Thanks Cindy
  Appreciate all you've done

     Jon Forster Camelot Baba 30

cindy@ballreich.net wrote: Hi All,

Sorry for the long message, but there?s a lot of info I need to
convey. You might even want to print this one out. There?s some
procedural stuff at the end you might want a paper copy of.

Some of you may know that the Baba list is changing formats. The Baba
list has always been an email-based forum. We have archives dating
back to 2002, but it existed well before that. Unfortunately a lot of
things have changed on the internet, especially with email. Rick
Emerson administered the list for years until his ISP wouldn?t let him
do it any more. Then we moved the list to a commercial ?groups? site,
but they changed their rules and our ?free? list became a ?pay? list.
I took over the list in 2005 and have been running it on my server
since then. It?s been a fun project and no one has benefited from the
list content more than I have. However, the demands of the list on my
time have grown steadily since I took it over. Currently, two thirds
of the emails to the list are SPAM. At any given time 10% of the
subscribers to this list can?t receive emails from it because of
problems or restrictions at their ISPs. I don?t believe the
doom-criers who say that ?email is dead?, but I do believe that email
is very sick. It?s no longer a good medium for a list like Baba-L.
These issues come on top of increased demands for my time in other
areas (like work and cruising) and have made it very clear to me that
it is time to step down as the list administrator.

After a lot of consideration and discussion behind the scenes, Rick
Beddoe has stepped forwarded to carry the torch into the future. Rick
has set up a web-based forum which will take the place of the current
mailing list. This will take some getting-used-to for everyone
(including me) as the procedures are different and it won?t have the
immediacy of an email-based list. However, I think that if we all give
this new format our support we can get past the initial growing pains
and create a very accessible community. We know that only a fraction
of the Baba/Panda/Tashiba owners subscribe to the list. Hopefully we
can create a place on the web where those people will feel comfortable.

Ok, enough with the announcement. Now for some instructions?

The biggest difference with the new form is the registration process.
EVERYONE has to register. I had to register. Being a subscriber to the
mailing list does not count as a forum registration. Registering is
EASY! Here?s how you do it?

Step one is to go to http://sail2live.com/baba/ which is the current
home page for the Baba web site.

Step two is to click on the ?BBS? link on the left side of the page.
This will bring you to the main forum page.

The third step is to click on the ?Register? link on the bar above the
?Baba BBS? title. This will take you to a registration page where you
will have to enter some info about yourself.

You will need to choose a ?username?. This will be your visible name
on the forum. My user name is Cindy (pretty creative, huh?) which is
how I sign my emails on the mailing list. You could use your name,
your boat name, your nickname, or any kind of identifying handle that
you?d like.

You will need to enter your email address. Why do you need an email
address for a web-based forum? This is partially for security reasons,
but mostly so Rick can contact you if there are problems.

You will need to choose a password. You wouldn?t want someone
pretending to be you and saying all kinds of embarrassing things,
would you? So choose a password that you can easily remember, but
which others won?t be likely to guess. (Your boat?s name might not be
a good password.) You?ll have to enter your password twice. This
insures that you?ve entered it correctly.

Now comes the more difficult part. Evil people have written software
than can wander around the internet signing up for forums and posting
SPAM to them. Nowadays, most forums have some kind of security feature
that only humans can complete. This keeps most of the ?bots? out while
letting the people in. The security feature on the Baba form is a
little math problem. You?ll be presented with a series of math
problems and be asked to solve one of them. Here?s an example?

      What is the result of the arithmetic problem on line 3?
      (25*11)-28=?
      (12+3) * 16=?
      132+81-51=?
      134-16=?

You should do the specified problem and enter the result (numbers
only) into the provided box. You can do the equation in your head, use
paper, use a calculator, or do like I did and enter it into Google.
(Did you know that Google could be used as a calculator? It?s very
cool!)

That?s it for the required stuff!!! However, if you want, you can
select from a list of features to customize how the forum works for
you. None of it is difficult and it can all be changed later if you?d
like things to work differently.

So now, you?ve jumped through all of the hoops and you can click on
the send button. You should see a confirmation message on the screen.
After a very short time you should also get a confirmation email sent
to the email address that you specified during the registration
process. I?m not sure how it?s done on the back end, but after you?ve
been ?verified? (perhaps Rick is checking names against the mailing
list) you?ll receive a verification email informing you that you can
now post to the forum.

Reading these instructions makes the whole process seem much more
difficult than it really is. It?s all quite self-explanatory and easy.
Everybody on the list should do it right away. I?m going to leave the
mailing list up until the 22nd so we can talk about any problems
people may be having getting registered.

People who own boats in the Baba family are clearly fans of tradition.
I know that the Baba-L mailing list (in all of its incarnations) has
been a tradition we?ve all enjoyed. Unfortunately, the time has come
to make a change. I encourage everyone to give Rick Beddoe all of your
support and help in the difficult task of taking the Baba list into
the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Please feel free to email
me on or off the list if you have questions. Remember, the plan is
that the Baba-L list will shut it?s doors on June 22.

Your humble (but tired) list admin...

Cindy
s/v Mandisa
Baba 30 #218

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Received on Mon Jun 18 23:26:21 2007