The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I like it. I like the theme very much.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
I did not experience any problems.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
I did not experience any malfunctions.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
I am not active enough to comment on this, but it is your website, your forum, so you are the boss.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
It exactly right.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
None.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
I think it is a good idea, otherwise everyone is able to just come in, grab his/hers stuff and disappear.

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
I would not change anything.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
I do not know. If that would be the case, I would not access them, to be honest.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
I do not want to pay anything, but I do not feel the need to enter the VIP group either.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
I do not know.

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
I do not know.

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
I do not know.

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes, for the same reason as question 7.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
I do not have any comments on that.

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
I do not know you enough to comment on that.

17. And my bad points?
I do not know you enough to comment on that.

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
I would take unlimited power and make you all my peons.

Other Comments

none, whatsoever.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
Looks ok for now.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Well, they are many subforums, but some forums can be merged.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
For a few weeks now (even at my site) if I click something it gives me an 500 Error, (Internal Server error), i must click back and my entire typed post is gone and have to redo, thats all.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
phpBB2 is getting old, and insecure, you can upgrade to phpBB3 to get more secure and options are better to find.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
Too many, some like Off-topic and jokes and funny stuff can be combined and a notice can be placed that post in this section doesnt count for contributing posts.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
See above.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Very good, now they cant leaked password (except the last time it was a member that had access). And you can talk with people who know about things and not n00bs with n00b comments about it, like thank you and OK.

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Bump up the post count.
10 posts is way to easy and they never post again unless the passwords have been changed.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
Never good, many people would leave and for like my situation, i cant get an pay-pal account easaly (in my country you NEED a CREDITCARD and that costs too much, paying BA monthly, paying credit card for even not using and other things, then after 1 month the cashflow would be - 100€ and people nagging all the time about not paying bills because i had to pay a forum, food and water and an house to live in.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
To get into yes (just 1 time and not montly), then we can filter out then people who just want to download and never have good conversation.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
Download: around 900KB/s to sometimes 1.2MB/s.
Upload: My maximum of 120KB/s, but the latest few weeks even 150KB/s

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
If only with BA, its uses about 0.6%.
The maximum i get is 1% for Internet and about 50% for sharing with my other PC (not relevant).

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Never, and never will be, unless I connect with the BA Server myself in the datacenter and disconnect is from the internet and download all with a gigabyte Cross-over connection.
Even then its still reaches about 50%/60% max.

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes.
If you open it, it would take about 3 hours to knock down the server because the whole world is downloading.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Sometimes yes, sometimes not, but thats the admin job all about.

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
Good conversation, running the forum good, many optional things like webhosting and such with zero-downtime on the server side for me.
Creating an image uploader.

17. And my bad points?
Sometimes you introduce new things that you say you thought about it, but it was suggested a few months back and you didnt like it.
No phpBB3.
You cannot select different themes. (see comments and please read them).

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
Cleaning up the n00bs.
I see many members with 0 post older then 1 month (a few weeks back before the ''great'' clean up).
I mean that people less then 10 posts still here and visited ones and never again, most from early 2007, delete them.
Certainly bump up the post count to 25 before getting in.
Taking the server offline, reorganize then putting backonline with only 2 hours downtime.
Then asking you back to admin it again.

Other Comments

Well here the following:

phpBB3[b]:
Upgrade, you did such a good job on things but it was silent after that. Its more secure, you can find things easier then phpBB2.

[b]Themes:
Why not make 4 themes available.
1) BA official (for guests and under 10 (hopefully 25 posts) posters, not choosable).
2) A Windows theme
3) A Linux theme
4) A Mac OS theme.

For guests and posters that didnt reach the servers yet only the first theme is available.
And the others theme come available when you got in.

Newbie:
Well i see many new members and that is great but they offer things we already have or bumb topics.

So for that this:
1) ''Force'' for reading all rules, if they not read the rules, warn them, after the second warning delete the account (they can join again if they want) and after not listening again ban them on IP and e-mail.
2) Create a new topic in the rules section or just under it and above annoucements, a topic or link to a page (please let it be ordered with Windows/Linux/Mac and Applications) were you can see what files are on the server, this needs to be maintained properly.
3) Open the Free-download section again, change the kind of download every month with just 25~30 KB download speed.

And some other suggestions i have to think about.

But thats all, keep it running great.

This happens every 10 minutes because a "Kill PHP" cron is run. It will happen at 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes past each hour.

If you get an error 500, hit refresh, not back. It will ask if you want to resubmit your data. Say yes and then your post will go through normally without having to re-type it.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I'd like something lighter, and less cluttered. But as forums go it's fairly clean already.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes, although my one suggestion here would be linking to the page with the BA server details in release-a-fortnights. The password changes often, and I can never remember where to find that page xD.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Nope.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
Understandable, and I couldn't really care less xD. IMO phpBB will always be 2 steps behind IPB, so really it's not my fight.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
It's fine.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
None.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Yes, for sure.

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Id make access harder to get...

Because I'm evil

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
Oooh I couldn't possibly comment.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Yeh I suppose.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
Full line speed, ~600kb/s

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
100% (If I allow it, obv)

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Yes

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes

Admin (me):
[list]15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
17. And my bad points?
18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?

Answer to all
I don't spend much time here, so I can't really comment. But from the little I've seen, you do exactly what I'd expect of an admin, so no pointers from me.

Edited out
Tired of wasting my breathe

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
It's great, looks good and it's rather functional.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes, I sure do.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
None, really.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
No, I don't really care. Take your time and find the right theme for the site and gradually upgrade to phpBB3. The only real advantages I see with phpBB3 is that it's supported and it has more anti spamming measures than phpBB2 does.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?


6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
None, they are perfect.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
The closed parts are a good idea, as the people who donate to the site deserve a little something and you need to gain the privilege to use the various private FTP's at BA.

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
None.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
Probably a couple dollars a month as, you don't need to offer this service to people nor do you really need to host this site, you do it out of goodwill.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
It's only fair, as they have supported the site in some way.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
It maxxes out my 512/128Kbps connection.

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
All of it

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Yes as above

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes, it kinda in a way keeps software companies such as Microsoft off you case and it also gets rid of the pricks who sign up just to get server access and nothing else.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Most of the time.

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
You have a lot of patience to put up with users which would do certain things to irritate people.

17. And my bad points?
Sometimes your patience may quickly go.

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
I dunno

Other Comments

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
The website tempplate is good, but i think the homepage should be used more, or updated. maybe move the links at the top to somewhere else, make them more noticable

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
not hard to navigate

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
none

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
don't see why not, but if it isn't really needed (probably will be eventually) then don't.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
just enough

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
none

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
yes, you don't want the servers released to the world

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
nope

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
not too much, but i think all that would happen is that you will get about 5-10 people that pay

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
yes and no, you don't just want some kid to pay money just to get in. but a person who is actually a VIP, or is a good contribution to the site

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
whatever my connection is at, which is about 2-3mbp.

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
well, all of it

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
yes

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
yes

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
i don't see a problem, but i have noticed a lot of people having a cry and leaving. but not sure if it is anything to do with you as i don't read the posts

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
the site

17. And my bad points?
n/a

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
don't know if i would change anything, but i would ban someone for kicks

Other Comments

maybe add more to the forum, so it isn't just a forum. maybe advertise the wiki a bit more. update the homepage etc...

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I like the contrasting background/foreground and how easy it is on the eyes, but if it was my site, not what I'd chose


2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
One-click navigation at the top works well.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Not yet


4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
I hate PHPBB3, from experience.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
There's a hell of a lot, but who says I have to use them all? It's nicely divided into individual interests.


6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
Branch out General Chat a bit more? It seems to have "General Computers" and "General", in which people still discuss computers. (I know it's pretty much the aim of the site, but you have the rest of the site to do it in).


7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Why not?


8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Not a lot.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
£1.87 ?



10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
I think a large number of posts is plenty of dedication to the site, but if some people really want a forum they can brag about, they can pay if they want.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
Que?


12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
10 - 15 %


13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Nope.


14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
It will keep it a bit cleaner and faster.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
You assess them?


16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
You're a kind, gentle person.


17. And my bad points?
You're crap in bed.


18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
Make all the text Webdings and run.

Other Comments

Hello.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
The template looks nice.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes, its quit easy to navigate with the top or bottom menu.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
No.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
PhpBB3 is a good piece of software ... i think it will improve the "workflow" ;D

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
IMO there are enough categories.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
I don't know .... maybe leave it as it is.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Yes its a good idea, because if the site are not closed it will be missused by some people.

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Raise the minimum posts to 25 or something.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
I don't like sites where you must pay money to get something like alpha or beta software.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Hm ... i don't care because i will never reach the 750+ posts nor i would pay the fee just to be a "vip".

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
N/A

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
N/A

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
N/A

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
YES. You should never open up the BA server because it will result in leeching and slow speeds.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Yeah, i like your way

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
You are friendly ... (i think xD)

17. And my bad points?
I don't know any.

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
Clean up 0-5 poster which are older than 6 months.

Other Comments

Uhm ... no other comments

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc. It is good on my eyes, and generally looks nice.


2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yep, its pretty easy to navigate, the one thing thats been bugging me slightly is that the wiki and forum links at the top of the page are seperated by |, is it possible to have them have their own <td> (the width of each td would be something like 16.6667)?

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Nope, the site has been bug free for me so far.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
I would like for the forum to use PhpBB3, or at least let us see that beta design (maybe a VIP feature...?)

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
I think the # of categories is just enough.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
N/A

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why? Yes, it keeps the Leeches at bay.


8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
N/A

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!) $0. I would love to pay, but I don't have a paypal account yet, and don't have a continuous job to get money every week. However, if you were to charge it (you had to for some weird reason), I think maybe something like $5 a month or maybe $30 a year would make it a good deal (higher price per month because of paypal fees.)


10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Yes, because you can still get in with over 750 posts (that proves that you're a dedicated member either way you get in).

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
300KB/s. Thats the max speed of my isp.

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
All of it.

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Yes.

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions? Yes.


16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
You don't let anyone nasty through the forum to mess it up, and you aren't afraid to ban people.

17. And my bad points?
Sometimes you can have a bad attitude to an honest mistake, but thats understandable because people don't read the rules, ect. So overall you do a great job.

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
I would go through the trouble of adding all of the VIP's to a group and giving them a 4 star rank, custom title, ect.

Other Comments

You need to make a star status (the thing under your avatar) for VIPs!!!

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
While it's tolerable, it's not the nicest theme. Also, You can tell that rather being designed in mind with it's current functionality, It's been hacked together in stages. I also think that the Wiki isn't emphasised enough, and I'd like to see it take a more prominent role in the community.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
The important things are easily accessible and in general, navigation is pretty well done. As in Q1 though, some things (like the Wiki) could be made more noticeable.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
I do get the occasional 500 (Though I know that's covered). Also, on non-forum pages, the BA logo doesn't link to the Forum index. I know that might be intentional, but I find it annoying at times when I go to click it and nothing happens =/

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
Whilst I'd like to see phpBB3 as soon as possible, I completely understand your decision. The theme side of it (whilst relatively simple to do) takes a lot of time and work to get right, and we wouldn't want a forum running on a stock theme.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
I think the number of categories is fine.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
I'd feel the need to change how the 'New Beta/RTM Releases' is used, since many public releases gets posted in there (The latest WLM9 build for example), but that's restricted, so it then gets posted again elsewhere. While clearly, a good part of it wants restricting, maybe we need a public equivalent. Or it could just go in news I guess.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Yes. Solves leeching. My own experiences with Public servers have shown how people don't respond to things like limiting connections, speed, etc, and just hammer the server instead, making the experience for those legitimate users somewhat worse.

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Maybe increase the post count required to 25. 10 posts is incredibly easy.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
I hope Moderators wouldn't have to pay
I'd say from a member's point of view, paying to access the servers is a bit much. Maybe you could have a system like with the VIP where you can either make x posts, or make less posts and pay a bit to gain access.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
It's perfectly fine. I got in on posts and donations anyway, so It's not too much of a problem. It also helps contribute to the running costs of the server, whilst providing contributing members with little money a way to get access too.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
Depends what Tiscali feel like letting me download at that moment in time. Anywhere from 50KB/s to 750KB/s.

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
Probably about 90%

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Yes, using multiple threads.

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes. See Q7.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Yeh, you run the forum great. There's a lot worse Admins out there.

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
You are really involved with the community, and you'll do almost anything to keep the forum going. You're also trustworthy and reasonably laid back (No one likes a Nazi in charge of a forum).

17. And my bad points?
Um. Can't think of any to hand, You can be quite dismissive of other people's online attempts, but you're generally right on that =/

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
Throw a party on the server and ban a few people who annoy me. And ban a few friends as a Joke. After I'd finished abusing my new powers, I might start work on a move to phpBB3.

Other Comments

None.

I am member since a few weeks, but I think this is a super good site for beta collectors.



The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I think it is good, you can read thinks easy, and don't get irritated by many moving objects.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes, but maybe it is handy to make a special button to go to the forum index (not just the name)

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
No, only 1 time that the site was offline (i wasn't member yet)

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
no

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
enough

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
A better place for Customisation of a betas

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why? Yes, because then you can´t just download all the thinks you like, and than put it on other sites, and give nothing back.


8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Make it easier to get advanced member, because the server contains almost all what you want to have. So it might be handy to make a list of thinks people can give as contribution.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
about 5-20 euros. But don´t do it, because then the site will lose members.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Yes, what it is is good. Or donate or be long member and post very much

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
about 1500 kb per second!

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
i don´t know

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
don´t understand this.. sorry

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes!

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Yes!

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
You have good answers, you are not bad for people.

17. And my bad points?
none so far

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
check if the member servers are online, and change otherways the state and give a warning before people get at the banlist for the FTP.(I am on it, because filezilla had to connect very much (still don´t know why) i didn´t know if it was good or not, because i didn´t use ftp before)

Other Comments

I think it is a very good site.

Maybe we could start a project (like reload neptune), then will this forum be more popular and get more members (like joejoe.org had)

Clicking the logo at the top of the forum does this.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
1. It's fine

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
2. Yeah I can

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
3. Not that I know of

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
4. Not Really, because you have everything organized on phpBB2

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
5. Just Enough, Although I would like a Games Category

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
6. Same as above, a Games Category

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
7. Yes, because are some people who will attempt to leech or spam
in those areas just to get the files they want

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
8. None Really

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
9. Around 5-10 dollars a month

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
10. Yes it's appropriate, because it helps cover the cost of the
server fees

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
11. usually around 250-300 kb/s

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
12. No idea, because I use Filezilla and I can't tell how many
connection there are

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
13. I think so

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
14. Yes it is, Definitely

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
15. yes I do

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
16. You are Fair, Helpful and always willing to protect the server

17. And my bad points?
17. None

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
18. I Don't Know, I do not make a good admin XD

Other Comments

He meant that instead of the text a button.

But thats very hard with phpBB.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
1. awesome all around

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
2. haven't had a problem yet

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
3. nothing more than a 500 error when trying to post, or an unknown error when uploading a pic, but that's few and far between

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
4. phpBB2, phpBB3, I'm not really knowledgeable on running forums, so i dunno

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
5. plenty

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
6. none really

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
7. very good idea, it gives people incentive to actually participate, instead of just leech and run

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
8. Maybe up the required post count

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
9. NO!

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
10. yes

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
11. i dont access it often, but i can usually get ~85 kbs, not bad for DSL

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
12. never really checked

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
13. i guess not

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
14. yes

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
15. i don't have a problem with it

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
16. haven't been around long enough to say

17. And my bad points?
17. same answer as 16

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
18. nothing really...

Other Comments

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
Looks p. good to me, I don't like the MSN smileys though

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yeah, sure

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Nope

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
Don't care as long as I can still post

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
I never read the bottom forums because they are too small and I don't see them right away.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
Merge Computer Disc. and Offtopic discussions, merge all the OS discussion forums, merge all tech support forums. Move the Old Stickys, site feedback and maybe the trading forum to the bottom

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Don't care

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Make it harder to gain access

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
A montly fee is pretty much unacceptable, one time fee and charging for addition features (custom title etc.) is a better plan.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Don't care

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
Around 200 kb/s per connection

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
200 kb/s

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Yes (450 kb/s)

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yeah

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Sure, you need to simulaneously relax and tighten up the rules and moderate more based on judgement than rules (this goes for all the mods IMO)

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
Dedication to the community, listening to the community.

17. And my bad points?
Listening to the community.

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
I'd make posting between 1000 and 1100 GMT bannable, rename all the forums, change my title to "lord of posting" and make the site pink/light pink and Comic Sans MS on everything but headers.
And make the "BETAArchive.co.uk Forum Index » Announcements" twice as big so it's easy to click.
Also remove the word filter except the letter a would be filtered to it.

Other Comments

Charging a member fee would probably kill the site right now, you'd need at least 1000 active members to even think about doing that.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
It's good at all, but a quite simple


2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes, I didn't find any problem on navigating on this website.. About finding everything I want, I can't answer it yet, since I don't have any access to betaarchive servers and other private forums

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Not yet


4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
You did the right choice

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
It is enough

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
If I could make improvements, is expanding the Game Betas to something like that: Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS as sub-forums

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
That is a good idea, a good forum means active members, or everyone could pick a beta and leave the forum alone

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
Well, I read all rules but I don't know if any of them applies to what I would change: I noticed that some members are actually posting just like "thank you" or "lol" to a lot of contributed topics, nothing more than it. I wonder if they really thanks us for contributing or they just accumulates posts to become VIP or whatever it could be (on other website/forums it is considered as spam)

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
Probably $2-$5

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Yes, it's appropriate. VIP is being accorded special privileges. It doesn't apply to anyone, but only to important people (active members or contributors, in that case). Also, VIP means Very Important People. So, what's about creating a VVIP group? (Very Very Important People)

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
N/A

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
N/A

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
N/A

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
Yes

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
I don't take care, since I never saw your real way to run the forum. But I hope I can answer to it later

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
Of what I saw, your skills on designing (nice betaarchive wallpapers)

17. And my bad points?
Hum... I haven't any response to it

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
The only thing I would change is the expansion of ranks allocated to each member and the establishment of new ranks in order to differentiate as much as possible each member

Other Comments

Nothing special, only my congratulations for you

Oh god don't do that there's hardly any traffic there at all, spreading it over 4-5 sub forums would kill it.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I believe the structure is very user friendly, as I rarely post in the wrong forum when creating new topics. The overall look of the site seems to appeal more towards a Windows-based environment, which a little disappointment to me, being an Apple enthusiast. For example, the "BA" icon in the Address Bar displays the Classic Windows XP Start Menu icon with the letters "BA" over it. If the site is to target all computer audiences and its operating system betas, I believe a new icon could replace it. I'm sure major Linux users would feel the same.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes, I tend to use the "Last Posts Since Last Visit" link the most.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Yes, when I am using a browser not fully compliant with BetaArchive, I tend to notice that whenever I hover over simple text, graphics, or anything not considered a link, a hidden "link" is used to move the user over to the Wiki section of the site. I don't know if this is intentional or some kind of HTML fault, but whenever I go to select text (With old browsers), it will link me to the Wiki section of the site, which gets a little irritating. Other than that, the site works flawlessly.

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
I think you made the wise choice to not transfer and keep everything the way it is. Who knows, maybe a year or two down the line it may seem worthy to make the change, but as of now, nope!

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
Just right.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
I think "Customisation" is spelt wrong. lol. It's supposed to be "Customization." It also says "Moderator Staff" everywhere. lol

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
N/A

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
N/A

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
If PayPal was enforced, then yeah, I'd do it. Once I get my next job, I'll probably start donating as well.

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
It would DEFINITELY help you and others out for server costs. Trust me, that's a lot of electricity be consumed and I'm pro-environment and stuff so finding methods to keep the server up and running efficiently the right way would certainly take out a lot of time and money of the administered server user.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
Pretty darn fast! I rarely download anything on there, but when I use it, it is more than reasonable!

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
Um, not sure about this one, but it's usually at 120KB/sec [I only get 500KB/sec speeds I want to say with my ISP provider, so this is good]

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
N/A

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
YES. This will keep the n00bs out and mooching off the servers. The amount of security used on the server is AMAZING!

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Yes, very good job Andy.

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
Fairness, you aren't a "Power-Hungry" Administrator who will do harm to those under you, and you won't flaunt how you are an Admin around here nor do you threaten many users.

17. And my bad points?
I think the moderators should be disciplined in a way where they have to provide some sort of service per week, whether it be cleaning up posts (making them look neater), reporting possible leachers, etc. Do you get what I mean? Nothing against the staff or moderation, but I don't even know who the mods are!

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
I'd make myself a Moderator because honestly, I don't want all that power nor the responsibility of hosting a site, having to deal with all those emails and PMs, and making sure everyone is happy. So I wouldn't want to be you, or at least have that power.

Other Comments

Andy, you are doing a great job. You and the staff provide the best service around and I enjoy having BetaArchive a bookmark on every Internet device I use, from my iPod touch, to all my computers, and even to my Wii. So keep doing whatever you're doing because it's working out great!

That's the British spelling All those American Zs tend to get on my nerves as they look wrong to me, we have to put up with them in Windows as it is!

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
It's very nice. Just the other day I was went to see if there were any other themes because it's nice to have change every once in a while.

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
The site is very navigable.

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
Nope, no bugs. occaisonly I have to reload a page because my browser timed out

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
you did? it would be very nice to have, but as I've used both, the difference doesn't bother me.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
I sometimes think there are too many, but I manage.

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
weeeeell, I'd probably start by merging a few of the server categories, that alone gets to be a bit overwhelming.

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why? I believe it to be necessary. The other half of me wonders what I'm missing out on though.


8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
..I wouldn't. they are fine.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!) monthly fee? $1.99 or $2.99 (USD) would probably be the max I would go, honestly, even still, I'd probably stick to the free forums, I understand it's to help support the server, but being as it's to access the "closed" areas... I don't know if I would be getting anything out of it


10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?It's the same as the "Premium User" group I see on alot of forums, many people find it appropriate, I just not worry about it, though some forums allow members to earn the title.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
no access

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
--

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
--

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
--

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?You do a very good job, I haven't had a problem with the way you run things.


16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?on top of being a great admin, you still find time to help people as well, which is very nice


17. And my bad points?
hmm... I mgiht have heard a few lame jokes, but it's all good

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
I really haven't clue, I just started coming back as I have been away all summer, I still haven't caught up with what's changed around here

Other Comments

mmm..nope!

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I think it's pretty nice - especially the forum banner.


2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes I do.


3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
None to speak of, though I haven't been here long enough to know.


4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
See above.

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
Just enough.


6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
None really.


7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
As much as I would like to say it's a bad thing (I can't access them at the moment), it keeps people from using up all of the sites resources, so I think it's a pretty good idea.


8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
I think it's fine the way it is.

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
Any amount between 5 and 50 dollars (US) would suffice (or equal amount in pounds, euros, etc.).


10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
As some may have stated before, privileges should be earned, not bought.

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
I don't have access, so I can't answer this question.

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
See above.

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
Again, see above.

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
See my answer to question 7.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
I haven't been here long enough to make a real opinion on this.


16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
See above.


17. And my bad points?
Again, see above.


18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
See above...

Other Comments

I've thought that it would be nice to have a few extra categories when posting stuff but I don't think there are enough posts to begin with. It would probably just make the board seem less populated.

The site:

1. What do you think of the website template and its structure? Colour theme, layout etc.
I think the website template is good and don't need any modification

2. Do you find the site easy to navigate and can you find everything you want to?
Yes

3. Do you ever encounter any bugs on the site? If so what are they?
I never encounter bugs on the site

4. Do you have any comments about my decision of putting off the transfer to phpBB3?
phpBB3 will be better, all the forums I know had transfered to phpBB3 (sorry for bad english)

The forum:

5. Do you find the number of categories to be too little, just enough or too many?
I think it's just enough

6. What improvements could you make to the categories if you could?
Nothing

7. Do you think the site being “closed” in some areas is a good idea? If so why and if not why?
Yes I think it's good, if the site was not closed, anyone can download files and redistribute anywhere

8. If you could change the “closed” area rules, what would you change?
It's good like that

General Questions:

9. If BetaArchive were to charge a small monthly fee for access to the “closed” areas, what amount would you feel would be reasonable? (Don’t worry BA won’t be doing this any time soon! I just want your opinion!)
I think 0 will be reasonable because I can't pay I'm not over 18

10. Do you think the fee to get into the VIP group is appropriate? If not, why?
Didn't know

Servers:

11. If you have access to the BA official server, what speed do you get?
I get about 90kb/s

12. How much of your connection does a single download utilise?
Sorry i don't understand the question

13. Have you ever utilised all of your connection from the BA official server?
No

14. Do you think its right keeping the BA official server “closed”?
-> 7.

Admin (me):

15. Do you like the way I run the forum, and the way I assess and dismiss member’s opinions?
Yes

16. On the whole, what would you say my good points are?
Accessible (don't know if this word exist in english :/), kind

17. And my bad points?
None for the moment

18. If you could be Admin (me) for a day, what would you change and why?
Nothing it's good like that

Other Comments

None