dallashistory

Let me recap.

Years ago somebody came to the Dallas Historical Society with the idea of a Message Board, so that interesting topics of History of Dallas and Texas could be discussed. It would be an excellent tool to gather little bits of History that authors did not have, and would be an excellent Research for students, authors, the press, and those that were just interested in History.

WebBBS was selected as the software, and the software was actually free for the DHS. The Message Board was maintained by a gentleman in Omaha (I still have no idea of his name), on a web server he selected. DHS paid for the server service, and space.

There was a crash of the Message Board about 1999, and many of the regular members actually contributed private money so that the Message Board could be re-started. The money went for disk drive / server space, which in 1999 was more expensive.

However, the Dallas Historical Society never had the board on their own servers. They were also unable to change the board, add disclaimers, or control the board, other than through the gentleman in Omaha.

As many of you are aware, volume on the Message Board has increased tremendously. The subject matters have always included things other than History, but recently these other subjects have been dominating the board. Some of the long-timers have felt that the board should be dedicated to History, and say that is what the DHS intended.

Recently the Message Board has had problems, probably related to the dramatic increase in volume. Additionally, the DHS staff have been unable to contact the Omaha gentleman who maintains the board.

With the recent Board problems, and a great increase in complaints about the Message Board, and "inappropriate topics/postings", and the inability of the DHS to directly control the board (such as posting a Disclaimer), the Dallas Historical Society has been "distancing itself" from the Message Board the last several weeks.

They took the link to the Message Board off of their Main Home Page. This alarmed many of the users, who accessed the Message Board from the Home Page. Eventually, they restored the LINK, after receiving many questions and calls from users.

However, due to volume (probably) the Message Board is still having problems. It now requires that you clean out your cache and cookies, and set your Preferences to view 2 years of messages, to even see any messages in the index. Even then, we currently see about 11 months. This problem continues, and the Message Board appears to be failing.

Linda then went out and found us this Forum. It is not associated, or sanctioned, by the DHS in any way. It is simply a place where our "Dysfunctional Family" of DHS Message Board posters can continue to meet and exchange information. It is not a "replacement" for the DHS Message Board, which is still failing. It is just another alternative.

I hope that we can save the DHS Message Board, as it is a treasure of information about Dallas and Texas History. The DHS is also trying to save it, but at the same time, they want it under their control and rules. As such, they may state an "intent" to focus only on HISTORY, and discourage the "chat-type" of use it had become. In that case, this Forum is available.

We are on our own, in that we are not sponsored by anyone. However, we are still subject to the uses, and rules, that Linda has set up for this Forum. Linda has said that she wants the "Dysfunctional Family" to control this Forum and establish rules based on a Majority. This majority appears to want a board without vulgarity, sexual content, bigotry or personal attacks. (In other words, social responsibility and civil behavior.)

But keep supporting the old DHS Message Board, as long as it survives. And welcome to this Forum, as well.

Thanks for the explanation Jerry. I didn't change my cache or cookies, only the 2 year preference. Runs ok though it's a pain.

Jerry, Thanks for the Recap, of course I would like to see the old board survive, especially the old messages which have a wealth of information. The new Forum seems to be working well and has quite a few nice features so hopefully we will have two boards, guess we will wait and see.....Bill Strouse

Hello, everyone ...

This forum is as smooth as silk, now

I have a question: will minimizing the screen here if one needs to step away for a few minutes prevent another user from being able to sign on? I'm wondering if there might be a volume limit for the site. If so, I'll be careful to avoid doing this.

Thank you,
Holly

"Most users ever online was 17 on Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:46 pm"


I am assuming ,since this is on the bottom of the index page, that there is no limit to the number of posters online at one time, I often minimize my windows also so if that is a problem someone please let me know.

I minimize all the time or just stay signed on all the time and I have never read or heard that it's a problem--but then I am no techie.
So glad just to see you two here again. We need to get some good chatty topics going--whether it's a "remember when" or whatever.

Thanks for your input, you two ... and sorry for my double posting. Would remove it if I could

Holly

I. for the first time, got a blank page when I went to the old DHS Message Board. I went to their home site, redid my preferences to 10 years as told to do, and still blank.
Anyone else? Any ideas?

Hi Sharon....
I have my preferences set to 3 years and haven't had a problem with the DHS board in forever. Other things which might cause a problem are your anti-virus settings. Might check how it handles "cookies". They are important in some boards and I think DHS may be one. If they are cleaned at the end of a session that may create a log-in problem next time.
Goood luck getting back in there. Still a few interesting tidbits showing up from time to time.

Thanks Travis.
I redid preference and did the "cookie" thing--still blank.
Btw, miss hearing from you.

I went back to preferences--again--reset to 3 years, newest first, no frame and I am back on!. Go figure. Thanks, Travis!

The old board appears to be down completely now. Does anyone know what the future for it holds?

I noticed it was down yesterday (01-17-09) and was hoping it was just for some maintenance or updating of server/software. I was using it earlier last week just fine. Really a shame to lose so much regarding Texas and Dallas history that has been accumulated there over so many years.

Fred

It might be maintenance but with it being just after the beginning of the new year I'm thinking the worst. I'm not gonna hold my breath. The powers that be have wanted it gone.....

From The Dallas Historical Society's own Home page:

We are moving toward the next generation of web services, a generation marked by user collaboration and sharing. Ultimately, much of our writing and activity on Facebook will be incorporated into a new Dallas Historical Website - a website built in part by its visitors, a website that allows virtual access to significant parts of DHS archives and museum collections. Let's get started!

The MY HOMETOWN project has it’s origins in the DHS message board. Since the board was created over 10 years ago, almost 70,000 messages have been posted to the site. Unfortunately, the site is currently in a state of crashing in on itself. The free internet software used to create it is out-dated and no one has been able to help DHS locate where the scripts are being stored or how to archive the messages currently posted.

Therefore, DHS started trying to move the message board (or at least it’s users) into the 21st century. We have made “test sites” using Blogger, MySpace and Facebook. Although, none have been as successful as our original message board, these new mediums have allowed us to reach new audiences. With new audiences, however, comes new “problems”. For example, our group membership on Facebook is very young (18-35) compared with the typical user of the original message board (55+). While some message board users have made the switch to Facebook, many are still choosing to post to the old board (despite its dying state) instead of the new Facebook page. The “younger” members are posting little if at all.

Many responses to our MY HOMETOWN requests have been received via email or in hardcopy. In the fall of 2007, DHS was choosing one or two responses to highlight in our biweekly newsletter. Several more were posted to the DHS Blog and/or Facebook to try to elicit more participation for the project.

HAH! Over the last 2 years I have accessed the "archived messages" numerous times and copy pasted them when needed. (Witness our own "Shanghai Joe thread).

I think it was probably more an issue of not having the desire--man power, money, time etc.

Tis a shame because there were literally 1000s of great informative posts and human interest comments on every conceivable topic by a huge variety of people from experts to lay--but all lovers of Dallas.

(It was THANKS to a post on the DHS Message Board that began and opened up the T.L. Marsalis world which led to Jim Barnes and my paper at Legacies.)

Building a new forum that could fill a similar niche as the old DHS forum might be impossible to accomplish now, regardless of the hosting site. The new era of online computing that existed in the days when DHS message board was born and took its first steps was a special time in history when, partly by good fortune, a few knowledgeable and motivated individuals, hobbyists, and amateur historians generously contributed freely of their wisdom, experience, and memories to a small community of largely like-minded individuals. I fear that those early days of community engagement are now gone with the wind.

I'm surprised that they haven't investigated using twitter

I've said it before, but I repeat it again. In any online community approximately 10% or less of that community are active participants. the rest enjoy sitting back and watching. No matter what you do to get them to engage ie participation, the numbers rarely go above 10% if that much.
even the Yahoo group that I own has sporadic participation.

I noticed the old site was down yesterday. Say it ain't so? I really don't think the DHS has their collaborative heads together on a replacement. Especially since the demographics of the facebooks of the world are for us young 'uns. Not to say that is only for young people, as we all know some of you (no names) have facebook pages. Har har! TO me, those type pages are harder to navigate for the purpose of posting a message to a board.

Well, now ... somehow this little homespun quilt/community has taken shape. Yours, mine and ours ~ pegged by Miss Linda Sue ... with no corporate sponsorship. We just had this heartfelt friendship circle .... the threads of which were deemed golden by us.

Cedar called me in to this special, because she felt i was being left out of the circle of freinds that should know and realize what is our heritage...

This is a C ommunity of Dallas people, that have a right to find themselves in company with other folks who are seeing it transfrom into the future.... now what that event may become, we are making that statement, and if someone can find a way to exstract the meaning and future of this program.then we have lived a life of quality and with good intentions I feel and hope and share......A/T.

I can't wait for the video-version special ... but I'll try not to pester

Toby has just emailed me, and the DHS is actually trying to take all of the old Message Board and move ALL of its contents over to a new Message Board. Hopefully they will do the text of the messages, and not just the headings/titles.