Welcome HTLAL members!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Big_Dog, Apr 16, 2014.

  1. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    My favorite language learning forum, HTLAL, recently went down. We all hope it's back up soon. In the mean time, I'd like to welcome HTLAL members here. Have fun, and let me know if I can help in any way.

    Here is a quote I read at the LingQ forum from LingQ member pingvin20:
  2. Solfrid Cristina

    Solfrid Cristina Member VIP member

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    Hello Big Dog, thank you for giving us a sanctuary until HTLAL is back up :) I look forward to seeing how this forum will develop.
  3. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi Cristina! Very nice to see you here. I'm a big fan of your posts on HTLAL. So you've been to Russia, I take it. I missed my chance to visit last year, but hope I can return soon. Enjoy the forum :D
  4. Solfrid Cristina

    Solfrid Cristina Member VIP member

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    Yeah, right, Big Dog, you are a big fan of my posts, have you already forgotten how much we used to fight there? :pAnyway, I am really happy that you have created this forum, and wish you lots of luck with it, and if you could put Norwegian up as an option for a native language, and Swedish as a language in which one can have a certain level, I'd be as smug as a bug in a rug. :D



    And yes, I took the Trans-Siberian Railway two years ago, and we stopped by Moscow. I have technically been in Russia 5 times, but two of them were just a few hours, so they do not really count.

    Edit. Found the answer to my questions :)
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2014
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    You call it fighting, I call it getting to know each other. ;)
    I added your languages. I see you put super challenge under language learning logs. That's fine - I'll change the name to help people find it. Very cool about the tran-siberian!
  6. Solfrid Cristina

    Solfrid Cristina Member VIP member

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    Thank you! I did not find a specific challenge room, and at HTLAL we lump it together for the moment, though there have been talks about creating a specific challenge room.
  7. JoshLT

    JoshLT New Member

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    Thanks for setting this forum up! Despite not visiting on a daily basis, seeing HTLAL down and missing from Google results had me quite bummed.

    I attempted to set up a similar forum in the past, when HTLAL was kind of on the fritz, but it never really gained much traction. Lots of people seem to be fairly set in their ways, and don't want to budge from the place. I feel sort of like the lone mutinous crewmember when I say this, because most people seemed against the idea before, but I still seriously wonder if we all shouldn't consider a permanent migration to a new forum. Despite charging $40/year for a premimum membership, the HTLAL forum has kind of been in a bad way for a long time - bugs, error messages popping up frequently, etc. If the site does return, I don't think the forum itself is going to improve, technically speaking, much at all. It seems folly to have such a treasure trove of information and community stored in what appears to be a slowly burning house.
    kikenyoy and Big_Dog like this.
  8. BAnna

    BAnna Active Member VIP member

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    Thank you. I miss HTLAL, although maybe I've been getting more studying done since it's been down...;)
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  9. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    I'm glad you're here, Josh. I think I remember your forum, actually. I see we've come to the same conclusions on several things. Amongst other things, I was paranoid that my own stuff would disappear forever.
    JoshLT likes this.
  10. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    :D Same here on both points.
  11. JoshLT

    JoshLT New Member

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    I've not been overly worried about my own posts there, as my thoughts are spread around elsewhere on the internet. I've been more concerned about things like Iversen's log and his guide to language learning, because he seems to post only there. There are also plenty of other excellent threads that are in danger of going poof, should the HTLAL owner continue letting the site kind of drift at sea, with no one really at the helm. Problem being, as it was before, if we can't get everyone to move, you end up with a split community, which is also sort of depressing.
  12. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Yeah, there is a lot of priceless info on that site. I remember reading that Iversen backs his stuff up in some private location though, which is a very good idea. I'll do the same when it comes back up.
  13. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    Hi all and thank you for this interim opportunity to stay in contact with the language community!

    I want to give you information about HTLAL. The HTLAL - website has been offline since Tuesday, 15 April 2014. The reasons are DNS - server problems which have also affected the company webside of our HTLAL - administrator. Emk phoned on behalf of our moderator team with the administrator in Switzerland yesterday on Thursday, 17 April 2014, where the adminstrator explained that he is working to fix his DNS - serverproblems. But we have to take in account that Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays in Switzerland. If the server is in his company, we can imagine that he can only go further with it on workdays. So the offline period of HTLAL will be solved soon, we only have to be a bit patient during Easter.

    Best regards,

    Fasulye
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2014
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  14. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Welcome Fasulye, and thanks for the update!
  15. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

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    My pleasure! It's sometimes necessary to give first hand information!

    Fasulye
  16. JoshLT

    JoshLT New Member

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    I think my points still stand, but eh, I may just give that battle up. When the place goes, it goes.
  17. Solfrid Cristina

    Solfrid Cristina Member VIP member

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    Thanks, Fasulye! Good to have some real info :)
  18. AML

    AML New Member

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    Love HTLAL and been a member forever, but that site has become a slow, bloated mess. I wish he would use this downtime to improve it.
  19. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Welcome to the forum AML. I agree with you. It's got the best content of all the forums, imo, but some of the worst software. Usually it's not an issue, but times like these are frustrating. Hope it gets back up soon, new and improved.
  20. Iversen

    Iversen Member VIP member

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    I have now also joined this new forum, but the bulk of my activity will still be at HTLAL. My log thread and Guide there is like a home for me, and together they have the same role for me as the personal blogs have for some other language enthousiasts. But with the short- and longterm access problems of HTLAL it would be foolhardy to keep all my activity in one place.

    As for the moderation policy there it has been decided by F.Micheloud, and the moderators have followed his instructions. But I would like to point out that the log section originally only was designed as a place where people could keep some kind of account for their time expenditure etc, and some still use it like that. When I started my multiconfused log (which now has grown to more the 400 pages with more than 2 mio. visits) it was not even sure whether it was permitted to use it as a multilingual blog with varied content. But the experiment was accepted, and at least some other blogs now also have this kind of diary like character - and a fair number are written in several languages. So even within HTLAL there was (and in spite of reports to the contrary, is) room for a certain amount of experimenting, but within limits.

    I'm eager to see how this new forum will develop, and even though I can't promise to write here to the same extent as in HTLAL I do intend to be an active member.

    regards
    Ogrim2 and Big_Dog like this.

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