible, and it will happen. A day or two tops.

Yep, this is in the works Prepare for an AAAAAAAAvalanche!

SpaceNut · 2011-11-23 08:15:50

Prepared and awaiting....
A hearty welcome back Newmars.....

JoshNH4H · 2011-11-23 10:43:13

jburk wrote:

Josh Cryer wrote:
I suggested to jburk that we use a mass emailer that is a plugin to the forums, but I believe he is going to simply scrape the emails from the database and use an emailer that the hosts uses, but it's definitely in the works, it is possible, and it will happen. A day or two tops.
Yep, this is in the works Prepare for an AAAAAAAAvalanche!

Good to hear, jburk. And glad to see you back, Spacenut!

Hop · 2011-11-23 14:26:16

Wonderful. Hoping this forum thrives in its second incarnation.

Glandu · 2011-11-23 15:05:42

Hi all. Was known as el_slapper at the first forum, but suscribed after 2008, so seems I disappeared. Therefore I reappeared under a new name - that's not a big problem, I think.

JoshNH4H · 2011-11-23 15:21:31

Hi! Welcome back! It's really great to see how many of our old regulars are coming back to the forum. The rest of the posts may be coming back at some point, in which case your el_slapper alias will return, but there's no particular need to keep it in the interim.

RobS · 2012-08-18 15:02:32

I have a question forn someone who knows computers: I am transitioning to a new computer. When I log into the New Mars Forums on the new computer, it pauses, redirects, and automatically logs me back out! Basically, it means I can read, but I can never post, because I can't get logged in. I'm writing this on my old computer, but I have to give it up in a few days. Any suggestions?

louis · 2012-08-18 15:05:56

RobS wrote:

I have a question forn someone who knows computers: I am transitioning to a new computer. When I log into the New Mars Forums on the new computer, it pauses, redirects, and automatically logs me back out! Basically, it means I can read, but I can never post, because I can't get logged in. I'm writing this on my old computer, but I have to give it up in a few days. Any suggestions?

Try using Firefox - free browser. ON another forum today I couldn't post in Internet Explorer but I could in Firefox.

James Burk · 2012-08-18 23:50:13

RobS wrote:

I have a question forn someone who knows computers: I am transitioning to a new computer. When I log into the New Mars Forums on the new computer, it pauses, redirects, and automatically logs me back out! Basically, it means I can read, but I can never post, because I can't get logged in. I'm writing this on my old computer, but I have to give it up in a few days. Any suggestions?

I agree, you should try Firefox or Google Chrome if you haven't already. Please let me know if this fixes the issue. If not, I would be happy to help you troubleshoot. You can email or call me

Thanks,

RobS · 2012-08-19 09:09:30

Dear James: When I saw your message, I immediately thought: "it's that damn Internet Explorer again!" I have had troubles with IE in other web systems. But I checked and the problem was happening in Firefox. I have Firefox set as my default browser because of all the problems I've had with IE. So I ran Internet Explorer instead and pasted the link to your message into it, and the New Mars Forums opened with me logged in automatically! Go figure. I'm set to be logged in automatically, and IE does it, but Firefox doesn't!

So who knows what to make of that. But at least my access problem is solved. Thanks for your help.

falkor · 2012-10-17 15:49:22

All forums seem to have taken a hit to Facebook and Twitter who have cost us dear

RobS · 2012-10-17 22:52:04

What do you mean; that Facebook and Twitter are causing the problem?

Marsman · 2012-10-17 23:36:21

"All forums seem to have taken a hit to Facebook and Twitter who have cost us dear"

I think what he means Rob is that this forum has some big problems in popularity now and is likely not to come back as it was.

Think about it- we started when Facebook and Twitter were nothing. Social networking was nothing. The internet itself was still quite basic. In 2012, this forum, after the serious rise of all these other (much more popular) discussion outlets is the last bastion of a few die hard technicals and academic sorts. What is the purpose of forums when we have sites like MoonMars.com ( http://moonmars.com/news )giving us dedicated facebook type places to talk and store documents and collaborate with experts across many space groups?

Then you have a 2 year wipe out and forum down right when all these other places are evolving DAILY. There are some great ideas and discussions here but the information is very hard to sort through and find, and alot is lost. So in light of all this competition, what is the way forward here? Is there a point of difference here? Something we can't do on Facebook or elsewhere? I have my own forum at MarsDrive and we have the same issues. The reality is it's time to move on guys. Sort the archive into a usable resource I say, and store it over at MoonMars where it can help in the drive to settle Mars and we all work together.

What do you think?

Marsman · 2012-10-17 23:50:44

Here is a great post in an other forum about what I just said: http://www.forumpostersunion.com/showthread.php?p=80277

falkor · 2012-10-20 03:15:31

Marsman yes good comments and correct, for me being a member of a forum takes greater effort and commitment than being a Facebooker or a Twitterer

to me - we have a new generation of people, the vast majority of whom are used to sending a txt on their mobile phone, that is fast, brief and requires a minimum of effort

FAST and minimum of effort now seems to be the "test" and Facebook and Twitter can be seen for that

where are the posts on FB and Twitter that were made 1 year ago? where are the discussions on FB and Twitter that were made 1 MONTH AGO?

because Forums "demand" slightly more effort/ time and commitment than all other "popular" social media - they have dropped to the bottom of the pile there's no going back it seems

Marsman · 2012-10-28 15:38:19

And the scarcity of responses and time between responses proves my point. This forum has alot of great information, but if it can't be found easily then what is the point when so many stronger rival sites exist now like facebook? Activity in those places is much higher than here, I can see that.

falkor · 2012-10-28 16:34:19

it can be found easily but that is not the point

Facebook is a quick fix, less effort, less commitment

so many stronger rival sites exist now like facebook?

so many? well Twitter and Facebook really, that's all it takes - people also prefer putting their time into their mobile phones e.g. sending and receiving text messages, than spending the same time participating on a forum

bobunf · 2012-10-28 23:24:02

I certainly have a lot less interest in posting here after the great crash. And way, way back there had been another great crash the result of which was the name "New Mars Forums."

It's tough to get too involved knowing that everything you and everyone else wrote over a period of weeks, months and years, may go into the bit bucket anytime. With Facebook you know stuff won't be relevant for more than a few days, but with a forum like this, one hopes for many years of continuity - the Mars Society is 15 years old. This forum should have a similar ambition. Two breaks lasting many, many months with limited recovery makes recovering trust and recovering willingness to invest time and effort, problematic.

Then the relative paucity of activity feeds the cycle.

One thing that I think would help regain that trust is disclosure. Who's running the site? How does it get paid for? How are people and data backed up? Who do we contact for information if the site is down? And how? What about fail safes? e.g., another website to go for information and commiseration if New Mars is down. Maybe with some duplicated discussions.

In the meantime, I'm just hoping the site stays up. Some assurance (which requires some openness) on that score would be very helpful.

Also, nonsense like "Apollo 20 mystery" does not encourage serious people to participate on this forum.

Last edited by bobunf (2012-10-28 23:31:20)

Koeng · 2012-10-29 14:58:51

Would it really be that hard to back this site up on external hard drives? I mean, 70 dollars to protect 1 TB of writing seems like the price would be worth it.

Also I think the Apollo 20 mystery is in the Not-So-Free chat section... for a reason...

-Koeng

Marsman · 2012-10-29 19:13:13

bobunf wrote:

One thing that I think would help regain that trust is disclosure. Who's running the site? How does it get paid for? How are people and data backed up? Who do we contact for information if the site is down? And how? What about fail safes? e.g., another website to go for information and commiseration if New Mars is down. Maybe with some duplicated discussions. In the meantime, I'm just hoping the site stays up. Some assurance (which requires some openness) on that score would be very helpful.

At least for MarsDrive forums I can answer those questions: Our website administrator and UK Director Darren Oliviero Priestnall runs the site on secure U.S based cloud servers with multiple security layers (as we too were hacked and brought down 3 years ago). Our member donations help pay for the site (or myself if all else fails). You can contact me at frank.stratford@marsdrive.com if anything is wrong. Or I am on facebook quite a bit. We have at least 3 back up databases to secure our posts and if all else fails we have a facebook group and page anyway. We do duplicate some discussions from here from time to time as one of our major posters/members is spacenut who is also a mod here. We have close to 2000 posts by over 400 members but just like NewMars, even though our period offline was only 2 months, it got rid of 3,000 older posts (so we should have closer to 5000). New Mars is much more comprehensive, but it's hard to find stuff here and 3 years is still missing (and those were some good years).

The reality is, Mars groups everywhere need more support, but it seems people just don't think we are serious enough or able enough to carry out our grand goals, an area we are constantly working to change.

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#1 2011-11-20 16:06:52

Newmars Users

#2 2011-11-20 18:26:34

Re: Newmars Users

#3 2011-11-20 19:11:06

Re: Newmars Users

#4 2011-11-20 22:33:10

Re: Newmars Users

#5 2011-11-20 22:38:59

Re: Newmars Users

#6 2011-11-21 18:46:03

Re: Newmars Users

#7 2011-11-23 08:15:50

Re: Newmars Users

#8 2011-11-23 10:43:13

Re: Newmars Users

#9 2011-11-23 14:26:16

Re: Newmars Users

#10 2011-11-23 15:05:42

Re: Newmars Users

#11 2011-11-23 15:21:31

Re: Newmars Users

#12 2012-08-18 15:02:32

Re: Newmars Users

#13 2012-08-18 15:05:56

Re: Newmars Users

#14 2012-08-18 23:50:13

Re: Newmars Users

#15 2012-08-19 09:09:30

Re: Newmars Users

#16 2012-10-17 15:49:22

Re: Newmars Users

#17 2012-10-17 22:52:04

Re: Newmars Users

#18 2012-10-17 23:36:21

Re: Newmars Users

#19 2012-10-17 23:50:44

Re: Newmars Users

#20 2012-10-20 03:15:31

Re: Newmars Users

#21 2012-10-28 15:38:19

Re: Newmars Users

#22 2012-10-28 16:34:19

Re: Newmars Users

#23 2012-10-28 23:24:02

Re: Newmars Users

#24 2012-10-29 14:58:51

Re: Newmars Users

#25 2012-10-29 19:13:13

Re: Newmars Users

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