Founder has been gone since 2013

Technical Details

Forum version : #phpBB3
Position : Administrator
Concerned browser(s) : Google Chrome
Who the problem concerns : Yourself
When the problem appeared : 2013
Forum link : ( link is hidden, you must reply to see )

Description of problem

Hello everybody!
I've just registered in here because I'm running into a major issue
The Founder of the Forum has been totally gone, completely absent, since around 2013. I have no way of reaching out to him, or else this would have been much simpler.

I've been running the forum as the one and only Administrator way before he stopped coming. And now I was trying to install a new Skin from HitSkin and I realized only the Founder can do that. So I would like you to help me transfer the Founder rights to me.

Thanks in advance.

hello

please read this topic...https://help.forumotion.com/t81878-recovery-or-change-founder-of-an-account

skouliki wrote:hello

please read this topic...https://help.forumotion.com/t81878-recovery-or-change-founder-of-an-account

I did read it before creating the post.
But unfortunately, since I registered just today, the Forum won't allow me to contact any of the Staff Members via PM like that post requires me to. Hence why I created this Thread.

Hope you can help me-

you just send me a pm with your original post 
you must provide all the necessary information that the quide is requesting

skouliki wrote:you just send me a pm with your original post 
you must provide all the necessary information that the quide is requesting

Sorry about that.
I just sent you a new PM with all the screen shots.

Thank you.

i received your pm and thank you 
but as i said before we must have all the necessary information
you just provide the founder's profile (statistics)

skouliki wrote:i received your pm and thank you 
but as i said before we must have all the necessary information
you just provide the founder's profile (statistics)

OK I just sent the e-mail address.
Sorry.
I think that's it now though. Please confirm when you can.

please open the forum to guests or send me a test account 
you still not sending me all needed information
read case 2 

Above all, it must meet the following conditions:

• The founder must be absent for at least six months and one day. The last connection should go back to that date. (Any application with an absence of less than six months & one day will not be processed.)
  
• If there are other administrators or moderators you must provide written agreement stating that they accept that you take the status of the founder. (This agreement should be written as a message on the forum by each member concerned, otherwise it will not be valid.) You can use a poll for example or open a topic on the forum.
  

From there, if all the above conditions are met, you must provide:

• The URL forum concerned with the recovery.
  
• Screenshot  Profile of the founder (public profile, visible to all members and if the Advanced Profile is activated, screen printing is desired that the tab "Statistics") showing the last visit of the founder (with the format of the date indicating the year: Profile -> Preferences -> Date Format).
  
• Printing screen list of special users (in the admin panel, tab "User & Groups" then left, "special users")
  
• Printing screen or a link to a story accessible to guests gathering the various written agreements obtained beforehand.
  
• A new Email address never registered on any forum to be able to make the changes for the founder account.
  

skouliki wrote:please open the forum to guests or send me a test account 
you still not sending me all needed information
read case 2 

Above all, it must meet the following conditions:

• The founder must be absent for at least six months and one day. The last connection should go back to that date. (Any application with an absence of less than six months & one day will not be processed.)
  
• If there are other administrators or moderators you must provide written agreement stating that they accept that you take the status of the founder. (This agreement should be written as a message on the forum by each member concerned, otherwise it will not be valid.) You can use a poll for example or open a topic on the forum.
  

From there, if all the above conditions are met, you must provide:

• The URL forum concerned with the recovery.
  
• Screenshot  Profile of the founder (public profile, visible to all members and if the Advanced Profile is activated, screen printing is desired that the tab "Statistics") showing the last visit of the founder (with the format of the date indicating the year: Profile -> Preferences -> Date Format).
  
• Printing screen list of special users (in the admin panel, tab "User & Groups" then left, "special users")
  
• Printing screen or a link to a story accessible to guests gathering the various written agreements obtained beforehand.
  
• A new Email address never registered on any forum to be able to make the changes for the founder account.
  

So,
From what I understand the only thing lacking is a printing screen or a link to a story accessible to guests gathering the various written agreements obtained beforehand.

What's that supposed to mean?.
"Various written agreements"?-

Also, the original founder has been gone for 6 (SIX!) years. None of the active members ever remember there was another Admin besides me. And you also need a written agreement signed by the original founder? I haven't been able to get in touch with him for 6 years!!! He simply moved on or had some kind of problem in his life and disappeared from the planet. Even all of his Social Media channels have been inactive for years.
This is ridiculous, I'm sorry to put it this way. I've done pretty much all I could.

If you still aren't satisfied, I'll delete all the forum sections and posts, and create a new forum on a different platform.

I don't understand.

Regards.

This is the founder's Twitter, for example: https://twitter.com/BMTonyC/

See? Missing since 2017. I tweeted him on several occasions and couldn't get through. He never posted anything.
Not even via e-mail.

Please, we need to use common sense here.

are there any other administrators or moderators?

skouliki wrote:are there any other administrators or moderators?

No! Just me!

i still need this

• Printing screen list of special users (in the admin panel, tab "User & Groups" then left, "special users")
  
  

it is not that i don't believe you ,this is the procedure we must follow, so simple

skouliki wrote:i still need this

• Printing screen list of special users (in the admin panel, tab "User & Groups" then left, "special users")
  
  

it not that i dont believe you this is the procedure we must follow so simple

I think I sent in via PM earlier.
But anyways, here it is:

thank you ( yes it was the last image i suppose but for some reason i could not load it )

in order for your request to be forward to a Pro Admin and proceed, we need also a thread (viewable to us as guests) asking other staff members and members if they agree or disagree with you taking over

until we read that thread, unfortunately, we can't do anything

i can confirm that i have all the other information needed


Note: please do not send the same information to multiple staff members here

skouliki wrote:thank you ( yes it was the last image i suppose but for some reason i could not load it )

in order for your request to be forward to a Pro Admin and proceed, we need also a thread (viewable to us as guests) asking other staff members and members if they agree or disagree with you taking over

until we read that thread, unfortunately, we can't do anything

i can confirm that i have all the other information needed


Note: please do not send the same information to multiple staff members here

OK then, mark this thread as solved.
I'm not interested in creating a thread in my forum, being the only administrator since 2013, asking my only 10 active members if they are OK with something that's clearly the only way to go.
All I wanted out of this was to be able to use Themes from HitSkin, as I can do everything else already having full admin rights.

I will look for another free forum creator and start over, from there.

You people lack common sense. Too much bureaucracy for something so simple.

Thank you for your help up until now.

Iam sorry you feel this way
You must understand that we as volunteers do our best to help you
I can not do anything else if you dont wish to follow the rules/ instructions

Have a nice day

What exactly can you not do when installing a new theme?  Are you not installing it directly from Hitskin?

skouliki wrote:Iam sorry you feel this way
You must understand that we as volunteers do our best to help you
I can not do anything else if you dont wish to follow the rules/ instructions

Have a nice day

I know you are doing your best.
Like I said, it just feels like too much bureaucracy for something that's so clear. Quick timeline:

-The forum was created in 2006 by Carribee-One
-He made me an admin in 2007
-In 2013, the founder stop visiting the forum, although I kept in touch with him because we're both artists (singers) so we kept talking via MSN, Facebook, e-mail. But he just moved on from the Forum.
-From 2007 until this very day the only one that kept the forum going, evolving, etc... was me.
-In 2017 the founder went missing in every other single way. I even suspect something actually happened to him physically. He's not on Instagram, Twitter, e.mail. I tried getting in touch throughout these past 3 years to see how he was doing, through all these channels and he's not around anymore. You can check that yourselves if you want I can give you the Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts and you'll see he simply stopped posting or interacting with the world.

So now we are in 2019. The few members of the forum that remained active through out these years don't even know who the original founder was because he stopped posting and visiting SO long ago.
They only know me and they know I'm the one who's constantly taking care of the forum, trying to update it and stuff.

I provided everything you asked me.
But you still seem to demand something that's just sort of unnecessary. Why would I create a Thread on the forums and ask the members if they are OK removing someone who they don't even know?. They'll ask me who that guy is?. It's like: "Hey kids, would you like to say goodbye to grandpa today, even though he's been dead for the past 8 years and you didn't even get to know him?".

The only reason I wouldn't want to start over with a new forum is because of the legacy. Nostalgia. A forum that's been around since 2006.

SLGray wrote:What exactly can you not do when installing a new theme?  Are you not installing it directly from Hitskin?

Here:
1- https://i.imgur.com/uPsaqsR.png
2- https://i.imgur.com/vGJE4V7.png

Bump

Yes you must be the founder to install a theme on the ACP .

As we have already said you must make a topic on the forum saying you want to take over the forum as the new owner / founder then make it open so we can see it. if your forum is not busy then we can then move on but you must do this or we can not and will not help you.

once that's done then we can ask our head office to make up their minds to change you over to the founder of your forum