Well howdy folks, AdeV here checking in from MadModder. I live in Wallasey, which is on the other side of the Mersey to Liverpool, in North West England (if you look at a map, you'd swear it was the Midlands; trust me, it's not). I'm a computer programmer/analyst by trade (current specialty: call centre wallboards). I also dabble a bit with Arduinos and a have a couple of Rasperry Pis waiting to revitalise an old car I'm sporadically working on. About 3 years back, I became the proud & happy owner of a Bridgeport J-head milling machine, followed by an old Herbert Edgwick lathe (which is over 80 years old, I believe). More recently, I acquired a Bridgeport Interact 1 Mk2 CNC mill, and along the way various bandsaws, donkey saws, a Hardinge turret lathe, MIG & TIG welders, an old PCB drilling machine which needs refurbishing..... many toys, not so much time...
I've lurked at HMEM for about 2 or 3 years, pretty much since I got my milling machine. But I never posted there "yet", mainly because I never actually started to build an engine. I always intended to, but then I'd either start building something else, or I'd be buying a new machine & end up working on that.... so the engine - and that first HMEM post, never happened.
And then the organic animal-derived fertiliser hit the rotating air-moving device....
It took a while to work out what was happening. Some "WTF?" posts appeared on MadModder, but I could access the site, nothing had changed for me. And then, it did. Eww, what a mess. And it became clear that there was some discontent. Some people were never going to post there again.... so, I decided, that wouldn't do.
So I started this place. Yup, me. I am the mysterious "admin". I've never posted at HMEM, but I've watched many of your builds over there & been awestruck and gobsmacked in turn. Plus, I know John Bogstandard, and knowing he'd a) want a shiny new home to post in, and b) would be able to bring some members with; how could I lose?
Well.
Even I am absolutely astounded by the reception this place has received. I'm totally blown away by it. And partially for that reason; I have decided to share the ownership of this forum with some guys I know and trust. Other than John, I've never actually met any of them, but I know that their interests lie in a thriving and friendly community of like-minded individuals. This provides you - the members - with two safeguards: 1) It will become impossible for "the owner" to sell out on the forum - because there will always be approx. 5 owners. No one person holds the keys. So some commercial organisation is going to have to persuade 5 co-owners to part with the place? No chance. And also, 2) It protects you from the mundane stuff like an owner unexpectedly passing away, or simply going AWOL.
Over the course of years, I expect the admins to come & go (including me), but for the site to remain strong and healthy - and, above all, 100% commercial free, and 100% free of commercial ownership. And most important of all, I want this site to be driven by YOU the membership, and what YOU want. For sure, we won't be able to please all of you all of the time; but I've seen how well you guys get on with each other over at the old place, so I'm confident that the chances of seeing toys orbiting the perambulator is suitably low
I hope I will, fairly soon, be able to post in this place, as AdeV, building an engine. I will also be trying to keep abreast of your suggestions and bug reports as admin.
I apologise now for any downtime we might experience - if the forum does disappear for any reason, rest assured there will be plenty of trying to get it back on the air asap, just keep trying. But hopefully, it'll be fine - the server we're on has been running 24/7 since just after Christmas 2011 (there was a bit of an outage around then, but the hosting company assures me they have fixed that particular problem).
And now, I have about a zillion posts to catch up on. You guys are
BRILLIANT, a hearty
THANK YOU for making this place pretty much an instantaneous success!