The announcement

[Gimgimno]

Here it is, for you RSS feed readers around here:

Dear readers,

Some of you are aware that the Board has had many homes over the past 15 years. Throughout our existence, we've been displaced every few years as policies change and departments realign around campus. Up until now, we've been successful in finding new places to move because we have been fortunate to find generous and hospitable faculty and staff who have seen value in the unique service that we provide to BYU students.

With the restructuring of the Daily Universe, we once again find ourselves being displaced, only this time we are having significant trouble finding a new home that is able and willing to fulfill our technical needs. We have met with several department chairpersons and administrators as we've worked to find solutions, and although they recognize and appreciate the service we provide to the BYU student population, we have not yet found a place to rest our heads.

We will only able to continue running our servers until the end of February, at which point we will likely enter hibernation mode until a future day that we find a new home and we can get things running again. At this point, we would like mobilize you, dear readers, to help us find a new home. If you are in a position or are on good terms with people in position to sponsor us as a campus organization, please contact us at editor@theboard.byu.edu so we can open those lines of communication. We are willing to meet with and communicate with anyone who has questions for us.

We appreciate all of your support. It is probably becoming clear now why we have been running behind with questions. We apologize for that. Please contact us if you are in a position to help and have any questions, and have a wonderful February.

—The Editors, Writers, Administrators, and Proofreaders of the 100 Hour Board

[Indefinite Integral]

Gah! I wish there were something I could do, but I have absolutely no connections with BYU anymore. Can't we find some way to save the board?

[TheAnswerIs42]

Ahhh! That is very bad. I didn't realize that the Board required so much maitenance that they would get turned down. Good luck! I wish I knew of a way to help, but I hardly have any BYU contacts anymore.

[Marduk]

Out of curiosity, what is it exactly that the board needs beyond server space?

[Yellow]

The board needs someplace to run a virtual server, and department willing to request that http://theboard.byu.edu point to that server. We need to have root access on that virtual server.

That's it.

[Yellow]

It should be noted that we're not being turned down because of requiring so much maintenance. Honestly, once we get up and running, our sponsors generally don't have to do anything. The main problem we've had is that departments are wary of having liability for something that we say.

[Gimgimno]

"How can we be sure that Gimgomnimo never says 'butthead' ever again? I'll tell you: we can't be. Good luck finding a new place, losers."

That's been the general reception so far.

(This is entirely false.)

[Yarjka]

Does linguistics not want you back?

I thought The Daily Universe was still operating an online paper, is this not true? If so, then BYU NewsNet certainly still exists in some form, I would assume, with BYUTV and the like. Have they specifically denied you a place in the new arrangement of things?

These may be very naive questions... I'm very much out of the BYU loop. Just trying to help as much as I can. My only contacts are in the Food Science and Slavic departments, and I'm not sure how much help they can be.

[Imogen]

Is there any way y'all can go independent?

[Whistler]

I am willing to donate ten dollars a year to help with your server costs, if it comes to that.

[Imogen]

i'd be willing to donate something if you had to go rogue.

[NerdGirl]

Yeah, what about going independent? I will give you money to help make it happen. I will not be ok if the board disappears.

[Katya]

Does linguistics not want you back?

Linguistics was never a particularly logical fit--we just had good contacts there at the time. The problem with departmental sponsorship is that the Board tends to talk about a lot of controversial stuff with regard to Mormon culture and history, and departments are reluctant to take on that kind of liability. The reason the Board left BYUSA in the first place was because someone complained to someone high up in the administration about what we were doing and and BYUSA got in trouble for it. So anyone who takes the Board on has to be prepared to deal with that sort of situation.

[Katya]

Yeah, what about going independent? I will give you money to help make it happen. I will not be ok if the board disappears.

At the time of the BYUSA incident, we had a number of meetings about what to do and our consensus at the time was that the Board would lose a lot of what makes it special if it went independent. (Not that non-BYU students couldn't be awesome Board writers, but, in the absence of having to keep to general BYU standards, the Board could easily devolve into just another group blog.)

[Yellow]

Guys, it's awesome to have supportive fans. I just wanted to say thanks. As you can imagine, this has been a stressful time. It's nice to know that people really want us around, to the extent of being willing to support us financially. Hopefully, that won't be necessary. But it's nice to know.

[Fredjikrang]

Oddly, I wore my Board T-shirt today, with no thought about it. And now this.

I, sadly, don't know anyone that would be very interested in taking you on. I have a fair number of contacts at BYU, but none that would be at all pertinent to the Board.

Any chance that you could work together with BYU Info?

We could start a "Save the 100 Hour Board!" campaign with posters and flyers. That tends to make people more willing to work with "difficult" programs. And maybe the DU would cover it. Which would be kind of embarrassing for them. ;D

[Marduk]

Katya, Bob and I were talking about the possibility of going independent over lunch today, and I just have to wonder, why would any of the "specialness" go away? They can still set whatever standards they choose to. The biggest loss I see would be losing the ".byu.edu" domain name.

[Dragon Lady]

My biggest fear of The Board going independent is no longer having the BYU standards to live by, and the "threat" of being shut down to keep writers in line. There have definitely been times where I was worried for the quality of the Board were we to go independent. (And the thought has come up before.) There's just a lot to be said about the tone of the Board under BYU. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for someone to have pity on us and take us in.

Marduk, sure, we can set whatever standards we want if we go independent, but the Board is very fluid. And in 5 years when we're on our 10th generation of writers/editors, can we guarantee that they'll feel the same way about standards that we do now? Having never been part of BYU, will they care about BYU standards?

[bobtheenchantedone]

I can understand that going independent is a scary thought for many reasons. I deal with some of the same thoughts when I consider my eventual move from Etsy to my own site. There are a lot of things about Etsy that are very good for us and our brand. But does that mean that Etsy will always be good to us? Does that mean that the restrictions that keep us in line now are always things we want to comply with? Will Etsy become something that keeps us down in some way? I don't know the answers to these yet, but then again, I've never been confronted with the need to make a decision. And I'm terrified of needing to make that choice.

That said, I'm sure there are many good things that can come from the Board going independent, and really, finding another BYU home for it is probably delaying the inevitable. Not that you shouldn't try to stay with BYU. Obviously that choice is still up to all of those who are involved with it now. I think everyone will be happy with any choice that continues to have the Board be available to anyone who has a question.

The only other thing I have to say is that that Board has the possibility of a vibrant community if only you weren't so afraid of it. Properly mobilized, members could flood this board, or a facebook group, or something else of the sort, and really band together. As long as y'all can figure out marketing, you'll never hurt for server money or readers. That hasn't been an issue before because you don't need the money and you were often having trouble dealing with the questions as it was. But if you do end up seriously considering going independent, make sure you start giving thought to marketing.

[mic0]

I think part of the reason the Board has had a hard time ever having more publicity is the simple fact that we are always moving from one place to the next. If we had a more permanent place it would probably be easier to actually make the effort to expand/get the word out there.