Board shutting down

[Andy]

I will be shutting down the board in the next few weeks. Hosting charges are increasing every year and the number of spammers has gotten to be too much of a chore to deal with. Thank you all for supporting the board all these years.

[Ally]

I will be shutting down the board in the next few weeks. Hosting charges are increasing every year and the number of spammers has gotten to be too much of a chore to deal with. Thank you all for supporting the board all these years.

Thank you so much for letting us know, and all the work put into maintaining this informative board. I've learnt so much from this site about birding and had so much fun interacting from all the seasoned birders.

[Dinusaur]

I'll be very sad to see it go. All the moderators and admins did a tremendous job in keeping it alive for so long. This is where I started my birding adventure. This is one board where I didn't see much of any egotism or controversy and everybody was very courteous and helpful. Plus different topics of discussion was a bonus.

[Shortsighted]

Members of this forum and its secretive satellite visitors are becoming an endangered species because they are rapidly losing their habitat due to the rabid activities of frustrated stupid people. Habitat is herein defined as a respectful platform for the exchange of ideas and insights by people who think for themselves and love to be persuaded to think otherwise. The study of physics tells us that the universe is perpetually experiencing a net increase in entropy despite localized examples of actual constructs, exquisite creations that confound the general program of spreading chaos. In society, there are also a few individuals that build things, from mental constructs to working systems, all for the benefit of others but with commensurate welfare. Sadly, the ineluctable destroyers advance en masse to deconstruct and malign the intellectual edifice provided by great builders like Andy. Such visionaries cannot be defeated and their constructs cannot be extinguished for long by internet trolls and the raging scamming menace that haunts the dark side. It is well within a great builder’s persona to survey the intellectual landscape and by this policy discover a clearing with potential to create something new, something worthwhile and what is needed for the creative and inquisitive among us, and then also to act as a caretaker of that temple. There is nothing nobler.

[thouc]

It's sad to see the board being shut down. I have enjoyed this site for almost 14 years.

Thanks Andy for hosting and everybody for the interesting discussions, reports and photographs.

What will happen to the posts? Will they be destroyed or saved, and in that case accessible?

/Thomas

[Dr. John]

I'm sorry to see this board close.  It has been a wonderful place to experience vicariously the better birding and photography of others.  Thanks to all the people who have run the board and thanks to all the members for your contributions.

[Leslie Kinrys]

As another old-timer, I am also sorry to see this site go. I have enjoyed sharing what I know and learning from all the rest of you folks. I will have to find somewhere else to post my nesting reports, if my local Red-tailed Hawks try again next year. Thank you Andy for all your hard work over the years.

[Kris Ito]

Thank you so much Andy for providing these forums for so long! I'm sure you have helped countless birders over the years by providing a friendly and supportive community. We are all going to miss this site. Thanks to everyone who has shared their love of birds and generous words of wisdom.

[TransAtlanticGoose]

Hi everyone! I have some potentially good news.
I've been talking with Andy this past week about the possibility of migrating this forum from the server he is currently renting, to one that I already have running for other projects.
It looks like it should be possible to retain all of the existing posts, private messages, user accounts, etc, but there may be a few cosmetic and procedural changes to how topics are viewed or posts are created. I'm endevouring to keep everything as similar and straightforward as possible, so as to reduce any kind of learning curve. However, because the server is shared with other websites/services, I can't use exactly the same forum 'engine' to run it. I hope you will bear with me and are willing to give it a try.

I'll post some updates in the coming days as I get it up and running.

[Ally]

Hi everyone! I have some potentially good news.
I've been talking with Andy this past week about the possibility of migrating this forum from the server he is currently renting, to one that I already have running for other projects.
It looks like it should be possible to retain all of the existing posts, private messages, user accounts, etc, but there may be a few cosmetic and procedural changes to how topics are viewed or posts are created. I'm endevouring to keep everything as similar and straightforward as possible, so as to reduce any kind of learning curve. However, because the server is shared with other websites/services, I can't use exactly the same forum 'engine' to run it. I hope you will bear with me and are willing to give it a try.

I'll post some updates in the coming days as I get it up and running.

Thank you! Thank you! I am in tears

[Dinusaur]

Good news indeed, thanks for the effort.

[Shortsighted]

Hope it works out son and that you don't regret coming to the rescue.
I'm sure Andy appreciates the help.

[chudymoose]

In this dark times of coronavirus, this is a wonderfull news for everyone on thes forum.
Thanks a lot for a ray of hope. We all need it and appreciated it!  

[Dr. John]

Thanks so much for trying this.  I'd be happy to deal with some changes in formatting if it allows the forum to continue.

[TransAtlanticGoose]

Hey everyone. I just thought I'd give you an update and let you know that the forum migration is going pretty well so far.

Could someone do me a favour and help me check to see if all of the settings have migrated properly here:  https://newsite.outdoorontario.net/
Mainly I'd like to know if other people can:
- Login correctly with your existing password
- Generally view various topics & posts
- Able to see photo's / attachments
- Able to make a post  (doesn't have to be fancy, as it will probably get deleted when I do a final copy of this site)
- Able to upload / post a photo
- If you're a moderator, are you able to moderate
- How does it look on your phone/tablet, if that's something you use to check the forum...

Also, there are a couple new options that I could use feedback on:
- Below all the various topics is a list of recent posts. I've set it to show the twelve most recent posts. - Should this list be longer?
- To the right-hand side of the banner image you should see a crescent-moon beside the search button. Clicking this will change the forums colour-scheme for easier viewing in the evening (where the otherwise bright background might be a bit glaring). Clicking it a second time will revert you back to the friendlier daytime mode. - If there is something that is hard to read with these colour-schemes, please let me know.