Mjay06

Its highly likely within the next week I will be needing to opt for paid hosting as I need more diskspace. Could you let me know the cost in GB Pounds how much it would be for Plan3S and a .net domain. Thanks

This is a true story about what happened to me that I wrote a few years ago: My Story Well, i've been reliably informed this will be therapeutic, stop the nightmares & so on. I hope so, as it's getting quite tiresome to put it mildly. I shall start at the beginning (always a good place), & give a brief overview of the circumstances surrounding this tale. I grew up i'm a typical rambling Norfolk house on the edge of The Sandringham Royal Estate. Nothing remarkable about the house, just your typical 100 year old country house - long corridors, high ceilings, bay windows, i'm sure you get the picture. The house was in-between Dersingham & Sandringham on the map, & I shared it with my parents, older brother & younger sister. The events I am about to recall happened in the late 80s, when I was still at school. At the time my father owned a printing company set in a converted barn in the village of Heacham a few miles up the coast. After school I often used to help out in the office collating or hot-foiling or something equally as riveting. One particular evening I was collating some invoice books (collating is the most boring job in existence), dad was in another room hot-foiling some leather key fobs, & my brother was sat in dads car having a kip, i.e. a crafty *BLEEP*. I clearly remember the lights going a bit weird. Nothing unduly amazing about this as it was an old building. This was followed a few minutes later by pretty mental temperature changes. Again, this could easily be explained by crap plumbing/heating system. Then there were 3, its hard to explain, pulses maybe, that seem to go through the building. Not loud bangs or anything, more like pressure changes in the room, really quick, one after the other. Then the power went totally, & I was snapped back to reality by father swearing his head off about the power cut wrecking the temperature settings on the hot foiler. After a few seconds the power came on & everything returned to boring normality. Unfortunately this only lasted a matter of seconds as my brother literally came through the office door, crying like a baby claiming he had seen a woman with no legs go past the car. My first thought was twat, its gravel you wouldnt get a wheelchair across there. He was insistent, & quite disturbed by it all, so dad decided we should head home. Adam however wouldnt go anywhere near the carpark. At this point I probably wasnt helping I had slung dads little cylinder hoover over my shoulder & was running around ala the ghostbusters laughing my head off. Anyway, I digress, father got the car, we went home & after an hour or so more pisstaking we all went to bed. Fast forward 24 hours: 9pm on a Thursday night, Crimewatch was just starting, I was in the lounge watching it with mum, Zoe was upstairs in bed, Adam down the hallway in the kitchen making a sandwich. It was the noise I remember first, a groaning type effort rapidly getting louder. I didnt have much time to ponder on its source, my brother for the second night in a row flew through the door, knife in hand, screaming like a banshee. He threw himself at my mum. I obviously thought he had gone mad & jumped on him kicking & punching. Any opportunity to get a free hit in Id take it, & this was a brilliant opportunity. I stopped when I realized he had wet himself, I looked at his face, then mums, then followed their gaze to the door. It was slightly ajar, & the big fern which stood next to it was blowing like it was in a reasonably sized hurricane. 1st question: why wasnt the door being blown open? 2nd question: What the hell was that banging? It was in the kitchen, then the staircase, then dining room, then upstairs, all around the house. Then Adam decided to say he had seen the same woman as last night looking at him through the kitchen window. Now this disturbed me. It was bad enough seeing a ghost, but having the sodding thing follow you 7 miles? Thats just wrong. It was decided it might be best to ring father & get him home from the office. Excellent idea strength in numbers & all that. The only problem was the phone was in the kitchen (this was before mobile phones remember) & funnily enough none of us were to keen to be rushing to the kitchen. The banging stopped, & we kind of tried to take stock of what had just occurred. It was then I stated what anyone probably reading this is already screaming yes, what about my 5 year old sister upstairs on her own. Adam was in no fit state to move, mum wasnt much better, I was still being Mr rational & explaining away things as any obnoxious 15 year old know-it-all would. So out of the lounge I ventured & saw. nothing. Absolutely nothing. I could see down the corridor to the kitchen, looked fine, the radio still playing Adams Bros (yes Bros) tape. I will admit to being less keen on going upstairs, but off I went. Again nothing untoward, go to my sister door & heard her talking. I went in & she was sat upright giggling away as 5 year olds do. I picked her up & headed downstairs. Apparently she had been talking to the funny man. Yes, I said man, not woman God, how little we knew. Over the following weeks/months I can only describe what happened as systematic abuse of the family. I wont give a day by day account, just state some of the choicer moments. The banging continued with monotonous regularity, toilets started flushing on their own, things vanished & reappeared, this was all freaky sheet I admit, but bearable just about. It got a bit much when I stated suffering form sleep induced paralysis, but I woke with hand marks on my wrists & ankles. This was bloody scary. You feel consciously awake, but you cant move, or scream, & it feels like a weight is slowly moving up your body, encasing you. It is a feeling I wouldnt recommend anyone experience. At this point I fashioned a crucifix out of chopsticks (I knew the scouts would come in handy one day), & proudly placed it under my pillow sure in the knowledge that no self respecting ghost would have a go now. You can imagine my disappointment to wake the next morning to find it in pieces. It got to the stage we were sharing spooky events over dinner. MY mums best was she was lying in bed, heard dad pull into the drive, get out of the car, come in the kitchen door, come upstairs, go to the loo, put his keys on the bedside table, get into bed. She turned to hug him or whatever heinous thing it is parents do to each other & there was no one there. Dads best was he pulled down the drive one night & saw some kind of face type thing filling the bedroom window snarling at him. That did it for him. In a display of cowardice not seen by mankind since France last went to war he buggered off, never to return. He joined some religious sect, sold the printing company & gave the money to some German woman he had never met & as far as Im aware is in Africa somewhere being a prick. Anyway, father was rang, he came home. After a quick family meeting all was declared well & off we went to bed. Adam was next to go, he moved in with a mate. The house was put up for sale soon after. Word had spread around the village about how this respectable middle-class family had been ripped apart by ungodly events etc, & local TV news took an interest. This led to para-psychologists arriving from one of the Cambridge Universities. Muppets. Lasted one night before they went bombing back down the A10. Before they left, they had at least established something: Three separate entities (spirits, ghosts, whatever) had been discovered. There was the evil *BLEEP* which caused all the trouble & didnt like me much. The old boy my sister talked to turned out to be the ghost of the old village rat catcher, who used to often walk past the house with his dogs when alive. He instantly took a shine to her right from when she was a baby. General consensus at the time was that he had appeared to protect my sister from the evil *BLEEP*. He did a fine job, she has no ill effects to this day, & is the only family member willing to talk about what happened. As she was being shielded she missed most of the juicy bits though As for the woman: god knows who she was or what she wanted. Thats my brothers problem not mine. Anyway, me, mum & sis moved to a smaller cottage in Dersingham just down the hill. Bloody things followed didnt they It was nowhere near as bad though, carpets rising up and down, the odd bangs, stuff like that. There was one mad event, when I was up rooting around in the loft with my Aussie mate Hick. He was on the ladder peering through the hatch, I out of the blue he started shouting get out, get out. This was totally unlike him so I did. Then the wind started blowing, paper flying around, bang bloody bang etc. I got on the ladder & tried to pull the hatch shut above my head, & the bloody thing wouldnt shift. & was ice cold. I eventually got the thing shut & I followed the rapidly disappearing Hick downstairs. We agreed not to tell anyone for fear of being called mentalists. Funnily enough he never came round again. That will probably do for now. I may at some point go into more detail, but at the moment thats as deep as Id like to go. As for me, nearly 10 years on, I still have regular nightmares about that house, at least twice a week. I still get that same pinned down, suffocating feeling, though I imagine thats some kind of memory impulse that has engrained itself upon my subconciousness. To finish, if you are reading this as a non-believer I sincerely hope you stay that way. I sincerely hope nothing happens in your like to make you believe in ghosts. For everyone else, dont play with ouija boards, they ain't big, they aint clever & are almost certainly bloody dangerous.

You could try accessing Xisto through http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. Dont do it if there is a chance you will get into trouble though.

This isnt really a tutorial, more like an idiots guide on how to avoid the problems I encountered when setting up my site. This eventually invoved 3 complete reinstalls - you soon learn from your mistakes when that happens. I shall use php-nuke as the example here, but it applies to all scripts you intend to modify. If you have the disk space available - install your script twice, set up a temporary sub-domain for this. The reason for this is you have a full, clean install to go back & retrieve any files you may mess up whilst changing code (you will have to do this a lot when adding things to your site.) You can also use this second installation for trying out themes, without cluttering up your main install with things you probably wont need in the end. When modding a .php file, copy the file to your desktop first (ideally the install folder for the particular mod). i.e. if you see this: #-----[ OPEN ]---------------------------------------- # modules/Forums/games.php # #-----[ FIND ]---------------------------------------- # require_once('includes/bbcode.'. $phpEx); # #-----[ AFTER, ADD ]----------------------------------- # include("includes/functions_post.php"); copy the games.php file to your desktop before you start editing it. This way, its easy to rectify any mistakes you make by simply over-writing the file you have just messed up. After you have done the mod, check all parts of your site function as they should - its amazing how the most innocent seeming change you make can mess up something totally unrelated. If you are offering members multiple themes to choose from, I recommend you check every mod you make with every theme you have. This sounds very labourious but trust me its worth doing. Read every install.txt you get with the mod. Developers have a habit of changing things & hiding an install amendment somewhere in the mod folder. Make sure you read them all as it really can make a huge difference. It goes without saying, but make backups of everything before you start a mod, just incase. When you are happy with the mod & have checked everything works ok do a back-up again. This gives you a kind of 'restore point' to go back to if needed. If your site goes wrong, you will know which particular mod caused the problem. When you have finished installing a mod, check it has the corresponding mysql database (if needed) before enabling it. Finally, a lot of the problems I encountered were easily recified simply by clearing the browser cache & cookies, then restarting your browser. If something does go wrong, thats the first thing I recommend people do. Thats pretty much it, if anyone has any specific problems with phpnuke, get in touch & I will try & help.

Hmm, with the 200-odd .swf games I have on mine now (with 100 more still to add) mine will take some beating when its finished. All linked to a high score/points table too Go join & watch me whoop your arses http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I have installed Asers - shop (a phpnuke module) on my site & its a really good bit of kit.Unfortunately it comes attached with someone else's advert.Its hardly subtle, & I think its a bit of a cheek for someone to use my site as a way to generate income without me getting a jot in return.Is there anyway I can either a) remove it without messing up the module, or b ) changing it so I get any funds generated by it?Ive tried contacting the site where I aquired the module from & had no reply, & i'd rather not bin the module if it can be helped.

Have you looked at some of the shopping cart scripts in fantastico in your cpanel? I think some are paypal-based.Failing that base your site on php-nuke & install aser-shop, that is definately paypal based, & is pretty good too.

Thats the best thing I have read. I have been working on my site since October last year, & I dont expect it to go 'public' for at least a month yet. Its ok having something that looks pretty, but it wont hold a potential member's attention for very long if there is nothing to keep them interested. I have put an amazing amount of time & effort into things like linking the arcade with high score tables & members points totals, & catergorized some 180 games to keep members busy. Things like hot or not, blogs, photo albums, shoutboxes etc have all taken time to integrate with the theme of the site I want. I am very nearly happy with the base content & layout of the site, but its pointless making it live as its still basically an empty shell - it has no written content. I expect I have a few weeks at least padding it out before i'll even think about finding members. I have a few friends I can call on to test things out for me (you can probably agree when you see everything from an admin's point of view you tend to get blinkered). Dont be over-eager to release it half finished, it'll only put off any members that see your site now. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, you are only as good as what your last visitor tells people you are.

Hehe! How you got to 68 credits has been revealed

I dont mind seeing adverts on the Xisto forums. Occasionally I actually see something of interest. At the end of the day Xisto hierachy have to make money somehow, I doubt they have gone to all this trouble purely because they enjoy it. We all get no adverts on our hosted accounts - not many places offer you that, plus everything else Xisto throw in.

Some websites read better in Internet Explorer, & the newest version is trying its hardest to be an equal of Firefox. Saying that, Firefox (in my opnion) is faster, is more stable, has better features & also has a multitude of themes & add-ons you can install.I have both on my computer purely so I can see how my site renders in Internet Explorer - day to day internet browsing is done with Firefox.I havnt had too much experience with Opera - I installed it a few weeks ago to try it out & it lasted about 20 minutes before I un-installed it & returned to Firefox.

You could try running itunes rather than winamp. Apart from it being better anyway, it seems not to bother the processor as much.

Emmz i'm afraid dude

I have exactly the same problem with mine. I've kinda decided its the price you have to pay for using dsl, & I havnt found any way around it. If anyone does know how to avoid it i'd be interested to hear.

I prefer kryptonite's layout, its less harsh on the eye, but the text lets it down. Emmz wins by default, though I do like the style & colours.Emmz: 1Kryptonite: 0

If you can get hold of a copy I recommend the Strata programs, ive had photo foto3d on my mac for a while but i dont really have much use for it which is a waste. Check out the site: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Can you see the admin password login screen? If you can, there is a program you can download from tucows or download.com that 'reads' **** out characters to enable you to read the password. I'm not sure how effective it is but it might be worth a try.

Hehe! After many many months I just logged into my old aboho account. I'd forgotten how poor they were: This is their 'professional' package: Disk space 35MB Bandwidth 500MB/month Estimated account setup time Subject to post count and review Forum Posting Required 50 posts initially and 45 posts per month thereafter Themes available rvmaroon They do offer unlimited mysql databases, but lets be honest, how many can you fit in 35mb

I am having a system on my site where points earned in the forums/arcades/quiz can be spent in the site shop.I had thought about a lottery system where people can win say, 1000/5000/10000 points if they buy a ticket for 100 points.I've thrown the idea around a bit & it seems quite popular so far.

Sounds a bit dodgy to me.You will always have that element of risk when dealing with people on the net. Someone always has to make the first move - be it to send something without payment, or to pay for something without receiving anything first. In every case of internet business one of those factors applies.Its got to be based on an element of trust - do you trust this person? If there is any doubt in your mind (which there must be for you to create this thread), i'd forget it.

Im limited in so far as phpnuke will allow me to simplify it. Ive been playing around with making specific modules for different sections, rather than using the standard huge nuke user menu.I want to avoid having so much content in the menus that people dont see everything. A 'cant see the wood for the trees' kinda thing.

I'm sat here uploading content to my site, & it occured to me I may be going over the top a bit. I dont want to confuse members with masses of options, but then I want to offer plenty to keep them interested.So what (as a member) would you like to see?I currently have things like an arcade with high score tables, hot or not section, shop, java shoutbox etc, all the usual stuff like news sections, guestbook, photo albums, forums, news feeds...I still have plenty I want to add, put what would be important to you? Im asking as if you are viewing this you must have a vague idea of what people will like

Many years ago I used to go out with an actress called Claire Goose. I doubt many people outside the uk would have heard of her.We grew up in the same village, her parents are friends of mine. Her dad is still my doctor, I think.When I worked in Formula One I met most of the characters that are well known. Its a pity I was only contracted for a year it was a cracking job.

phpbb is a lot easier to administer & mod than ipb, the there are some pretty good mods around now, & the support forums are very good. Normally any problem you have can be answered by someone within a couple of hours.I've never had a lot of experience with vbulletin, so I cant really comment about what that may be like.

I have a couple of hundred animated gifs I made for users to have as avatars on an old site I worked on. The only problem is that they had to be 30x30 pixels to work on the site - most people prefer larger ones. One day I may get around to re-sizing them.