what happened to VPforum?

[Isaac Sauvage]

@arne,
all bmath (i think that was his name) wanted to do was to spam up the forums a little bit, but i made a point of headlining and stickying his announcements on the front page. i did that because we were all so desperate for VP to move forward, of course, and that was the closest thing going at the time. bmath was so appreciative that he actually added my handle to the digital display of the ultrapins shipping out, something which i found kind of absurd but amusing.

anyway, AJ had very little involvement on what the headline posts were going to be, other than usually stepping in to upload the latest VPM release and post an announcement. a couple times he posted what i thought was very trivial stuff, so i removed it from the front page.

but i seriously doubt there was any special arrangement between ultrapin and AJ. if there was, the least AJ would probably have done is to let us admins know about it... know that we should be cooperating with these guys instead of leaving it completely up to our whim.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

As I recall TMFP did say in the outlane that the AJ had talked about closing the site, but there is no point in discussing it now. I guess I could be mistaken about what TMFP actually said. It's all water under the bridge now as far as I'm concerned.

agree, water under the bridge, although it did just hit me--

AJ had indeed talked about passing the site on a couple times and there was a certain amount of public discussion about that now and again. IIRC mrfixx and valamircleaver both stepped up to be the next site hosts at various times, then AJ eventually changed his mind in both cases because he didn't want to give up his "baby." that's a direct paraphrase from a conversation i had with him about that issue.

if AJ had actually been willing to give up his site to the next guy, the scene might be considerably different today.

 

[Shockman]

The next guy? You say that as if there was a next guy, or should have been.
If you give up your wife, for the next guy, things would be different too.

 

[sleepy]

What happened to ValimirCleaver over there?
He was involved with the .org and then dropped out, or ???

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

What happened to ValimirCleaver over there?
He was involved with the .org and then dropped out, or ???

he's still chillin' on the west coast, becoming a karate master and learning guitar.

one of the few people i've kept in touch with in the scene.

OTOH, no idea what happened to mrfixx, gottlieb, plumb, kinsey and those folks. i do see jay's site and kinsey's site still up, however. his chat room looks like it still works....

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I think you forgot the most important reason for Valimir's abscene: hot new girlfriend. At least that's how he explained it when he posted a picture of her! Kinsey's popped in now and again at org, but nothing regular.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

most important reason was actually something else, but i'd rather not go in to it publically. one could always PM him or something if one wanted to...

good to hear kinsey's still around. she's one tough broad considering her health stuff. of course i'm not far behind her, so i might have to reach around and pat myself on the back on that. :D

 

[Shockman]

I don't care why any more than I care why a few more pears grew on my tree. The SOB not only edited one of my posts, but changed the words, then wrote a warning making it look like his name tag was on the edit merely because of the warning. It made me believe in God when VPF shut down at the time he was going to admin. it. He picked up too many evil habits from the previous staff, and like all the others, wanted to out do the others in that respect. Especially one nicolas.b. Ike, you weren't around when he was so just take my word for it.

 

[StevOz]

 

[Pin-addict]

 

[StevOz]

Well ponies aside...

VPF was going down, fires, no backup, no maintenance, hell if it was a baby...

Before the final nail the site was hacked and AJ restored the forum without any ability to restore the attachments, say good bye to 80%+ of the database.

Oh and the new download/upload VPM database completely separated from the forum software without the ability of any admin or authors to update screenshots of new updated releases...

Need I go on?

 

[StevOz]

Oh and looky here....

 

[XNIF]

If people find it hard that a lot of the work is done... they could try to save what they can with the wayback machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060806071954/http://vpforums.com/forum/index.php?

 

[StevOz]

Well now we have the .org a semi commercial operation, most seem to be AOK with that go figure? Hopefully it's still a profitable on going concern.

 

[elton]

Well, it's still ongoing. Most of the members I don't know, most of the articles are of no interest to me ..... but having said that, it's been years since I played VP.

 

[sleepy]

Yea elton. I was wondering where you've been.

Most of the members are not involved with the process. So there is little to share or to discuss.
And, I dunno why this is. But most of the BBB topics are Dull as dishwater. But we don't need no arguments.

 

[Itchigo]

Well now we have the .org a semi commercial operation, most seem to be AOK with that go figure?

People want their downloads so they won't complain. You can get stuff free, just slower (speed is cut).

As for the old vpf, this is from AJ himself, last summer. (Part of a conversation with me). By the way he's much better now. He just wants to stay incognito, and enjoy the tables.

I haven't said hello to any of the old crew - I think they would have my head for the disarray I caused in the community! I'm sure they think I abandoned everything, which I did - but for a few good reasons. The headaches of the problem children on the forum were getting to be old. The forum was up for 7 years! I was also in the middle of a long, bitter divorce. I moved across the country. I spent months trying to find a job. Any money I did have went to my daughter and stacking bills. It took me awhile to recover. In hindsight, I should have handed it off to one of the guys. Instead, the server company wiped everything after 45 days of non-payment. I only had bits and pieces of a backup. I did find a directory of all the old tables from the time just before vpf went down. I'm sure some people would understand. I've read through every post out there about VPF.com and anything that referenced my name. I saw a few were concerned for my health and welfare, but most had the attitude of "fuck that piece of shit!".

Now Shiva is at Rogue along with AJ. Is this a sign of the end times?:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0POXW4V1_k

 

[elton]

@Itchigo ... A very nice post and update on AJ.

@Sleepy ... retirement has brought about many things and seen many 'hobbies' fall by the wayside; VP has fallen for the time being but will probably be back.

At the moment:

* lawn bowls takes up a considerable amount of my time as I try to recover my stamina;
* gardening in any nice weather that's left after bowls;
* travelling, or at least planning it, takes up lot of time; and,
* family matters and life in general takes up the rest.

I do pop into different forums now and then but as you mention BBB holds nowt for me anymore.

VPUniverse and Rogue Pinball is where a lot of the like-minded old crew can be found ... especially in the chat room. But again, I am spending less time there also.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

isn't that his exact same 'new explanation' from a couple years ago?

shoot, "AJ"-- couldn't you have spiced it up with some gangland shootings and genetic splicing this time around...?

such a slacker.

 

[elton]

Well, I for one did not know the explanation from a few years ago ... so this is 'new' to me.

Recall the vpf days as great fun with a sprinkling of argument :)

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

now how is the ghost of elton going to keep up with anything when he only floats through the scene every couple years...?


guys, do you have a suggestion...?

 

[elton]

The ghost of elton made an appearance in Michigan this year with the VPU Avengers; if it was worth mentioning, I was told, and if it wasn't, it was ignored .... simples really

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

yeah, if you say so.

but hey i have no idea what a "VPU avengers" is, so you're way ahead of me there. :)

 

[Itchigo]

Left to Right: Tamoore (Thor), Rascal (Hulk), Elton (Hawkeye), Wildman (Captain America), Rawd (Black Widow), and Itchigo (Ironman).

Rawd, Elton and me standing in front of my car at the hotel.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

haha that's cool.

elton you look like a shipping tycoon or something. and not very ghost-like.