Hey Guys,


I've been away for some weeks without a computer, and recently found out that BTTF.com's message board is having a big overhaul/upgrade thingy. Does anyone know when it'll be finished? I can't wait to get back on!




Lola

I hadn't been on for awhile before it went off so I didn't know it was off when I went there about a week ago. There is a new message in read now so it will probably be shortly.

Blind Spot, if you are reading this please repsond to my PM I sent awhile ago ASAP. Thanks.

Thanks Alt-I checked out the new message. Sounds really exciting and good! I can hardly wait! :D

Well on this subject, I have to say a big thank you to Alt for his e-mail sent today to remind us where this board is. :lorraine:

The bttf.com board has been down since before Christmas but I couldn't remember or find the link to this place at all so I was left alone & in the dark for weeks! (I tried all kinds of things!)

I was hoping somebody, anybody had my e-mail address and would get in touch to let me know this link so it was like an extra Christmas pressie when I got Alt's e-mail today - thanks!

I've been chatting on a holiday camp message board (Butlins, that is, for any UK members on here) for two weeks so it's so great to see some BTTF discussions again! :P

You're welcome. It's good to see you again, Kath. :marty:

I think that the BTTF.com message board should be up soon now that a new message is up I don't think it will be more than a week's wait. I wonder what new features are there?

It's good to see some familar faces around here again. :)

^ I concur, Chris.

I have to say this is the longest two weeks of my life, LOL. Fate would have it that I was getting bored/annoyed with BTTF.com lately, but having it NOT around has made me want it all over again. :)

Hi everyone! B)
I was in Germany over Xmas visiting family and was unable to access the Internet, only to find that when I got back BTTF.com was down.
Thank you very much for your e-mail, Alt. I had practically forgotten that I'd joined this place in May. :unsure: Sorry!
I find it hard to post on two BTTF boards, but I'll try and make more of an effort to come on here more often. :marty:
Hopefully BTTF.com will be back soon.

TWG

Tip from Weather Experiment: http://www.bttf.com/forums/

^I'm already there

So what do you guys think of the new one? Personally, I kinda like the old one better, as it had less (pointless) bells and whistles.

The new features of the new one are okay. I'm surprised Stephen didn't upload more avatars, though.

I gotta agree with Dovey - this is a bit annoying/disappointing.

Hate to be "negative" off the bat, but I almost got a migrane simply trying to navigate everything, such as the graphics and teeny buttons. Worse of all though is it takes 5-10 seconds upon even CLICKING on anything to take me to a new screen (and even then, a pop-up box comes up saying "Do you want to install....some software?" :rolleyes:

I'm sure it was designed to be more helpful, but it simply wasn't necesarry, IMO. I think, at very least, the best thing to do would have been to take a poll on who wanted the old layout and who wanted it changed, then to at least be courteous to let people know when the change was to take place.

I guess the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't register to everyone. :(

^ You're saying what I'm thinking.

Anyway, it is great that it's back, I just can't get used to the new look! (I'm a creature of habit & don't like change!)

It was nearly 3 weeks that it was gone and that's just too long! :rolleyes:

I'm kind of mad at Stephen, in a way, for his perception of how he thinks we prefer the board to be.

In his post here, he seems angry that we're not appreciative of his efforts (he uses that little "mad" smiley). I had to respond to that...I mean, it's not like the rest of the site doesn't matter, but he thinks it's more important when he should see that serving the fans always is #1. I mean, seeing as how many members there are and how many suggestions/complaints about the boards he gets, he should be able to see that no matter how much info he can put into the rest of the site, the fans are still going to only care about the only place they can interact with the site, and more importantly, each other.

I mean, just look at this message board. It was created and appreciated on its own. While its homepage isn't as extensive as that of bttf.com, I still think that a simple board like this is better.

I dunno...that post he made just kind of made me mad. It's like he doesn't get how important the board is to us, and I can almost guarantee that his site wouldn't get as much traffic if it wasn't for that board.

EDIT: BTW, Spotty, you should try using Mozilla Firefox for your web browser. It has a built-in pop-up blocker and I've just found that it's a better browser overall than Internet Explorer, safer, too. It's easy to install and import your setting from IE. I'd highly recommend it, and not just for the pop-up blocker. :happydoc:

^Boy glad somebody agrees.

Too much "flashyness" for me. I liked the simple posts with the avatars and such but now we don't have that. I can't even keep track on what I have seen or not. Going to the "New Post" link doesn't help, it just shows a list of topics in no real clear order. I need to start somewhere and begin posting but I can't decide, where to even begin.

And yes I can see Stephen might be a little angry because we like the message board then the other "News" links that have like a small story every week or so.

Plus with his recent post about how he likes the criticism when we take into the account how much we paid for these services. Something is up.

Man I would really like the time machine to just go back and use the old board for sure!

EDIT: BTW, has anyone found a way to see a list of the new newbies that are joinning very quickly I can see. I can only see the newest memeber so far, but maybe I am not high tech as some of you. :D :lol:

What have thay done to the board? I hate change, there was nothing wrong with the board so why change it? There's something wrong with it too. I apparently last visited it 35 years ago.

"You last visited: January 1st, 1970 at 12:00 AM"

Do I have a time travelling "other me" I don't know about?
:huh:
If so, I hope I can use their Delorean and travel back in time in order to pursuade Stephen not to change the board. I'm very disappointed :(

^ Thanks Warpie (you don't mind that nickname, do you? :) ).

I wholeheartedly agree. Like I said in my above post, I'm typically not a negative person, but I hardly can find a good reason for the upgrade. It was fine before, and I also think it was somewhat disrespectful of Stevie to not implement any warning whatsoever that (1) it would be down, (2) when, or (3) that we'd lose PM's and such. :(

B) Yay, I have a BTTF nickname. Yeah, Warpie's fine.

Maybe if everyone feels the same way we do we can pursuade Stephen to change it back.

Warpie or maybe Warpy is better. ;) :jen1:

I lost some special pms (inc. 3 from Jeffrey Weissman) and regained some I deleted months ago! :(

I'm slowly getting used to the new board and there are some nifty features BUT I don't see the need to have changed it. Why should I donate money to a supposedly ailing site when there's obviously money to spend on extras, like this.

I agree that it seems really hard to navigate (maybe we'll get used to it?). That's driving me crazy atm. Also, you have to press a couple of buttons to see who else is online now wheras before you might just glance up and notice someone & then pm them, now you'd have to constantly check. Annoying. :jen2: :huey:

I couldn't agree more, Kath. And then Stephen complained about US complaining--um, well who is he trying to serve? If I messed up on something, I would certainly want to know about it.

Thus far, I haven't donated anything to bttf.com nor have I bought anything from the store. IMO, this is something that Stephen WANTS to do, and if he wanted to make a website he should've been prepared to pay for it all himself. If I made a website as popular as bttf.com, I would certainly not expect to make a lot of money from donations and the online store. I would make a website as a hobby, something that I can support on my own. For that reason, I don't think it's right for him to "guilt" us into making donations just because we're not happy with something. The entire point of a website like his is to please the people who view it, and it sometimes it just seems like he doesn't care about us.

Sites that offer more services and free downloads of useful programs, IMO, deserve donations more than bttf.com does. LiveJournal, for instance, doesn't beg its users to purchase a paid account. Obviously they make sure you're aware of it, but they still try hard to maintain their free service without complaining about not making enough money. And it really does seem like they make sure you know what's going on behind the scenes to make the site better.

Sorry for going into a bit of a rant about bttf.com in general, but the new board and Stephen's attitude about our reactions pretty much brought my feelings about the whole situation out.

Yep. This is exactly the reason I'd rather not lose any sleep over it -- hence why my posts (and subsequent visits) at BTTF.com will be fairly infrequent from now on.

His recent attitude seems to state, IMO, that he's more into BTTF as a business as opposed to for the fans. To my knowledge, he rarely has had a lengthy response to a "Trilogy"-type question, and NEVER shared a story of how he became a fan, or why, etc.

I'm not a fan of his terse/sarcastic-worded responses to people (sometimes, it's tempting to do, but as a "professional", I don't think that's a good way to behave).

For instance, in the DeLorean Car Show topic last year, there were alot of [Aww I can't go. I didn't have enough time to know...] sort of responses. He replied with something to the effect of, "Oh, I suppose two years isn't enough." :rolleyes:

It's like, dude, take a step off your throne and realize, maybe they only joined the board -- or heck, even became a fan -- a month ago! Maybe they're 12-year-old kids who CAN'T just get up and go 1000 miles away at the snap of a finger.

Well, in any case, I'm through ranting, LOL!

Seeing as my account just.. vanished on bttf.com, I'm here now. And I have to say that I like this board better. Thanks for making it Alt!

Blind Spot, I agree with you.


I haven't been on the board as long as you guys, but from what I've seen and heard, Stephen can be a bit of a.....jerk. Yes, he did create the board and all, but as Blind Spot said, he needs to step off his throne.







Lola

^ Glad you agree Blackie (there I go with the nicknames again, LOL). :)

On one hand, I can respect what he does (I'm sure it's more stressful than it would appear to us), but he doesn't always make himself very approachable or likable.

There have been yet more rude responses today. I feel like we're not allowed to discuss it, which is really stifling.

Also, just thought I'd share this one with you guys;
http://www.bttf.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30075
It's another Delgado mine one!
We wouldn't have had that before the board went down - we had our stickys then. Now they have to find them all again and re-stick them.

LWD, Eastwood, Alt & Spotty - do we really want to continue with our pm system? I'm inclined to say no. Why should we put in all that effort when we're totally unappreciated & unsupported? I know we didn't do it for appreciation but it's an awful lot of work for a board we don't even enjoy anymore. :(

^ That's too bad, but thanks for letting us know. ;)

I can see Stephen's POV to a certain level. When you pour alot of work into something, then it's criticized, that can't feel good -- especially when it's your core "business".

However, I really think he needs to lighten up and be more objective to criticism (that's one of the best ways to improve facets of yourself). I sometimes liken his "lashing out" to a 5-year-old throwing a temper tantrum if he doesn't "get his way".

As for the welcome PM's - Chris & I talked about that recently and thought that since (a) the "search" feature is kind of obsolete now (along with the stickies, etc), there wouldn't be much reason to do it anyway.

On the bright side though, I think the slightly-over-a-year time we did do it tremendously helped strengthen the community, cut down on those kind of repeat topics, and helped people find their feet. It certainly wasn't a wasted effort. :)

However, I would agree that it would be kind of futile to continue now (besides, having to wait 10 seconds and click that "Install Macromedia" thing every time I clicked would have me goin' nuts, LOL!).

Yeah, I noticed that today, and I agree that it is quite stifling. Stephen responded very rudely to Joey when he said he didn't like the layout of the new board, even though in the post Stephen quoted of his, Joey mentioned things that he did like. Uh, okay...

And in the very repeat-thread you linked to, after I posted pointing out that there was another thread with the very same question, someone posted right after me saying that Stephen needed to go back and re-make our old sticky topics. When I saw that, I felt like I had to post again to sort of "protect" this person against Stephen's rudeness, so I said that Paul mentioned going back to do it himself.

And about the PMs, I'm kind of surprised that no one responded to my post in our thread at bttf.com, but I pretty much share the same mind-set as you, Kath. I'm not sure it's worth it to do anymore. Maybe we should reconsider once sticky topics are re-established and the search function is working properly, but until then it would be pretty pointless.

So my vote is "no": I don't think we should continue PMing newbies. I did like doing it, but it just seems so pointless now (not to mention impossible since I think newbies have PMs turned off when they first sign up).

^ 'pointless' sums it up. I just feel that nobody cares anymore :( The other members of the board seem perfectly happy with a million repeats and the admin don't mind so I just feel it's now a waste of our time to continue them even when things do settle down.

Like Spotty said, it was a good year while it lasted. I mentioned the idea over on another site I post on because they wanted to do something to make newbies feel more welcome (& they loved it!) so it's good to know our idea lives on somewhere out there.

Oh and just in case you were all wondering - nope, I won't be volunteering to welcome newbies on that other site at all! My newbie-pm days are over, I'm sure. :martyjr:

Woah....it's weird how things can change so suddenly.


I really don't feel attached to the new message board-not in the same way as the old one.

I am saddened by the change myself and I can't understand the need for it either. I, myself, had no qualms about how the old board worked. Now, I feel like I have to learn the feel of the place all over again.

Also, I can't believe Stephen's attitude on the matter. Up until now, I have really tried to see his POV on matters, even if at times he seemed a little uptight. However, I think he should have expected some sort of backlash concerning this.

1. We had no warning about the change to begin with.
2. The present system is more bothersome than the old one.

Besides, what good is it to have a discussion board if one isn't willing to listen to both sides of an issue? I don't know what is going on with Stephen and I hate to be negative about him, but it seems like anyone who disagrees with him lately is in the wrong. Or is it just me?

Hey guys, I'm back!
I had some spyware :( on my laptop which was causing the CPU to run at 97%, instead of the usual 4-7%. That's why it couldn't shut down.
I still haven't managed to get used to the new board, I am trying though. I couldn't believe the replies that Stephen was writing to people who don't like the new board. And there's this:

from thisBTTF.com article

The layout's just over 4 years old, how on earth is that tired and weathered?

Warpie :jen1:

I happen to like the new layout, mainly because it ties the website together.
Which is also why Stephen wanted it to be changed, I believe.

People like GrandmasterA, Joey (I believe) and others have complained in the past about the many layouts BTTF.com had. And everytime Stephen replied to one of these posts, he promised a new and improved BTTF.com.
After the release of BTTF.net he promised us the new BTTF.com to be ready soon.
He did actually "warn" us about the change, but not when it would happen.

I agree he was replying quite negatively when some people began to compæain about the new layout. Of cause, he had just used about 6 months (according to himself) and a lot of money to get it up and running, and then people tells him they rather would want the old layout back. I would also have been a little sad/mad about it, if I were him. However, I wouldn't have been showing it as much as he did.

The only problem I ever had about BTTF.com was the lack of response from Stephen and the mods. If they didn't like a topic they just closed it, without a warning or a reason why. Which caused many a "Why did you close my topic?"-topics...which got closed without a response. I know it might be a little annoying to tell the same reason over and over again each time you close a topic, but if you can't deal with such a small task, then you should consider whether you want to be moderator at all.
If we're not allowed to have a discussion, then tell us!
I only see posts from moderators in announcement-topics from BTTF.com or official BTTF news, like the DVD-release. There's one moderator, 11051955, I've NEVER seen a post from. I don't know if he's still around or not, but he sure keeps it a secret from us.

I am a regular visitor of the Game Maker Message Board, click here to view. Look how many rules and moderators they have. Heck, they have a whole section just with rules. Now, many of the users are not pleased with this, but it really helps the moderating job. The users can read what they are allowed to do and what they're not. That way the mods can have an argument to why a topic should be closed and they always remember to tell why a topic is closed.
If a user spams or violates the rules, he will get a warning and his/her warning-meter will go up. If the warning-meter gets too high, they get banned. This works very very good, and it keeps the board a nice to place to be for those of us who follwo the rules.

A year or so ago, the Game Maker forum-layout was changed , which caused the same discussions as the BTTF.com change.
The moderators and the creator of Game Maker himself explained why they did so in a decent and calm way. They allowed the critizisme and discussion to go on, and they responded back about their opinions.

What I'm trying to say is, I like the new BTTF.com, however I don't like the admin/mod mood towards the board's users. A sticky with a set of rules and a sticky (only one, not 12 like last time) with the FAQ and a little more support from the mods would really help the board.

I can understand if you don't like the new layout, but don't leave it because of a few negative posts from Stephen or because of a layout. At least stay around and see if you can live with it.
Note that I'm not defending Stephen, however I don't attack him either. I simply state that he reacted bad towards the complaints he got.
I simply believe the site/board have provided me with so many great moments, I think it is a shame, if the people who made some of those moments went mad about it.

Regards,
--RedSlicer
(first post on this board)

I never said I was leaving the board. I've been trying to get used to the new layout. It's just that I have been used to one layout over the last three years and the new board is a bit of a shock to the system.

I agree that Stephen could have responded better to the backlash, though. Yes, I suppose I would be a little sore if I were looking at things from his perspective. However, one must remember that you can't please everyone all of the time. There were members that hated the old layout and wanted a new one, while the rest of us were content with things like they were. We have a right to express our opinions, good or bad.

You've summed it up exactly perfectly.

I'm really upset that I don't feel 'at home' there anymore.

I wish more than anything that I could love the new layout - I don't want to cause a fuss, but... it's just not right somehow. The emphasis seems more on all the gadgets & whistles & bells, rather than discussion anymore.

That seems summed up most in the way we're that not even allowed to discuss the new layout. Okay, yes, we're allowed to say it's fab, but any comments about parts we're not so keen on are just squashed with a derogatory comment, rather than a "I understand what you're saying but that's out of my hands" (that would be so much more polite) :(

I know he has paid a lot of money to change it and is mad that some don't like it, but surely we have to be honest?

EDIT I didn't see this had now got another page so I've just read Redsclicers comments and I have to say what he says makes good sense too. I see you understand both sides, Redsclicer and I think you are right - it would be a shame to leave BTTF.com because of this.
The problem I'm having atm though is that I find it such a chore to visit & trawl through the posts atm that I'm so much less likely to visit in the first place these days.

However, I want to try and get used to it. I'm just finding it so annoying atm that I'm sadly not sure I ever will get used to it. (I hope I am wrong) :(

"The problem I'm having atm though is that I find it such a chore to visit & trawl through the posts atm that I'm so much less likely to visit in the first place these days."

That's part of my problem, too. Because my free time is rather limited these days, I'm not likely to visit a site that requires any extensive time to navigate.

I know he has paid a lot of money to change it and is mad that some don't like it, but surely we have to be honest?

I would think that he would prefer honesty to sugar-coated fakeness, but I guess I'm wrong. I'm sorry that Stephen felt offended, but as I stated before, all members have a right to their opinion whether he agrees with it or not.

;) This might cheer up people who don't like the new look BTTF.com. There's a site called "The Wayback Machine" which archives old websites. :D

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.bttf.com

Enjoy! :happydoc: :jen1: :marty:

^Jeez, that brings back some good memories. *sigh*.


I never realised how much I miss it!