October Posting Stats Thread

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AuthorTopic: October Posting Stats Thread
The Establishment
Member # 6
Profile #0
UBB strikes again...RIP... :(

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 4153
Profile Homepage #1
Whoah that's random... I was beginning to wonder about the maintenance messages.

Was this a predictable attack, or a random meltdown?

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Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice.

I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion.
Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00
Councilor
Member # 6600
Profile Homepage #2
Well, I guess that explains whether or not my post went through...

Wow. There was a lot of stuff in there that I didn't want to see gone. Please tell me it wasn't my post that caused it to crash.

Dikiyoba did apologize to Ephesos, Lenar, toothpaste, and anyone else who was offended by Dikiyoba's TM-channelling post. Only it was a lot better in the post that was lost.
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00
Agent
Member # 1934
Profile Homepage #3
I saw the messages too. Maybe we should slow down on the posting. Or not.

It was getting really hard to make any of my posts go through. They kept getting error messages or taking forever.

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You acquire an item: Radio Free Foil
Posts: 1169 | Registered: Monday, September 23 2002 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #4
The hell?

Okay. I swear that one of these days I'll set the PPP up like the Endeavor and have it regularly update itself to serve as a live mirror. Piperbot is on it.

---

Fortunately the topic's first page can still be reached. So, I repeat, verbatim:

-------------------------------------------------

Title: Yes, this is what we've came to. Or can you think of a witty title for the nineteenth time I'm doing this? It's gone on for most of two years already. But I'm determined to do it until the end.

The good news: The end is not too far off.

Hey, I wanted to put a positive perspective on things. :)

-----

Since this has become tradition, a short unrelated notice follows: Riverbend, renowned Iraqi blogger, has returned after months of absence, to the relief of many. For now, she will continue to shed light on the situation in Iraq.

And no, I'm not ashamed to promote my views in this topic. I'm right, after all. :P

-----

On with the stats. Sorry for not following the topic template exactly this month. I couldn't have done this forever anyhow; the "previous months" column was already getting too long. When I have more time, I'll change the site a bit to make it easier to see these lists, and I'll also post all these topics as news items on the site.

Instead, I'll give you this month's numbers, and the ones, say, three months back.

I. Membership Trends

81 new members, which is a decrease from last month, but not the lowest ever. But 25 of these posted, and that is. It's not the only record we'll break today - on the low end.

Previous months:

July 2006: 75/39
August 2006: 86/38
September 2006: 106/29

II. Activity

25 new active members plus 149 older ones (also lowest ever) comes to a an active community of 174. Which is predictably the lowest ever, and also the first time it's under 200.

You know, half a year ago it was fun to go saying stuff like "breaks a record" and "lowest ever" and "down again from last month", but it gets old pretty quickly when you break those very same records every month.

My natural optimism claims that the numbers have to turn around at some point, if only for a single month - they haven't done so since March. Which was, ironically, the time I concluded that people were posting too much, and shut down the ranking for a month. Heh.

Previous months:

July 2006: 225 (186)
August 2006: 216 (178)
September 2006: 201 (172)

III. Postage

With that out of the way, it should come as no surprise that the number of posts went down by a over 200 to 2630. And this in spite of the delay in getting these stats.

Per day, that comes to 85.19. Per member, this has actually increased from 14.1 to 15.1. But that's just because the number of number of members dropped faster than the number of posts. Per member per day, it's 0.49.

Previous months:

July 2006: 4134 | 133.7 | 18.37 | 0.59
August 2006: 3247 | 106.0 | 15.0 | | 0.49
September 2006: 2840 | 89.60 | 14.1 | 0.45

IV. Rankings

This isn't "Winning the Game of Losing" anymore. It's "Losing the Game of Winning".

1 7472 Ghouloca 237 202
2 6600 Dikiyoba 1912 127
3 335 Eye Pie 12213 118
4 7420 Emperor Tullegolar 208 117
5 5755 Spookee Salmon 1825 116
6 2984 Robert Daniel Oliver 6596 112
7 391 Tyranicus. 248 97
8 4153 Ephesos 2208 91
9 3442 Oscar Wilde 1568 82
10 6 *i 2896 81
A complete newb went through the rankings like a knife through butter, actually getting more than 200 posts (which, in the old days, means he might have stood a chance of getting on the top ten at all).

Sorry, Dikiyoba. I'd pegged you as a certain winner, but my random updater doesn't take to change quickly (it updates according to past activity), so it didn't even consider updating Ghouloca before.

Still, Dikiyoba takes place two, followed by Alorael. Randomizer, ahead of Alorael last month, dropped down to 11.

Tullegolar went up from place 7 to 4, bypassing Thuryl, Stareye and me. Thuryl dropped out as well, to 14, while Stareye comes in at 10.

Salmon came up from 9 to 5, while Kelandon dropped out too, from 8 to 13.

Garrison, last at 10, dropped the lowest, to 29, out of the race entirely.

The ranks are filled by Tyran, Ephesos and Nikki, so although the list has changed quite a lot, it's still full of familiar faces.

The ranking, as always, is here:

http://endeavor.ermarian.net/rank/2006-10

------------------------------------------------

-Endeavorbot

PS: In case you try anything, UBB, I have it saved on my site as well. There's no way you're getting rid of it, you devious forum.

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #5
Oh, and for good measure, here are the posts I could reach on the first page. If only to keep the context in which Dikiyoba's Episode III starts...

quote:

Jumping Salmon:

I feel a great sadness coming across the land. Which either means it is autumn or we had cheese for dinner. I can only hope that the drop in posting means that more game playing is happening. I know I've been trying out various BoE scenarios. And what with the huge 10% off everything in the computer sale happening RIGHT NOW!!! over at your drug of choice dealer's mother's house everyone should be enjoying good stories, compelling fighting, and retro graphics. Not Loderunner retro, but close.

Oh, and glad to see you're alive Aran. This statistics thing is pretty much all the pulse we can get out of you.

[Razz]

Edit -

quote:Salmon came up from 9 to 5

I resent the implication that I have a real job. I 'll check my notes, but I know I can safely say I worked fewer than 30 hours during this statistics period. Of course I only went fishing once, where does the day go?
quote:

MagmaDragoon:

Whoa, I fallen down a lot. 16th? Meh, I'll spam more when GF4 will be out.

EDIT: What? How...? I wrote it? I just wanted to think it! My secret plan! [Mad]
quote:

Slartucker:

Aran, that's some ridiculously illogical complaining you did there. It's the month before the next game release -- so it's the longest period of time the boards ever see since a game has come out and new blood arrives. Of COURSE there will be record lows.
quote:

Nioca:

I jumped twenty places?!? And landed in first?!? [Eek!] [Eek!] [Eek!]

Out of interest, I decided to find the average posts per day for each of the top ten members. Assuming that 33 days have passed since the september update... (correct me if I'm wrong)

#1 Nioca (Me [Eek!] ): 6.1212 posts.
#2 Dikiyoba: 3.8484 posts.
#3 Eye Pie: 3.5757 posts.
#4 Emperor Tullegolar: 3.5454 posts.
#5 Spookee Salmon: 3.5151 posts.
#6 Robert Daniel Oliver: 3.3939 posts.
#7 Tyranicus.: 2.9393 posts.
#8 Ephesos: 2.7575 posts.
#9 Oscar Wilde: 2.4848 posts.
#10 *i: 2.4545 posts.

Six posts a day... that probably wouldn't have landed in the top 20 a year ago.
quote:

Alec:

Saying that this isn't winning the game of losing doesn't make it true, Aran.
quote:
Kelandon:

This has to be the first time that I've not been in the top ten. Strange.
quote:
Andraste:

Wow. 47 posts? I didn't know I made that many.
We really need some new people and topics. Can't wait until Geneforge 4! Then again, I have to wait a few months to play it.
quote:
Dikiyoba:

Originally by Nioca:

quote:I jumped twenty places?!? And landed in first?!? [Eek!] [Eek!] [Eek!]

Why is that surprising? Just look at how many topics you've started this month.

Originally by Arancaytar:

quote:Sorry, Dikiyoba. I'd pegged you as a certain winner, but my random updater doesn't take to change quickly (it updates according to past activity), so it didn't even consider updating Ghouloca before.

I saw it coming, though, when I checked it on the 17th and realized that neither Nioca or Emperor Tullegolar were on the list.

Besides, Dikiyoba is quite happy to have second. Dikiyoba takes second every other month, and it would be a shame to break a personal tradition.
quote:
Marlenny:

quote:Originally written by Kelandon:
This has to be the first time that I've not been in the top ten. Strange.

This has be the first time that your average posts per day is less than 3. Stranger [Razz]

This really encourages me to spam though. If posting 5 times a day can get me to second place... why not? And I don't care how much people claim they don't want to be in top ten, you all love it. It's like back when 5 starts in ranking would give you "Good Saint" (or something) and 1 would give you "Evil Priest" (or something). You still wanted the 5 starts even when the title was lamer.
quote:
Andraste:

I liked the old rankings. [/spam] [Smile]
quote:
Dikiyoba:

Originally by Marlenny:

quote:This really encourages me to spam though.

Uh-oh. General is going to get swamped by census topics this month. [Razz]

Dikiyoba.
quote:
Jumping Salmon:
And if Lenny is gonna spam...

You ready Slarty? Tyra?
quote:
Marlenny:

quote:Originally written by Dikiyoba:
Originally by Marlenny:

quote:This really encourages me to spam though.

Uh-oh. General is going to get swamped by census topics this month. [Razz]

Dikiyoba.

kik, come on Diki. You know you want them [Razz]
Funny thing is that I hadn't thought about it, but since Dikiyoba "requested" them...
*Starts coming up with questions*
quote:
Alorael:

We need a few more trolls, some politics, and TM to get the posts flowing again.

—Alorael, who actually just stated trolls, a subcategory of trolls, and an individual who is an occasional member of that subcategory. Such is life.
quote:
Jumping Salmon:

I just received the 168 page voters pamphlet on Oregon's 2006 State Measures. Typically I just burn it, but if the boards really need it...

Just let me register a few more times and then I can set up with all the Arguments in Favor and Arguments in Opposition all nice and tidy-like.

K?

Edit - Being unable to spell the name of a state is not grounds for removal of voting priveleges.
quote:
MagmaDragoon:

Oh my. We need another moniker topic. Maybe this time by Alorael.

quote:Originally written by Hypertoroid:
...and TM to get the posts flowing again.

About that, when the ban will expire?
quote:
Arancaytar:

quote:Originally written by Slack Pumpkinhead:
Aran, that's some ridiculously illogical complaining you did there. It's the month before the next game release -- so it's the longest period of time the boards ever see since a game has come out and new blood arrives. Of COURSE there will be record lows.

There were records lows in the last month too. And before then. And before then. And before then.

This is taking into account that the period of statistics contain the release both of Geneforge 3 and Avernum 4, and neither has been preceded by such a period of silence. They weren't that close either.

---

And our posts (as in "the oldbies") have decreased as well. I don't mean to play GF4, and I didn't really play A4 - I certainly didn't post a lot about it. Do you think our own post counts will somehow get a boost from a new game being released? [Razz]

quote:Originally written by Spookee Salmon:
And if Lenny is gonna spam...

You ready Slarty? Tyra?

Must I switch off the ranking again? [Razz]

quote:
Brother Oakleaf:

quote:Originally written by Spookee Salmon:
And if Lenny is gonna spam...

You ready Slarty? Tyra?

Hey, don't forget the rest of us!

Nioca, once you settle down a bit, you'll drop back. And I personally hope you settle down.

(I'm still surprised I captured 8th with under 100 posts)

(We do need TM back)
quote:
Nikki, beloved:

quote:Originally written by Lenny:
kik

My year has been made.

And for the first time ever I made it onto the rankings... inside the top ten. I don't like it. Diki, get a notepad, this is something else to grumble about.
quote:
Divine Dikiyobiaria:

Originally by Arancaytar:

quote:There were records lows in the last month too. And before then. And before then. And before then.

And every month, some people would agree to post more. But there would still be record lows. So does that mean that we can't follow through, or that the decrease in activity is so large that not even spam can turn it around?

Originally by Nikki:

quote:And for the first time ever I made it onto the rankings... inside the top ten. I don't like it. Diki, get a notepad, this is something else to grumble about.

Dikiyoba has duly noted it.
quote:
Berric Dondarion:

How in the world did I make #7 without even posting 100 times? This is a sad day indeed.

quote:Originally written by Spookee Salmon:
And if Lenny is gonna spam...

You ready Slarty? Tyra?

Of course. I'm always up for some serious spammage. I have to get this account up past #6489 with its 934 posts. [Razz]

quote:
Lenar:

quote: Originally written by Spookee Salmon:
And if Lenny is gonna spam...

You ready Slarty? Tyra?

Hey, I resent being left out!
I'm over my average this month! And I didn't have to spam to do it!
[Big Grin]

But... I may be willing to sacrifice that little bit of sanity I have hidden in a jar, if it means drawing people back...

quote: Originally by Lenny:
This really encourages me to spam though.

Whoo, yeah!

EDIT: Die, formatting, die!

quote:
—Alorael, who said:

Even if you don't play the game, other people do. Then they come here for help and such and stick around for the pleasure of our company or because they're damaged beyond all repair. (If they aren't, Spiderweb'll do it quick.) More posts from them are more posts for non-playing oldbies to reply.

—Alorael, who wonders how the positive feedback of posting works. The more people post, the more other people post, but the relationship must be complicated or the boards would be destroyed in a catastrophic frenzy of posting. Maybe the upper bound is the physical limit on posting speed and the flood control.
quote:
Not me!

quote:Originally written by Robert Daniel Oliver:
Title: Yes, this is what we've came to. Or can you think of a witty title for the nineteenth time I'm doing this? It's gone on for most of two years already. But I'm determined to do it until the end.

"I'm late! I'm late!"
Sorry, I was getting creative toward the end. I'm also in a hurry, apologies for the copy paste and UBB markup loss. When I have time, I might go over it again so you can pick out the quotes at least.

Edit: And yes, I'm aware that the stats froze for almost a day. I fixed it, so they'll be up to date in no time.

Well, half an hour approximately.

[ Monday, October 23, 2006 00:13: Message edited by: Robert Daniel Oliver ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 3364
Profile Homepage #6
Posting replies had been markedly slow for me days before the stats came out. I think the UBB was having troubles before we decided to have our spamfest which sent it over the edge.

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"Even the worst Terror from Hell can be transformed to a testimony from Heaven!" - Rev. David Wood 6\23\05

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." - John Wesley
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Tuesday, August 19 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #7
quote:
Originally written by Robert Daniel Oliver:


Nikki, beloved

I may now die happy.

--------------------
And when you want to Live
How do you start?
Where do you go?
Who do you need to know?


*Name by Slarty, so blame him if it's filthy...
Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 6700
Profile Homepage #8
quote:
Originally written by Jewels:

I think the UBB was having troubles before we decided to have our spamfest which sent it over the edge.
Spamfest.
Sounds like an odd sort of block party that I would never want to attend.

My appreciation to the Wise and Most Admirable Arancaytar for saving what he could of an interesting little thread.

So... the last topic we lost was TM's moniker topic, right?
If I recall correctly, that one had over 400 replies, crashed the boards entirely, and got WKS temporarily banned.
What's the scenario here?

Wait! I'm calling it now! UBB is going to be the main enemy in Episode 3!

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The Silent Assassin read this post and could do nothing but shake his head at the seeming randomness of my chain-of-thought structure.
If he wants random, he can go back to spinning that stupid wheel to determine how to pull off a job.

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-Lenar Labs
What's Your Destiny?

Ushmushmeifa: Lenar's power is almighty and ineffable.

All hail lord Noric, god of... well, something important, I'm sure.
Posts: 735 | Registered: Monday, January 16 2006 08:00
Guardian
Member # 6670
Profile Homepage #9
By Lenar:
quote:
Wait! I'm calling it now! UBB is going to be the main enemy in Episode 3!
Awww... here I was, getting my hopes up.

So how long until we over-spam this topic?

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IF I EVER BECOME AN EVIL OVERLORD:
If my chief engineer displeases me, he will be shot, not imprisoned in the dungeon or beyond the traps he helped design.
Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00
Shaper
Member # 7472
Profile Homepage #10
It may be the board that's close to collapse. I've encountered no less then 17 internal server errors over the past 3 days, 4 of which have occured just today.

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I tried to think of something witty to put here.

Needless to say, I failed.
Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 4153
Profile Homepage #11
quote:
Originally written by Ghouloca:

It may be the board that's close to collapse. I've encountered no less then 17 internal server errors over the past 3 days, 4 of which have occured just today.
Yeah, same here. And the occasional blank page thrown in for good measure.

Perhaps a premature purge will be necessary.

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Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice.

I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion.
Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00
Shaper
Member # 7472
Profile Homepage #12
This also may be why the Endeavor is having so much trouble. Since the Endeavor is linked to this board, if the board has problems, it would only be logical that the Endeavor would have problems too.

Oh, and when I tried to post this, I hit another internal server error.

[ Monday, October 23, 2006 10:25: Message edited by: Ghouloca ]

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I tried to think of something witty to put here.

Needless to say, I failed.
Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #13
TM's moniker topic and Mountain of Shadows were the only two topics I know that died of a text overdose. They didn't die of posts; the Music topic had >1000. The RP just had too long posts, and the other one died because of the Kama Sutra.

Which I still haven't forgiven him for, you know. Even if it was going to die naturally in a year or two. <_<

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #14
The 500 errors and blank pages aren't unusual, though. The UBB gets highly wonky when subjected to anything more than the most kind and gentle use.

—Alorael, who would really be less than heartbroken if this served as the impetus for replacing the UBB with decent forum software. Sorry Drakey, but as nice as administration on the UBB is it's antiquated junk that was at least half of that the day it was installed.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Agent
Member # 6581
Profile Homepage #15
Summary: UBB sucks.

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Download Geneforge 4: Rebellion

You have 6 posts. Nobody cares what you think. - Thuryl

Wikipedia may be your friend, but UBB is not. - Dikiyoba
Posts: 1310 | Registered: Tuesday, December 20 2005 08:00
Shaper
Member # 7472
Profile Homepage #16
Where did Jumpin' Salmon go?

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I tried to think of something witty to put here.

Needless to say, I failed.
Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00
Councilor
Member # 6600
Profile Homepage #17
Originally by Arancaytar:

quote:
Sorry, I was getting creative toward the end.
Why are you apologizing for what was one of the best parts of that post?

Originally by Nioca:

quote:
Where did Jumpin' Salmon go?
Well, either he was deleted when the thread was destroyed or life has dragged him kicking and screaming away from the computer.

Dikiyoba.
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00
Shaper
Member # 7472
Profile Homepage #18
What's ironic is that five minutes after I posted that, Jumpin' Salmon posted. Go figure.

EDIT: By the way, I have recieved three more server errors since I last posted on this topic.

[ Monday, October 23, 2006 16:55: Message edited by: Nioca ]

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I tried to think of something witty to put here.

Needless to say, I failed.
Posts: 2686 | Registered: Friday, September 8 2006 07:00
Dollop of Whipped Cream
Member # 391
Profile Homepage #19
That is really odd. I haven't seen a server error on Spidweb in forever.

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"Tyranicus is about the only one that still posts in the Nethergate Forum." —Randomizer
Spiderweb Chat Room
Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things.
Posts: 562 | Registered: Friday, December 14 2001 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
Profile #20
I had a server error a few days ago that caused me to double post. There has been a major increase in new topics since Aran complained about the lack of postings.

Or this could be part of his plan to eliminate any proof that I gave him a suggestion for next month.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
The Establishment
Member # 6
Profile #21
quote:
Originally written by Tyranicus.:

That is really odd. I haven't seen a server error on Spidweb in forever.
Wow, you've been here a long time, Tyran. :P

Yeah, server errors come up periodically and I have to take action on it. Sometimes topics get eaten by a grue as they fall into the darkness and don't come out.

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Your flower power is no match for my glower power!
Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
Profile #22
quote:
Originally written by Ghouloca:

Where did Jumpin' Salmon go?
I had created a 600 square foot hole in my roof on Sunday. I patched up most of it today. The balance tomorrow. Luckily it is likely to rain, which will make me work faster. :)

I still have time to post, but not read all these wonderful posts. And I wonder something, did my triple posting feat cause the last stats thread to crash?

--------------------
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing.


Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
Profile #23
quote:
Originally written by Tyranicus.:

That is really odd. I haven't seen a server error on Spidweb in forever.
If you look here you will see a note I made when I witnessed the demise of the topic.

So yes, I killed the thread. :(

(The notice read ... Tried to open zero-sized topic 003813 in forum 1. at CGIPath/ubb_lib_files.cgi line 777.)

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quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing.


Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Agent
Member # 6581
Profile Homepage #24
quote:
Originally written by Spookee Salmon:

...I killed the thread. :(
Maybe the thread itself fainted for the triple post.

--------------------
Download Geneforge 4: Rebellion

You have 6 posts. Nobody cares what you think. - Thuryl

Wikipedia may be your friend, but UBB is not. - Dikiyoba
Posts: 1310 | Registered: Tuesday, December 20 2005 08:00

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