Welcome Hancock Wildlife Forum Members

[JudyB]

Hi Everyone!

Update - April 12 2015 - I set this up a couple of weeks ago when the HWF forum was down and we didn't know how soon it would be back - and as we hoped, the forum was back online before we were ready to invite people to join - so the message below is a bit out of date. However, the details below are all accurate, and this may be a useful place to make notes or do procedural things like say who is zooming while the forum is so slow. But remember - this is not the permanent record, and there will be some cut-and-paste involved in copying anything written here to the permanent threads on the Hancock forum. Thanks!

We're hoping that the Hancock Wildlife Forum will be back online soon - but in the meantime, we've set up this temporary place where those observing activity at one of our nests can post what's happening for the record.

When the Hancock Forum is back online, I'd encourage the first person posting in a thread covered here to make a "Reserved for Summary of the Past Few Days" post. We won't be able to copy what's posted here, but we can link to it, and post a timeline of significant events.

If you're a HWF member, please register with the same user name you use there - we'll need to approve all new members, and that will help us find you quickly if we start to get spammers trying to join.

We do not allow attachments. I am sorry about that - but we don't have the sort of space that Hancock Wildlife can offer, and don't want to risk getting the forum locked by our hosting company. You can upload pictures to a file service like Flickr and post pictures here using the IMG links - or save them and we'll try to find a way to upload things in some sort of order once the regular HWF forum is back.

This forum will be locked once the HWF forum is back online [update - we aren't doing that] - but we may add a "News About the Forum" thread as another place we can post to let people know when the forum is down [did do that - it's HWF Forum Updates].

And with luck the forum will be back before we get this set up - but we're getting started in case it does take more than a day or two.

~JudyB for the Admin Team (jkr, Pat B, gemini and me)

[gemini]

Some Quick instructions lifted from one of JudyB's emails! : (Sorry the accompanying scaps didn't copy over but even written instructions are better than none!!)

Once you sign in, you should see the member-only area as well as the totally public area:

When you click on a forum like Hancock Wildlife Cams, you'll see any threads (called Topics here) that have been created, and at least for now, you can create new topics using the New Topic button.

Once you click on the name of the thread (Harrison Mills 2015), you should see the posts, with a Post Reply button at the top and bottom of the page:

Click one of the Post Reply buttons to get a window where you can post.

One other thing that may be useful eventually - the little piece of paper icon to the right of the name of the last person to post in the right column goes to the last post in that area.

[JudyB]

I've corrected my earlier instructions as posted by gemini (thanks, gemini!) to say that the little piece of paper icon for going to the last post is on the right of the name on the index area (or the other left, as my husband teases me).

Also, I think members can edit their own posts with the pencil tool at the top of their posts over to the right, near the little quote symbol. The exclamation there is to mark an objectionable post so admins can find it - which should not be a problem, but figuring how to remove it is!

[jkr]

Ken has shut down the HWF garnet server for approximately the next hour or so while he does some work on it. He's trying to hurry so that we don't lose our place in the system.

[JudyB]

Ken has shut down the HWF garnet server for approximately the next hour or so while he does some work on it. He's trying to hurry so that we don't lose our place in the system.

Thanks, Judy - not sure what that means - but very sure that I appreciate all the hours he's putting in!

[gemini]

April 27, Monday, 9:10 pm Can't seem to connect to any of the HWF forum pages! I think the forum is about to go down again if it isn't already!

[JudyB]

Tuesday, April 28, 5:48 am
I also cannot connect to the Hancock Wildlife forum, or to Hancock House (which shares the same servers). I'll send an email and post on Facebook. Keeping fingers crossed that this means Ken is getting close.

Cams should all be available at WildEarth.

(And we're on hatch watch at Harrison Mills - today is Day 35 for the first egg. Two years ago, the first egg hatched on Day 36 - but there may be signs a hatch is beginning today.

[JudyB]

Website and forum are back - thanks, Ken!

[gemini]

I just tried to get on and still get "problem loading"!

[JudyB]

I tried to get on at 8:23 am to post a picture of the beginning of the pip at Harrison Mills and couldn't, so I'm guessing it went down about then. I did put the picture on Facebook, and Bev has a couple to add when the forum comes back up.