I think he still cares a lot about this place, but I don't even know how regularly he checks it these days. I'm pretty sure he's only made a handful of posts in the entire time you've been active recently. I can't actually check when his last activity was because profiles are still broken, and as search of his recent posts is taking forever for some reason.

I really don't understand why he doesn't give them server access though. He'll still own the place. It won't be any different to how things are now, except we won't have to wait as long to get problems fixed.

Every time Peter makes a post as of late, it's like encountering a shiny pokemon.

Perhaps some sort of petition is in order?

I think we should at least get a comment from him here before we start with talk like that.

We don't want to have some stupid leadership issue that divides the forums.

Yes, we do. Or at least I do. That sounds like fun!

What gets me is that there’s really nothing stopping him from giving others server access – it’s not like he has to give up his own rights to do it, he can just set up additional accounts on the web host.

Semi-related, but has the forum been slower to load recently for anyone else, or is that just my connection?

I've been finding it quite slow too.

I don't suppose buying the entire site from him would be an option, even if enough funds were somehow available?

Other than that I don't really understand why he refuses to give you access either. Maybe he's reluctant to let anyone access his server where he might have other stuff hosted. But there's solutions for that, as Manco pointed out. All you'd really need is an FTP account with access to only the oddworldforums.net directory. Takes like 30 seconds to set up and you're done.

What did he say when you asked about this subject before?

He mostly just ummed and erred about it.

The most definitive he's been was in June when he said he'd 'look in' to getting me server access.

I was around for the last one... Wow, that was very long time ago. I doubt there'll be as much of a dividing issue if something like that pops up again, though.

I sometimes get database glitches on the rare event I make a post. "You must wait 30 seconds before you can post again." even though I'm making a new post.

E: Oh yeah, Alcar was reading this thread as I was posting, apparently. I hope he does the right thing, it's a shame to watch this place getting stale.

Turns out I was right and the .htaccess file was blocking the crawlers. Alcar has fixed it and Google can now see us. Now we just have to wait for them to update their search databases.

EDIT: A look at the 'Who's Online' tells me that there are a lot of guests checking out random threads. That looks like some crawler behaviour to me.

Also, I never noticed it before, but those exclamation mark icons in the attached image tell me that those guests attempting to register accounts are getting an error message. I was initially worried, but then I checked their IP addresses and every one is a known spammer. That means that our automatic spambot detection is working!

Honeybee still works.

We might finally be getting new members out of the blue again?

:0 gasp

I still can't google the site typing "Oddworld forums"

My definition of spam has been a little relaxed the last week because frankly this nonsense is preferable to the wasteland the forum was for a few days. When we get back on our feet, I'll start hitting people with knobbly sticks again. Especially Varrok. Saying that, I don't really mind over-silliness in W&B as long as the thread starts off with a topic and doesn't get too awful, so this is fine.

Can we make an effort to post more in 'good' threads so google likes us more and newbies don't decide we're a pile of immutable turd before they join?

Also remember to type zoophilia a lot, we don't want to be known as the pedo forum.

What? But I wasn't kidding or anything. I just thought it's supposed to work now, after Nate said Google sees the OWF

I know you weren't, it's a coincidence you posted just before me.

I'm just being mean to you in general because you're kind of a snarky dick. Don't let it get to you.

Oh. That's okay, then. I'll try to behave.

Why?

New experience.

Web crawling isn’t instantaneous. Just because Google sees us again doesn’t mean the forums will be back on top of the search results straight away.

Good news everyone!

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/8676/pemx.png

Zoophilia-tastic.

Bing still hasn't realised we're back.

People use bing?

Also, it works for me too

Anyone stupid enough to say 'Yes' to whatever Windows tells them to do, and that's a lot of people.

Do we need those people here?

They can be entertaining, so why not?

Yes, because the solution to a drought of people which is obviously making the forum derelict, is to scare them all away. Oh man, you are smart.

So smart.

I meant only people using bing. Not google.

same! i've been waiting for the next forum revolution.

gladly.

where are these 'good' threads again?

"What is Your Idea of a Perfect Sunday V1"
Actually sounds like fun to me.

Thank god that's been fixed! Now we either wait for some interesting people to turn up or some irritating shits...

I'd rather have the irritating shits.

I've had them for five years. You really don't want them.

I've had them for about 2 years, but my previous post was specifically about OWF shits.

Irritating shits are great and all but the best part is when they're finally gone.

Mine just get worse. It's like my body is moderated by BM.

Once I had them in school and the toilet woman asked me if I was alright, I was making such a racket. She actually started talking to me. I think she thought I was dying.
Now I get them every monday. It's a pain in the arse.

E: I've just realised I've started talking about shitting. Like I, wasn't even being subtle. Forgive me.

Everyone's body is moderated by BM.

Someone will get it. I don't know what Joe means, though.