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The Corroboree
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Chiral

Question for Torsten.

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At the risk of sounding like I'm over reacting or appearing hysterical, I'd like to know..

If SAB is at some point blocked and members here in oz can't view it anymore the traditional ways...would you be keeping the site up and running so as punters can still view from offshore..?

I'm sure you have been wondering what to do if this scenario happens and I think as a heads up to members here who are willing to work at keeping this place alive it might be worth just saying something here so perhaps people can make arrangements now rather than after the fact. I'm not sure if you think discussing this openly here is inappropriate or not but I thought I'd toss it out there for you to deal with. Economically wouldn't it become a burden and white elephant to you if the only members active are the few dozen or so offshore.

perhaps revamping SAB's look from a uniquely Australian ethno place into a more international format, may invite or attract a lot of new members from all around the world. I dunno and am just thinking aloud ATM. I know personally, that when I arrive at a new destination elsewhere, it would be very cool to see this place still active even if it wasn't still a uniquely Australian forum, and the local Australian membership dwindled, I'm sure it wouldn't take long to find it's feet with a slightly new identity. I'm sure you are very proud of the work you have achieved at SAB over the years, and even though now potentially one man and his position as a minister can take it down, and I'm sure that grates on you, especially after a major update with all the countless unpaid late hours tweaking and adjusting parameters, I'm sure you wanna just punch Conroy in the taint, but even so I don't think that is a reason to let it die, not like that anyways. Perhaps an SAB referendum on the future would weave some magic.

SAB's niche has always been uniquely Australian, it has attracted a wonderful diverse range of characters including some amazing local and international, ethno and pharmacological contributors, a wacky but generally good hearted bunch of contributing forum members, it's collective who has over the years shared new, or forgotten, even reviewing old knowledge, a place where people have come, moved on,or passed away, there are those that have enjoyed, gained insight, learned from, got angry at, laughed at or interacted in many ways shapes or forms...including meets, making lifelong new friends. Most relate to that and would agree that it's something worth preserving, even if that meant morphing into a more international place, SAB's foundations of being an Australian ethnobotanical forum would not be forgotten, the information will live forever in the archives, thus allowing access to potentially important, interesting and relevant information, for outsiders who are contemplating traveling to Australia.

Perhaps nothing will come of the filter and we can all go back to our lives and continue sharing our knowledge, lets hope so, but at the same time it doesn't ever hurt to discuss or practice maneuvering tactics in case the alarms go off and it's no longer a drill.

:)

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SAB's niche has not always been australia. There was a time when about half of our forum members and about a third of our customers were from overseas. But to be honest, I kinda preferred the way it developed because the overseas commercial sites and forums did not cater well for australians so it was only fair that we did. So much for the history.

I have worried about government interference into the shop and the forums for a long time. Separating the two was a way to protect one from the other. Depending on which way the political wind blows it can seriously be just as bad for the forums to be associated with the shop as it is in reverse. I even keep them on separate IPs and in separate datacentres now.

If the forum domain was to be blocked I would try to keep the forums running if technically possible. It might be difficult as I may not have access to them from here, so would have to get an overseas friend to administer them. That's all fine and well planned. But you are right that keeping a forum going for 30 overseas members who also have other options may not be a relevant thing to do. The good thing is that there are other forums and other websites where people can recongregate and if it looks like there is no point to keep the corroboree forums going then a database of the information would be made available in offline format. At that time, a new forum on a new domain might need to be formed that is 100% within the new classification rules. I have the email contacts to all current members so as long as these are kept uptodate I will make sure everyone is kept in the loop as to what is available and where. if anyone truely gets lost along the way then they can simply go via the SAB shop site. The SAB shop site will be 100% compliant by the time this crap actually goes through so I do not expect any dramas there. The info from the SAB site that might be questionable will be placed onto a new domain soon.

I am not worried about all this. I expected this to happen many years ago, so in a way we've had 5 or 6 years of extra freedom that was a bonus. There are so many ways to make the new laws ineffective that I am not concerned that we can't do what we want to do in the future, with some minor adjustments and some new adaption of technology. We might not be able to post stuff like extraction techniques on these forums anymore, but i can guarantee that there will be ways of sharing such information linked to a central place [eg post the information on a variety of third party content site and then link to it from a compliant forum]. These laws are for the lazy masses - we just have to be smart about it.

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Nice post Chiral, can you link me with what's changing in ozzie laws?? Again? Wow you guys, sometimes I wonder if ozzie laws are so strict because you're indeed more naughty, or if the two facts are irrelevant...

Good luck in whatever you decide to do. I sure have this forum in high esteem...

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If SAB is at some point blocked and members here in oz can't view it anymore the traditional ways...would you be keeping the site up and running so as punters can still view from offshore..?

PLEASE KEEP THE CORROBOREE OPEN!!!!

If for some reason it's going to get shut down I'd REALLY like to purchase a disk copy or something of the entire forums.... is that possible? Can you offer that in the shop?

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Yes I assumed SAB had always been uniquely Australian, that's cause I'm a twit and can only see and read back a year...yap.gif

Thanks for taking the time to answer Torsten, I wasn't sure what y'all were gunna say...I was at least expecting some sarcasm or flaming, but no maturity prevailed.

Teo mate...make Torsten an offer to purchase the corroboree, then when it's yours you can be boss and carry on the good name of SAB elsewhere....no I'm kidding Teo, don't do that... anyways just cause it's blacklisted here doesn't mean you wouldn't still be able to view and post, it's just it would be very quiet without all us yobbo's...you could post in every forum, every day, an unlimited amount plus you could post all those awesome lists you are so fond of... :wink:

If and when any of this happens all SAB members state by state should hold a farewell corroboree, a traditional one like...now that would be awesome.

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Teo mate...make Torsten an offer to purchase the corroboree, then when it's yours you can be boss and carry on the good name of SAB elsewhere....

I think the fact that Torsten is the owner is one reason the Corroboree is such a good site!

I wouldn't want to screw it up by trying to run it myself!

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