I'm doing basically the same thing as the MiFi, for the same reason.  But I am connecting through bluetooth instead of wifi.  I am a professional software engineer and I work from home most of the time too.

I will keep you in mind on the mod thing.  I may have to take you up on that.

I just hope it doesn't discourage people from making that second post, so they can get to the gilmer level.

So, how does everyone like our chances?  I think we still have a shot at the big dance if we can beat them.

BOO!!!

We are having some bad weather here and my internet connection is actually down.  I have my computer connected to my cell phone so that I can monitor the site.  It works but it is very slow.  So if I disappear that is probably why.  But I will do my best to keep the site going.

I kind of feel like Lucy in the chocolate factory right now.

Definitely.  In fact I am going to chunk the whole theme and build one from scratch when I get the time.  The tide sports shut down caught me by surprise and I was scrambling just to get something installed.

Here is the story, please correct me if I have some of the details wrong.  I think it is particularly relevant considering what happened on Friday.

When the Tuscaloosa News announced they were going to create a new pay site called Tide Sports Extra, a lot of people were pretty ticked off.  Mostly because Cecil Hurt's column's were only going to be available on the pay site.  Any way, some lurker signed up as ed, made one post, and has never been heard from again:

"ditto...  I'm gone."

This was in response to a post threatening to leave the site.  That was the one and only ed post.  ed became legendary.  I don't know if he was a real person who only made that one post, or if it was someone else who just created a fake account to make a joke.

So, in honor of ed, over here if you have 1 and only 1 post, you will be at the ed level.  Once you get to post number 2 you will be a gilmer.  I don't know what the other levels will be after that.  We can all decide later as a group.

Guys, I have no idea if this server is going to be able to handle the traffic today, or even if there will be any traffic for that matter.  But I had to get something out there before they pull the plug over on tidesports and cut off all lines of communication.  Please bear with me if it goes down and check back often.

Thanks.

Here is a copy of what I just posted over at tidesports to announce the site:

I was able to scramble and cobble together a basic site over the weekend.  It is up and running, but I did see some performance issues from time to time.  Not as bad as this place can be with all of the ads, but still unacceptable by my standards.  I can make the performance better, but it will take some time to upgrade the server.  I have no problem doing that if it turns out that people are interested in the site.

Also, the site is still under construction and is not the most polished looking place.  But, I can and will eventually make that better too if people sign up and we get some activity going.  It is not too bad, it is just the basic forum theme that came with the software.  I did manage to change most of the buttons and graphics from blue to red though.  Blue is just totally unacceptable. 

As for site rules, I anticipate having very similar rules to this place.  Basically, if my kids were to stumble onto the site or look over my shoulder, I would not want to be ashamed of what they see.  That is the bottom line, and if it violates that rule, then it won't be allowed.  A good rule of thumb:  if you would get arrested, detained, or ejected for doing it inside Bryant-Denny on game day, then we don't want you doing it over there either.  Fax Cam Girl, however, is perfectly acceptable.

I'm not bashing any of the other sites that allow pretty much anything.  They are just not for me.  I think the Internet is a big enough place that we can have a wild wild west site like Click here for link for those who are interested in that type of thing, and a clean site for those of us who are not.

If someone consistently violates the rules over on my site, I will probably suggest that they go over to woolyal, if that is OK with them.  Perhaps if people are offended by what goes on over there and post a complaint to them, maybe they could refer them over to my site.  I don't see any reason why people couldn't participate in both sites if they want.  Just please keep it clean over on my site.

When you register it will send you an activation e-mail.  You will have to click on a link in the e-mail to activate your account.  This helps me to block against spam bots that do nothing but sign up and post messages with ads.  It may take anywhere from 5 minutes up to an hour to get the e-mail, but you should get it eventually.  This is one of the performance areas I will need to work on.

If you have any problems you can send an e-mail to admin over there (@crimsonredsports.com).

I will try to go through my private messages today and get in touch with everyone who has contacted me.

And finally, for those of you who don't give me the TLDR, here is the site address:

http://www.crimsonredsports.com

Please ignore our mess while we try to get this site up and going.  I was not planning on building a web site this weekend, and it is a pretty big undertaking to do it right.  Hopefully I at least have enough forum functionality up and running so that the homeless tidesports forum members will have somewhere to go now that the site has been turned off.

You may notice some blue buttons and background colors from time to time.  This is because the default theme for the forum is blue.  I put together a quick and dirty red version that we can use until I can get some polished graphics in place.  Blue is just unacceptable.

For now, the site rules will be the same as tidesports.  I will put together an official site policy when I get a chance.

Thanks.