what happened to VPforum?

[marv75]

Thanks Noah your site sounds awesome...will check it out when it's ready! Long Live VP/VPM!! :)

 

[TedB]

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.

I have been lurking the forums the first few years as well (registered with another name). I didn't participate in much discussions though.
JP is a relative new participant and I've seen more new authors joining and releasing pretty good stuff.

That you sometimes lose people on a forum is pretty normal. That there are still so many people visiting and joining the forum is a very good sign. TheMCD and Noah Fentz are very recent additions to the 'core team' and are doing a great job.
Don't hang on to the past, change can be a very good thing. IMO these are the heydays, maybe not if you count the amount of site visits or forum posts, but absolutely in the amount of quality VP releases and enthusiastic activities by new and old forum members.

Some negative posts are beginning to sound like a mantra that can turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. Keep the spirit up and show the authors and people taking some initiative the credits they deserve.
Good times :)

 

[TedB]

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.

Sound like a good idea...

 

[marv75]

Hey Kristian we need your Cybernaut table it's not here yet! :)

 

[TheMcD]

R.I.P. VPForums.

The site now redirects to a Miss America site... it can't get any worse for VPForums.com now...

The McD

 

[GravitaR]

Same deal here, just tried it and MISS AMERICA! At least it could have been redirected to the "ahem" good MA pics

 

[panootz]

I was just at vpforums, it looks like it turned into a Miss America web site. I have a link to the site on my desktop check it out. Something strange is afoot. Well gotta go bye. Dave P.

 

[Noah Fentz]

Well, the good news...



Still have a ton of work to do, but it'll be up soon enough!

 

[yogiholzer]

The Miss America site has a forum (Community Hall) as well. Shall we register and talk about pinball there? :girly:

 

[bob]

At least it could have been redirected to the "ahem" good MA pics

What a coincidence, I am updating MA.... Pic below.

 

[TheMcD]

Good to see everything's going according to plan, Noah.

VPF.com going dead was quite awkward, and came to the most fitting point.

The McD

 

[TheMcD]

Whoa, quite some stuff going on here... 19 members viewing this thread... rush hour time!

The McD

 

[mrschultz]

That's hilarious, even when you click on links it shows up as www.vpforums.com in the address, so it's not a redirect, there's a copy of the miss america site on the vpforums server...

IP addresses for missamerica.org and vpforums.com are different, but you get the same wep page with both.

Later,
Marty

 

[yogiholzer]

Well, the good news...



Still have a ton of work to do, but it'll be up soon enough!

:bunch:

 

[TedB]

Great job, Noah Fentz!

I think it is a good thing if vpforums.com is not coming back again. That will force people to go somewhere else.

Will it be possible to merge content from the old forum (in archives) into the new one?
There is some great content in the old forum (tutorials etc), would be nice to have this available somewhere.

 

[TheMcD]

It would be possible if we ever get back to the old forums.

Seems they're gone for good now.

The McD

 

[TedB]

Well I was thinking about something like google cache. I have seen reports of people rebuilding their site from the cache. But I think it already took too long and a full recovery is probably not possible.

 

[bob]

Nostalgia...

A Pic of my favorite forums at one time. Look, even AJ was there. :)

BTW, AJ hadn't logged into VPForums since Sept. 30, so unless someone with his phone number gave him a call, this could go on for awhile. I don't know who has it, it was never listed in the staffroom.

 

[Noah Fentz]

I wish I had been around in those days. Somehow VP eluded me for WAY too long. I often wonder how many tables I'd have under my belt by now, if I had been there.

 

[yogiholzer]

I stil have some (by far not all) older stuff from earlier days, VP, PM, VPM, vpvbs, ... . I also have a few older tables, but I'm sorry, nearly just only VPM tables. If there's the need of anything, feel free to ask by PM.

Here's the text file I posted in a VPF thread to TheMcD at last to help to elaborate the history of VP. It possibly contains nearly all posts of Randy at VPF including VP release posts, but also unneeded content. I added the time of the posts manually. I don't know if it's still from interest, but I thought it's better to have it available here, than only in my backups.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I have been lurking the forums the first few years as well (registered with another name). I didn't participate in much discussions though.
JP is a relative new participant and I've seen more new authors joining and releasing pretty good stuff.

That you sometimes lose people on a forum is pretty normal. That there are still so many people visiting and joining the forum is a very good sign. TheMCD and Noah Fentz are very recent additions to the 'core team' and are doing a great job.
Don't hang on to the past, change can be a very good thing. IMO these are the heydays, maybe not if you count the amount of site visits or forum posts, but absolutely in the amount of quality VP releases and enthusiastic activities by new and old forum members.

Some negative posts are beginning to sound like a mantra that can turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. Keep the spirit up and show the authors and people taking some initiative the credits they deserve.
Good times :)

my attitude is probably somewhat negative about the potential of the VP scene but the same would probably be true for anyone else who has worked on or been aware of serious problems confronting any project that have gone unsolved year after year.

so you've been lurking for a long time. good for you. how many of the serious problems in the scene did you personally attempt to help fix? not to mention your information seems misguided- the average number of member visitors and the average number of working original authors and working re-creating authors have both been consistently dropping since around 2003.

anyway, if you want to be a VP cheerleader then that's fine but please don't leave it at my doorstep. i was speaking of serious issues confronting anyone who is thinking about putting major effort into a VP site project. i wanted them to be aware of the difficulties inherant in the situation, which hopefully they are. because i don't want someone to put a lot of effort into something for the VP scene and then run out of gas when it doesn't turn out quite like they envisioned, ultimately hurting the scene. that's kind of a theme around here.

 

[yogiholzer]

Just before I decided that a change can also be a chance for good or better as well. Because of that I offered my help to Noah Fentz and TheMcD (and/or others) to collect informations and files. I still don't want to mourn the last occasions/incidents regarding VPF anymore, but look into future positive. VPF really seems to be history actually and who else than some of the veterans like me can offer some of the needed informations and files?

 

[ValamirCleaver]

i was speaking of serious issues confronting anyone who is thinking about putting major effort into a VP site project. i wanted them to be aware of the difficulties inherant in the situation, which hopefully they are. because i don't want someone to put a lot of effort into something for the VP scene and then run out of gas when it doesn't turn out quite like they envisioned, ultimately hurting the scene. that's kind of a theme around here.

Nic, Noah and I had a very long discussion concerning this point and the point you've raised earlier in this thread when Noah first proposed this to me. We both just want a place the is reliable and inclusive as possible, something that we both felt and it seemed others agreed.

Miss America???...

 

[Joe]

now this is showing up

ERROR

The requested URL could not be retrieved

While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.vpforums.com/
The following error was encountered:

• Access Denied. Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect.

Your cache administrator is webmaster.

Generated Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:46:46 GMT by cache1.tp.missamerica.org (squid/2.7.STABLE5)

 

[Noah Fentz]

I stil have some (by far not all) older stuff from earlier days, VP, PM, VPM, vpvbs, ... . I also have a few older tables, but I'm sorry, nearly just only VPM tables. If there's the need of anything, feel free to ask by PM.

I have over 400 tables, both VP and VPM, from all eras. There won't be a shortage of tables, since I know I'm not the only pinhead in the room. Combined, I'm sure we have them all.

... anyone who is thinking about putting major effort into a VP site project. i wanted them to be aware of the difficulties inherant in the situation, which hopefully they are. because i don't want someone to put a lot of effort into something for the VP scene and then run out of gas when it doesn't turn out quite like they envisioned, ultimately hurting the scene. that's kind of a theme around here.

I realize VP has been on the decline for some time, and it's not solely AJ's neglect of VPF. I do believe with a couple of good sites, we can sustain and build the community again. Between PN and VPF.org, I feel the community can thrive again.

Look at me...

I came into the scene in Oct. 2005, and I'm just finishing my first table, with two others on the way. I can't be the only one with a growing interest.

It would be great if Randy stayed in touch and updated more often, but that shouldn't take anything away from what's possible now with VP. Look at what JP, Groni, Scapino, TAB, destruk, and others are doing. There's a lot of life left in VP, in my opinion. It's just a matter of sparking interest.

I only asked one newb question at VPF, and with the response, it took a year and a half for me to post again. How can you build a community like that? For this community to grow, it will require newb-friendly tutorials. The VP community has a shortage of them, and the best people to compose them are the members who still remember the difficulties and overcame them.

I also think the lack of support for originals hurt the interest level.