Thanks for reporting. This is part of a general problem we have had since the server was rebooted Tuesday morning. We haven't yet isolated the cause for all this but are continuing to work on it.
Have the blogs been preserved? Will they be restored at some point? We had some wonderful blog-like posts before (I don't recall if they were blogs or some other forum section) from pmwas that I would love to see again. I thoroughly enjoyed his detailed disassembly of his new finds, and especially his Hulburd watch.
The blog area has been preserved and will be imported. The current intent is to create a facility to replace it by using the Encyclopedia tools with single authoring. You will be able to create your blog article and update it as needed with the discussion area immediately below the blog for interaction with readers of the blog. I would welcome suggestions on how to make that most usable. Paul and I were the most active contributors there. The material that was formerly in "Timely Topics" is also preserved and will receive a similar treatment when imported.
I have started to build the structure and import the blogs from our vBulletin site. My apologies for taking so long to get to this but the missing image problem still has a higher priority. The new blogs will work a little differently since authors will have unlimited time to edit and update their blogs. The blog will be part of the Encyclopedia structure but will be non-collaborative and not subject to citation rules about new content. If the author makes changes to the original story over time, the edits and revisions will be publicly available for review. I will let everyone know when I have ported over enough of Paul's blogs to make it worthwhile to review the work.
About 2 years ago, I had spent some time creating a couple of BLOGS of reference information, under my name. One displayed various lists of all the different trades that went into the manufacture of the parts that went into a pocket watch 100-200 years ago. There was another blog but I forget what it was, maybe about a parisian watchmaker. Question 1: will these blogs ever resurface again? Question 2: are personal blogs still recommended or is one suggested to post to the "Encyclopedia" instead? Question 3: if I were to post a new blog or Encyclopedia entry, what are the chances that it would disappear again, as mine did in the system upgrade? I'd rather not have to recreate the content numerous times.
The new software does not contain an explicit blog function and I felt the Encyclopedia functions would replicate the blog adequately if we could sort out the display of the structures. All of the old blogs still exist in our archive system and can be restored on request. It is a bit of work to do that, but I am happy to respond when one is requested. I just have not had the time to do them all on any reasonable schedule. I am also still waiting for improvements in how the Encyclopedia material is displayed in the forum structure. It is a fairly classic problem of trying to use software developed by three independent developers to provide an integrated experience to users. It is not a big deal if you have the software development resources, but for this particular activity we have one very old software developer. Are you still using the same username you had when the blogs were written? Survival rates watches from 18th and early 19th centuries (France and England) List of the many branches of English Watch-Making trade (Keene, 1817; Rees, 1819) I can put both of these into Encyclopedia articles for you. You can, of course, edit such articles any time you like. If you want to do that the watch blog area is https://mb.nawcc.org/wiki/Watch-Blogs. If you start a couple of new articles there with the titles you want, I will be happy to move your content from the archive. Actually, if anyone who has a blog on the old site wants it moved, just post a new article with the blog title and ask me to move it for you. Our Voices | NAWCC Message Board
Hi Tom, Thank you for the explanation and for all your work on this, which is much appreciated by all I am sure! Yes, those are the two "blog" articles I had written. If you could be so kind as to place them at a appropriate place in the Encyclopedia I can go back and edit or add to these as new information becomes available to me. I may also create some other similar texts for inclusion in the Encyclopedia. I find that I (and others) sometimes share information within message board posts that probably gets buried and difficult to find by others who may be interested in that information in the future, and having that accessible in the Encyclopedia may give a longer and more useful life to that kind of material. I assume that's the vision behind the creation of the Encyclopedia in the first place? Then again, some people prefer to just "google" or use the "search" function to locate information they desire from the thousands of past message board topics and posts. Two classic paradigms in information management, one more hierarchical and one less structured. Pros and cons for each of course. Best regards --Robert
Robert, If I start them I will be the originator and I would rather that you were. You only need to click on the button "Create New" and select page. You can put whatever you like for the content and give it the title then click button below that says Create New Page. If you have trouble we can discuss it here or in another thread to provide a guide to others.
