Message from the ABPA Executive

[Rhonda Tallnash]

Hello to all Forum Users. I am Rhonda Tallnash, the Secretary of the ABPA and I’m posting this on behalf of the ABPA Executive. We are asking that every ABPA Forum user please read this.

There has been a lot of chat about the recent changes to the Forum. We have been dismayed that there are conspiracy theorists aplenty. Please carefully read the facts below…

1. The ABPA needed to undertake a review and analysis of the status of the ABPA Forum. The Executive appointed D Kitchen as an expert in the area to do so. As he has said in his introduction, he is not a poet and he has no interest in posting, except in relation to technical difficulties. He is an IT and SQL Database expert. It is not an elected position. That is all anyone needs to know about him, just as we do not personally know the people who administer our internet banking. Gregory North is the Administrator of the ABPA Website which includes the Forum. Anyone is welcome to come to the ABPA AGM in Tamworth next January to be voted onto the Committee and the Executive to help us make these decisions.

2. The ABPA Forum has not been upgraded nor had any significant technical work done on it in six years. The database logs verify this and they don’t lie and can’t be tampered with. The current version of the database is Version 3.0.9. The latest version on the market is Version 3.1.9. This means that fifteen (15) incremental upgrades should have been completed over the past six years to keep pace with this. Now the upgrade is a major undertaking. The next version to be released will be Version 3.2 in January 2017 and the version the Forum now has will not be supported by the company phpBB who owns it after early next year. This means that any issues with the ABPA Forum will not be able to be fixed. So the ABPA needs to undertake this major upgrade over the next few months to keep the ABPA Forum going.

3. I know this is not what people want to hear, but the ABPA Forum is owned by the ABPA and not an individual or smaller group of people. Just as a company owns its email system and needs to monitor and enforce rules regarding appropriate messaging, the same applies here. Every single user is legally responsible for what they say, whether it be about others, committees or outside agencies. This means your personal assets such as houses are on the line. The ABPA Committee and Executive have the responsibility to protect the Association and all its members from such action. Therefore any posts which put all of us in a potentially difficult legal situation need to be removed. Being a Moderator is an official and serious job and the expectation is that they will remove inappropriate posts as ABPA officials are not always on line. If a Moderator feels uncomfortable about deleting posts or warning the user, or feels the urge hop on the negative bandwagon, then please email a member of the Executive through the ABPA website and the rights can be removed.

4. The technical issues that caused drop-outs and lack of connectivity began prior to last weekend when the Forum was off line and have continued this week. As DK explained in a post, this is because the USA IT host iPower has technical issues to do with their servers. A quick check on Google will attest to this as there are many posts from all over the world complaining about their service. DK has chatted live with them on a number of occasions over the past few days. That, combined with Telstra outages seems to be the reason for the technical issues as not all users have had the same issues in different parts of the country. When the Forum was off line, it was being analysed and reviewed as to its history and longevity. Except for inappropriate posts beings removed, no other technical work was done, therefore the current technical issues are the same as the old technical issues. As well as implementing the major upgrade mentioned above, the ABPA needs to decide if we want to continue with iPower being the host company or move to a more reliable provider.

5. Finally, the APBA Executive supports the Forum and wants it to continue, but an inordinate amount of time has been spent recently putting out unnecessary ‘spot fires’ and shooting down conspiracy theories. This quickly becomes tiresome and time consuming. Please continue to enjoy the Forum as a basis for talking about poetry – as Shelley Hansen’s post at the beginning of the week so eloquently said. Let the IT expert get on with supporting ‘the nuts and bolts’ of the system and please remember, if you would not feel comfortable saying something to a person’s face, then it’s probably not a good idea to say it here in writing.

Kind regards and continued enjoyment in poetry, Rhonda

[David Campbell]

Thanks Rhonda, that's very helpful and informative. And it underlines just how much work goes on behind the scenes to keep the ABPA and its associated entities ticking over.

Cheers
David

[Rhonda Tallnash]

Thanks David. Your words of support are welcome and greatly appreciated! I hope everyone now understands that there is no magic wand for fixing some technical issues, especially when they are out of our control. This will be a longish process and we are hoping that patience and understanding will be forthcoming and that only wonderful aspects of poetry fill these pages. Also DK is not being paid for his work here. He knows of our Association and has an interest in the technicalities of keeping forums such as this one afloat. Kindest regards, Rhonda - ABPA Secretary

[Hal Pritchard]

Thanks for doing this Rhonda. Now that people are aware hopefully everything will settle down.
Hal

[Rhonda Tallnash]

Dear Matt

I believe the message on my post is clear but thank you for your comments and it is noted. Kind regards, Rhonda

[Neville Briggs]

Rhonda, Just a bit of friendly advice from Uncle Nev, try not to use expressions like " conspiracy theories" or " negative bandwagon " and you won't get distracted from the fine job you are doing as secretary. And we certainly appreciate your willingness to volunteer for the advancement of others of like poetic interest, well done.

[Rhonda Tallnash]

Thank you for your kind words Neville although at my age and with an enormous extended family I think I have enough uncles. Hopefully there won't be the need to repeat those phrases again. Regards Rhonda

[tom mcilveen]

To Uncle Nev and Matt...thankyou for your obvious support. Conspiracy theories and negative bandwagons unfortunately tend to creep into forums when forum users forget to use a forum as a forum should be used. As for spot fires...well the best way to treat a spot fire, is to extinguish it at its source.
Tom McIlveen.

[Neville Briggs]

Of course I support the bush poets. I have for years.

But just to clarify my thoughts, "spot fires", "negative bandwagons" and "conspiracy theories" look to me to be clichés that sadly give the impression that those who use these expressions are being impolite. As has been pointed out by the ABPA committee, politeness, respect is what we aim for. I agree, let's do it and avoid any impressions that might be assumed.

We are just about half way through the year but we still have plenty of time to build up our little collective into an encouragement for the stalwart bush poets brigade.

[Rhonda Tallnash]

Dear Neville

Just to clarify, as a nearly 60 year old woman I try never to be deliberately impolite or patronising. The words were just a turn of phrase and I apologise if you thought otherwise. I just want this Forum used as per its intention - for the enjoyment of poetry. I look forward to meeting you in person one day. Kind regards, Rhonda