Stuff....

[base428]

I just wanted to mention a few things that have been on my mind.

(1) Is it just winter, or has the baseboard lost some readers? I really miss wasting company time reading all your posts.
(2) Did anyone put in a bid for Bridge Day? Submissions were due by Feb. 1st. As of January 30th, there were NO bids submitted. I contemplated putting in a bid, but couldn't seem to fit the hundreds of hours of work into my schedule. Heck, I didn't even mention that nobody will ever make any $ for all the hard work that is put into the event by charging only $60. I won't even talk about liability concerns.....
(3) What happened to the "Bridge Day Forum"? It is now buried down several levels in the forums and is pretty inaccessible.
(4) Is it just me, or is the new Blinc a bit harder to read since we have to view page 1, then view page 2......? Just some constructive criticism Mick, but it seems more difficult to read. What happened to clicking on the subject and reading all posts?
(5) And kudos to Tom Aiello who is constantly providing an endless stream of valuable information on BASE to experienced and non-experienced jumpers.
(6) Has anyone else been contacted about the 1100' legal BASE jump in WV with the cable strung between two mountains? I talked to the guy for an hour back in October, but haven't heard from him since. I'm guessing he's either being quite secretive about his plans, or he's abandoned the project. Email me if you know about this.
(7) Here's to a better 2003 for BASE. Thank God we can't really hook turn our BASE canopies or even more would be lost. Then again, Clem did take out a fence in Europe after a killer hook turn last summer!!

Hope you all are freezing your butts off like we are here in WV. Cya all soon.

------------
Jason Bell (BASE428)
Email: jbell@vertical-visions.com
Web: www.vertical-visions.com or www.bridgeday.info

[clint]

I'm new to the whole base board thing and I really enjoy reading everything from everyone. A few years ago, I heard not to go to the base board because it was so much trash talking and it wasn't fun to read, I know of at least 8 very experienced people that they stopped going to the BB because it was BS. I never went cause I really only got into base this winter.

Living in Moab for the past 3.5 months, I've seen alot, experienced alot. The BB is great info for myself. I met Spence and he was talking about a Tard. To me I though that what he expained was retarded and anyone who believed it was a Tard. Well I got to see it live and up close, ausome stuff and you have to have balls to pull it off.

I read what Tom Aiello has to say alot, I have no idea who he is but he seems very intelligent. There are some people who I read because of the amount of posts and replies and they don't talk sh*!
I dont know the old forum that well so I dont' have a clue of the changes.

As for "Hook Turns" I see more and more of them in the base world. I haven't jump with alot of different people, just the ones passing through Moab so I dont' have alot of experience with what others do just from what I've seen since Oct. I myself love to hook it. It's part 2 for me or an extra bonus. More people are putting blocks on their risers to get some more out of BASE jumping and we will, unfortunately, see more injuries. Look at skydiving 8 yrs ago only a handful of people were hooking it now, everyone with 200-500 jumps is trying what the professionals are doing. The canopies now in skydiving are so small and the manufacturers are giving out their canopies to anyone who has $$$$ and that is why the injuries are like 75% under an open canopy, mostly landing. Pushing the edge, getting the extra rush is what we live for. That is why we BASE.

I was a professional skydiver with over 4500jumps in 8yrs and for me not to hook it, in skydiving, I feel cheated some how. The past 2 years, skydiving(freefall), became boring, I lived for the landing and that's it. But Base is different, if I don't hook it, it doesn't bother me,cause the jump itself is so exilerating.

I hope that I don't piss anyone off by what I said, I'm just going off on typing. I love to get replies of what I've writting or reply to what others have posted because I learn alot from what other people tell me and I hope they learn from my 2 cents worth.

I posted yesterday about the chat room. It's not being used at all from what I can tell. IT's a great way to get quick responces to different topics.

Oh well, just another morning on the comp for me. I don't work at all, just go to school 2 days a week and the rest of the time, I'm trying to learn more about BASE jumping. I work at Vertigo, on and off and I learn so much from Jimmy and Marta, it's so great that they share their views with me.

OK enough babbling for today. I'm sure I got way off base, no punn intended, but I hope well,.... I dont' know, I just wrote down what comes to my head and alot of times I don't think before I type.
Peace,
Clint
:D

[base311]

> 428 wrote:
>I just wanted to mention a few things that have been on my
>mind.
>
>(1) Is it just winter, or has the baseboard lost some
>readers? I really miss wasting company time reading all your
>posts.

I'm with you... I think it has lost a lot of readers. as someone else said there's been a lot of activity over on dz.com with that new forum. it's still moderated, though, so you can't really stir up too much schitt.


>(2) Did anyone put in a bid for Bridge Day

not to my knowledge. oh well.

>(3) What happened to the "Bridge Day Forum"? It is now
>buried down several levels in the forums and is pretty
>inaccessible.

yes this place has become quite complex to navigate, huh?

>(4) Is it just me, or is the new Blinc a bit harder to read

it's not just you.

>(5) And kudos to Tom Aiello who is constantly providing an
>endless stream of valuable information on BASE to experienced
>and non-experienced jumpers.

concur. tom has - throughout all of his time in the sport and on this (and other) board(s) - maintained a professional and tasteful stance and weathered much punishment, whether due or undue, in the process. Kudos to him for his continued pursuit of making information available to those who want or need it.

>(6) Has anyone else been contacted about the 1100' legal
>BASE jump in WV with the cable strung between two mountains?

nope but that would be kickazz! Have thought about this several times with powerlines over gorges in various places of which I'm aware... dunno enough about electricity (black magic as far as I'm concerned) to decided whether I could safely attach to the ground wire.

>(7) Here's to a better 2003 for BASE.

Here! Here!

>Hope you all are freezing your butts off like we are here in
>WV. Cya all soon.

weather in atl: 1412z wind320/5 vis10 ceil1,000 ovcst tmp/dpt 3c/3c alt 30.10

supposed to be windy tonight 13 gusting 19
gardner

[imported_mknutson]

>>>>> (1) Is it just winter, or has the baseboard lost some
>readers? I really miss wasting company time reading all your
>posts.
>
>Hey Jason, some factors I can think of...
>
>1) The forum is closely moderated and now requires a 'log-on'
>to post.
So what. The other site requires sign in as well.

>2) There are multiple forums on BLInc which scatter the
>posts.
That is because there are multiple topics and not easily distinguished. There needed to be clarity because EVERYONE keeps bitching about NOT being able to find things all lumped together. Make up you mind!

>3) There's a skydiving website with a new BASE forum.
So go ####ing skydive then. I really don't care anymore. My days of 40-60 hours per week on this site for little or no grattitude such as going to a "SKYDIVING site" to talk aout BASE Jumping is getting old. You can gladly support those who don't help you, and forget those who do help.


>5) BASE 44 and Tokemon haven't been around to stir the pot.
That is because I made everyone sign in. This is becasue everything was getting out of hand. YOU BITCH WHEN ABOUT SOMETHING, I CHANGE IT FOR YOU AND YOU BITCH THAT IS CHANGED. THEN YOU GO TO A SKYDIVING WEB SITE TO GET GRATIFICATION. ?????

It is funny though, my traffic is up to the point where I need a new server AGAIN. So there are plenty of people lurking, but nobody wants to post here anymore. They want to go post to skydivers instead. But keep looking just in case a "Real BASE Jumper" actually decides to post again.

}(
x(
:-(

[imported_mknutson]

Well, as if I don't ####ing ask enough times......

WHAT THE HELL IS THE NAVIGATION ISSUE AND HOW WOULD YOU SUGGEST FIXING IT?

Everyone silence is a bunch of crap. It is very easy to tell me what is wrong with the site.

Or, you can just spit in my face by diowning the BB ang go to the skydiving site and support them instead.

x(

[base428]

I believe we've just witnessed an official "Knutson". If you haven't heard, a "Knutson" is the term that the BASE community has given to situations when Mick gets really pissed.

OK, now seriously, I would suggest the following changes:

(1) Combine your forums....there are too many. Several of them don't even have any posts yet this year.
(2) Don't have forums that are two levels deep. This makes them hard to find.
(3) Quit changing things. Just when we all get used to the look and feel of your website, you change it.
(4) We should be able to click on a post and read all the posts....not two separate pages.
(5) Quit changing things.....oh, didn't I already mention this?
(6) Purple text on a white background is hard to read. Change it to something darker.
(7) Smile! You are the man, you long haired, knuckle-dragging, butt-licking, PC-checking jackass!!!!:P

Cya bro.

PS. Mick and I are very good friends, so my posts are often tailored as such....

------------
Jason Bell (BASE428)
Email: jbell@vertical-visions.com
Web: www.vertical-visions.com or www.bridgeday.info

[Skinflicka]

Our sensors indicate discontent, Captain...


;(

[PeTeRbAsE]

Hay Hay mr mick,you do a gr8 job.....chill out....it's still the best base jumping site out there!!!!!! keep up the gr8 work!!!!!! :+ :+ PeTeRbAsE:+ :+

[imported_mknutson]

>I believe we've just witnessed an official "Knutson". If you
>haven't heard, a "Knutson" is the term that the BASE community
>has given to situations when Mick gets really pissed.
>
Yes you have!



>OK, now seriously, I would suggest the following changes:
>
>(1) Combine your forums....there are too many. Several of
>them don't even have any posts yet this year.

OK, Make a suggestion then. One forum again with 10,000 postings?
What about the BD and Political stuff that was filling up the whole site?
Do you now suggest that I don't try to move FAQ/technical postings to a seperate forum like everyone kept asking for?
Give me a list of what you think the number of forums should be.


>(2) Don't have forums that are two levels deep. This makes
>them hard to find.

Well, when they are 1 level deep, nobody goes to the technical forum etc. See number 1 then. Waiting for an answer......

>(3) Quit changing things. Just when we all get used to the
>look and feel of your website, you change it.

The only things I typically change, are upgrades to make this server perform better. unfortunately there are a few new option when I upgrade. But all-in-all, I have not made a mojor change in about 2 years.

>(4) We should be able to click on a post and read all the
>posts....not two separate pages.

This was a setting that I put to 10 postings, then it would go into multi-page mode. You can always click on the [read all] and get them all. So I just set it to 15 now to see if this works better.

>(5) Quit changing things.....oh, didn't I already mention
>this?

Do ou mean like #4 here? Or do you mena like re-arranging the forums? If it is the latter, then I wish I could get feedback and do just that. Leave it stable. But so many people email me about "do you have this...". I scratch my head to say, how can I get this to everyone without having to email everyone to say "just click the SEARCH button and it is right there" Not to say anything about the users, this is natural. This is why most contracts I go on, there is a large team in parallel jst working on usability studies to make applications more user friendly. Unfortunately, I do not have a whole team to help me. it is just me.

>(6) Purple text on a white background is hard to read.
>Change it to something darker.

I have known this for some time. This is the single most important, and MAJOR change that needs to happen to BLiNC.
Unfortunately, I am not a graphics wizzard.
I have a fairly good idea of how to change it (concept wise). But I do not have the time or expertise to do so. Not to mention I do not have hundreds ro thousands of dollars to spend to hire someone to do it for me.
I did aks the users here to see if someone would donate there service to help me with this, and I got only 1 response. And that response has not had the time to actually do the redesign.

So, If you know a good HTML/graphics designer that understands all the w3c standards, multi-browser compliance as well as potentially echma-232, then I would love to see if I can get some help ASAP and this issue will be solved once and for all.

>(7) Smile! You are the man, you long haired,
>knuckle-dragging, butt-licking, PC-checking jackass!!!!:P

I am trying to smile. I am just knee dep in the application I told you about.

I would hope to have a demo for a small usergroup in about 4 more weeks. I almost have the server configured correctly and the build going well. I have been putting in 18 hours days again. So, maybe by tomorrow I should just be cranking out app pages.

[460]

The baseboard is totally confusing to me, a technical person, and I can only imagine how annoying it is to a non-technical people. It's gotten far too sophisticated for anyone except for the hardcore computer geek.

Simplicity is the way to go. I wish the technical, general, and newbie posts would all be on one board, with highlighted labels on the left indicating which of these three catagories each post would be catagorized as.

Mick... please be pro-active before your extremely valuable site turns into a ghost town. Mick, you work building this site is very appreciated and invaluable!!!

-Dr. Chris

[Faber]

>5) BASE 44 and Tokemon haven't been around to stir the pot.
That is because I made everyone sign in. This is becasue everything was getting out of hand. YOU BITCH WHEN ABOUT SOMETHING, I CHANGE IT FOR YOU AND YOU BITCH THAT IS CHANGED. THEN YOU GO TO A SKYDIVING WEB SITE TO GET GRATIFICATION. ?????

The skydive forum is just to tell skydivers about BASE,and answer some easy Qs,actualy most tecknical Qs goes to BLINK,Tom does a great job to tell People that thouse Qs should be asked here.

I think that the reason not many newbies ask here are the way people answer(if its a bit stupied Q).As a newbie you go head low,and dont want to step at any one,i think the new improvment here will help this out.Thanks for doing this job Mick,and dont take the other site as a enemy,im sure Tom aint meaning that at all.

Well ill go post a new one so excuse me

:D

[FLsurfer]

>>(6) Purple text on a white background is hard to read.
>>Change it to something darker.
>
>I have known this for some time. This is the single most
>important, and MAJOR change that needs to happen to BLiNC.
>Unfortunately, I am not a graphics wizzard.
>I have a fairly good idea of how to change it (concept wise).
>But I do not have the time or expertise to do so. Not to
>mention I do not have hundreds ro thousands of dollars to
>spend to hire someone to do it for me.
>I did aks the users here to see if someone would donate there
>service to help me with this, and I got only 1 response. And
>that response has not had the time to actually do the
>redesign.
>


I only noticed the purple text on white background for one or two times right after the changeover and ever since it is back to the original white text on black background.

Mick, I appreciate your hard work and dedication to this site tremendously and I think you should leave it like it is for now. In time most will get used to it. I'm no techno wiz by any means and I have no trouble at all navigating your site. Your site isn't the only one I visit but it is one of the tops.

Thanks again and thanks to all the users who post all the valuable info. I wish someone would bring back the humor threads though. I miss the ones like "jumpers gallavanting in the meadow after landing". They would always bring a laugh after a long night of work.

Here's to low pulls and tasty waves!!!

FLsurfer

[clint]

CHAT ROOMS, WOULDN'T THAT BE THE PLACE TO BS?
IF people who know each other and would like to talk about schittt would you go there so that only the people in the chat room would know what is going on. No one would be exposed.
Mick, you never did answer my Post about setting a time for the chat room. I would just like an answer to see if it was a good or stupid Idea.
I think you do work hard for it and I know your busy, and maybe you don't read all the posts but I would like an anwser, PLEase!
IF not then well I guess that's fine too.
clint
OH, I was thinking that the set time could be 9pm eastern time. So that the people on the west coast would be off of work. If there was a set time everyday, I would think that people would go on if others would be there. Again, lots of info could be passed through among other things. Do you think, Mick or others

[d-dog]

>The baseboard is totally confusing to me, a technical person,
>and I can only imagine how annoying it is to a non-technical
>people. It's gotten far too sophisticated for anyone except
>for the hardcore computer geek.
>
>Simplicity is the way to go. I wish the technical, general,
>and newbie posts would all be on one board, with highlighted
>labels on the left indicating which of these three catagories
>each post would be catagorized as.
>
>Mick... please be pro-active before your extremely valuable
>site turns into a ghost town. Mick, you work building this
>site is very appreciated and invaluable!!!

I agree with C completely. Sometimes, us tech folks tend to over-engineer solutions (yes, I know, surprising but it happens). The board here has simply mutated into a Swiss Army knife with way too many cool tools.

A few forae, simply laid out, with links to the most current threads on the homepage. That's about it. Perhaps some archives for old stuff. However, having different organizational units for newbies, wingsuits, BD, etc. just seems to me to fragment readership way too small. Hey, I come here more than the average poster, and even I only check one or two forae - I don't have the inclination to look for new topics on 4-6 different folders, every day.

Sometimes, less is more. If one takes a peek at Tom's very useful dz.com forum, it makes the point nicely. One forum, no frills.

For the record, I think Tom's forum and this board are highly complimentary. Most of the questions and threads at dz are newbie-ish. Several more experienced jumpers post there, but almost always in response to newbie questions. Tom has torn some of the veil of mystery and wonder (and distrust) that those "jump out of planes" folks often have towards BASE. That's a Good Thing, but it's far from the hyper-technical, political, personal, long-history memory of the much loved and revered "bitchh board."

As to redesign, Mick I'd suggest that you just change the color variables for now. Somewhere in the html generation engine must be entries that say "background=black" and "text-white." Change them to ANYTHING but that, and - voila! - instant improved readability.

As to registration, without your move to registration last year, I firmly believe that this site would be dead. Only a few rotten apples spoil the whole barrel, and we had two that were rotting there way fast as possible through the board. I believe that, in fact, the damage from their bitter little jihads is still being felt. Many, many newer jumpers fear this board as someplace where whackos run amok and the anger levels go all the way to "11." It's been months since those two bozos were banned (or, in the case of XXS, voluntarily self-banned when he could no longer anonymously slander people here. . . funny how that prediction turned out to be 100% true), but the wounds they inflicted to your (OUR!) community board are still healing.

Want to blame someone for the drop in postings? Don't blame Tom, blame the pathetic duo. Only time will heal the damage they caused.

Peace,

D-d0g
ddog@wrinko.com
http://www.wrinko.com

ps: thanks again for all the hard work that goes into the "watercooler of the BASE world," where all us nutcases come to sniff butts and wag tails.

[FFC1]

-------
d-dog.... that was great

--------
Clint, It's a chat room. Sure it's a good Idea. It's already there, so you make the call. "If you build it, they will come" as it's been said.

Create a post that says meet me in the chat room at XX time. Some times it will work some times it won't. Keep at it.

Cheers.