Into the Forums

Forum regular tatuaje posted a thread asking people to name their top-10 favorite movies. The resulting lists, however, have led to a fair share of confused head scratching, particularly when films like Joe Versus the Volcano and Return of the Jedi surface. Along the same lines is this thread, which asks you to post your classic and vintage wish list for the enjoyment and criticism of the MX forum crew.

Local “people powered radio” station WPVM recently announced a rather controversial move to “scale back” volunteer capacity, prompting a forum discussion on the subject. Some of the forum crew see this as being effectively the end of the WPVM Asheville has come to know over the past few years.

For those of you who simply can’t get enough of the “Real WNC Local” Betty Cloer Wallace, check out this thread, which starts out as something of a joke, then turns quite serious when BCW herself makes an appearance on page two!

As many of you may know, the most heated discussions on the Mountain Xpress forums tend to be those about national topics, and they tend to break down along politically partisan lines. As a result, the hyperbole in the thread titles has been creeping into tabloid territory of recent, and has become increasingly absurd. So, just for fun, I present three of the most active discussion threads: North Korea Pounds Obama’s Disarmament Mentality, Obama POUNDS Supreme Court Nomination and Obama Nation About to be Shafted (again)?

Other interesting threads from this week include: being let down by ASCII art; a discussion of things that are “manly”; opinions on smoking in bars in Asheville; and some thoughts on upping the punishment for owners of uncontrolled aggressive dogs.

Don’t see a discussion about that burning topic you’d like to talk about? Why not start your own? All registered members of MountainX.com have forum accounts, and if you aren’t a member, joining is easy — just click here.

Steve Shanafelt, forums administrator

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

10 thoughts on “Into the Forums

  1. bobaloo

    Keep it in the forums trav. We wouldn’t want our banality bubbling over to the blog.

  2. travelah

    Yeah you are right …. I just though he was being cute with …. As a result, the hyperbole in the thread titles has been creeping into tabloid territory of recent, and has become increasingly absurd.

  3. That was supposed to be directed as much at me as you. I mean, the last one I wrote was “Cheney SUPLEXES Bush over Obama silence,” which is about as hyperbole-laden as they come. I’ve still got all kinds of over-the-top phrases just waiting for a topic.

  4. Piffy!

    I’m waiting for Cheney or Limbaugh to [b]Drill[/b], or perhaps [b]Penetrate[/b] Obama, somehow. Maybe [b]Manhandle[/b].

  5. Piffy!

    [b]For those of you who simply can’t get enough of the “Real WNC Local” Betty Cloer Wallace, check out this thread, which starts out as something of a joke, then turns quite serious when BCW herself makes an appearance on page two! [/b]

    So misunderstood…I was serious business from the start.

    I love reading betty’s wonderful posts about mountain dialect!

  6. John Smolkin

    Well, I liked the thread featuring Betty. If the forum can just keep good threads like this coming, I just may start posting there myself.

  7. DemnQuamReula

    Hello All,

    We are offering the following soft switches+server to rent.

    Dell Server
    CPU: 2x Xeon 2.8GHz
    RAM: 2GB PCC
    HDD: 320GB 7200RPM SATA
    Gigabit Ethernet port
    1200GB Premium Bandwidth

    WE MAINTAIN OUR OWN DATACENTER SPACE AND NOT DEPENDING ON OTHER HOSTING PROVIDER
    (pictures & link available)

    ALL SERVERS BEHIND FIREWALL, SECURED FROM HACKERS

    BUILT AS A TELECOM FACILITY

    24/7 FULL SUPPORT AVAILABLE

    UNLIMITED REBOOTS

    100% CONTROL OF YOUR OWN SWITCH

    INDEPENDENT FROM YOUR RENT SWITCH PROVIDER

    PREMIUM TIER1 BANDWIDTH

    Details on Voipswitch

    Retail :

    • PC to phone and PC to PC – using our own sip based softphone with embedded voip tunnel client which allows for communication (both receiving and making calls) from behind voip blockades/firewalls, for example from UAE or other countries where voip ports are closed;

    • device to phone i.e. making and receiving calls from SIP or h323 terminals (bidirectional NAT support), full compatibility with all popular brands of soho gateways and IP phones, support for 5 class services, voicemail, waiting message indicator feature, actual balance information on phone’s display and more.

    • DIDs/Virtual phone numbers services – assigning phone numbers from various geographical regions to SIP or h323 devices or softphones. Customers can pick up a phone number directly from the web interface with immediate delivery. The system can work with leading DIDs provider thru their API or/and using own DIDs numbers stored in the local database.

    • Class 5 services – call waiting, call forwarding, follow me – possibility to set forwarding rules conditioned on various events like busy, no answer, not logged with different forwarding destinations/phone numbers (possibility to set multiple numbers with different priorities), hold, hold with conversation

    • Voicemail – checking voice messages by calling predefined voicemail number from softphone or SIP/h323 device or from PSTN thru the IVR system (calling cards) or using the callback service. Detailed information about left messages on the web interface. Possibility to record own welcome prompt. Email notification about new voice messages

    • Callback services – triggered by SMS, Web or a missed call. Works with DIDs as an access numbers. Authentication by callerID (ANI) or PIN. Also supported DID callback with unique DID associated with each customer and his/her phone number. Manageable thru the web interface, possibility to add multiple ANIs per user. Multilingual Interactive Voice Response system (IVR). More on the callback and its variants here

    • Calling cards – phone to phone services in which a customer dials an access number first, then he or she is asked about PIN (or authenticated by callerID/ANI) and then prompted for a destination phone number. The system comes with own IP based IVR system that supports several languages (possibility to add new), balance announcement, max duration for the call announcement, also it allows to recharge account by PIN and register actual ANI during the call and more. There are several scenarios which can be associated with particular access numbers. Moreover new scenarios can be added or the existing ones be modified by softswitch’s administrator as they are programmed in xml format. More on the IP IVR can be found here

    • CallShops – by callshop is understood a place like internet café or a shop where are cabins/booths with IP phones from which customers can make calls and then pay for them at a cash desk. The callshop is a windows based application which shows all the cabins and the calls that are taking place. When a customer has finished, the cashier can see the made calls with their details and costs and can charge the customer. The application also allows to print bills. The advantage of this solution is that the callshop application does not require any special hardware as the calls are not sent thru it, instead they go directly to SoftSwitch (thru the internet connection) and the callshop program exchanges with SoftSwitch only little data needed for billing purposes. Also as the clients can be used softphones installed on PCs or FXS gateways with analogue phones connected, not necessarily IP phones.

    Wholesale services:

    • Wholesale termination – bulk voice traffic termination, in this scenario Sofswitch acts as the traffic controller which on one side collects calls from clients gateways or other equipment, authenticate them, and then depending on the routing tables send the traffic further to termination gateways/gatekeepers. The whole traffic is billed and controlled in real time, the billing supports both prepaid and post-paid accounts types. Also the media (voice) flow can be set per destination and be sent in full proxy mode where all packets are going through the switch or in the modes where only signalization is sent through the system while the media goes directly between endpoints. The system allows to hide the source and the destination what is often important especially if you work as a broker buying and selling traffic from various parties. Additionally the system offers high flexibility in modifying calls setup, called numbers, enables you to manipulate prefixes, caller IDs and all other significant data before sending calls to the destination. There is also a web interface both for clients and terminators with CDRs (which can be exported to file) and other reports. More on the softswitch’s functionality here.

    For more information contact

    Email: buyownswitch@gmail.com
    msn: buyownswitch@live.com

    WE ACCEPT PAYPAL, BANKWIRE, MONEYGRAM, WESTERN UNION, VISA, MASTERCARD, DEBIT CARD

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.