what happened to VPforum?

[Joe]

The Visual Confirmation Code on the log page on Pinball Originals is not working.

EDIT now it is working.

 

[Noah Fentz]

... It's just that I would personally consider choosing a domain name other than "vpforums" out of respect for fairness and to avoid confusion.

...the site is too important to let die...

"VPforums" has been around a long time, but how much of its success can we thank AJ for lately? He has done more to piss enthusiasts off than help the community as a whole. That's why I chose VPforums.org. It's about being a part of an organization, not commerce. It's readily identifiable with the community at large.

I don't want to see this community die a slow, aggonizing death, and I'm not concerned with the history of VP anymore, but its future.

I consider sound-alike website names to be suspect as the practice is often used by malware sites.

Probably not the case for a community based on freeware.

 

[TheMcD]

Darn, it's so tempting... but I don't want to do that.... screw it.



CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGE!

Well, now I did it. Pulled one of the most obvious things to say.

The McD

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

You're not the only one to have had this thought cross your mind...

Someone doing something like that would probably not remain admin too long and probably net someone an IP ban at the very least...

heh... you never know. AJ being so disorganised and all.

seriously, if you really wanted to you could probably add it in there in a way that makes it seem legit, like¨"more help for new users at this address" after the listings for the two guides. or something like that. of course it doesn´t help that BBcode is turned off, making the new address more transperant. or that the new address has "vpforums" in the name.

I don't want to see this community die a slow, aggonizing death...

yea, it´s pretty-much been dying a slow agonising death for many years now.

although honestly, troubles with VPF is not the biggest reason IMO. randy´s disappearing act is the biggest reason, and one too many unpleasant people like pacdude running around is another. still another is the disappointing support and enthusiasm for originals as well as people´s chronic inability to work well together.

so... hmm. i´m not really sure how much of VP´s decline you can reverse with another website.
but still, the more sites the better.

 

[Noah Fentz]

I have to agree with you on the disappointing support and enthusiasm for originals, so I'll be including the ability to upload originals, too. I would like to see more original works in the future, since we're pretty much stuck at a recreation roadblock with SAM not being emulated.

Just hope a new site wouldn't ignore Future Pinball if they are called VPwhatever.com.

It is intended to be a forum for all things VP, but I, too, think the inclusion of a good Future Pinball forum will also be wise.

 

[TedB]

yea, it´s pretty-much been dying a slow agonising death for many years now.

although honestly, troubles with VPF is not the biggest reason IMO. randy´s disappearing act is the biggest reason, and one too many unpleasant people like pacdude running around is another. still another is the disappointing support and enthusiasm for originals as well as people´s chronic inability to work well together.

Hell no! The latest VP creations are absolutely stunning. I agree that VPF has its issues and it is not a good thing that Randy is hibernating for such a long time now, but that says nothing about the great work that has been done.
When i like to play a great vp table, I'm not searching for tables made in 2003,4,5,6 The best tables are very recent (with the exception of Scapino's tables and one or two Pacdude's)
2008 was the best year ever for any vpinball enthusiast, 2009 started great and I am thrilled to see a new JPG forum. Apearantly JP and Groni didn't share your views and I'm glad they don't.

 

[TedB]

I have to agree with you on the disappointing support and enthusiasm for originals, so I'll be including the ability to upload originals, too. I would like to see more original works in the future, since we're pretty much stuck at a recreation roadblock with SAM not being emulated.



It is intended to be a forum for all things VP, but I, too, think the inclusion of a good Future Pinball forum will also be wise.

I like the idea of a new forum and a new site for vp. Would like to see the different sites work together and also share each other resources.
Right now it is a bit of a mess to find the most recent version of a vp table. When all sites work together and provide the same content (tables) or at least give the link to the newest version. That would help a lot.

 

[yogiholzer]

The more VP (and VPM) forums are available, the more the community is probably split. I don't exactly like that idea, because I like to meet all the nice people I learned to know in the past ~7 years, not only, but mainly at one place and talk to them from time to time about any theme or just read their posts. Even if the main theme is and should keep pinball at a pinball forum, I always also enjoyed the outlane and I don't want to miss anything like that. I admit that I fear that the contacts will become less and that the places become more anonymus and that I don't feel home anymore anywhere, because I know that I don't manage to visit many several miscellaneous pinball forums. That can lead to me losing interests in posting anymore at all.

Actually PO isn't available here beside VPF, but I still believe both will be back soon. Then we would have:

PN (which already nearly brings everything that is needed in my opinion)
VPForums.com (old home)
PO
PU (as online tournament place)
futurepinball.com/forum
JPG-Pins forum
Scapinosvpins.com/forum
VP Discussion
VPForums.org
VPForums.net
and whatever I forgot to mention

Actually I don't look that much positive in future as most of you. Sorry! I hope it will proof to be different.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Hell no! The latest VP creations are absolutely stunning. I agree that VPF has its issues and it is not a good thing that Randy is hibernating for such a long time now, but that says nothing about the great work that has been done.
When i like to play a great vp table, I'm not searching for tables made in 2003,4,5,6 The best tables are very recent (with the exception of Scapino's tables and one or two Pacdude's)
2008 was the best year ever for any vpinball enthusiast, 2009 started great and I am thrilled to see a new JPG forum. Apearantly JP and Groni didn't share your views and I'm glad they don't.

that really has nothing to do with what i just said. there are many reasons why VP is great, but i was talking about things which have dragged VP down over the years.

if you knew what the community was like back in its heyday then you might understand better. and my views on the situation take absolutely nothing away from the latest splendid re-creations. you should consider yourself very fortunate that a couple of topnotch authors are still left after so many have been lost over the years.

 

[sleepy]

It don't look good for AJ. The address for "4dealhosting" is:

4dealhosting.com
5429 Earnell Street
Carmichael, CA 95608

I called 4dealhosting's customer emergency number and I got the Verizon "number changed or disconnected" message, so unless he's changed his number in response to us and others then this isn't just a server outage.

 

[bob]

I feel bad that Shocky doesn't know we are all currently banned from VPF. His last activity here was: 12-16-2008.



I always said the more forums the better, but I totally agree with Nic and Yogi's posts.

Personally, I've been using the time to update one of my tables and I'm thrilled with the way it's sounding.

niper:

 

[sleepy]

Me, I'm thinking that Ruby shoulda' never used that Kirk avatar at VPF.
It has become...prophetic.
VPForums - Where Are You?

 

[kristian]

Keeping a complete VPM table library ain't difficult....just upload all tables in alphabetic order to FileFront.com, which has unlimited hosting capabilities... it's 100% free hosting system.... you could make a thread here and keep the direct download links in it....including the screenshots....!!

It's just a matter of time/effort....anyone can do it...!! We're only talking about 2-3 Gigs of files...which is (relatively) small package by today's standards.

Another option is simply upload 'em here....if someone can make a list of missing tables I can help.... I have all VPM tables.

 

[Anthias]

a bit concerning really - a lot of history there at vpf.

And yess, PO is definitely patchy now, but we will continue working on a solution. We will not let PO die. Ideally I would like to see it change for the better, but this is all a matter of time.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Me, I'm thinking that Ruby shoulda' never used that Kirk avatar at VPF.
It has become...prophetic.
VPForums - Where Are You?

Damn! Ricardo Montalban dies, AJ "disappears"...coincidence? I think you're on to something, Sleepy!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I feel bad that Shocky doesn't know we are all currently banned from VPF. His last activity here was: 12-16-2008.

Poor Shocky. I'm kinda worried about him. I'm hoping he's more or less happy wherever he's at. Have you played pool with him at all, Bob?

 

[Mr. Pacman]

Hello to all! I'm happy to see that many of the VPF members are...this means that VPF is still alive in another form. I hope that more people will find PNF when they find out that VPF is down...

So, there are some bad things about the loss of VPF...the table database, the posts and Randy...I think Randy was only communicating within VPF, so now i don't think that he is going to search for us when he has a probably update...we lost him forever?

 

[destruk]

The vpforums server is hosted by the megaconglomerate "ThePlanet" - they are the backbone provider for numerous offshoot hosting companies - previously known as RackShack for one.
Anyway, vpforums.org shows an index page. When will this be available? And hopefully when it is Black won't ban mentioning it on his forums.

 

[Mr. Pacman]

The vpforums server is hosted by the megaconglomerate "ThePlanet" - they are the backbone provider for numerous offshoot hosting companies - previously known as RackShack for one.
Anyway, vpforums.org shows an index page. When will this be available? And hopefully when it is Black won't ban mentioning it on his forums.

Hi Destruk! What has Black to do with this ? What do you about ban?

 

[Noah Fentz]

The vpforums server is hosted by the megaconglomerate "ThePlanet" - they are the backbone provider for numerous offshoot hosting companies - previously known as RackShack for one.
Anyway, vpforums.org shows an index page. When will this be available? And hopefully when it is Black won't ban mentioning it on his forums.

Hey, Destruk.

I've been working hard on this for a while, and I'll be installing the forum later today. The download/upload section will be ready some time this weekend. I've got my top man working on it

We'll have unlimited bandwidth and storage to abuse as we please, and I won't let you guys down!

 

[blacky333]

Well, that doesn't sound too good, does it...

As a side job to my study I'm network administrator in two schools, so I guess I know a bit about that computer stuff :)

The VPF server still is up (IP: 75.125.131.242, responds to ping), but the webserver is not. So the machine is still on the net.
Also the traceroute is okay. It leads to the 75.125.131.242 server.

That means that the host is okay, the server is "up", but the webserver itself is not. And that's why we cannot access it.

The option that the webhost is skint or something then is not likely. The theory with the hack is more likely. Either someone killed the database and AJ decided to close down all access to the server, or they attacked the server with a DoS attack (denial of service) and there's some cleanup to do, before the server can go back online.


However, I hope they'll be up soon (even if I don't like AJ there's nothing more nasty than a hacked server)

 

[destruk]

Mr. Pacman - Black has banned any talk or direct links to vpforums' server for years now. Any link to visual pinmame is also met with censorship. I'm just saying since this new vpforums.org or vpforums.net site will have no direct ties to AJ or specific pinmame topic matter, hopefully he will allow a link in his forum to be posted occasionally. That is what it has to do with it.

 

[Mr. Pacman]

Mr. Pacman - Black has banned any talk or direct links to vpforums' server for years now. Any link to visual pinmame is also met with censorship. I'm just saying since this new vpforums.org or vpforums.net site will have no direct ties to AJ or specific pinmame topic matter, hopefully he will allow a link in his forum to be posted occasionally. That is what it has to do with it.

So, is he really the "second father" of VP? Why he did this? It seems that he wanted to destroy VP... I don't think that he managed to make something greater though...FP is only eye candy and it doesn't even work with Pinmame. I can't understand him...he seems a little selfish...

 

[Joe]

Well, that doesn't sound too good, does it...

As a side job to my study I'm network administrator in two schools, so I guess I know a bit about that computer stuff :)

The VPF server still is up (IP: 75.125.131.242, responds to ping), but the webserver is not. So the machine is still on the net.
Also the traceroute is okay. It leads to the 75.125.131.242 server.

That means that the host is okay, the server is "up", but the webserver itself is not. And that's why we cannot access it.

The option that the webhost is skint or something then is not likely. The theory with the hack is more likely. Either someone killed the database and AJ decided to close down all access to the server, or they attacked the server with a DoS attack (denial of service) and there's some cleanup to do, before the server can go back online.


However, I hope they'll be up soon (even if I don't like AJ there's nothing more nasty than a hacked server)

A few days ago the traceroute died before hitting the sever so maybe it just crashed and now needs the fourm software and web sever to restarted and or fixed.

 

[ANDROID]

I have been registered at Future and Vpforums for a couple of years and was downloading from Nirvana for quite some time, but I never have used there forums before now!!
I am impressed with the way things work, here, great download speeds, instant compression of uploads, avatars, pics etc, smooth running, and JP and Groni as others have always made their tables available here, with permission, couldnt this be home to Pinball?
I know the more sites the merrier but, fragmentation is never too good. I hope that the new Vpforums.org/net is as good as Nirvana seems to be.
Of course being new to the forums I havent seen the bugs yet, but the convenience is pretty good, Anyways, GOOD LUCK, Noah, and Valamir, I hope thats the admins, and THANKS FOR ALL YOUR NEW FOUND EFFORTS!!!
ANDROID, aka GAG