Happy Birthday FutureQuest!

[Deb]

:hehe:

Yep...today (June 11th 2001) is FutureQuest's Official Birthday and we've got the new forums online for it :)

Now...there are bound to be errors...so please visit me at
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8337

What do you think of the new design?

Deb
- Too tired to talk :P

[Joe]

The site looks great. This new BB is pretty spiffy too! 8}

And a very happy birthday to FutureQuest. May you have many more.

Joe.

[sheila]

Whoa! This is going to take some getting used to.
Great look. The time zone is wrong...I guess maybe that's something I have to configure in my user profile? I will check it out.

Hey, next time you decide to take the forums down for 8 or so hours, you might give advanced warning! ;)

Good job so far!

Happy B-day FQ!

[Terra]

Hey, next time you decide to take the forums down for 8 or so hours, you might give advanced warning!
And take the surprise and suspense out of it?

No way.... ;)

--
Terra
--Was in mod_rewrite heaven tonight--
FutureQuest

[YFS200]

It's so.......BIG .



I will post more when the shock wears off.



YFS

--Options, options.

[YFS200]

AHHHHHHH. First screw up on the new BBS.

Drat.

YFS

[jimbo]

Wow! This looks great! I'm very shocked by the switchover too! ;)

Oh, and a very happy birthday to FQuest, and here's to many more!

-jim

[Terra]

Jim, turn on your ICQ.

--
Terra

[Deb]

Hey TeRRa, this forum has private messages for posts like that :]

[jimbo]

Originally posted by Deb:
Hey TeRRa, this forum has private messages for posts like that :] Hey Deb, this forum has private messages for posts like that ;). j/k, I was gonna say the same thing to Terra :).

-jim

[Arthur]

I would like to add my congratulations and compliments. The site looks great, the new vBulletin is great.

:N
--
Arthur
-- May you never be sat upon by elephants. --

[Deb]

Originally posted by jimbo:
Hey Deb, this forum has private messages for posts like that ;). Ya know it just dawned on me..... I could have just spoken out loud and skipped the messaging completely. After all he is sitting less than 3 feet away from me :P

Deb
- It's just more fun online

[0degree]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FQ!!!
Congrats on the new forums, colors are excellents and a really nice logo on the top but no light bulbs:waa: !! (or am I missing something?)

Is it just me or are there too many parrots as avatars? :P
And Terra, I don't know what your avatar represents. First impression was a spider but know I question whether it is some kind of leaf?

As always, very good work!

Tony.

[LightGuide]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FQ!

I just took a prowl around the forum and the site.

This is gorgeous work!

You guys just keep getting better and better...

All my best,

etLux

[0degree]

Oops, just noticed the new "light bulbs"! I'm really happy now! :o

Tony.

[Joe]

For me at least, the light bulbs finally work. They were perpetually on with the last board - whatever I tried. :D

Joe.

[Tatu]

(~

In the great words of Steve Martin, "Wow! Wowoohohow! Wow! All I can say is wow!"

This takes FutureQuest to the next ultimate level.

Great new forums. Since the dust puppy has already been claimed, I must claim Blinky, the three-eyed fish. I was slightly disapointed to go through eleven or so pages of avatars only to find one Simpsons reference. :P

Tatu

--
Steve Martin deserves an Oscar.

[frankc]

Hearty congrats to FutureQuest on their 3rd birthday, and many, many more to come. You are living proof that hard work, trust, truth and openness really do work! :D

It's your birthday, but WE got the present--the new vBulletin Board. Nice work, and terrific new logo at the top.

[one2net]

Hello,

Great new site and great enhancement. Transition was also handled promptly and efficently. Happy birthday to FutureQuest and keep on the good work.

PG

:y

[Mandi]

Looks Super!!! Gotta scope out the FQ board before I upgrade this week! Off to explore . . ..

[zmax]

Hey Cngrats and Happy Birthday!!!!
(Did it say how many years now?!?!?!)

And Terra is a Shadow!!!!! Yikes!!!!! :P

I gotta get me one o' dem avatar thingies!


David
http://www.worldwidecat.com

[DB]

Happy Birthday, FutureQuest... and many, MANY more!

One of my sites celebrated it's third birthday last Wednesday. It will be a pleasure watching our "children" grow-up together. 8}

[zmax]

It said in the options that you have to have 200 posts to have your own custom avatar. Why is that? How about 50 posts? Or 92?! :)
Yea Im now 108 posts away from having my own custom avatar!!! (Unless "they" change that . . . .:P )

David

[Tatu]

The features on these boards are so great... the only thing I could want more is spell-check!

[Bob]

Hey Tatu,

You really ought to check out "QuickSpell", I am not very good in that area and TeRRa quickly pointed me to towards it when I first started with FutureQuest.

http://www.fornada.com/html/quickspell.html

You can download a trial version, here:
http://www.fornada.com/html/downloads.html

It's more than worth the $24.95 US for the registered version, and I wouldn't dream of not having it on a computer I am using on a daily basis.

It works as a spell checker, on the fly, in every application, from web browsers to notepad and any others you may use. It really is a must for a "Spell Challenged" person like myself :)

Hope this helps,
Bob

- Geezzz, If I had this in school......... I might have passed :P -

[koala]

I just }{ the new site and the forums - great job :)

Any chance of having the nice yellow hover link background like the old ones?
More importantly though, could we have a more distinctive visited link color, so it's easy to see where we've been?

Cheers :\

Simon

[Patrick]

My Opinon:
Way to many graphics on this new VBulletin thing. My eye's just hurt trying to find the message somebody wrote and who wrote it. KISS!(Keep it simple stupid). It also seems to take much longer to load the individual pages. The board was always was a great place to quickly use the "Search" function to find answers.
Design does not always follow function
Remember: Just one of the many FQ users opinion.

[BOF]

Congratulations on the new-look site and on your third anniversary. Thanks for past service and a 'toast' to the future.

Best wishes to all.

[Benj]

Great work FQ !! You really deserved a new look.
Also congratulation on dumping finally this lame UBB for Vbulletin !! Its so much better.

Great job !

[Bob]

Hi Patrick,

One of the VB options is that under your profile you can change many options, one of which is to disply/not display all the graphics and smileys.

You may want to take a look at that aspect. Also if you are using Netscape, it's definitely going to be slower because of the nested tables, which NS does tend to choke on.

Deb hopes to eventually make a couple of different template options that you would be able to select, also under your profile, that would help speed up the downloading of the VB pages.

I hope this helps, and we appreciate All input, whether positive or negative :)

Have a Good One
Bob

- Even I have been reduced to cruising the Forums in IE, Ewwww :P -

[Tatu]

Please ignore all attempts to bring another thread out of topic. ;)

Originally posted by Bob:
<snipped>
You really ought to check out "QuickSpell", I am not very good in that area and TeRRa quickly pointed me to towards it when I first started with FutureQuest.
<snipped>
It works as a spell checker, on the fly, in every application, from web browsers to notepad and any others you may use. It really is a must for a "Spell Challenged" person like
myself :)
<snipped>
- Geezzz, If I had this in school......... I might have passed :P - Thank you for the tip! I'm buying QuickSpell today!!! Spelling usually comes naturally to me, however lately I've started becoming rusty with certain words... resulting in me having Dictionary.com open all day. I just knew there was had to be a faster way.

Tatu

--
R-e-m-i-n-i-s-c-i-n-g

[SneakyDave]

Hey it was my daughter's 11th birthday yesterday too!
:P

[DB]

There is also a free spellchecker called Spell Checker for Edit Boxes at
http://www.quinion.com/mqa/spell.htm. I've been using it for years (being one of those "spell challenged"types). However, it doesn't seem to be working too well with IE's text boxes.

[Pogi]

Great "relookage", as they say in French! Just curious (and unless I've missed it...) why vBulletin?

[Reger]

Wow
vBulletin has an impressive suite of features.

Congratulations on the Anniversary.
I have been here since 1/99. There were about 140 "members" back then. I was surprised to see you/we now have almost 1700.
Also surprised to discover that I have only posted 20 times. I sure have read thousands.
The community you have developed here has been incredibly helpful to each other. I have learned much more than I could possibly have afforded in lessons. Thanks to DanK, Justin, and of course you }{ Deb & Terra.

Reger

[Deb]

why vBulletin?
If you search for UBB and vBulletin you'll find a great deal more than you bargained for on the "why"... but the short version is "vBulletin is just better." I looked at a LOT of forums...and this one just seemed to have the most bang for the buck. My favorite improvement is the search feature btw. UBB = go grab a coke and hope it's done when you get back. vBulletin = Done!

Deb
- Shopping

[Charles Capps]

*stumbles around, coughing*

[Bradley]

*Pats Charles on back*
It's ok man, a few of us still use UBB.. ;)

[Deb]

We still luv ya ;)

Also.. in all fairness there is still one important note that shouldn't be forgotten. It was the UBB who came up with this forum format in the first place. Previous to the UBB threaded forums were about it. Ted/UBB was the innovative one that laid the ground work for all of this...

It's just ashame they didn't consider the PHP + Database concept more seriously. I do believe it is the PHP/mySQL combination that makes sooooooo many more features soooooo much easier to implement w/o having to go through rewrite after rewrite after rewrite.

Deb
- Progress

[Charles Capps]

Yay, I think. :D

[teach1st]

Having just converted two UBB's to vBulletins, I still like UBB better for my low-bandwidth, educational purposes. The only reason I switched was the cost difference - UBB lost me with its pricing changes.

I don't particularly like vB's layout and clutter, though I'm sure I can hack most of that out eventually. After using vB for a few days, I'm finding that vB's calendar and comparatively amazing search speed have made the switch a pleasant one.

[sheila]

I just wanted to say, that I really like how vBulletin (at least as configured here at FQ) displays a person's geographic location right below their name. I used to have to click to the extra profile page on the UBB. This is much nicer!

[jwbutler]

OMG! %)

I go away for a little bit becasue of RL, and THIS happens!

Way to go FQ! 8}

[Marbledog]

Hey how do I get one of those pix by my name? (I know, Deb, you've probably posted it a million places but I actually did look a little bit - a little teeny bit at least - before asking)

[Bob]

Hi,


As a Site owner you are entitled to an Avator :)

All you need to do is click on Profile towards the top of the page. Then click on Edit Options, then at the bottom of that page is a "Change Avator" button. Clicking on that will get you started.

Please note that as a Site Owner you can choose one of the many Avators already loaded in the VB, but to be able to upload a "Custom Avator" you need to reach the 200 post mark.

I hope this helps,
Bob

- To Aviate Or Not to Aviate, Hmmm.... or is that Levitate? :P -

[Marbledog]

Thanks, Bob! I'll go have a look.

o be able to upload a "Custom Avator" you need to reach the 200 post mark.

Isn't that discrimination against the non-verbose site owners? Not that I'd complain about a company that sends you a free t-shirt when you write and say nice things to their parrot.

[janderk]

Isn't that discrimination against the non-verbose site owners?
I agree.

Jan Derk
-- Another message one on the way to 200. Still 85 to go :P --

[Marbledog]

Well at least you only have 85 to go, Jan! I have 187 or something. Going to have to get busy posting meaningless messages I guess...

[janderk]

Going to have to get busy posting meaningless messages I guess...

You got that right...

Jan Derk
-- And that's another one. OK OK I'll stop now before I get banned ;) --

[Marbledog]

OK OK I'll stop now before I get banned

Yeah, me too.

(The temptation was just too strong - I'll log off now, I promise)

[Terra]

LOL!

I've been told I have an itchy trigger finger, hence the bullet stored away in my shirt pocket protector... (~

--
Terra
--Incentive--
FutureQuest

[Deb]

And just to keep you hang'n around even longer....I've added 26 more avatars to the selection. Have a great time trying to figure out which ones are new and whether or not YOURS is in there ;)

Deb
- ORDER BY date ?

[zmax]

Originally posted by Marbledog:


Yeah, me too.

(The temptation was just too strong - I'll log off now, I promise)


YEA ME TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:P 8} %) :HIYA: :hehe:

David

[Phoenix]

Wow! This is awesome!!! Happy Birthday FQ!!! And many many more! /me wanders off to check out all the new goodies %)

[Meikel]

It seems I missed another important date in life. I'm not in the forums too often any more... everything is working just like charm...

I searched all my super-old email and found the following conversation with Deb. some quotes fom 10/22/98:

At 07:50AM I wrote:
Hi,
I am interested in your "Basic" package. I am currently hosted with a very unreliable host and so I am looking for a new one.... [lotsa stupid questions]

At 08:58 I received:
....[lotsa useful answers]....
We'd love to see you on FutureQuest.... Let me know if I can answer any
further questions or concerns for you.

Deb

At 09:14am I wrote:
thank you for your fast answer. That moves you up in my list near to the top.
I still cannot decide (and I definetly take one night sleep before
ordering)... :-)
...[another stupid question]...

At 09:28am I got:
Get use to it if you host on FutureQuest! We have an average tech support response of less then 2 hours with our longest response taking less then 12 hours... and we are proud of it :)
....[reference customers]....
I'm not afraid to say we may not be right for you, what I am able to say is that we offer real service and our goal is for the site owners to get what they need worry free.

I took some sleep.
At 6:28pm I wrote:
thank you for all that info. You are now on the top of the list.

I don't think that you have to answer even more questions to get further up :-)
But there is one thing left....
....[some CGI-Question]....
Anyway, expect me to sign up in a few hours (after I do some calculations)....

At 6:52pm I got:
> You are now on the top of the list.

I wont deny enjoying that status:)
...
The only restrictions we have on CGI scripts is that they do not cause
problems for other users on the server and are not put in place for
malicious or illegal conduct. What you are saying you need to do is
perfectly fine. I don't see a problem whatsoever with this.
....[something more]...
Congratulations on finding a new home for your web site! *smile* I'll keep
an eye out for your order.

At 7:13pm I wrote:
Aaaaaarrrggghhhhh,

I found you do not offer credit-card payment? or am I missing something?
What can I do to speed things up. I am sitting in germany.

I could send you *cash* (which implies very low fees) in a nice letter
surrounded by two postcards from Bonn.

.... there are a few more emails chatting around payment options and how to get all that started ..... mainly it's me trusting noone in this large world....

At 7:27pm I wrote:
Thank you very much for your patience. I have signed up.
The post office is still open and I'll check how a money-order works.
In fact, I hope that I'll never find the need to bother support that much
again :-)

Greetings from Bonn, Germany
Meikel Weber
www.meikel.com (http://www.meikel.com)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A lot of things have changed since then... Futurequest has grown a lot... meikel.com has grown... but the Futurequest are still the same caring, supportive and nice people I met more than 2 years ago.

So nearly a month late (not only an hour) from one of the deepest spots in my heart:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FUTUREQUEST

I owe ya all a good dinner... and that's not an offer... that's a threat.

[Deb]

I owe ya all a good dinner... and that's not an offer... that's a threat. Hehe I don't know Meikel... the last time we had dinner with you it took you forever to find the place (which was uhhh less than a half mile from your starting location?!?!?! )

I remember your emails.... Meikel was one of the first to enter FutureQuest...That first year was rough when it came to getting site owners to take us seriously. After Meikel's account came on things started to change rapidly in the growth zone... What tickles me pink is the fact that 99% of the site owners that signed up in 1998 are still here!! :D

Wow.... Just reading Meikel's post brings back many memories..... I'll spare you though ;) Thanks Meikel! What a pleasant trip down memory lane :)

Oh and Meikel --- YES <<-- Take that one for your memory lane trip *grin*
(apologies to those who may not get the inside joke)

Deb
- Greetings From One Steak Lover To Another