Welcome and introductions

First topic message reminder :

Around the autumn of 2007 I came across the MSN message boards and found one entitled "UK Politics" which I joined and enjoyed for over three and a half years, then around April 2011 MSN decided in their wisdom to close down that particular message board.

Over time the MSN message board posters had become like friends, and though I had never met any of them, they became as familiar as the regulars I have a pint with in the local village pub, one or two were fairly nasty and quite vile, most were very pleasant people.

Fortunately, one of the redundant MSN bloggers (Ivan) decided to start his own political blogging site, and many of the old MSN posters followed him to his newly created site, and after a competition to find a name, it was agreed to call it "Cutting Edge".

I have to point out that Ivan ran things in a very fair and democratic way, the members decided the rules, they chose the name and logo, several of us were appointed as moderators and common sense prevailed.

Unfortunately the host of our board was "ProBoards" whom I would definately NOT recommend to anyone, they pulled the plug and closed Cutting Edge down saying that we had broken the rules.
To this day we still do not know what rule(s) were broken, and by whom, we wrote very polite emails to ProBoards asking for an explanation, but we got no answer other than "you broke the rules".

And so here we are WELCOME

Hello to all of our new members, and WELCOME!

When does 'Error you are denied access' stop happening?

Hello Red. To what are you being denied access? If you tell us, we can investigate the forum settings. You can't write on a blog (only the blogger can), but a feedback thread is provided for each one. Only staff members can write messages on some of the information boards, such as posting rules and notices. Now that you've posted more than ten messages, you can send personal messages to other members. If you tell us what it is you are trying to access but can't, we may be able to help.

Hello. I'm a new member.  Welsh but not a nationalist. Socialist but not a Labour supporter.  I do vote Labour but only because i can't possibly vote for Tories or Lib Dems. Worse of bad bunch type of scenario.

Good morning - just - hope to hear more from you in due course - welcome

AEParry wrote:Hello. I'm a new member. Welsh but not a nationalist. Socialist but not a Labour supporter. I do vote Labour but only because i can't possibly vote for Tories or Lib Dems. Worse of bad bunch type of scenario.

Welcome! I think we 'know' each other on Twitter..?

Hello to all the new members who recently signed on. If you have any issues, problems, questions, gripes, jokes, and concerns, don't hesitate to send me a PM.

drussii wrote:Hello all, I found you through Steve Walker whose blog I follow. I guess I must describe myself as the worst enemy of the Tory Party being a disabled pensioner on benefits. Look forward to reading your comments and hopefully joining in and making sense. Cheers

Hi Drussii - welcome and thanks for following me here! I'm sure you'll have fun as long as you don't feed the occasional troll lol. Great to hear from you, and nil desperandum!

The format here is very eye appealing......I've been on message boards, specifically the old MSN boards, on and off for a few years. I lost interest and haven't messaged for the past 6 or so months, but retiring early and living now on two continents have given me much free time...BTW, the moniker I use is meant as a joke because even though I am highly opinionated on many topics I never really take myself that seriously.

the sap wrote:The format here is very eye appealing......I've been on message boards, specifically the old MSN boards, on and off for a few years. I lost interest and haven't messaged for the past 6 or so months, but retiring early and living now on two continents have given me much free time...BTW, the moniker I use is meant as a joke because even though I am highly opinionated on many topics I never really take myself that seriously.

Welcome, 'sap'! Hope you'll have fun here - it's a great forum.

Glad to meet you sap, hope you'll enjoy posting here

Hello! I am cranberry! I have been on message boards since 2003. I hope to see some here that I know! I also go by the nic janieshere.

sap? Is this the same sap that I know? If so? Hello old pal! Nice to 'see' ya!

cranberry49 wrote:Hello! I am cranberry! I have been on message boards since 2003. I hope to see some here that I know! I also go by the nic janieshere.

sap? Is this the same sap that I know? If so? Hello old pal! Nice to 'see' ya!

Welcome Janie/Cranberry - have fun!

Nice to meet you

sap? Is this the same sap that I know? If so? Hello old pal! Nice to 'see' ya! .

Yes, Janie, it is me....and I am so happy to see one of my favorite posters here. Btw, I know your other moniker of cranberry also. Take care, good lady.

Hi I've just joined
Guess you will get to know me over the weeks

It will take even longer to sort out a profile photo

Hullo Harvey
Hope you enjoy it

Hello, Janie. You already know me.

I think I know Sap, as well.

Welcome aboard.

Welcome Harvey. Think I've already welcomed everyone else!

I'm a fellow American that Ivan White has just asked to join. Lookin forward to posting in here.

Hi Ed
Nice to meet you

Hello, I already know a few of you here, and in the next few weeks look foward to spending more time on this forum.

Welcome Vappuk

Thank you, boatlady.

Welcome V - I think we follow each other on Twitter!

I think you're right. Nice to meet you in another digital venue as well.

Ed Hull wrote:I think you're right. Nice to meet you in another digital venue as well.

Hi Ed and welcome!

Thank you all for your words of Welcome

Like Noahs ark,then, this board?.............funny about the previous posts, as I did wonder if PB were likely to just shut down a board,with no warning,and it seems that they are.............they only need a little prompting,it seems.........................

Oh, and 'hello'................I wont bother with my life-story,as some of you may know me already, and the others will get bored!
PS if you want my life story, just ask, but remember you asked for it.........

egginbonce wrote:Oh, and 'hello'................I wont bother with my life-story,as some of you may know me already, and the others will get bored!
PS if you want my life story, just ask, but remember you asked for it.........

Hi Egginbonce. Don't know what your previous comment means, but welcome!

Hi Skywalker.......thanks.....my comment has no hidden meaning, or at any rate, none that Im unwilling to explain,bearing in mind that the explanation is probably lengthy and worse-banal! Just simply a few words to dip my toe in the water, as it were..............
Anyone on 'anything goes' board will tell you that Im often undecipherable, but ,to myself, I think that theyre just not keeping up!

egginbonce wrote:Hi Skywalker.......thanks.....my comment has no hidden meaning, or at any rate, none that Im unwilling to explain,bearing in mind that the explanation is probably lengthy and worse-banal! Just simply a few words to dip my toe in the water, as it were..............
Anyone on 'anything goes' board will tell you that Im often undecipherable, but ,to myself, I think that theyre just not keeping up!

You are Mystic Meg, and I claim my £5 prize for a correct identification.

egginbonce. Welcome.

‘Noah’s Ark’, ‘dipping your toe in the water’…..I know the weather’s been bad, but we’re not expecting a flood to drown everyone who isn’t a member of Cutting Edge, even if after it was over I could stop sitting on an island stroking a cat and be able to achieve my aim of world domination……

ProBoards deleted our first forum without warning and without any explanation. We could only guess that they took the lazy option and deleted three forums, one of which was giving them very bad publicity. Another possible explanation was offered on the review board: “If your forum is being constantly disrupted by hackers and they are spending more time fixing the problems than they are gaining from hosting the forum, then it is in their commercial interests to cut service to you, even though you have done nothing wrong.” This makes quite interesting reading:-
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

As you can see from the comments, people either seem to love ProBoards or loathe them. Don’t get paranoid if you have one of their forums, since many have operated successfully for a long time and their support is good if you do have problems. Maybe the best thing to do is to stay below the radar as much as possible; only contact them when you really need to do so, and keep well within the law, so as not to attract any undue attention from them.

A much bigger risk than the arbitrary actions of ProBoards staff is the sheer proliferation of forums, which is likely to cause many of them to fail. It may be easy to set up a forum, but it isn’t easy to attract and keep members.

So much pollen. So few bees to be attracted.

Well, whatever, it's nice to meet a new member - hello egginbonce - wonder what the name means?

Hi everyone just joined thought I would do the neighbourly thing and introduce myself

Hello - nice to meet you - not TOO deadly I hope