Absent admin

[RichardRussell]

Does anybody know what has happened to this forum's administrator, David Marples (who posts as DDRM)? I've tried to contact him by email on multiple occasions over the last month or so, but have received no reply. I want to do some website maintenance, which risks damaging the forum's database, so I need to be certain there's an up-to-date backup before I start.

If David is currently hors de combat we will have to consider whether it's wise to keep the forum open without an admin.

[DDRM]

Hi Richard,

I'm still alive! Just drowning under a sea of coursework deadlines: COVID means exams have basically been replaced by several bits of coursework, so I have 7 to get done by the end of this week...

As a conseqeunce, I don't often look at my "old" work email - you are better to use my new student one, which I sent you. I'll email you from there, and have a look at my old email (sometime).

Best wishes,

D

[RichardRussell]

I don't often look at my "old" work email - you are better to use my new student one, which I sent you.

Oh, I didn't know about two different emails (or if I did I have forgotten - I do have severe memory loss). My usual habit when trying to contact somebody is to find the most recent email I've received from them and reply to that. In your case the most recent received email was on 1st October, sent from a leeds.ac.uk address, which seems to be exactly the same address that you were using over a year ago!

Can you confirm that forum backups are up-to-date, please?

[RichardRussell]

which seems to be exactly the same address that you were using over a year ago!

Edited by admin: I don't think it's appropriate to be displaying headers from private emails, even with key details redacted.

[DDRM]

Hi Richard,

I can confirm I've done a backup this morning.

Best wishes,

D

[RichardRussell]

Edited by admin: I don't think it's appropriate to be displaying headers from private emails, even with key details redacted.

There was nothing at all confidential or private in those headers.

I would remind you that in March 2019 a moderator (no less) posted to this forum actual extracts (not just headers) from a private email sent by me. On that occasion you took no action until I complained.

[RichardRussell]

I can confirm I've done a backup this morning.

Thank you. I will shortly be taking this forum offline so I can do some website maintenance (I want to reorganise the directory structure - again - to make it more 'logical'); as I've done before I will substitute a page that redirects accesses to the 'independent' BBC BASIC forum at Freeforums.net. That forum has the rather nice feature that non-members can post replies, so every member of this forum can contribute to discussions without joining if they wish to.

[Hated Moron]

Version 1.30a of BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 was released two weeks ago, but hasn't been announced here (or at the discussion group, for that matter). This may reflect a general lack of interest in BBCSDL, even though it is the newest - and in many ways most powerful - version of BBC BASIC.

[DDRM]

Hi Richard,

I felt that since you were now posting again on this forum I would leave it to you to decide which fora you chose to use for the announcement!

Best wishes,

D

[Hated Moron]

I felt that since you were now posting again on this forum I would leave it to you to decide which fora you chose to use for the announcement!

Not so long ago this forum was configured so that only admins can create new threads in the Announcements section (whilst all members can reply), which seems to me desirable. Especially so because the Announcements section is the only one visible to non-members, so would be a prime target for spammers (who quite often join simply to post their spam message, never to be seen again).

Even if that setting has been changed, which introduces a risk, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to try to overrule your preferences for what gets announced here. For example you might prefer to announce new releases of BB4W but not of BBCSDL, if that is representative of the interests of the vast majority of members.

In any case I already post announcements in the following places, which I think is quite enough!

• Distillery forum
• Raspberry Pi forum
• Raspberry BASIC forum
• Freeforums forum
• Facebook
• Twitter

For the last year or more I have relied on others to cross-post to the discussion group, which has happened quite reliably but for some reason not in the case of BBCSDL v1.30a.