Now it's giving an internal server error instead. Something is definitely messed up there. AJ has seemed to be too busy for a LONG time now to maintan the forums, but apparently doesn't give enough access to the staff there to fix things themselves. They can't even add new entries to the Table site themselves. You have to wait for AJ and when he disappears, he disappears for long periods sometimes. Personally, I think he should either hand the forums over to someone else or at least give the staff full power to take care of such things. The problem with using other forums is getting people to actually MOVE. Even with VPFF, we only ever got around 2000 people registered, although we probably had more actual pinball content for a good year than VPF did until VPF lightened up and undid some of the damage they did earlier that caused VPFF to be formed. But it's a problem just telling people to go elsewhere as they don't seem to actually ever move.
Meanwhile, I'm not sure Shivasite is a good place for the main forums as it doesn't sound like it's about pinball at all. It sounds like it's about gaelic studies or something. I'm sure people have wanted to be polite and NOT point that out in the past, but if people are considering moving the main forums there well.... ShivaSite, ShivaForums, ShivaEngine... what does that have to do with Visual Pinball? Hey, why not PacSite, PacForums, PacWorld, Pac-Mania.... errrr then it sounds like it's about Pac-Man, not Visual Pinball. Personally, I think Visual Pinball forums should be called as such or similar or at the very least have PINBALL in the name (at least Pinball Nirvana has that).
I've never been too keen on self-edification in the VP world. People that incorporate themselves or create some "studio" name or something on their table releases and stick it on the apron or backdrop or whatever and then release tables that don't even look that good just look silly, IMO. Ah, another table by Dudley-Do-Diddley Studios, Inc. that looks like it was made by a 4th grader. Say, what's wrong with just being a good author or site administrator and getting a popular reputation that way? Maybe I'm crazy to think like that.... But if Visual Pinball Forums were suddenly just called "AJ's" well I'd think I'd arrived at a diner or nightclub or something, not a pinball discussion board. If I'm going to start donating money (instead of just tables) to preserve the VP community, I'd want it to at least sound like it's about visual pinball. Maybe then it'd have a chance to garner some traffic outside a small fraction of the existing community. Just my 2 bucks on the matter.