hello everyone
many apologies for the weeks of the down forum. i switched internet providers for preparation for the big redesign of the 12k website. sadly, the forum did not survive the transfer of servers. i spent many many (many) frustrating hours trying to recover and reinstall the data. sometimes i'd get part of the way there only to lose it all an hour later. after much time trying to recover it all i eventually gave up.
i knew that starting the forum from scratch was always an option but had hesitated because of the large amount of thoughts and discussions that would be lost. but in the weeks that have gone by i've found myself missing the forum and the informative, interesting and friendly community that had evolved. so i felt starting fresh, trimming down the boards and relaunching the forum as a blank slate was better than no forum at all.
i've put most of the boards back that you will remember from the old forum but also got rid of some. i've eliminated the gear selling board figuring there are better and more well known places to sell gear. i've eliminated the synth patch exchange board because it wasn't being used too much. of course, if there is a strong desire to get these boards back i have no problem adding them in.
i would also like to take this opportunity to add new boards or perhaps see if there is an interest in further separation of the boards that exist. for example, should the "ART" board be broken into separate boards for "photography", "architecture" etc? or is one board just a better way to get information? are there other topics you'd like to see covered? please post suggestions. i'd like to take this opportunity to make the new 12k forum better than the old one.
with that being said, right now member registration is set so that i have to approve each member. there were an awful lot of spammers and members who never posted in years of using the board. i'd like to weed these people out. when you register, if you have a website that is related to your art, please list it in the registration form as it helps me determine who is sincere and who is a spammer. as well, even if you're a well-loved artist, please avoid spam sounding user names like "Barbie804823" as i tend to band those people on sight.
lastly, i will be holding off on approving members for a few days as i try to customize the look of the forum and get it ready for launch, so please be patient in waiting for member approval.
and, one more thing, THANK YOU for being patient and coming back to check on the forum, i know there has been a lot of discussions here that have really been valuable to many people and i hope that the forum can be reborn into such an environment again.
- taylor
