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Everyone...

My thoughts for the organization of the GRC forums has been evolving as I've watched the dialog in GRC's single "Off Topic Lounge." My original thought was that we'd have “On Topic” forums for GRC's various software and service offerings which would be added as needed. But I'm seeing that we can/could do better than lumping everything else into a single “Off Topic” forum. This XenForo system supports “Sub-Forums” which would allow us to subdivide the single “Off Topic Lounge” into many topical conversational sub-forums. By using a Sub-Forum, we keep the main page from becoming congested with forums, while still allowing from some topic management.

For example, I have a podcast. Perhaps we should have a “Security Now Podcast” sub-forum. There's been conversation about health supplements, which is an interest of mine. So perhaps a “Health” conversations sub-forum. There was a discussions of router-based security, so perhaps “Security Hardware” and “Security Software” forums, and so on.

Since I would like to keep the total sub-forum count manageable, some forethought and organization should go into it. So I've created this thread to host a collaborative discussion of a proposed set of sub-forums which would give us good coverage of probable topics while being clear about what should go where.

So... any thoughts???

For the Off Topic forum, would the existing NG list provide a list of potential sub-forums? or at least the busier ones, e.g. Security, Privacy, Techtalk. Perhaps there should also be just a placeholder for SQRL pointing people to the separate SQRL forums

What if we could also have a "newbie corner" or a "getting started" category for those of us (I MEAN ME!) who are getting started in this industry and aren't sure on where to begin.

I do see questions for security Hardware so that'd also be a category. (HDD/SSH question and Protectli vs. Netgate)

I also think "Security Practices/behavior" should be one of them as well. For example we had a recent question about "Better home network security" Which isn't necessarily about the hardware or the software, it's more of a general question of good practice. Yoon, did ask about routers, but he's more asking about how to "plug a hole".

Some were asking for support, so maybe we should have a "Technical Support" Category for anyone having issues with the forums or other bugs they may have found and need help with.

Is it possible to force people to have to post into one of the "sub-forums", or would they still be able to post into the "parent forum" if they feel their post doesn't fit a sub? I ask because I am for the "focused forum". The "anything goes" forums always degenerate into madness and mayhem.

It would make it a lot easier to find a discussion about the topic you're interested in or to ask questions. It would also make the Off Topic Lounge a little cleaner.
The GRC newsgroups are broken down into different categories and it works good there. You wouldn't need as many as the newsgroups, I'd say Privacy, Hardware Security, Software Security, Health, Security Now, SciFi ?

I'm thinking that "off topic" should be just fun light hearted stuff.. or a way for newbies to get their toes wet. if a subject were better suited to an existing topic, someone should have the ability to move the thread there. (can there be automation for a message going back to originator inbox to say "your thread [subject] is being moved to [name] topic folder"?). At that point structure could be to have your project folders at the top along with your podcast and then any generic (but important) topics like you mentioned: Health, Security hardware, etc...

One thing to keep in mind is that your newsgroups for general items like Security Now could almost be shut down as the forum type of interaction would be for the lay-person.. and the newsgroup for it would be unused as "Security Now" is not undergoing any technical development at this time (like SR6.1). Otherwise you again end up with 2 places to monitor for questions.

Random thoughts, I'm sure I'll think of more.

An option if possible to be email notified when a new sub forum is created with the option to watch it would be cool. Don't know if the platform supports that.

Possibilities depending on how tightly you want to keep the topics focused. Also depending on how many threads Steve wants to read. :

* podcast - However, just because something is mentioned in the podcast doesn't necessarily mean the podcast sub forum is the best place for it.
* computer / tablet / phone security
* windows / mac security
* home networking security
* website security, including Wordpress / Wordfence, static sites, site generators, etc.
* alternate energy, including things like super capacitors, batteries, ev's, solar, wind, etc.
(That just happens to be one of my favorite topics.)
* programming / general
" / C
" / python
" / Lazarus - Free Pascal (an interest of mine)
" / assembly language
" / golang
(Obviously this could get out of hand. Depends on your desires and plans.)
* sci fi books and movies
* alternate health

You MAY wish to include a SHORT guideline on etiquette. For example, in the vitamin d thread, you said you wished to avoid controversy. Good enough. I do not promote controversy, but many of the things I like to study are controversial. Many of the cool truths are not "in the box". I don't wish to make a big deal out of the following, but I don't believe moderators should have the job of determining what is true. I only think they should determine what is appropriate and civil (enough). I should also note that, for esoteric topics, you cannot determine what is true from a few minutes of googling. Everybody knew, in the past, that flying machines were impossible, until the Wright Brothers did it.

Thanks for the forums. Thanks for the podcast. Thanks for SpinRite. Thanks for SQRL (although I haven't tried it.)

Sincerely,

Ron

Well @Steve, it's your site, so I suspect we start with categories of things you [seem to] enjoy, so lemme give a shot:
Security [Now!]
Insecurity
Nerd toys (puzzles, retro PC simulators)
Recommended Fiction
Health Practices
Picture of the Week/Day/Hour (Humour)
Programming (Assembly)
Computer History
Who Are You and Why Are You Here?

I'm sure others can add to this?

PHolder said:

Nerd toys (puzzles, retro PC simulators)

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+1 !!!!

PS, just my opinion. I'm not sure about the purging threads after 7 days concept. Some of what's said will have historical value and references, just like old podcasts.

Ron

It would be a good way to limit conversational topics if you wanted to recude the background noise. What about the main off-topic lounge post sub forums? Will it/should it still be an "everything else" zone for thoughts that don't follow existing sub topics?

And there can always be a "Misc".

Any forum/sub can have stickies which could include guidelines for that section, this could include whether the forum/sub is purged
Purge is a good way to clean up for some topics that otherwise collect dross, however may not be historically suitable for others.
A few main forums with expandable subs

rfrazier said:

not sure about the purging threads after 7 days concept

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Understand that the idea is that active threads hang around, and the ones that go quiet (for lack of participation) die off. Given that it's meant to be off topic to the actual purpose of the site, it's not intended to be a location of long term storage of one's wildest ravings and rantings

I think it would be good to keep a main off topic place for people to post when there is no more refined sub forum, and for the decaying to be quicker in that main forum, then to break out more valuable topics that could be allowed to last longer, and if there are sub sub forums, maybe there could be an archive forum for each topic where threads that have valuable interesting information in it, could be stored away even when not active any more, as it may be valuable even after having discussion complete and be something that can be used as a reference. I mean I know even really interesting stories from the ancient ones (I count myself among them, even if I am more boring than most) that have been posted already are perhaps not on topic for the forum at large, but are interesting to some people, and will be interesting to others who are not even here yet. Yes I am aware this is not some sort of safe historical archive of stuff, but meant to be sort of an extension of support for all things GRC, so I am not making any demands here, just would feel better for me, is all

Nothing decays faster than computer technology. They only threads that should persist are those that pertain to technology that is still in use. If people are still using SpinRite 6.x in fifteen years, then threads that discuss how to use it can exist for fifteen years. There is no reason for a discussion about your favorite text adventure game to exist for more than fifteen minutes.

rfrazier said:

PS, just my opinion. I'm not sure about the purging threads after 7 days concept. Some of what's said will have historical value and references, just like old podcasts.

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Anything that has lasting value can be pinned to the top of the (sub)forum by the mods.

I'm a long time user on Whirlpool forums - https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ (I hope it's ok to link to another forum here )

It would be great to see some similar sub-forums here, particularly around the topics of hardware, software, networking and security.

Greg S said:

Nothing decays faster than computer technology. They only threads that should persist are those that pertain to technology that is still in use.

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But sometimes old technology is important. There has been a thread in the NG recently about configuring dial-up modems. Most people stopped using those 15-20 years ago, but the poster's father lives in an area with no DSL, and slow dial-up (28.8kb) as the only solution.

Great discussion, guys. Thanks. And I should note that I changed the "dead thread" self-expunger to 28 days since 7 seemed unnecessarily short. So it's 28 days from the date of a thread's last posting that qualifies it for auto-removal. And has been noted, any moderator who feels that a thread has lasting value can choose to pin it to the top of the forum and might then, also, clean it up a bit to remove extraneous debris.

Having read the thread, here's what I'm thinking:

• Off-Topic Lounge
• SN Podcast
• Computer Hardware
• Operating Systems
• Networking
• Security Hardware
• Security Software
• Other Software
• Coding
• Health
• Nerd Recreation
• Science Fiction

You can see that I've worked to keep the sub-forum topics general, non-specific, and hopefully non-overlapping, so that we can have fewer. We'll still have an Off-Topic Lounge for the inevitable “Hey, I made it! I'm here!” and other random chatter that helps to glue a community into a community. But now we'll also have some specific, though broad, places for more targeted discussion.

And remember that all of these will be under a general "Community" forum. We'll still have GRC-Specific forums for specific discussion of GRC stuff such as the “ReadSpeed” benchmark, SpinRite, “Beyond Recall” and so forth.

The initial forum schema doesn't need to be final, but I'd like to avoid needing to change things around a lot once it's established. So, with this sketch... any other thoughts for changes to what's above??

Looks good to me.

LOL - Nerd Recreation, I'm following this one for sure.

looks good for General and with separate GRC-Specific will make easier to find

Good afternoon. I'd like to propose a discussion topic: Regarding Microsoft's massive amounts of fixes this year. I remember on Security Now (perhaps in 2019), Mr. Gibson read a post by hacker I call "Bi-Polar Bear". In her post, she claimed to have many unreported vulnerabilities / flaws in Microsoft's software. If I remember correctly, we were informed around December that she joined the Microsoft team. Perhaps she wasn't lying when she said she had many vulnerabilities. Perhaps that's why Microsoft hired her. And perhaps that's why so many fixes Patch Tuesday after Patch Tuesday this year. She seems to be a great hacker. And I suggest her efforts has helped improve Windows 10. Am I just grabbing at straws here? Thoughts?... dc

Sometimes there is a good use for old tech info to be able to be referenced into the distance future. There are children and grand children that will find their grandparents computer or cellphone or iTunes device in a desk or garage when they are cleaning out their home after they passed on or moving them into the retirement home. Perhaps they have "old-timers" and can not remember their log in passwords to various accounts.

There are thirty - somethings that are still dogged by stupid stuff they placed on MySpace and their login recovery was thru SBC.com e-mail, AOL or Yahoo mail and those accounts are inaccessible now due to forgotten passwords and the accounts being mass-hacked over time.

The ham radio and scanner folks are always coming across equipment with expansion boards built by a company that no longer exists. Being able to access old forums to find the links to data repositories is helpful, even if it is a Dropbox account or Archive.org to find the saved information stored there.

We remember the GRC forums at WordPress and before that had some good info, we hope it was archived somewhere.

Every couple of weeks we help a family at church recover lost pictures from a parents or grandparents computer that have passed away, and the data is hidden behind a lost password. It is a challenge sometimes, but nothing is more satisfying then handing back those lost photos on a flash drive or the computer accessible to their children or grandchildren.

Because like those old pictures, that the grandparents decided would be great to scan and save to their old Windows XP computer, never to be backed up to iDrive, i Photos or even if they were backed up, and the subscription lapsed, the information was lost on line. Then add in someones great idea to trash the old photos, negatives and film reels and your family history is gone forever.

Sometime when you run out of stuff to do at home, take an inventory of all the old digital cameras, flip phones and other data devices around your home. Can you get the data and pictures out of them? Is it accessible, is it lost? If you can save the data, make a list of the devices passwords, the battery charger, the special data cable for it etc and if you are keeping it, store all that info with the device. Then make three backups with two stored off site.

Unless there is a repository of old tech still around in the distant future to reference back too...

I think a sub-forum dedicated to your Se

Steve said:

Having read the thread, here's what I'm thinking:

• Off-Topic Lounge
• SN Podcast
• Computer Hardware
• Operating Systems
• Networking
• Security Hardware
• Security Software
• Other Software
• Coding
• Health
• Nerd Recreation
• Science Fiction

Click to expand...

I think you can merge the "Security Hardware" and "Security Software" together. Often, hardware and software work together in security and it will be tricky to work out whether it falls under the 'hardware' or 'software' category. Mac/macOS and iPhone/iOS security topics often fall under combined hardware and software security category.

As a long time listener, but forum newbie I have only one tip:
Keep it manageable, time effective and fun. (You probably only get to choose two)

For me personally, ... less is more.
That said it's your site ..., so follow your hart and don't lose your mind.

iSecurityGuru said:

I think you can merge the "Security Hardware" and "Security Software" together.

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I like that. That way we can have “networking” which could be either hard- or soft-ware and “security” which could also be hard- or soft-ware. thanks!

Updated proposed sub-forum list and ordering:

• SN Podcast
• Security
• Networking
• Operating Systems
• Software
• Hardware
• Coding
• Health
• Nerd Recreation
• Science Fiction
• Off-Topic Lounge

The list generally becomes less specific as we move down.
So the rule would be to choose the first, most specific sub-forum, higher up the list, that applies.
I expect to apply these changes over the weekend.

If this is still open for comment I'll weigh in. In my opinion removing "dead threads" defeats the purpose of this kind of forum. The exposure of active threads is addressed by the platform's default action of shifting new posts to the top.

internet said:

purpose of this kind of forum

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But the purpose of these forums are not to have off topic discussions, specifically. It is to support GRC's products and allow easy interaction and feedback from the users. Acknowledging that off-topic discussions will happen and allowing for them with caveats is one thing, making them the central purpose of the site is something altogether different.

Greg S said:

Nothing decays faster than computer technology. They only threads that should persist are those that pertain to technology that is still in use. If people are still using SpinRite 6.x in fifteen years, then threads that discuss how to use it can exist for fifteen years. There is no reason for a discussion about your favorite text adventure game to exist for more than fifteen minutes.

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1) I like Nethack.
2) If you're enjoying a discussion with your friends, then I believe your time is not wasted.

vvbudh said:

...
2) If you're enjoying a discussion with your friends, then I believe your time is not wasted.

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And if the discussion continues, it won't be auto-deleted. If it has lasting value to the community, it will be archived.

internet said:

If this is still open for comment I'll weigh in. In my opinion removing "dead threads" defeats the purpose of this kind of forum. The exposure of active threads is addressed by the platform's default action of shifting new posts to the top.

Click to expand...

Not sure that you knew this, but it's ONLY within the Off Topic Lounge that we'll be pruning dead thread after four weeks of thread inactivity. I'm unsure whether that policy should also apply to the other forthcoming “Community” forums. At the moment I'm leaning toward not, and only having the Off Topic Lounge threads be self-cleaning.

Let's see what there is of lasting value. If we find that things are getting out of hand, presumably, you can always run a "one-off" clean of other forums.

PHolder said:

But the purpose of these forums are not to have off topic discussions, specifically.

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by "this type of forum" i meant internet forums in general; not forums.grc.com specifically. i've never seen one that nixes old threads, and frankly it has somewhat of a 1984 feel to it. all good though...not my fire hydrant to pass water on and as a newbie my opinion holds very little of same.

internet said:

by "this type of forum" i meant internet forums in general; not forums.grc.com specifically.
i've never seen one that nixes old threads, and frankly it has somewhat of a 1984 feel to it.

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FWIW, I cannot see any value for keeping someone's description of the odd thing they discovered in their bellybutton a year ago. I have no problem with a discussion of it at the time because that's the nature of community. But neither can I see the need to retain that dialog in perpetuity, just because it happened once. So, knowing that something which is apropos of nothing, will quietly remove itself, makes sense to me. Nothing is set in stone. I don't know exactly how this is all going to go. So we'll be playing it by ear. But my intention for these GRC forums is that they be generally useful to others who may drop by looking for answers and solutions.

And also note that I'm notoriously and unapologetically immune from undue influence about what anyone else does or thinks. That “first principles” approach can be identified as part of the key to the traction my ideas and creations have occasionally had in the world. So I have no problem with the idea that these forums at GRC will have their own “personality.” In fact, that would be appropriate, and I hope they do.

Steve said:

FWIW, I cannot see any value for keeping someone's description of the odd thing they discovered in their bellybutton a year ago. I have no problem with a discussion of it at the time because that's the nature of community. But neither can I see the need to retain that dialog in perpetuity, just because it happened once. So, knowing that something which is apropos of nothing, will quietly remove itself, makes sense to me.

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I am all for purging forums without mercy. So much so that I must say I was saddened to see you extend the inactive thread TTL from 7 days to 28.

@Greg S : I don't want to overly squelch our off topic chatter. It is part of what makes this place fun. So we'll play it by ear going forward.

Hi guys, I certainly realize there are at least two sides to the "when to kill a thread" coin. But, here are my 2 cents. Disk space is cheap. Information is not. I'm not trying to toot my own horn per se. My time to spend on forums comes and goes depending on what I'm doing. But, as of now, I've spent hours trying to help people with information on the Wordpress, network layout, network security, vitamin d, and how do I find new posts on the forum threads. Now, who knows if my information actually was helpful. I hope it was. But, I will say that I'm much less likely to spend that time if I know the thread is going to vanish. There are many times I've been doing research to solve some problem, and have come across forum posts that are years old that are still helpful. I also believe that continually making decisions on which threads live and which ones die would be a nightmare. Just something to think about. We all know that, if you ask 50 engineers what's your opinion on X, then you'll get 200 opinions.

Ron

Going with what @rfrazier said, I agree that information that someone has spent time on to assist another may be useful in the future. We don't know when, but it can be useful to someone in the future. I believe it'd be good to save it, just in case.

What if we had another category for off topic threads that are just for "RESOLVED" posts with the answer attached? For example, if someone does ask a question that many people have the same question to, if they're able to resolve their question, we can archive their post somewhere as RESOLVED and let it be searchable, but not directly accessible? Or something like that so it doesn't clutter up the forums.

rfrazier said:

But, I will say that I'm much less likely to spend that time if I know the thread is going to vanish. There are many times I've been doing research to solve some problem, and have come across forum posts that are years old that are still helpful.

Click to expand...

That's quite a compelling argument, Ron. I'm persuaded. Self-Deletion is disabled.

Steve said:

That's quite a compelling argument, Ron. I'm persuaded. Self-Deletion is disabled.

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I must be missing something. Why not pin the thread if it has useful information and let it auto-delete if it doesn't? People who believe they have posted something worthwhile for posterity (like @rfrazier) can always flag it for a mod to pin.

rfrazier said:

But, I will say that I'm much less likely to spend that time if I know the thread is going to vanish.

Click to expand...

[Replying in advance of reaching the current end of the thread, so here's hoping that's not a mistake.]

You seem to have a platform for your thinking already @rfrazier, so spend your time on your platform and continue to link to it, if you're worried that this space lacks the permanence you expect.

Barry Wallis said:

I must be missing something. Why not pin the thread if it has useful information and let it auto-delete if it doesn't? People who believe they have posted something worthwhile for posterity (like @rfrazier) can always flag it for a mod to pin.

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That would work, too. But I would have no trouble with moderators trolling the deep past and removing threads that are both old and devoid of anything worth retaining. It's probably not possible to automate the process if we want to avoid losing anything valuable.

Steve said:

That would work, too. But I would have no trouble with moderators trolling the deep past and removing threads that are both old and devoid of anything worth retaining. It's probably not possible to automate the process if we want to avoid losing anything valuable.

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Moderator culling seems like a lot of work for little gain. I would say make the auto-delete time longer and let the system do it. Missing something important in the Off-Topic Lounge seems like a low risk.

Interesting that this sub topic is gathering a number of posts.

I will point out that, for those concerned about seeing too many useless posts floating around, the forum software automatically prioritizes the What's New screens with things at the top that have had recent replies. So, things that aren't getting replies drop lower and lower.

As far as I can tell:

* If you click What's New on the brown toolbar at the top, you get threads you haven't read. Not sure of the sort order as that screen is empty for me at the moment. It's probably reverse chronological (newest first).

* If you click the OTHER What's New on the 3rd menu bar from the top, you get threads whether you've read them or not in reverse chronological order by last posting (newest first).

* If you click Forums then go into a forum directly, you get threads by forward chronological order by last posting (oldest first).

So, if you use the What's New functions, you won't ever see many threads that are not continuing to get replies.

However, Google and the forum's own search system can still find things, should someone search for those topics later.

Steve's forum. He can obviously do what he wishes with the settings.

Ron

rfrazier said:

...
* If you click What's New on the brown toolbar at the top, you get threads you haven't read. Not sure of the sort order as that screen is empty for me at the moment. It's probably reverse chronological (newest first).
...

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You are correct regarding the sort order. I start at the bottom and work my way to the top.

PS, re the What's New list, some of you may already know this. Some may not. But I didn't know it until I looked it up years ago. If you see a reply that just has the word "bump", that means the sole purpose of the reply is to bring the thread to the top of the What's New list without necessarily adding anything to it. Any reply, even another word, or symbols will do that. Some say "bump" means "bring up my post". It can be considered rude if done too often though.



Ron

I do not see it as a problem for a well designed forum to let old things sink to the bottom, the ancient forum software I helped with coding, we intentionally had a thread that tested the limits of things, it was basically our off topic thread that almost acted as a chat room to some folks that did not want to figure out a chat client, with the benefit of retaining old posts, kind of like discord today. Getting that to work well was a nice engineering challenge, and I am sure XenForo has managed that too, it would take effort to test though, as that single thread was bigger than most forums get

Also as stated elsewhere storage is cheap. Nobody has to swim to the bottom of the old forums to see the old posts, unless they contain actual spam or bad stuff they can be allowed to sink to the bottom, and should a truly useless thread be necroed by some new arrival its fate might be sealed then, or if it is a useful thread that is necroed that is fine I think, personally I really don't mind thread necromancers that bring back useful things or add some useful detail a decade later, often those can be quite useful.

As for people bumping threads, if they are doing it too much they can be handled (banned, or warned, their thread deleted if considered useless etc), probably best they be told to be patient, that bumping threads will rub some people the wrong way and make it more likely their thread is ignored rather than their question answered.

Greg S said:

Nothing decays faster than computer technology. They only threads that should persist are those that pertain to technology that is still in use. If people are still using SpinRite 6.x in fifteen years, then threads that discuss how to use it can exist for fifteen years. There is no reason for a discussion about your favorite text adventure game to exist for more than fifteen minutes.

Click to expand...

That might be true here on forums.grc.com for certain unrelated topics. However, I believe that certain topics have value far into the future. That "favorite text adventure game" is just as playable now as it was when it was created (although I think it's referred to as IF, or Interactive Fiction, these days). And threads regarding old computer hardware can be very useful both now and in the future, as any of us who have saved old hardware know, whether we store it in a closet or in Mom's closet or in the fridge/freezer.

If it is possible using this forum software, I suggest archiving old threads if they contain potentially worthwhile, though possibly niche, information. Something without meaning to anyone after 28 days (or less) is probably a waste of space and should be purged, even if it's about something somebody found in their navel a year ago and it's in the Nerd Recreation forum!

Steve said:

Not sure that you knew this, but it's ONLY within the Off Topic Lounge that we'll be pruning dead thread after four weeks of thread inactivity. I'm unsure whether that policy should also apply to the other forthcoming “Community” forums. At the moment I'm leaning toward not, and only having the Off Topic Lounge threads be self-cleaning.

Click to expand...

Renaming or tagging the Off Topic Lounge to indicate that posts within are temporary might be a good idea for people (like me) who are easily-distracted. Perhaps you could sticky/pin at the top of the Off Topic Lounge a version of the post I just quoted, which indicates that it's the only permanent message in that sub-forum.

Maybe after a set time, the thread can drop off the 'active' list to an 'archive' list. That way it's still around if you want to go back to it, but it doesn't clutter up the active threads.

rfrazier said:

PS, re the What's New list, some of you may already know this. Some may not. But I didn't know it until I looked it up years ago. If you see a reply that just has the word "bump", that means the sole purpose of the reply is to bring the thread to the top of the What's New list without necessarily adding anything to it.

Click to expand...

I've never heard of "bump" as an acronym, but I know it's frowned upon in many places, and that it's used to bump a thread to the top of a list of threads that use time-based descending order, especially if the thread asks a question which has not been answered and the person bumping the thread is the originator or someone else with the same question.

PHoganDive said:

Maybe after a set time, the thread can drop off the 'active' list to an 'archive' list. That way it's still around if you want to go back to it, but it doesn't clutter up the active threads.

Click to expand...

That's an idea, although I'd thought the archived messages/threads would be compressed so they take less space than the active threads. Isn't there a free file system which securely compresses while also deduplicating its stored content? Something like that would serve that archival purpose while leaving the archived data in accessible form.

I still think worthless posts are worthy of one thing (contradiction intended): deletion.

I think you should keep the subforums to a minimum for now. Add them as this place grows. For now, I would have:

The GRC Forum to discuss SN, your products, research, etc.
Security Forum: All non-GRC specific InfoSec topics.
Privacy Forum
Off Topic

You could also have a Technology forum to cover non-InfoSec topics or use Off Topic for this. I think 4-5 forums should be able to cover everything.

Tazz said:

Looks good to me.

LOL - Nerd Recreation, I'm following this one for sure.

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I thought this was all Nerd Recreation.

Harry said:

I thought this was all Nerd Recreation.

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Indeed... but there's nerd recreation (AKA Nerd Fun), and then there's the recreational side of Nerd Recreation, which would be the topical ideas represented in the subforum Nerd Recreation, I imagine.

This guy has some interesting nerd recreation... if you're into puzzles:

PHolder said:

This guy has some interesting nerd recreation... if you're into puzzles:

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Magic, Puzzles, Vlogs, and a combination... sounds like it might be right up @Barry Wallis's alley. Which means it might be right up the alley of many of us who spend time writing messages here.

@danlock: You are correct and thanks. I was about to buy Neil Patrick Harris' Box One puzzle game but it is completely sold out. BTW, NPH was a two-term past president of the Academy of Magical Arts. Once the Magic Castle reopens I hope to run into him.

Barry Wallis said:

@danlock: You are correct and thanks. I was about to buy Neil Patrick Harris' Box One puzzle game but it is completely sold out. BTW, NPH was a two-term past president of the Academy of Magical Arts. Once the Magic Castle reopens I hope to run into him.

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Update: In case anyone is interested it Box One is now available (via shipping only). I guess it wasn't quite ready on the web site yesterday. I expect my copy by Monday.

Barry Wallis said:

Update: In case anyone is interested it Box One is now available (via shipping only). I guess it wasn't quite ready on the web site yesterday. I expect my copy by Monday.

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Will they mail it to the UK? Could not see overseas shipping on the Target website

Mervyn Haynes said:

Will they mail it to the UK? Could not see overseas shipping on the Target website

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From what I heard no.

Update: Box One was scheduled to arrive on Monday but by some twist of fate (the shipping location was 60 miles away from my house), it arrived today. When my wife joins me, I will open it up and start playing (I want to give her the choice of looking over my shoulder or playing on her own when I'm done).

Barry Wallis said:

Update: Box One was scheduled to arrive on Monday but by some twist of fate (the shipping location was 60 miles away from my house), it arrived today. When my wife joins me, I will open it up and start playing (I want to give her the choice of looking over my shoulder or playing on her own when I'm done).

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Nifty! I'd like to hear more about Box One and your first experience playing it.

Watching the unboxing video that @PHolder posted earlier is the better than any explanantion I could provide. I am up to card 22 and only needed help once (it was a sports-related question, and I was born without the sports gene). I asked my Facebook friends for help and had the answer in literally one minute. So far it's fun. Be aware you can only play it through once, but it can be reset for someone else to play (I have a friend I will be giving it to when I'm done).

One can trust Paul to have already answered the question one is about to ask. [probable source: forums.grc.com general rules list ]

Most forums I visit have some sort of for sale / for trade section. Thoughts about that?

Please announce any new forums that are added in 2 or 3 of the existing forums. That way, those of us who are watching those forums will get the announcement of the new ones. Ron