"Give us Peter back!" -- A petition

[maddox]

It gets worse:

Check this.

[The Butterfly Man]

Since April 26th, Peter is missing from this board.
And I've done my homework:
He's missing from this board too. Since April 30th.
From this board he's missing since the 9th of August.
13th of May was his last activity here.

It gets worse:

Check this.

Wow, you guys must be so terribly bored ...................

.....I like! 

[maddox]

Wow, you guys must be so terribly bored ...................

Well you must admit: it's quite weird.

I can understand it if he got borred of a forum, either one of them.
It's natural. Even i have that sometimes.

But all of them?

That's weird. 

[Nicky007]

He's missing from this board too. Since April 30th.

Paxi, what makes you think that this is our Peter ?

Have you gotten too much bongo on your mind ? 

Nicky.

[PH]

Paxi, what makes you think that this is our Peter ?

I just know. (This forum was called "ricochet" a long time ago.)

Have you gotten too much bongo on your mind ? 

Bingo!

The big bonobo bongo bingo.

BANG!!
(scared)

[maddox]

I just know. (This forum was called "ricochet" a long time ago.)
Bingo!

Which is also more likely because he's called 'RicochetPeter' on the Ayreon board too.

[The Butterfly Man]

Well you must admit: it's quite weird.

I can understand it if he got borred of a forum, either one of them.
It's natural. Even i have that sometimes.

But all of them?

That's weird. 

I don't think it's that weird. Maybe he went to Africa for a year (to play bongo) or something, I don't know. Of course, he can do whatever he wants, without telling anyone on some online-forum.

Hmmm, but maybe you're right that it's a bit strange, considering he is the (only) moderator on this board. I do tend to think that it's slowly getting a bit of a mess around here, because of all this off-topicness in a lot of topics. 

Just my 2 cents...

Tom

[maddox]

Hmmm, but maybe you're right that it's a bit strange, considering he is the (only) moderator on this board. I do tend to think that it's slowly getting a bit of a mess around here, because of all this off-topicness in a lot of topics. 

Just my 2 cents...

Tom

You're right about the off-topicness. We're kind of masters in doing that arround here.
But it never gets out of hand if you ask me.
In fact, to me this board is the representation of how great a board can be without a moderator, though having said that i also must say that every board needs at least one moderator.

The fact is why it works on the Arena Forum is because small amount of members, especially the very small amount of members who are actually online.

[Steve Jones]

You're right about the off-topicness. We're kind of masters in doing that arround here.

If off-topic is defined as not talking about Arena, then I guess I'm pretty guilty.  But Arena themselves are pretty low profile at the moment, and I'll hazard a guess that if a new album eventually heaves itself over the horizon then conversation on here will be on-topic pretty damned quickly.   Just look at the Marillion forum to see how it goes!

Digressing slightly, despite the small number of regular contributors on here, the reason I like it is the overwhelming LOVE of music people seem to display.  Most other forums I lurk on seem to have a fair amount of HATE floating around, which isn't really a vibe I get from music.  Consequently I'll take heed of recommendations on here and investigate further (Demians, Nevermore, etc) if I think it's worth a shot.  But if I see someone petulantly slagging off Pendragon elsewhere, to take a topical example, I'm highly unlikely to take anything they ever say in the future seriously.  My head is wired in a completely different fashion and I presume we have no common ground!

[Nicky007]

Re what belongs and doesnt belong in the Room, the way I see it is that the structure of the forum invites to discussions, in prioritised order, on Arena music, other stuff related to Arena, Arena-related bands, all other bands, issues related to music, and even stuff remote from music (like personal issues, religion, philosophy, food and beverages). We just should try to put things in the right categories and topics, allowing for some flexibility, like if a post invites to a discussion on an issue formally outside of the topic.

I agree with you on the friendly tone in the Room. Furthermore I'm happy that there isnt too much small talk. (On the Neverboard, there's too much food talk and raw exclamations for my taste.)

Re criticism of groups and albums, unless it's obvious trash, I always try to find reasons for listening to a group or album, rather than reasons for rejecting them.

Nicky.

[PH]

When I look at other forums, I can only conclude that we're doing fine actually. Like Steve just said, The Shattered Room seems to ooze friendliness, which is VERY different from what I see on other boards. Everywhere else, people are bashing each other and people are narrow minded. They drag almost anything in the negative.

Since a few weeks, I'm an administrator myself on a forum for biology students at my school, and I know it's a pain in the literal butt when it comes to moderating such a board. Imagine, 5 people like my age are causing more damage on that forum in three weeks than has ever been done to this forum.
This is a grown-up forum, people know when to take things seriously and when to make a joke. And that's what keeps this forum interesting. It's not flat, not superficial, but full of good ideas and recommendations, theories and general mindfood. And still there's room for jokes. It's these jokes what makes the members actual persons and makes me want to meet you guys in real life.

I have to congratulate Peter for this, because even in his absence, nothing bad has happened. The only thing when things got out of hand was a few years ago with a member who was being a troll. And precisely there Peter showed what kind of person he is. He could have used his ban-powers, but he choose to give the person in question a freedom of choice, which he took and he left. We have responsibilites ourselves.

Of course, we go off topic often enough, but I think it never gets out of hand. And it's only natural in some way, 'cause we're human, not robots who were designed for some topic. It also helps that we actually know when we're going off topic. And most of the time we get things on the rails again. On other forums they REALLY need a moderator for that, or else the topic is doomed.


-Paco

[Bupie]

You guys wrote what I think better than I could have !

Basically, I came for Arena and I stayed because there are nothing but nice people here ...

And I think we self-moderate pretty well.

But I still miss Peter though   

[Nicky007]

Basically, I came for Arena and I stayed because there are nothing but nice people here ...

Bups, putain de toi 

Yup, Roomies Are Doin It For Themselves 

... and I know it's a pain in the literal butt when it comes to moderating such a board.

Or else there's another reason, Paxi 

Nicky.

[maddox]

Update:

I've ask Bart, an Administrator of the DPRP forum about Peter....

No answer yet but i'm hopeful. 

[PH]

"21 September 2008" was still his last activity...

...as was the last time we checked.



-Paco

[maddox]

"21 September 2008" was still his last activity...

...as was the last time we checked.



-Paco

I know but the reason why i asked Bart in the first place is because Peter is also an Administrator on the DPRP forum.

That's why.

[PH]

I know but the reason why i asked Bart in the first place is because Peter is also an Administrator on the DPRP forum.

That's why.

Ahh ok.
Now Ich begrijp.

[maddox]

*quoted from the How Do You Feel-topic:

...

Well?

Peter usually did some maintenance on the DPRP forum as well, which means work on the server etc etc (boring IT stuff  ).
We already know that he hasn't been on line over there for quite some time but Bart also has him on MSN and hasn't been able to contact him for quite some time too.

So...he's not only MIA on many boards he's a member/administrator of, he also is MIA on MSN. 

It's getting weirder by the day. 

[PH]

Man... I hope it's nothing serious...

[Bupie]

Man... I hope it's nothing serious...

I hope too 

Peter, give us some news, please.

[maddox]

Man... I hope it's nothing serious...

I hope too 

Peter, give us some news, please.

I agree with you both on this one. 

[Peter]

Folks, I'm all fine, no need to worry

I'm very touched by the fact that you guys care about your ol' Cap going astray. To give you all an explanation, which I definitely owe you all: It's just that my interests and duties have changed for some time now. Mid April I started to work with a company I already worked with from 2000-2006, and they're basically eating up all my resources. What's left goes to my family and other smaller pastimes. Sitting around the machine and hacking myself into stuffs is just not my thing that much anymore. Also, I basically seem to have no time neither the energy to sit down and listen to a complete album, which again is the way I want to listen to music. When I have free time, it's mostly in the late evenings and then all I do is read a few book pages and talk to my lady... That's how things change, never would have believed that it would be like that ever. Sorry for giving you a hard time, I will try to be here from time to time, not only on a quarter-year-basis or so

[Teunis]

Yes, I've seen him. Loud and clear in red, the name of Peter. He's back, the return of the legend  .

[maddox]

Yay!

Peter's back!

For now that is. 

You've got us worried there, mate. Don't ever do that again, will ya? 
I'm just glad that everything is okay over there. 

[PH]

PETER!! YAY!

Glad to see you again. Thanks for the explanation, and good luck and all that with your job!


-Paco