Let the reposting of topics formerly discussed, BEGIN!

People are just going to post the same topics over and over now...

Sigh, they already do.

Sorry folks for the big inconvenience, but that's just the way it is - at least for now. Are folks going to post a topic that has already been discussed? You bet they are, but even when the search engine was functioning properly many of our members never bothered to use it. Such is life though and we'll have to live with that for a bit while our resident genius Gene figures out a new design. Thanks one and all for your patience and understanding in this important matter.

Gene & Steve,
Please don't let the complainers get you down. The Café has been a wonderful place for me to discuss magic w/ others. I have "met" folks that I would not have possibly run into any other way. I have learned a lot, shared some of the little that I know, & kidded around with a lot of really terrific magicians willing to share what they know and offer advice. Some of the recommendations given in the forums have helped me tremendously in improving my skills and structuring my act. I have gotten many ideas that would have never occurred to me otherwise.

The Café is THE place to go for help when you are having difficulty with a effect. Mechanical, pacing, patter, routining, you will find it all here. Just recently, someone gave me a page reference in one of the classic magic resource books. Just doing that gave me what I needed to know. Just having that page number saved me untold hours fiddling with the prop just to figure out how to set it up. I still can't believe how much is available here.

With all the Café has given us, at no cost, how can anybody complain about a technical problem now and then? Anyone that uses computers learns that they often do not work as anticipated. (My next novel will be "When Programs Collide”.)

Thank you to everyone that works on making the café a truly magical place. We do appreciate it.


Sincerely,
Bruce J. Langrock, CFP
Magician


P.S. Illegitimi Non Carborundum

I will offer you $10 per year as a volunteer subscription to your service. I pay more than that for my golf magazine and enjoy your site more. Perhaps others may join in, and with the extra revenue additional expansions can be made to the features of your site, such as the search engine technology. And Gene won't work for free. You may offer me a contribution option anytime. (Ladies and Gentlemen, if you enjoyed the show please Pass the Hat among yourselves!)

Best Wishes,
Dave

Meantime you can seach as following:

At Yahoo Web Page, you select "Advanced" search Option located at the top right side.

Check the "Only search in this domain/site" option, and in the box you type: http://www.themagiccafe.com

Then into "any of the words" box you write what you are looking for.
Or for more specific search use "all of this words" box.

Finally click "Yahoo Search" option at right corner of the screen.

Guest help you

Ditto:

"Thank you to everyone who works on making the café a truly magical place. We do appreciate it."

And, "Patience is a virtue."

And and, "Virtue is an example or kind of moral excellence."

Good luck, Gene. Take your time, do it right. Your efforts here are appreciated.

Thanks guys. And don't worry, I'm not "down" about anything, it's just something else to deal with, that's all. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Many people here do not know who I am, or even what I contribute here, because I don't post about magic in the various rooms. There's a reason for that: I don't *know* anything about magic! I've read many times that the Café is important to people because of its wealth of information and being able to contact people that would otherwise be difficult to do, not to mention many more reasons that I can't think of at the moment. At the same time, the Café is important to me too, but for different reasons.

I've been here from the beginning and have watched the Café blossom into what it is. Most of the credit belongs to Steve because of his vision and his ability to bring his dream into reality. For me, while I can claim part of the credit, more important for me is how much the Café has taught me as a programmer. I wouldn't be able to do many of the things I can do today if it weren't for the Café. Some of it still surprises me. (Where else could I find such a proving-ground as the Café?) The search engine is one of those things, even though it is currently offline. I know the codes are pretty solid, it's just a fact that the mass of data here is too much for a single-processor server to handle. Unfortunately, that's where we're at.

The Great Dave was wrong in his assumption that I won't work for free. The fact is, I do. Right here. This is, and will always remain, a free site, and as such, I don't make any money from it. What I pay I write off on my hosting business taxes. It's because of that that I feel I'm just as much a contributor to this site as anybody else.

Gene, you rock, brother!

Got no doubt that you'll get 'er taken care
of and the new version will be worth the wait.
I think part of the problem for us is that we
have been spoiled by what The Café offers us.
A lot of us are used to being able to hop on
here and find exactly what we're looking for
fairly quickly and go from there.
As mentioned by others above, we greatly appreciate
what you contribute to The Café!!

Any thing worth having...

take care, bud.

Lee

Is there a need to add a second server? If so, then perhaps voluntary contributions as mentioned above should be considered. Please let us know! I second all the grateful things said about this great site!
kerpa a/k/a Michael Miller
Chicago area

I'd pay a monthly fee for this site. It has been worth more to me than any other website, ever. You could certainly take donations to cover server costs. Totally anonymously, or just designate users as "sponsors" if recognition is desired to be given. Still keep it a free site, but don't be shy that contributions would help.

I appreciate the thought, and I'm sure Steve does too, but he is adamant that the Café remains a free service, and I agree with him. To answer kerpa, yes, we need a more powerful server to handle the load. Donations are all fine and well, the problem is that donations can't be relied upon. Somebody has to have the money to pay for the server if donations aren't there, and frankly, nobody directly connected to the Café has that kind of money. Don't worry, though. We'll figure out something. We always do!

How much cash do you need for the second server?

Best Wishes,
Dave

Replacement server, actually. What I'm looking at is $400/month, a little more than double what I'm paying now. Ouch! With that much money I could buy my favorite car - new!

There are a lot of paying advertisers on here. Where is that money going? I'm SURE that would easily cover any server costs?

Gary

Most advertisements here are for trade, such as ads in magazines and things like that. Those aren't actual money-makers, they're meant to help the Café grow even more.

Gary,
Appearances can be very deceiving. First, we will deal with the search engine, so that's not really an issue, just a small inconvenience for all of us.
Concerning the advertisers, many of the banners are trade outs or favors to our friends, so any thoughts that we are rolling in piles of cash need to be eliminated right now.

In the meantime, Gene has placed a temporary search solution for the Café and that will have to suffice until we decide the best way to approach the problem.
Rest assured we will find a solution - we always do. Problems like these are part of the Café becoming so large and are nothing more than growing pains. That said, I suggest everyone go back to enjoying the forums and know that we will find an appropriate solution. Thank you.