The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

phonogfp wrote:...And THAT'S why I log on - - because I want to learn more!

George,

All joking aside, I agree with you completely—I strongly feel that we should never stop learning, and that I don’t know anyone that knows all there is to know on any particular subject. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully our strengths line up in a manner that someone has the information for which other people are looking (e.g., I’m still primarily only helpful if it involves technology; I do not recommend soliciting my advice on most phonograph topics).

I think everyone has something that they can contribute, even if it is merely an opinion or friendly discussion...and we all benefit from each others’ knowledge.

Of course, I might be biased—my mother is a teacher/guidance counselor, my maternal grandmother was also a schoolteacher, and I have a couple of friends that teach. In addition to hosting this site, I also host a chat site and a class website for one of my friends who teaches. In my free time, I teach her students HTML, CSS and PHP. I’m impressed that her elementary students maintain and update that page, although I wrote automation to simplify that task for them.

Also, the project that I mentioned previously is going well—I’ve written the vast majority of the code for it, and provided that John has a productive Sunday, hopefully we will be launching that Sunday evening or Monday.

If any of you have further ideas as to how we can improve the forum, please feel free to share them with me—time permitting, my current planned improvements and content (in no particular order) include:

• The above-mentioned project (sorry, it’s a surprise).
• Easy-to-use chat, built into the forum. This will probably be via IRC with a simple web interface, tied into this board.
• Support for Skype accounts in user profiles, since a number of us have Skype accounts, and it’s a great (free) tool for talking to members across the globe. I’ve enjoyed using it to talk to Norman, Richard, etc., to whom it would otherwise be quite expensive to call. It can also be used for text-based chat (including multiple-user conversations—like a chat room).
• Various improvements to the layout of this board; we still have the unused space to the right of the TMF logo at the top of the page, and eventually I plan to consolidate a lot of the navigation below it into that space.
• Graphics and additional manuals! (And thank you again to everyone who has provided me with a backlog of images for this purpose.)

And as always, if I can assist you with anything, please let me know, although I ask that you do not hold it against me if I am a bit slow in getting back to everyone. (Remind me if necessary.)

— MordEth

Folks,

My goodness, I don't know where to begin. You are all too kind. It is, however, I who should be thanking all of you for your support both here and personally. Whether this forum succeeds of fails is really up to you-and so far I'm amazed! Kudos to you all. You all have made this forum what it is, I am honored to be a part of it.

I owe so many of you PMs and telephone calls-I will get to you all eventually-Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
John

Welcome Back John!

Paul