6 Years on the Sphere - Happy New Year

The original Voltage Forum in the Wayback Machine was Visforvoltage.com
The new (present day) Voltage Forum is Visforvoltage.org

The new site was set up using something called Drupal. I'm not a computer techie, but the Drupal software has kind of a different layout than most other forum software. Personally I never really liked it.
 
The Wayback machine rocks. Here's one of my rants from the early days on the new V.
Read the entire thread here: http://web.archive.org/web/20071019...tration-and-governance/273-where-are-we-going
It was around this time that I washed my hands of the whole thing and settled on ES.
Forum Leadership

Submitted by Fechter on Tue, 01/30/2007 - 16:24.

OK, I can see this thing sort of stalled here, so I will try to get it moving again.
It seems the old Voltage Forum is toast, and even if Ken reappeared, there's a pretty large group of us that wouldn't go back due to the way he just let the thing die. Years of experience and thousands of posts went down the drain. Restoring backups may be more work than just starting from scratch.

The idea of a democratically organized forum seemed good in principle, but failed in execution. My feeling is most members don't really care how the admin runs as long as the board is there and they can post. In fact, the less direction you give them, the better.

Soooo.... How do we fix this semi-broken thing?
I'm open to suggestions, but this is what I would think:

We need a leader. A leader that most everybody likes. Not like our country's president. A leader that can make most of the decisions without involving too many people or requiring a huge debate. Representative government. It has to be somebody who both wants to do it and has time. Some skill would be useful also.

We need a backup leader for when the leader is on vacation, gets run over by a Hummer, or is kidnapped by Big Oil goons.

We need a technical team that can keep the site running and fix problems in the code.

In a democratic system, people run for office and you have an election.
Why not? It would take a somewhat long time frame to accomplish this since you would want a majority of the members to be aware of it and have a chance to vote before the deadline.

All this is just sort of scratching the surface, there's lots of details that need sorting out, like who's going to pay for the domain name and server space. Oh wait, that's what the treasurer does.

Step 1. determine the MINIMUM number of positons needed.
Step 2. open nominations for the positions and hope people apply.
Step 3. once you have enough "candidates", create a poll and have an election. I'd think you'd need to leave the polls open for at least a week. I don't know if cheating would be an issue. There's only so much you could do to stop it.

Once the new admin gets "sworn in", they run the show. If everyone votes for someone who has an enlightened attitude, we will all be in Nirvana, except for the occasional flame war and spam.

What do you other guys think?

A more long-winded version of this discussion is here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=172&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Another idea might be to might be to have a periodic poll for each of the admins (moderators, webmaster, whoever) that would simply be a vote of confidence. Sort of like a presidential approval rating. If, at any time, an "elected official" scores less than 50% approval, they should be replaced. Too bad it doesn't work like that in real politics.

A truely democratic government is perhaps impractical in cyberspace, but a representative government where leaders make decisions on their own on behalf of their constituants seems quite attainable.

There are many details to work out. I've been pretty busy with the "day job" lately, so I appologize for not moving faster on this.
What would we call the "leader" of the admin group anyway?
Supreme Commander?
President?
Chairman? (of the board - pun)
Most High Voltage One? you get the idea.

If members do not participate in this process, the decisions will be made without your input.

Exactly who is our moderation team at this point anyway?
Click to expand...

As it turns out, I became "The Emperor" of ES.
 
fechter said:
As it turns out, I became "The Emperor" of ES.
Click to expand...
Yes, but you've been such a good and kindly emperor, the silent partner with our best interests in mind, and to my knowledge - have never wielded Excalibur for personal gain. :wink:

With that, I would gladly follow your lead good Sir. :D

Well done indeed. KF
 
Happy New Year ES Peoples!

That's all I wanted to say... besides thanking our benefactors Grin Tech,
and the Admins, and the Moderators. 8)

Thanks for keeping this forum squared away, free of advertisements, and liberal in expression.
Most honored, KF
 
HFNY E:S!

-JD
 
7 years now! Time flies.

Thanks to all the members and moderator team for your support. The Sphere would just be like those other sucky web sites without it.
 
May 2014 be a great year for everyone on the sphere. Hey, its a rhyme, but I won't continue on at this time.

I got my first brushed hub motors and SLA batteries before the sphere existed, or before I even knew there were forums of this nature available. Now, after almost 7 years with E-S I can't recount the many things I have learned, new products I've been introduced to, dollars I've spent, and most importantly friends I've met from all over the globe.

Also my special thanks to Justin and his team and the moderators.
 
Kingfish said:
fechter said:
As it turns out, I became "The Emperor" of ES.
Click to expand...
Yes, but you've been such a good and kindly emperor, the silent partner with our best interests in mind, and to my knowledge - have never wielded Excalibur for personal gain. :wink:

With that, I would gladly follow your lead good Sir. :D

Well done indeed. KF
Click to expand...
I used to like reading the 'knights of the round table' stuff as a youngster and can easily see E-S in that light; EVangelic members united by a common value: :mrgreen:

I also think of the E-S site like a year-round Festivus tree with the brilliantly lit ornaments representing the members, and unread posts the constantly-increasing freshly wrapped presents. Happy 2014 E-S, et al.
 
Who would'a thunk? A fun, informative, online electric educational communications and technology resource for all ages, nations, and abilities; built around arguably one of the most efficient mobility devices ever: accessed by the mostly otherwise world-wide waste of time. :mrgreen:
Thanks to everyone, and Feliz Ano Nuevo! :D
 
8 years now, and almost a million posts.

Special thanks to Justin and the moderator crew here that keeps ES alive. The electric revolution is slowly taking off and we're really a bunch of pioneers here making it happen. And thanks to all the members that make it a unique community.

Happy New Year!
 
HNY:ES!

I feel much like Fechter in the OP of this thread; and I am not entirely sure I'd still be here (alive and/or semi-sane) if it weren't for ES in general, and several friends I've made here, after the fire a year and 3/4 ago.

Aside from that, I certainly wouldn't have the relatively advanced stuff on my CrazyBike2 that I do, if it weren't for ES and members, and I'd probably still be fixing my bike after or during every other ride. :lol:
 
fechter said:
8 years now, and almost a million posts.

Special thanks to Justin and the moderator crew here that keeps ES alive.
Click to expand...

Really goes to the moderator crew and most importantly the awesome number of gurus, posters, and readers who keep the whole forum active and engaged; just paying the hosting bill is a small job by comparison.

The electric revolution is slowly taking off and we're really a bunch of pioneers here making it happen.
Click to expand...

Kuddos indeed. We all _knew_ it was going to happen 5,10,20 years ago, and it's neat to watch this play out, albeit in somewhat slow motion.

Anyways, I had one new years resolution (asides from doing the Polar Bear swim, checked that off already!), and that is to finally come through this year with a new homepage for the Sphere. 8 Years and a million posts and a mostly cohesive community is certainly something to celebrate. Having a small roll in changing the world is also definitely something to celebrate.

Looking forwards to 2015 big time. Thanks to all who keep this place going strong.
-Justin
 
8 years is a long time for anything on the internet to survive.. this is the best community on the net i know of and i'm happy to be part of it. Happy new year, peoples.. :)
 
Well, now it's 12 years! Fun to look back at how primitive things were when we started. I don't miss lead-acid batteries at all.

There have been significant improvements in the quality and function of the hardware you can get off the shelf. The Sur-Ron is a good example. No longer do we need to spend endless hours fabricating and redesigning to get something that works well. Now we can spend more time riding than building.

Wishing everyone a happy and productive new year! :es:
 
My son got a few speeding tickets at 17, so I investigated getting a "chainsaw kit" from Staton-inc. My research included me stumbling across some ebike kits too, and that led me to V-is-for-Voltage.

I am certain that over the course of a few months, I asked this "Fechter" fellow for the link to that "endless something" forum about three times before I learned to save links (my computer is made of wood and runs on steam power).

Richard, I hope you know how much I appreciate your contributions...

[my first ES post looks like March 2009]

 
Amusing "Blasts from the Past". :D I see MY first to the `Sphere was in May, 2007 (UserName just "Lock"), and I've been accused and banned for posting "too much". :lol:
 
13 years now. Kind of an eternity in internet time. What a long, strange trip it's been. Now I have 4 ebikes, a Sur-ron and a folding scooter. I'm trying to get rid of some of the older bikes I don't ride much anymore. I successfully used bike batteries to power my TV and other things during the Public Safety Power Shutdown and now have a larger dedicated battery and large inverter for power blackouts. Someday, an electric car (which of course I would try to hack for more power).

Pic below from around 2003 as I recall, me racing my Zappy scooter in a hill climb race. Those were fun days.

ZappyRace.jpg
 
Happy New Year to everyone here on endless sphere.

Ten years ago, ES builders were buying cordless drill packs and gutting them to get NiCD and NiMH cells. As far as the selection of ebikes, there were a few Japanese and European 250W selections. I asked a local bicycle retailer about the 250W Giant-brand ebikes they were carrying. They said they sold a few, but once their current stock was sold out, they will not continue carrying them. Too expensive, low power, too many hassles and complaints from the people who bought them.

ES builders knew kits were the way to go. But even then, we were buying a 9-continents hubmotor or a Crystalyte 35XX, and then swapping-in fatter phase wires. also, 72V (36V + 36V) was the path to happiness because all the available options were amp-limited, and the hottest battery you could find was 48V...

Today, we can buy 2500W mid drives and 3000W+ hubmotors. 52V, 60V 72V, etc battery packs are readily available. There hasn't been a huge crackdown on ebikes (outside of Manhattan, NY), so...we are living in the golden age of ebikes...and endless sphere was here for the whole thing.
 
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