Cut Bill a Break, huh??? ......................

Create a Post
Framerguy

Framerguy

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Apr 12, 2001
Posts
7,261
Loc
Destin, Florida
I am stuck at home with a killer head cold and not feeling a bit like being nice so if you're easily offended by what's been offered to you, please punch the back button or go on to something else.

I have given Bill McKay alot of credit for the time he has devoted to organizing this new forum and also the immeasureable amount of time he spends keeping our meeting place clean and working properly. There are many of you who have not had any experience with building a program or even using a template to organize a website into a multifunctional well organized easy to use virtual experience. It takes an unbelieveable amount of time to debug a program, make sure that all the returns are working so you aren't left out there in cyberspace with no way to get back, and ensure that all the links are valid, can be utilized under all conditions, and are easy to find and clear to understand.

Bill has done an outstanding job in all areas in my opinion and he is still burning many of his off hours at home polishing the edges and fixing little quirks that are still hanging around. That is all part of the dedication one has to be responsible for when taking on a task such as building an entire interacting web forum. His time on this project is impossible to measure. His pay is zero. His headaches are quite numerous as he tries something and, after hours of setup time and data transferral, finds out that the procedure didn't work and has to start over from square one.

Some of you are still not satisfied with what has been a monumental effort on Bill's part to give each and every one of us the very best framing forum on the World Wide Web. Now it is one thing to not understand a control or how to post something or what a particular button does. That is all part of the learning process but to nit pick the shades of green used on the pages???? Or to complain about something that was in the old forum and isn't here??? How do y'all think that kind of critism makes Bill feel after putting in months and months of his personal time to build this site???

We used to send Bill "Christmas cards" with a donation in it to help keep the Grumble online and offset his many hours of maintenance and repair on the site. I doubt that very many people who know about that are still doing it. And there are so many new Grumblers who have come onboard in the past few years that many don't even know about the donations. So I am here today to ask
  1. That those of you who are disturbed about some of the built in non-changeable stuff like size of the buttons, shape, color, number of smilies (there are over doublethe number now), or the avatars (many new ones and some animated GIFS also), please give Bill a chance to iron out some of this stuff and quit whining about little things that really don't have any drastic effect on the overall operation of the forum.
  2. If you DO find something that should be operational and isn't, please drop an email to Bill and explain where it is located and what you expected it to do that it doesn't do. He will check it out and fix anything that is broken.
  3. If you so desire show Bill how much you appreciate the presence of the Picture Framers Grumble by dropping a thank you note, small card, or whatever and include $10 or so to express your thanks. He really is a full time framer and spends most of his waking personal hours working to improve our meeting place. There are no dues, there is not a membership fee, and you are welcome in the forum 24/7/365.
  4. He has recently posted that you can all now upload your own avatars to use with your public profile. I wonder how many of you have thanked him for that yet? He had to curtail fixing something else to make that happen. It wasn't as simple as throwing a switch or clicking a button.
I am quite convinced that Bill will be very appreciative and will let y'all know that he is thankful for the friendship of each of you who use this forum. You probably will not see Bill McKay at Atlanta or Las Vegas or any of the other trade shows. While you and I are there enjoying the company of our peers and all the new offerings at the show, Bill will likely be sitting in front of his computer trying to fine tune something on this forum to make it operate just a little bit easier for all of us.

To end I wonder if anyone else who spent the entire weekend in that cold World Congress Center came down with head colds or sore throats?? I am either a total physical wimp or there will be a rash of sickness from the extraordinary air conditioning system in the convention center!! I hope it's the former.

Framerguy
 
this needs to be at the top

Tom got an adress and all that good stuff? I think that would encourage more people and give less excuses if posted withthis thread.


Get better man, those head ones are the worst.


PL
 
A quick tip for the aged eyes.

In IE, open the tools menu, select internet options, select accessibility and check the "Ignore font sizes specified on web page". Then go to view and set a larger font. I'm glad I had to force myself to find this info, now I can use it on other sites.

Thanks again Bill. Actually his birthday is sometime in November I think, so you don't need to wait until Christmas.

Check this web site under contacts for an address.
http://www.fastpictureframing.com/fpf-about1.html
 
I think the new look and functionality are great! Thank You Bill!!!
 
Umm i had to laugh Framerguy, because it's like we're all looking at our feet, and mumbling "sorry,....thank you Bill".
But, probably every body REALLY loves the new grumble but remember.
it takes a village......
Now, if I could just find my smiley faces I would insert one ..h e r e.
 
Framer's address:

Here's all the information you need to contact Bill, aka, framer tg:

William McKay
c/o Fast Picture Framing
3001 East Main Road
Portsmouth, RI 02871
Phone (401) 682-2323​

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Tom for the address. Hope your cold gets better soon. I thought you seemed more ornary than usual. Hope your back to just slightly grumpy soon.

I really do like many of the new features on here, like the new text editing that allows us to use bold, itailics, underlining, color, etc. at the click of a button. I even figured out how to mark all the thread in a forum read by going to the homepage and double clicking the folder so it changes from green to blue.
 
Oddly enough, I have been thinking about "framer's birthday" for the last day or two. It doesn't matter what time of year it is - everyone should send that man "a little something" as a thank-you for the tremendous work he has done connecting all of us isolated and crazy framers all over the world.

Thhis used to be mentioned every year (back when I joined the G) but now that I think about it, no one has mentioned it in a couple of years.

All this bandwidth must cost money - let's all send Bill a big green THANK YOU!

And Bill, I am sorry if I have been sounding picky lately. It's just the way I am. Sorry - you are MY HERO!!
 
Isn't there just the smallest chance that your over reacting by like 1000? I mean common the thread about the green buttons was all in good fun. You might check your medicine bottle to see if it says "Take two and stay off the grumble."

Hmm the back button. Ohh I see it righ
 
Well, Jay, it may just be that I know a bit more about the situation than you do and I may be trying to subtly clue y'all in who like to whine about the slightest things that maybe framer doesn't appreciate the thoughtlessness of some people after he spent so much time on this project. That may just be a possibility, if you aren't too narrow minded to drop your sarcastic attitude and read the post for what it was meant to be.

I do have to say on a personal level that you are trying your damnedest to change my new opinion of you after finally meeting you in Atlanta. I really wanted to believe that your childish attitude on this forum was something that was mistaken on my part by not being able to see the body language and catch the expressions and the voice tones.

I guess I may have been mistaken. Believe me, it won't happen again.

Framerguy
 
Framerguy, I really appreciate you bringing this topic up. I just joined in February of this year, and I had no idea the time/effort/funds that it took framer tg to main this wonderful site. Thanks for posting his address. And many thanks to framer tg for all your effort.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
The excitement over the new board might be the closest thing to an agreement that I have ever seen in my few years here. Everywhere you look there is some "atta boy" or "this rocks". In fact I can't find a single "this sucks and I'm leaving".

It’s because of this consensus that I asked if possibly this was an over reaction. Apparently the answer is "no" and that’s fine with me.

On a personal note, all you learned about me is that I'm rarely serious. I should have known better to ever post anything in any of your threads. I had a heck of a streak where I would refrain posting after you, even if provoked, in any thread for any reason because it would always fall on you in some horrible way. To avoid further insulting your sensitivities we can go back to our previous arrangement. Its not one I like but in the interest of peace..... I have extended a hand to you on this board and privately via email and PM’s (you could also bump into me on the Grumble Chat). All attempts to sort things out have been rejected by you and that leaves me to think that you like it this way. After several conversations with others, I have learned that it’s probably best that we keep this out in the open. Back to the same ol – same ol.
 
There HAS been lots of excitement, tempered with lots of whining.

At least some of the whining is justified. The text is tiny and that's a problem for at least some grumblers.

I think it's essential that we concentrate the whining/legitimate concerns/suggestions to a single thread so that framer and the moderators can address them without hunting and offering the same advice on ten threads.

Per framer's request, this is the thread:

http://www.thegrumble.com/showthread.php?t=21840
 
Personally, I think it's exciting that we have all these new toys. If people have questions or suggestions, they're heartily welcomed. All we ask is that you scan to make sure your question/concern wasn't already addressed in a recent thread, and to use the link Ron just posted above.

All of the co moderators are here to help and take some of the pressure from Bill. He has enough on his plate right now, and we all appreciate his efforts. My private email is always available for anyone who does not want to post their question on the public forum. Grumble Chat is also a great option for live help.

I would hate to see a situation where people are afraid to post, in fear of being ridiculed or that they are stepping on toes. In short, there are a lot of changes, and we expect a period of adjustment and confusion. One thing I am confident about - after the brief dust settles, everyone will love the improvements!

I respectfully suggest that we keep it positive and friendly, to promote an environment where new folks will feel welcome.

That's what the grumble is all about.

Mike
Co moderator
 
Just a friendly suggestion.

If you are having problems with the new format, like you can't find the Greamlins, or avitars, or your time is not set right... READ THE SCREEN!

I can't tell you how many things I've found, just really exploring all the buttons! The smilies are under the FULL reply, not the quick reply. Avitars are under Edit profile. And you can change a lot of settings if you just read and search.

Kind of fun seeing all the neat things that Bill has for us to play with. (Captain English, leave my dangling participle alone.)
 
The cards and green are a great jesture of our thanks to Bill, however, the sponsors are paying the bill too.

Thanks to all of the sponsor's as well.
 
Jay In defense of what Tom replied to your post ,I truly got the impression that you were not only making a sarcastic put down of Tom's plea to be more positive about Bill's very hard work ,but I also got the definet impression that you were pokeing fun at Tom's illness as well.

You say all Tom learned, is that you are very rarely serious . However when others offered constructive criticism of some of your post in the past you got VERY SERIOUS and IMHO quiet offened as well. Yet when Tom made a plea for everyone ( not you in particular) to give Bill the well desreved Credit he deserves you get Sarcastic and claim to not be serious.

I am very slow and want badly to get along with everyone but from what I read that seemed to be a very big DOUBLE STANDARD on your part.

This seems especially true in light of Tom saying he was prepared to change his opinion of you having meet you or giveing you a second chance. But after you make a comment that to me at least seemed Sarcastic at best ,you offer no apologoes but revert back to the confrontational tactics of your first encounter.

And Tom wasn't making a plea on his own behalf but for the great job and hard work that Bill has accomplished to be properly recogized .I can't imagine why any Jokes or sarcasims or in order nor any irratation when that is pointed out.

But then as I said I am slow . I wonder if anyone else is just as slow?
BUDDY
 
Rick, framer enlarged the type since the new Grumble started up.

I can see the text just fine, now. I'll be 56 this year, but I'm pretty sure my eyes are hand-me-downs and at least 85.

It started when I had to switch over to autofocus SLR cameras about 6-7 years ago . . .
 
Speaking about birthdays how old is the Grumble and when did it go live the first time?
 
Interesting question, Gumby.

Framer, the administrator and owner of The Grumble, registered on November 29, 1999. (I wonder who processed his registration.)

You'd think that would mark the birth of The Grumble, but I noticed Buddy registered on September 15, 1998. I guess he had to wait patiently for about 14 months for Bill to invent The Grumble before he could post anything.

Apparently we don't have member numbers on the new Grumble, but I think Buddy was number 13.
 
Ron Eggers said:
You'd think that would mark the birth of The Grumble, but I noticed Buddy registered on September 15, 1998. I guess he had to wait patiently for about 14 months for Bill to invent The Grumble before he could post anything.

Apparently we don't have member numbers on the new Grumble, but I think Buddy was number 13.
Click to expand...
Ron,
I know I registered originally around a similar time as Buddy, but at some time, due to a computer problem I had, I lost my original login and had to register again so my number jumped up to the early 300's

Prior to this forum becoming available, I had participated in a forum set up by a home based framer in Canada. His first name was Brian, but I can't remember his surname. I'm sure there were a couple of framers in USA who participated in Brian's forum before The Grumble. Hopefully someone who is still here might remember that and know what Brian's surname is and where he was located in Canada.
 
Wait..........The Grumble had to be around before1998 because I first got internet in 1995 and it wouldn't have been as long as 3 years after that. Surely it was before 98!

Can someone please help my failing memory?
 
Ron My number is 13 but that is in no way a reflection of when sequentially i registered. Actually the numbers were assigned long after the TFG was up and running. In fact it was pointed out that my 13 was lower than someone who was registered longer than me. Some where even assigned Numbers of members who had canceled their registrations of long ago when they registered long after many others .So the numbers have little to do with who is oldest. But I am very glad to be allowed to still be around ,with or without a shop.

I found TFG when I dropped out of PPFA and HH temporarily and was looking for a way to participate in a forum discussing framing and Bill supplied it. I found it by surfing on browsers using Framing . If I am listed as Sept. 15, 1998 believe me Bill was around before anyone else and some who are still here were around before me and some who aren't were also since it wasn't just Bill me and a couple of others in 1998 on TFG.

I wish Bill would clear all that up but I even remeber a chat room operated by another person who had an alternate forum that has since dissolved, but I forget his screen name ( something like framer or Framerguy) I am real poor at paying attention to screen names and remeber content more, even some before 2004 and earlier. LOL
BUDDY
 
Last edited:
I did a quick search of my saved ideas from The Grumble. The earliest was 09-08-98. The post was titled Diagonal corner template, under the tips of the picture framing trade. I know that I was registered before that - because the forum tips of the picture framing trade was added after I had been on the grumble for a while. Back then we would usually wait overnight for a reply. Ron changed that.

Mitch
 
Create a Post
Back
Top