SKATINGFORUMS SHUTTING DOWN (for good)

[Isk8NYC]

Adrian posted this announcement today.

http://www.skatingforums.com/announcement.php?f=12


SkatingForums Will Be SHUTTING DOWN
I suppose all things come to an end sometime, and I've decided to shut down the site.

If you need to keep in touch with anyone, please contact them via PM and exchange contact info. Once I give the notification I suspect the server will be shutdown rather quickly, and I have to do it in the next day or so.

Regards,
Adrian



Adrian, thank you for providing such a wonderful site for so many years. Skatingforums is a font of knowledge and it's sad that so much information will be lost.

It's been an invaluable experience and I thank you for your vote of confidence in me.

skatingforums.com will be missed.

[davincisoprano1]

This makes me so sad since I just found out about skating forums not even a month ago. :(

Thank you to those who moderated and ran it for so long. Your hard work doesn't go unnoticed.

[Patsy]

Adrian, thank you for many many years of skatingforums . . . . it was always appreciated.

Patsy's Parlor will be moving to fsuniverse.net and remember--you're always welcome to come by, have a nice hot cuppa, and enjoy a recliner.

[Tennisany1]

Thanks so much for Skatingforums. I found this site shortly after my daughter started competing and it has been a wonderful source of information over the years.

I'm sorry it will no longer be around - it will be missed.

[icedancer2]

Well, this board has been invaluable to me in so many ways... although I don't participate in the Parlor, etc., I just may over at fsuniverse... a board which I have more of a love/hate (or perhaps a "sort-of-like/hate" relationship...

Thank you skatingforums moderators and participants!!
Lisa

[LilJen]

WHAT??? Why???? I'm so sad!! This is a much sweeter, nicer place than FSU (although FSU has its place and I enjoy the snark at times). . .

[icestalker]

:cry: I really liked this board, and FSU doesn't seem to have a very big on-ice forum, nor do they seem very warm and cuddly.. are there any other skating forums? I liked getting to talk about skating, anonymously, on such a nice board :cry:

[herniated]

so sorry that Skatingforums is shutting down. I'm so grateful for all the friends I have made on it and all the information I've learned from it's members. I will sorely miss it....

[Clarice]

Oh my goodness! I am so going to miss this board! Thanks to everyone who made it possible for so long!

I have the same user name over at FSU - hope to see many of you over there!

[jp1andOnly]

i too will miss this board. Thanks for keeping it going this long :)

[sk8er1964]

Thanks, Adrian. This was the best place for adult skating news, and I will miss it for that.

[doubletoe]

NOOOOOOO!!! :cry:
So sad... I will miss this forum so much!
Thank you, Adrian, mods, and posters!

P.S. FSU will have a bigger and better on ice forum if WE take it over! ;)

[dbny]

NOOOOOOO!!! :cry:
So sad... I will miss this forum so much!

ITA
Thank you, Adrian, mods, and posters!
ITA

P.S. FSU will have a bigger and better on ice forum if WE take it over! ;)
ITA

Except - that I can't even stand the look of the place. UGH! I've heard a lot about how obnoxious it is over there, and it looks it too. I'll go if necessary, but can't say I'm happy about it.

[Isk8NYC]

LOL ... someone on FSU ... just told ... ... ... ARTEMIS (of all people) ... ... to "suck it" when she posted about a potential migration. Ah, the snark of FSU. Yeah, really positive atmosphere, gotta love it. *snickers*

I am literally laughing out loud about this. Of all the people to snark at ... (((((Artemis)))))

[icestalker]

P.S. FSU will have a bigger and better on ice forum if WE take it over! ;)
LOL ... someone on FSU ... just told ... ... ... ARTEMIS (of all people) ... ... to "suck it" when she posted about a potential migration. Ah, the snark of FSU. Yeah, really positive atmosphere, gotta love it. *snickers*

I am literally laughing out loud about this. Of all the people to snark at ... (((((Artemis)))))

If we can't somehow collectively save skatingforums.com like oniceagain suggested in this thread
http://skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=31379

then with enough of us over at FSU, we can overpower the snarkers.

I'm trying not to laugh, too, though I don't get the artemis thing, simply because I'm only a few months old on here ;)

[FSWer]

I just got the e-mail notifacation about this myself. Does anyone have a clear reason to why skatingforums is shutting down? Also were are we all going to meet? Were wil our new Board be? Oh do we know? If we don't,Jorge and I have a few Boards that we can use for permerent chat places. What do you all say? BTW. when is this supposed to happen?

[TreSk8sAZ]

It's been amazing sharing knowledge with you all. Unfortunately, I've only met a few of you at competitions and such, with many more to meet. I'm TreSk8sAZ at FSU as well (just signed up). Hopefully we'll be able to keep sharing and enjoying each other!

Thanks Adrian for the years you've let us use the boards!

[drskater]

I'm sad. This forum was the greatest. I will miss it sooooo much. Hope we can figure out where to "go."

[phoenix]

I'm so shocked! This site is literally the first one I check anytime I'm online. I'm over at FSU too, so hopefully a lot of people will migrate. The on ice section really isn't too snarky, so if you don't like it it's pretty safe if you stay in that area.

thanks to Adrian for all the great years!! I'll miss this place greatly!

[skatingatty]

Thanks, Adrian and everyone who made this forum great. I haven't been here as much in the past year, but the atmosphere here was always so supportive (esp. f/adult skaters). I'm livetoskate on FSU. Best wishes to you all, and happy skating!

[Isk8NYC]

I'm trying not to laugh, too, though I don't get the artemis thing, simply because I'm only a few months old on here ;)

Artemis is a typical canadian: well-educated, polite and witty. She's been a great contributor on both this site and FSU. Today, she posts a polite little "are we welcome?" thread on FSU and gets "suck it" as a response. It's so bizarre for someone to bust her chops for being polite, lol.

On FSU, people like to be outrageous just for the sake of being outrageous, or controversial, or argumentative. It's part of the culture and you just have to grow a thicker skin. Skittl's right: the Moves in the Field forum for skaters on FSU is less intense than the rest of the board.

[Debbie S]

I'll miss this forum - it was a great place for adult skating news. If I hadn't been on here, I wouldn't have known half of what I needed to. And I wouldn't have met (virtually and in real life) so many wonderful people.

Thank you, Adrian, for keeping the board going for so long. And thank you to Isk8NYC for being our moderator.

I vote for going to FSU - a lot of us are already there, anyway, and the format is the same as this board. I'm Debbie S over there, too. :)

[RoaringSkates]

:cry: I really liked this board, and FSU doesn't seem to have a very big on-ice forum, nor do they seem very warm and cuddly.. are there any other skating forums? I liked getting to talk about skating, anonymously, on such a nice board :cry:

We seem snarky at first, but actually can be quite welcoming. You do need to get used to the occasional tongue-in-cheek "suck it", though. Lurk at FSU for a few days, get the vibe of the place before you post, and you'll be fine.

The MITF section tends to be very kind. Historically, it's been less active than the skater sections over here - which is why I normally come here for that kind of info - but I'd welcome it becoming more active over there.

I'm GarrAarghHrumph over there. See, even my user name there is grumpy! :lol: But I'm actually a pussycat. ;)

[Terri C]

This is going to be tough.
Quite a few of you "saw" Mel on Ice, Jazzpants, Debbie S and myself through our Bronze FS tests here.Because of this forum, we started the champaigne toast for new first time Bronze competitors at AN.
I will also miss the AN/ adult competition threads here as well.
FSU better look out- some of us can get just as snarky!

[sk8er1964]

FSU's ok, trust me. The majority of the snarkiness is reserved for uber fans. I think Jayar (the aformentioned "suck it" post) was joking. He's really a nice guy.

[aussieskater]

So many thanks to Adrian, the mods, the posters and all for a great time and a terrific source of information.

I've been lurking at FSU for a long time now - the last couple of years, I've even paid my premium membership to access the members-only forums. I'll admit right now that if FSU is where we have to head, I'll be devastated - it's really not a terribly welcoming place (especially the Secret Sources forum).

I've seen for myself on more than one occasion some extremely b**chy remarks posted in Secret Sources about posters who may only have paid the second-top level of membership, and probably have no idea of what's being said about them inside a forum they can't access.

The cattiness is why I will not post there.

[FSWer]

Is FSU where we're moving to?

Thank you Adrian.

[phoenix]

goldenskate is good too--same type of forum. Very quiet, but if enough people go there it would liven up fast! Not so much snarkiness either, if that's what will keep people from FSU.

[Nicki]

I want to echo what everyone else had said here. I'm sorry to see this place shutting down, and want to thank all of moderators for their hard work. I don't skate myself, but love to watch it on T.V. I've enjoyed reading and learning about the world of adult skating. Count me in as another person who would be willing to contribute to the continuation of this board.

[jpeach]

I just posted in the parlor (essentially: nooooooooo). Just want to echo all posts here re: (((((((Adrian)))))))). Thank you for years and years of the best and warmest cyber feelings. Truly, I can't remember when I joined - it's bee so long.

And it's been wonderful.

[Sessy]

Is the database going to be back upped or not? The reason I'm asking is that some of the on-ice stuff really has valuable information.


What is FSU?

(Anyone who wants to keep in touch with me can mail me first; stvoy underscore fan1 At hotmail dot com (replace underscore, at and dot with the corresponding characters and remove spaces).
It's my spam mail account: so make sure you have a catchy title.

[tangos]

Thanks Adrian.

I especially like the Canadian info here.

I also echo the thoughts of moving the Parlour over to Goldenskate instead of FSU. That place is truly nasty. Amazing what people think they are entitled to say when anonymous.

[sk8pics]

FSU does have a different personality, so to speak, but really, it's fine. Like others here have said, the section for skaters is much calmer and tamer. Stay out of the politically correct section, where I do think people tend to get a bit crazy, and you should find it is generally a good place. Sure, people get worked up at times over various things. But there are lots of nice folks and you'll learn who to ignore. When I broke my ankle, I got a lot of virtual hugs from people over there, too.

I'm sk8pics there, too.

[Bunny Hop]

So many thanks to Adrian, the mods, the posters and all for a great time and a terrific source of information.

I've been lurking at FSU for a long time now - the last couple of years, I've even paid my premium membership to access the members-only forums. I'll admit right now that if FSU is where we have to head, I'll be devastated - it's really not a terribly welcoming place (especially the Secret Sources forum).

I've seen for myself on more than one occasion some extremely b**chy remarks posted in Secret Sources about posters who may only have paid the second-top level of membership, and probably have no idea of what's being said about them inside a forum they can't access.

The cattiness is why I will not post there.I second everything aussieskater said. I do occasionally post on FSU (I'm Bunny Hop there as well, but there's also a Bunny_Hop - which can get confusing if we're both posting in the same thread!:D), but mainly only in the 'Moves in the Field' section, which is the one for skaters, and then only if I'm really, really sure about what I'm talking about and know I can defend it.

For the Aussies here, don't forget there's an Australian skating forum at:
http://oziceskatecommunity.myfreeforum.org/index.php. There's not much traffic there at the moment, but maybe with a few more keen posters....

And for the Brits: http://www.skatingforum.co.uk/, which is quite busy, with mainly adult skaters, although a lot of the posters are only at SkateUK (i.e. Learn to Skate) level, rather than higher level. Having said that, a few of the higher level UK adult skaters who've posted here in the past do now post over there.

[vesperholly]

OK, everyone (especially the adults in On Ice) better skip on over to FSU and start posting in their Moves in the Field section! FSU is great.

[Sessy]

BTW, everyone might want to clean their inboxes of sent items and such to free up space for private messages, so that the info can actually be exchanged. Just a thought. :)

[Sassafras]

You can always start your own forum.

[icestalker]

You can always start your own forum.

We want to save all the on ice threads, because there is years' worth of good information in them.

One thought- can the on ice stuff be back-upped, and then a new forum made, and the on-ice stuff transferred to it?

[sk8tmum]

Already a member at GoldenSkate, and I know that a few here are (it's been amusing to see a query posted here, and then the same query posted over there, and seeing the OP checking back and forth to get cross-input). GS is decent, the mods actually ban trolls and nasty jerks, and actively monitor discussions - the Lutz corner used to be more used, it's less so now, but, if the people here move THERE, it will pick up fast. There are some very good posters over there, who honestly "get" skating. I've learned a lot about CPC and all that.

Hate to see this forum go, though, it's a great place ... sigh.

[Sessy]

One thought- can the on ice stuff be back-upped, and then a new forum made, and the on-ice stuff transferred to it?

My understanding of forums from my days as admin for a student forum or university and an art forum is that the problem is that they generate a lot of traffic because of the inherent nature of php scripts which puts together a page from loose pieces (each post has effectively its own page) into one page. So basically every time you click a link you're sending in a request for information which needs to be processed, put together, and then sent out.

This is also what makes a forum expensive to own/run.

If the pages were transferred into html they would be very low in traffic and you could possibly host them over a few free websites however, I'm not sure if there are any automated tools that allow to transfer the php pages into html pages. I do know a site owner/admin has the option to create a database backup, and these databases tend to run in the hundreds of megs, but they're usually stored on the same server as the site, although one can often download them if one wants. In theory, it's possible to recover a forum from one of those databases but I have never had to do this myself so I've no idea how it works.

If pTPTB are considering this option I"m voting in favour of only backing up on Ice. That's where the most valuable information is and that's what is really worth saving. Everything else is just going to take up space that's not available on free sites.

[renatele]

Is the database going to be back upped or not? The reason I'm asking is that some of the on-ice stuff really has valuable information.

Sadly, no ...

(with a database and vbulletin file backup, we could have migrated to another host)

[Sessy]

We can of course just back up by hand. I made about a year ago a backup this way - I've NO idea where it is now, but it's probably somewhere in my hundreds of gigs of backups so if I look long enough I can prolly find it - by just doing a search for example for "camel spin", then opening the first 20 threads of those or so, pressing CTRL A, CTRL C, going into word pressing CTRL V, and then saving them thematically. I even edited the backup at the time to contain only comments on improving technique and not discussions about who is having what problems with their spin, boots, etc. Ended up with a manual of about 60 pages per spin that way.

It's a lot lot lot of work though :lol:

I'm tempted to on monday go to the university library at 8 (I've a very very slow connection at home) and just see how much I can back up on jumps before classes.

[Scarlett]

I am so sorry to see this site go. This place has been an invaluable reference for me from when I first posted trying to figure out my jump and spin direction until now struggling on silver moves. I will follow the group but wanted to say Thank you to Adrian and to ISK8NY and to all the posters who have given me advice and laughter throughout the years.

Cheers,
Scarlett

[Meredith]

Artemis is a typical canadian: well-educated, polite and witty. She's been a great contributor on both this site and FSU. Today, she posts a polite little "are we welcome?" thread on FSU and gets "suck it" as a response. It's so bizarre for someone to bust her chops for being polite, lol.

On FSU, people like to be outrageous just for the sake of being outrageous, or controversial, or argumentative. It's part of the culture and you just have to grow a thicker skin. Skittl's right: the Moves in the Field forum for skaters on FSU is less intense than the rest of the board.


I just read Artemis' post on FSU and was embarrassed for most of the rest of the posters. You really have to consider the source.

ADRIAN, you know you are still a :rockstar: I've told you this in person and I still mean it. Your websites were cutting edge; we appreciate everything you've brought to figure skating discussions throughout the years.

ps: I'm Meredith on FSU as well.

[dbny]

Already a member at GoldenSkate, and I know that a few here are (it's been amusing to see a query posted here, and then the same query posted over there, and seeing the OP checking back and forth to get cross-input). GS is decent, the mods actually ban trolls and nasty jerks, and actively monitor discussions - the Lutz corner used to be more used, it's less so now, but, if the people here move THERE, it will pick up fast. There are some very good posters over there, who honestly "get" skating. I've learned a lot about CPC and all that.

Hate to see this forum go, though, it's a great place ... sigh.

Without having been there, I vote for GoldenSkate. Can we possibly get a consensus here on where to regroup before it's too late?

[icestalker]

Can we possibly get a consensus here on where to regroup before it's too late?

I agree; we're all going to end up at different forums, and not enough of us at the same forum to keep it lively.

I like FSU, Goldenskate is a bit slow, the IceNetwork one is nice too, though also slow. They are all slower than skatingforums.

IceNetwork has "On the Ice," "Adult Skating," "Synchro," and "Competition Results" plus a few others. So similar to skatingforums. But hardly anyone is active there.

FSU only has the one on-ice forum, though it seems to be a bit more occupied. The on-ice part is pretty friendly.

Goldenskate has the Lutz corner, but that's the only on ice thread. The rest is fan based.

Should somebody start a poll and have everybody vote, and the majority wins, with all of us agreeing to move to that forum? Or do we not have time?

If we do end up not having decided before skatingforums goes, then we should lurk around on those forums until we figure out where most of us went.

I've registered at Goldenskate and FSU as Sierra.

[JimStanmore]

Removed by OP.

[Isk8NYC]

Thanks Jim - I just got in and replied to your message. Sorry I didn't think of it this morning.



For a consensus tally, I've added a poll to this thread: http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=31380 (http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=31380)

[mamaskate]

This forum has been great, and I'll be sorry to see it end.

[JimStanmore]

For those of you that would like to try to keep the spirit going we can go to a new home:

http://skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=31383

[sk8tmum]

For those of you that would like to try to keep the spirit going we can go to a new home:

http://skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=31383

Okay, I'm there ... and I'm registered. Feeling lonely though ... does somebody want to come hang out with me?:D

[aussieskater]

I'm registered too - still aussieskater. Thanks Jim!!

Anyone else, please come too!

[winziped]

Well, this board has been invaluable to me in so many ways... although I don't participate in the Parlor, etc., I just may over at fsuniverse... a board which I have more of a love/hate (or perhaps a "sort-of-like/hate" relationship...

Thank you skatingforums moderators and participants!!
Lisa


Lisa is invaluable the forum. in the last time i don't participated for problem of time between studies , work and training . the forum is nice and well there is a saying that in Chile we use i will say in both languages . lo bueno dura poco .... in literal way it would be the good things have expiration date. i keep in touch with Dana ( FSwer ) .

i think that thanks to everybody we made a great forum and well Adrian didn't said why he taken that decision if the forum is being very successful and a great meeting point for everybody worldwide .

[JimStanmore]

winziped, Espero que van a unirse a nosotros en el nuevo foro, www.figureskatingforums.net. Antes de pedir que no escribí yo mismo. Estoy tratando de aprender español, pero no es muy buena. Si Google esta mal traducida, por favor perdóname.

[winziped]

winziped, Espero que van a unirse a nosotros en el nuevo foro, www.figureskatingforums.net (http://www.figureskatingforums.net). Antes de pedir que no escribí yo mismo. Estoy tratando de aprender español, pero no es muy buena. Si Google esta mal traducida, por favor perdóname.


no worry . i will sign up to the forum . yeah i noticed about the translation was made by google.

[JimStanmore]

Sunday, 29 Aug 10, skatingforums.com will be replaced with the site currently accessible at figureskatingforums.net. In order to move forward with this change we ask that you register at the new site as soon as possible because we cannot transfer registrations. Some of the "old" posts will be available on the new site as searchable, indexed text, most notably the On Ice forum. As we move on, please thank Adrian for having supported this community for so many years.

[singerskates]

Also, for those of us who compete, there are 2 Yahoo Groups; Competitive Adult Skaters (I run this with the help of a few friends) and if you're Canadian there's ... Canadian Competitive Adult Skaters of which I'm a member and created the logo.

[Sessy]

Thank you Adrian :bow:

[BatikatII]

Huge thanks to Adrian for this board and to all the mods and to the many friends I've made here.