FSU..honestly, no one bashes or gets snarky in the skating section. The other sections are a bit snarkier but it is expected so you just deal with it. The secret section is snarky but if you expect it going in, then its fine..and you have to pay for it so if you dont want the SS portion you dont pay. Simple as that.

Not a huge fan of goldenskate. I find there is not enough traffic...

I've added a poll to this thread: http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=31380

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If people would like to start over on a new board, I'd be willing to host one specific to participant skaters, parents & coaches.

There is a new forum starting up:

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

The external links issue was just because it was my first post there, so it was to avoid people joining just in order to spam. Which is what I thought must be the reason, but I was still a bit stunned. After the first post you can post links. I actually didn't realise it was my first post. I registered there ages and ages ago, but gave up reading it after a time, as I didn't see anything different to what I was already seeing here and on FSU (I read both for different reasons). I guess I never felt any reason to post something when I used to go there regularly.

Have posted external links on Golden Skate, and followed a few that are posted there as well; don't know what triggered it in your case. I do know that the mods over there are super-vigilant: they really want to keep it collegial and polite, and avoid any possibility of false rumours and such (not implying that yours fell into that category).

I go to GS for competition analysis, CPC rules and such like; there are some very good experts there. During the Olympics, the play-by-play was great: those with feeds were posting running commentaries on all of the skaters for those who couldn't see it.

I come here for the kind of stuff that I hear hanging around the arena and the dressing room ... skater stuff, parent stuff, day to day stuff. Two different focuses. As an example - GS has 54 pages of debate and growing on the Yuna/Orser thing, this forum has 3 posts, but, has tons on how to keep your skates in shape, and what brand of Riedells work best ... over there, a post that would trigger lots of feedback on "what to buy" gets zero to a couple of responses ... I seem to remember that GS had more on that type of stuff, but it's trickled away.

It was only because the links were in my very first post. A lot of internet forums suffer spam posts from people (or more often automatad programmes) that register and then immediately post spam which includes links to completely unrelated products (I've seen that here a few times). The automatic ban was designed to avoid that, which I totally understand. The moderators have now reviewed my post and I'm free to post again over there, although I have to post a link free post first. I guess I can now claim some notoriety at being banned from an internet forum!

I like the skaters forum on both fsu and goldenskate. Methinks fsu will be more stable financially since it charges for premium services while stays free for basic members who don't need the season's pass.

Having an archive version of the current database hosted somewhere with basic search would be less costly than running a full new forum?

Some industrious members are in the process of archiving, but it will take time and they will need permission to make it accessible.

I'm frankly surprised at the positive response towards a brand-new forum.
This is the working prototype that Jim Stanmore and Renatele have created: http://skatingforums2.com

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What about Ning? I've used that with other groups before and it's simple/effective.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I just joined the new forum that was started by James Stansmore. It is linked in the skating news section. Hope to see everyone there.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Can't take credit for that at all - it is all Jim's work

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--renatele

Wow--thanks!!!! I'm all signed up and hope others will do the same.

I joined Jim's group. I likely won't join any facebook groups- as I like to keep my facebook about 95% people that I know in person.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

I already signed up at the new forums (geez, haven't been here much, glad I showed up today), but will hop over to FSU more often too if everyone's going there. Unless FSU is the one I tried to sign up for a long time ago and never got a confirmation email that I was allowed to be signed up. I'll have to check (it was either that one or Golden Skate). If it is, if i try to sign up again, is it going to not let me because I already tried with that email address?

ETA: It looks like I'm activated, but I remember why I never use FSU--can't use the search function, can't look up my past posts, etc. without paying to do so. And I'm not big on paying for basic functionality that I've seen allowed for free on zillions of other forums using the same format...so I guess I vote for the new version of this forum.

I LOVE it! It's as close to home as we're going to get, IMO. I joined as Sk8Dreams, and have now spammed everyone I know via FaceBook and email in hopes of fostering a wholesale move there. Sorry if I got you twice or someone else sends you the same info again.

I copied over a few of the stickies with useful info.

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Just posted a link to the new forum on our club's facebook page (will do the same for our web site). Let me know if I can do more to help...

Just joined Jim Stanmore's site. Soon as I think of something clever I'll start a new practice thread.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

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.