Ivor-

We do own the domain and have the data. Unfortunately it is in an odd and rarely used format that hasn’t made its way through 2 translations to this format. We’re still trying.

I think we could easily start the topics again in a BGR Forum right here and let it all start anew. If and when we are able to get the history translated, we’d add that in as an archive.

I’d just like to see the disscussions started again because it certainly was a lively bunch.

Andy Alexander: Bluegrass Rules was very poorly moderated.  Anonymous posts that could be considered slander were too common.  This discouraged knowledgable people involved in the bluegrass business from posting.  I would use the forum on Mandolin Cafe as a very well run responsible model to follow.

Andy- It was definitely poorly moderated as are many bulletin boards. Mandolin Cafe is excellent.

I think our goal here is to be “In addition to” these other, seemingly few but excellent resources.

Dennis Jones: Yes, the old BGR forum was very poorly moderated and the anonymous and open attacks, cyber bullying and personal attacks were out of hand. It took a strong person to stay around. I miss hearing from many there. It would be great to get a civil forum going here. The Bluegrass-L is nothing left but a very small clutch of those use it to drive away differing opinions. As many others, I’ve posted my last there over a year ago. Hello Ivor, and thanks for listening!!!

Dennis- We will not be able to tolerate any of the rudeness, personal attacks, any form of cyber bullying. This is will not be the place for any of that. That being said, I’m all for a pretty lively discussion everynow and then among friends.

What we really are trying to do is bring a sense of community to this. Especially where new folks can learn about the music called bluegrass.

So many of the online boards and forums really are cliquish and closed. It takes a lot of work to maintain these and we’re pretty close to getting this right. We’ve been working on this for a year now and its just starting to work well enough where we can put it out there as it is.

We’ve a few bugs here and there. Some of the interface needs to be cleaned up as well but its close and we’ll finish it up during August.

All of your input is invaluable.

Ivor Trueman: 

(Sorry – could resist)…. Agree with all comments – a more civil / friendly forum would the way to go.  The nature of BGR put off a lot a people from posting, not just the professionals, but I’d hope that it wouldn’t get so polite that nobody would question any  ’elephants’ in the room.

This will be a place for everyone. Open to read without restriction. Pros, amateurs, and the occasional curiosity seeker.

Is the plan to have a ‘proper’ forum, where you can preview/edit posts, send Private Messages,  & see the number of posts alongside our name/picture? Or is this it here already? Just curious, as I’m holding off posting some trivial stuff that I’ve been unable to find answers too (like what happened to Charlie Monroe’s D-45 after Red Allen bought it & sold it to Johnny Cash?) but don’t want to hog the space.

Yes. Much of that is in place now. You should be able to create a topic under a Main Forum area now. The private message is now in place also but from your profile page. I’ll bring the buttons down into the discussion areas in August. We started out with the private messaging and learned of a serious security issue within the software and turned the feature off. It is fixed and we turned it back on.

Post away with anything you’d like. Throughout the next couple of weeks I’ll be adding the recent posts out to the main page of the site.

Like Janice, if there is a need for volunteers, I could probably help out if needed.

We’ll definitely want you to help.