I’ll go wherever the good conversation is 
If people think a different board structure will bring people back then I’m all for it. I’ll happily help to cover the costs.
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Am also happy to contribute towards cost.
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I am willing to pay for such a site.
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I’m in! I don’t contribute a lot of content, but I sure do 
lurk a lot! Ever since 1997!! This is much appreciated by the silent masses.
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Gosh, I knew for sure there is a great spirit to this 20+ year community (I was since 1999, some earlier), but didn’t expect so many offers to help in that way. There should be no need to help with server costs, I’m going to programme it very efficiently. As I wrote - “old school”. Let us see how many “return”, but please remember that this depends on you, not me. Thus my last message to try to call upon users who have gone missing by looking to your past emails.
I’m taking a 10 minute break to type something here for entertainment. All graphics (nearly all CSS instructions) were complete this morning, and most stored data structures shortly after. Then a lot of infrastructural work, process forking, and then three hours ago, completed signing up, logging in and administration editing of user accounts in case of problems. An hour ago I completed programming the “Recommend It” feature (it took 15 minutes or so) that simply checks and if okay writes a user/post join table, and now I’m half way through the navigation system which takes longer. I had to pause to think a few minutes on navigation, taking care to get it exactly right as to how it worked (I am of course backwards-engineering from memory since we don’t have a working site to double check) and it is very different to all the other pagination systems I programmed in the past. But then it clicked, as signal to the beautiful Italian waitress a third cappuccino. The system indexes not the last post listed but the top-most post listed, and it doesn’t index the post but rather the date of the post. That explains why they put the “navigate back one year” etc feature, as you are just throwing the date index around. The cutoff date is read, blindly and simply, via storage, and the navigation date index changed (written to storage) only by clicking any of the navigation button (Next, Prev, back one year, etc). That is why if you log out for months you are exactly where you were last reading posts. I’m going to do it exactly that way so everyone feels “at home”.
Don’t pay much attention, I’m just speaking my mind as I’m programming, working 17 hours though the day and I’m pretty sure in my sleep. Compared to my real job composing classical works (which requires exceedingly more critical thinking and ludicrous force of will) this very simple and fun. The trick is to do such things lovingly and with elegance, and we will then have something extremely long-term and reliable.
— Manlobbi
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Thank you so much, Manlobbi, for the site. I’ve been a huge fan of your thought process for a long time. Your background in mathematics shows in the Manlobbi method, among other things. But you are also a gifted composer. I always thought that people who are strong in math tend to be weak in art, but you have proved me wrong. 
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Some action shots just so people don’t think I’m bluffing, including the Recommend It feature and some renderings (this is not Photoshop but actual server HTML output) to feel some nostalgia:
It tends to be true, though I have always viewed aesthetics very broadly (mathematics as a special case of a larger class of aesthetics).
With my best friend in high-school, would you believe Terrence Tao, we would stay from end of school (4pm after cycling) to well after dinner (9pm) often three times a week; the family environment there was very unique and special, his parents were like angels. We were programming games aged 15, and occasionally there was a difficult routine. I remember all of them. Rarely did we think of the “solution” as our goal, but rather an elegant means of getting to the solution - some insight that had “purity” and simplicity.
( BTW: This is very much the thought process (seeking “purity” and giving purpose to everything) for much of my composing work. If you cut corners, or leave some inconsistency (or something without meaning) with the work, it actually haunts you until you identify and remove whatever is clumsy/grotesque. And this is not just idealising but precisely part of what brings the true beauty. )
Anyway I’m talking too much and wanted to say I will put some of that care into your message boards!
— Manlobbi
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If you cut corners, or leave some inconsistency (or something without meaning) with the work, it actually haunts you
That sounds soooo familiar. In my “previous life” of writing IT books I had to explain each line of my code, it’s logic and purpose, to my readers.
Result: Inconsistencies definitely did haunt me as they can never go undetected that way. If any line of your code is not 100% logical and purposeful it simply is impossible to explain the (missing) logic behind it to an outsider, so you unavoidably discover the inconsistencies you otherwise can easily “read over” and be completely blind for if your code works.
Just a sentimental memory
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Oh, my goodness, Manlobbi! What a soul. Thank you so much.
With great appreciation,
Elizabeth
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Thank you Manlobbi for your efforts. “I’ll have what she’s having”.
Sandywater
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I am interested ! I have been with MF for 16 years ,found it very valuable, but I am very disappointed with the format and may not renew my SA subscription. I have bookmarked your post and hope to be able to get back to it and hope to follow your new board.
Cecil
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WOW! This is truly impressive! Kinda lost for words, so I’ll second the first reply to your 1929 post:
Wish I could give this post a 5X rec.
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Manlobbi Thank you for your gracious & thoughtful commitment to community. Brings to mind the actions/motives of that old Jim guy… 
:-)Shawn
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Looking good @Manlobb!! Thank you!!!
If you are looking for a point of reference for the Old Fool, you can find some posts here:
I chose a post from 2001. Seemed like fun.
Remember Gateway?
Cheers!
'38Packard
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@Manlobbi if you put it on Github or Gitlab I’ll see if I can contribute this weekend.
Wait. You know the Terrence Tao?
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My thought as well
I’m a mathematician by training.
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Perhaps these generous efforts of such a talented board member will result in a new board that encourages all of us to try harder to contribute value. Reflecting longer before posting can result in a more valuable post. For those of us that have some kind of analytical skill, e.g. Excel, a programming language, GTR1 etc,. then spending some time doing a little work could add more value to a post. Anyway, thank you Manlobbi!
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I really miss the old board…check on this new board once in a while, hoping against hope…glad to hear of efforts underway to restore the former glory.
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An unbelievable 28 posts in this thread since Manlobbi less than 2 days ago posted his intentions!
Says all about the demand side, doesn’t it?
But also something about the supply side: Soooo much demand, and so many current or former IT people/programmer here (and naturally even more on Saul’s board), but apart from Manlobbi nobody willing to really work for what he wants => My programmers logic concludes: We are all lazy bastards 
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Ha! How many programmers do you know that really want to work for free? I don’t know of anyone.
'38Packard
==> former programmer
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