The BEST Guide to POLAND
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Posts by Admin  

Joined: 31 Oct 2005 / Male ♂
Last Post: 14 May 2025
Threads: Total: 25 / Live: 4 / Archived: 21
Posts: Total: 416 / Live: 27 / Archived: 389
From: Virtual Poland
Speaks Polish?: Jes :)
Interests: PF Forum administrating

Displayed posts: 31 / page 1 of 2
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Admin Administrator  
14 May 2025
Feedback / "Ignore" option for certain posters [69]

To make our platform more user-friendly, we've moved the "Ignored Posters" feature to the main page. This change makes it easier for everyone, including those not logged in, to quickly ignore users who engage in personal attacks or use profane language. In addition, we made it work with the Checker.
Admin Administrator  
7 May 2025
Feedback / "Ignore" option for certain posters [69]

The ignore feature was improved - now even the quotes from an ignored user should be hidden. To update the script, try to reload the page from cache (hit F5 or CTRL+F5 button on a discussion page, eg. this page).
Update: this change was reverted as it's more useful to read a quote (but without a username attribution).

Admin Administrator  
25 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Bot traffic. Bots and web crawlers

A decade ago, stats included both both and non-bot traffic. Today, they can differentiate between viewed (human) vs non-viewed (bot) traffic [attached]. Bot traffic doesn't really add to the hosting cost since the pages are minimized before loading and bots don't even load full pages.


  • viewedtraffic.jpg
Admin Administrator  
25 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Each automatic upgrade to the newest version refers to the main software only. That means, no addons (no avatars, signatures, ratings etc) are included because they are installed / managed separately and are not considered to be the part of the core software. Each main software upgrade can and often does break addons which need to be separately updated (if updates are available) or custimized. In result, to run such software trouble-free would be best not to include any addons. It would make no difference between PF and Xenforo then.
Admin Administrator  
25 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

PF can be operated in a new format with modern hosting and software for about $40 US per month.

From xenforo pricing page: xenforo.com/purchase/. I don't know how they calculate page views, but PF had more than 1M page views last month (these are not visitors, but page views). So it would require the Business package at $250 a month.
Admin Administrator  
25 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Again, what's the worst that could happen?

Why did the ATP fail on a "modern" software? It had everything you wanted, so what was the problem?
Admin Administrator  
25 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

My point is.. when you visited google.com in 2000, it's almost the same now as a quarter of century ago. Even Facebook and other social media have been removing the Likes and other buttons. At the end of the day, the content and people who post are what matters. More features mean more trouble and more clutter. We've tried that in the past. Why doesn't Xenforo have these features installed on their own website - probably for the reasons I mentioned above.
Admin Administrator  
25 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Can people who post that PF runs on "outdated" software specify what they mean? Let's compare Xenforo's random page to PF's random page and see what Google says:

Xenforo: https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-xenforo-com-community-threads-xenforo-2-3-6-released-229139/is0xdwoi8i?form_factor=mobile

PF: https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-polishforums-com-classifieds-poland-jobs-available-88565/ltxx36pt25?form_factor=mobile

Where does PF fail to meet your standards?
Admin Administrator  
24 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

a little monthly obolus for special rights here?

To implement that would require a lot of programming and if only a handful of people would sign up, it may not be worthwhile. However, a more general model like "PF will be fully up and running if we can raise $X per month" could work and wouldn't require additional costs or features. In a month when we cannot raise $X, only the unmoderated Random Chat would be open.
Admin Administrator  
24 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

I don't much like sites with adverts, however does a small banner ad bring much money in?

It may, but banners run through advertising networks like Google can now easily be blocked. Back 10-20 years ago, it worked well on many sites. But once the corporations took over, they essentially killed this model because they make money on tracking users and training their AI through mouse and eye-ball movements, not on clicking ads. Still, a private advertising could work (with corporate advertising networks you only get about 25%, the rest goes to the corporation that runs it).
Admin Administrator  
24 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Anyways, this forums seems way more expensive to run than ATP was.

ATP was a simple shared hosting. This site uses more customization and resources (the traffic is probably 95% higher than ATP), so it requires at least a VPS hosting with some minimum dedicated resources.

and what about your work load?

There's always a minimum amount of work and it's not going to change for less (cheap or expensive hosting doesn't moderate / administrate the site); having one dog requires about the same amount of work as having 3 dogs.
Admin Administrator  
24 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Honestly 2400,- every year is not "coffee money"! Maybe 20,- a month is more like it....:)

It reflects the previous (more expensive) dedicated hosting. The new one (a VPS or cloud) will be less; will update the annual amount in a couple of months. 2400 included both hosting and coffee money. A site won't run itself without human involvement.
Admin Administrator  
24 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Okay....I guess we have to accept that the donation-model won't work with PF

There are limited options. We can put the forum up for sale and turn it into something that most users won't like it, but it's a possibility if we cannot get the coffee money in exchange for running the site. I see myself as a host, a parking lot security guard, who only expects a coffee cup in exchange for watching the lot. If people here think it's too much and anything other than free is not an option, I guess I should join them. But if there are people who value freedom of speech (there are as the donations have already showed) that cannot be allowed in other social media platforms, it may be worthwhile.
Admin Administrator  
24 Feb 2025
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

The goal is to keep it running as is. In a couple of months, we'll change a hosting service to save money on it (the previous one had a 3-year dedicated hosting term deal which was not possible to cancel). As an admin, I'm ready to go on, but if I cannot get coffee money (I don't like beer anyway), there may be a point that I call it quits since running a forum is a daily responsibility; even so, the forum should stay online, but with limited functionality.
Admin Administrator  
2 Nov 2024
Feedback / Who deserves to inherit Polish Forums? [344]

Favorite Topics

We've just implemented a new forum feature - Favorite Topics. Now all users (including unlogged) may bookmark their favorite topics. To do that, visit a discussion page and click on the FAVORITE [ ] checkbox in the bottom/right corner of the page. If the checkbox is set, the discussion will appear on top of the main page. To remove a topic, unset the checkbox.

NOTES

- The feature solely relies on web browser, so your Favorites won't appear if you use the site on different browsers,

- When a topic is removed or archived, it should be automatically removed from your Favorites,

- The links are updated whenever you visit your favorite topic. The script marks the newest post on the visited page as "read," meaning that when new messages are added in the future, the last message on this page will be your reference point. When a link is underlined, it indicates that new post/s haven't been read yet.

- Currently there are some numbers in front of the favorite topics - these are the reference message IDs for information purposes.

Admin Administrator  
21 Oct 2024
Feedback / Disappearing photos [6]

Admin had to spend a few hours to remove these non-existing images because the image hosting site (postimg.cc) doesn't exist any more. They redirect to a new site, but they have never bothered to make the old images to work (some new ones as you noted may still work, eg. i.postimg.cc/g2BqwHfx/5.jpg and they were left). There was no choice but to remove the broken links.
Admin Administrator  
15 Jun 2016
Feedback / Member warning system to prevent abuse / spam / off-topic posts [145]

We created the warning system to give all users equal chance and 'benefit of the doubt'; we understand there are times of provocation or 'bad day.' The majority of other sites don't use a warning system at all (it's easier to manage that), BUT they ban offenders right away. If the warnings are something undesirable, we can ban offenders right away.
Admin Administrator  
27 Feb 2016
Feedback / Member warning system to prevent abuse / spam / off-topic posts [145]

It's totally normal that some thread discussion go in an other direction. It's called human.

It's called 'moderating' to make sure discussions don't go in another direction. It's been discussed here many times and most of us agreed we should stick to the topic. This is the only way to keep logics in and chaos out.
Admin Administrator  
20 Jan 2016
Feedback / Is it Polish forum or foreign forum? [159]

67% of all PF moderators (Admin, Arts) have been born, raised, and educated (up to a graduate degree) in Poland. The remaining 33% (Vincent) is British. 126 posts based on misunderstanding / misinterpretation / confusion / lack of comprehension, you name it.
Admin Administrator  
24 Jan 2015
Feedback / Member warning system to prevent abuse / spam / off-topic posts [145]

We have a new 'Warning' system - now each member may receive a warning before they get suspended. The current warning codes are as follows:

A - Abuse
S - Spam
O - Off-topic / meaningless posts
T - Trolling
Q - Excessive quoting

Only the warned members can see their own warnings and history of their own warnings. Warned members may be suspended without further notice. There is no explanation what the warning was exactly for (the posters should know what they were warned for; if they don't know they should read the Rules first _).
Admin Administrator  
7 Nov 2012
Polonia / Protect Andrei Poczobut (a journalist) against prosecution by the Belarusian dictatorship [49]

PolishForums.com was asked to post this important announcement in the name of The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). Here it is:

---------------------

Dear friends,

My name is Uladzimir Hutkouski (Vladimir Gutkovskiy).
As a member of Belarusian Association of Journalists and American PEN I plea you to protect our colleague Andrei Poczobut against prosecution by the Belarusian dictatorship.

Vladimir Gutkovskiy, bigopenworldmagazine@yahoo


---------------------

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) calls on сivil and public association o the USA, international organizations, writers and human rights organizations to expre3ss solidarity with the Belarusian journalist Andrei Poczobut who is being charged with libel against the president Alexaqnder Lukashenka.

According to independent express assessment, Poczobut's aricles under consideration do not contain libel, but only criticize the policy of the Belarusian authorities.

On October 21, 2012 the criminal case against the Hrodna-based journalist Andrei Poczobut migtht be sent to court.

The correspondent of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, BAJ member Andrei Poczobut is being charged with violation under article 367, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Belarus "Libel against the President of the Republic of Belarus". The case was started by the Investigative Committee of Hrodna region in June 2012, based on a number of the journalist's publications online.

On June 21 the journalist's apartment was searched and his professional equipment was confiscated. The journalist spend a week in Hrodna detention center, up till June 30, and then was set free under recognizance not to leave the country.

The Belarusian Criminal Code provides for freedom restriction/imprisonment up to five years for such violation.

This term might be added up to the previous conviction that Andrei Poczobut got on July 5, 2011: the journalist was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years' deferment under article 367, part 1 (libel against the president). The law stipulates that the journalist will surely serve the sentence if he breaks the law within the two years.

The public association "Belarusian Association of Journalists" empowers its member, who is also member of the American PEN-center, Uladzimir Hutkouski to report this information to interested people and organizations in the USA, international structures.

We ask you to express your attitude to the criminal prosecution of the journalist and demand from official Minsk to dismiss the criminal charges against the journalist Andrei Poczobut.

We will be extremely grateful for your solidarity with our colleague and with all people of Belarus whose freedom of expression is being more and more restricted by the authorities.

Best regards,

chair of BAJ Zhanna Litvina
Admin Administrator  
16 Apr 2010
Feedback / Why are threads deleted or send off topic list? [60]

Answer:

Because you don't care to think before posting. For example, you posted this thread in "Everyday Life" and that means you don't care about the answer (if you did, you'd have posted it in the FAQ and Help section).

This is not off topic as it is the latest thing happening and affection many peoples travelling plans. Who decides the deletion or movement of threads to another categories?

In your post you never mentioned anything about Poland being in any way affected (and Europe doesn't always = Poland).
Admin Administrator  
8 Feb 2006
Language / Polish Swear Words [1242]

You may check a commercial site providing voice-over and recording services into Polish at Speak Polish
speak-polish.com
Admin Administrator  
8 Aug 2006
Law / Hiring a Polish Worker - Pros and Cons [107]

"wat does the administator mean by poles prefering a foreign boss over a polish one?"

Administrator didn't mean anything; he only posted the article written by "Ted" :).
Admin Administrator  
10 Jan 2006
Law / Hiring a Polish Worker - Pros and Cons [107]

The world has suddenly become very small. Fifty years ago or so, hardly a few Poles were ever allowed to go abroad. The "iron curtain" remained perfectly closed and a couple of generations of Poles have never been able to set their foot outside the country.

The times have changed. A steady flow of Polish hopefuls on their way to the West are looking for a job and an income that is higher than what they are being offered in their homeland. Add to that that the unemployment in Poland is soaring and reaching now 20% of the population and you get a predictable equation. The Poles are going West.

But, and there is always a but. Although formally the borders are open, in reality all of the EU countries, except Great Britain, do no accept foreign work seekers. Many try the US, which is another viable option, but it is not easy. The land of the free does not want free immigration of labor. They have enough problems as Is with the illegal migrants coming to the US searching for gold.

But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that you are an employer, be it in the UK or the US. There is a knock on your door. A man comes in talking to you in broken English. He or she is looking for a job. He explains that he is Polish. You ponder: Hiring a Polish worker, hmmm? What are the pros and cons?

The Pros

Although the Poles speak a language that sounds strange and funny in the ears of the Westerner, they are real Europeans. Poland, being situated in the Eastern Europe, but next to Germany, is in fact the most westernized country in the East. The country has had a queen from Italy, a king from Sweden, and France, been under German and Austrian rule, and has been catholic for a thousand years. Latin and later French had been the languages of choice of the Polish nobles, and the most famous Polish composer, Chopin, was actually French. What it means is that if you talk to a Pole or socialize with one you should not have a difficulty to understand their way of thinking. Basically the Poles adhere to the same basic values that are understood and respected in the West. Come on time to work, respect the boss, do what you are told - within a reason. Do a good job, try do climb the ladder.

Hey, Poles are not much different than the rest of us. Add to that, most Poles have a pretty good basic education and are willing to adjust to the life in the West and you'll get a hard to beat combination. True, they are not world champions when it comes to mastering English, but they are willing, and that counts.

After a while, you will have an employee, who not only has adjusted well, but who will be able, on most occasions, to understand what you are driving at. Add a few months and he will talk (and swear) like a native.

The Cons

The Poles have been too long under the rules of the Soviet Union and the working morale might need some improvement. The Poles are also very observant and inventive, thus, you need to have some control over what is going on. Given an opportunity, your new driver might take his whole family on a weekend trip in your limousine.

But these are just minor things and, as a boss, it is your duty to supervise your men, Poles or not. Remember, the Pole will do the job. The Poles know how to work hard and I have always been surprised that their hard work, taking into account the situation of the average Pole, does not pay better off.

In addition, I think Polish people prefer to have a foreign boss; it seems they respect him/her more than they would respect their "Polish boss".

And remember in these uncertain times you know where you have the Poles. A Pole you can rely on, after all we are on the same side.

-------

Contributed by Ted