System Announcements - Archives

Congratulations to user <B>Betsy</B> for winning the pair of lift tickets to <A HREF="http://www.attitash.com/">Attitash Bear Peak</A>, New Hampshire!
 
Congratulations to user <B>Mike Naughton</B> for winning the free lift tickets to <A HREF="http://www.skikimberley.com/">Kimberley Alpine Resort</A>, British Columbia!
 
<CENTER><FONT SIZE="+1"><B><FONT COLOR="ff0000">REGISTER AT OUR DISCUSSION BOARDS AND ENJOY ENHANCED FEATURES</FONT></B></FONT></CENTER> <BR> <BR>Do you ever wish that you could receive our No-Bull Ski Reports in your email as soon as they're posted? Well, you can! <BR> <BR>Registered users may opt to receive email copies of new messages posted to the boards. You may choose to receive email notices of posts to our No-Bull Ski Reports, Liftlines BBS, or System Announcements ... or all three! Best of all, registration is of course without charge, and you may be assured that we will never, ever sell or provide your email address to anyone. <BR> <BR>Just think: no more having to remember to check for new messages, no more logging on only to find that there are no new messages since your last visit, and no more discovering that pertinent No-Bull Ski Report only when it's too late! <BR> <BR>Even more benefits are available by registering as a user: <BR> <BR><UL><LI>Ability to specify your full name and e-mail address to be included on your post <LI>Ability to check for new messages posted only since your last visit <LI>Ability to enable e-mail notification of all posts to topics you select <LI>Ability to change your own password <LI>Ability to change any of your settings at will</LI></UL> <BR>To get a user account, e-mail one of the moderators listed on the <A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/cgi/board-contact.cgi">Contact page</A> and request a user account. Be sure to include your e-mail address, full name, and desired username. Once you are supplied with a username and password, select <A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/cgi/board-profile.cgi">Edit Profile</A> in the blue menu bar at left, change your password to your own private choice, and set your preferences. <BR> <BR>Be sure to take advantage of this enhancement!
 
<CENTER><FONT COLOR="ff0000"><B>First Tracks!! Online and No-Bull Ski Report Logo Merchandise Now Available!</B></FONT></CENTER> <BR> <BR>We're proud to announce the debut of our <A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/companystoreframeset.htm" TARGET="_blank"><FONT FACE="Comic Sans MS">First Tracks!! Online Company Store</FONT></A>! There you'll find t-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps, mugs, mouse pads, and even boxer shorts and more ... all adorned with our First Tracks!! Online and/or No-Bull Ski Reports logos! Watch for new items coming soon.
 
Ae you a No-Bull Ski Reports fan? Show it! <BR> <BR>You've asked, and we've delivered. In addition to our previous assortment of T-shirts, coffee mugs and mouse pads in the <A HREF="http://www.FirstTracksOnline.com/companystoreframeset.htm" TARGET="_blank">First Tracks!! Online Company Store</A>, we now have stickers, as well as hooded sweatshirts, backpacks, and even ski hats and fleece pullovers and vests! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/1/1700.jpg" ALT="Our No-Bull rectangular sticker"> <BR> <BR>Our stickers come in four flavors: rectangular or oval shapes, and in the No-Bull Logo or our traditional logo designs. Stick 'em on your helmet, stick 'em on your bumper, stick 'em on your roof-top box. Orders for stickers only are always shipped via First Class mail at a rate of 60¢ for the first sticker, and 10¢ for each additional sticker. Like all items in the <A HREF="http://www.FirstTracksOnline.com/companystoreframeset.htm" TARGET="_blank">First Tracks!! Online Company Store</A>, they come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
 
<CENTER><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/1/1769.gif" ALT="Click here for more info about the First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day at Burke Mountain!"></A></CENTER> <BR> <BR>We're happy to announce the <B><FONT COLOR="ff0000">First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day</FONT></B>, scheduled for Sunday, January 12 at Burke Mountain, Vermont. Ski, Ride, and Party with your fellow First Tracks!! Online readers for less than $20! <BR> <BR>Print a coupon from First Tracks!! Online, and get a half-price lift ticket for only $19.50. Sample gourmet and specialty coffee from <A HREF="http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com" TARGET="_blank">Green Mountain Coffee Roasters</A>, then kick back with an ale from <A HREF="http://www.ottercreekbrewing.com" TARGET="_blank">Otter Creek Brewing</A> in the resort's Bear's Den Lounge après-ski for a blowout party, featuring exciting prizes and giveaways from event sponsors Green Mountain Coffee, Otter Creek Brewing Company, and <A HREF="http://www.baileysandburke.com" TARGET="_blank">Bailey's & Burke</A>. <BR> <BR>How else can you ski and party for less than $20? Burke is a straight three-hour shot along Interstate highways from both Boston, MA and Hartford, CT, and just over 2 hours from Montréal. Don't miss this chance to share great snow with great people, and finally put a face to that email address! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank">Click here for more information</A>!
 
Today we will begin the tedious process of combining the No-Bull Ski Reports and Liftlines BBS discussion boards. We appreciate your patience as we work our way through this, and hope that the process will be completed sometime tonight. <BR> <BR>Following the combination, No-Bull Ski Reports will be included within the Lift Corral section of Liftlines. We only ask two things: <BR> <BR>1. For a conditions report, continue with the "Name of Ski Area, State or region, and Date" format for the subject line. <BR> <BR>2. Should a conversation drift off-topic, start a new conversation thread with a more appropriate subject title. If you're concerned about folks realizing that the conversation has continued in a new thread, feel free to mention in the old thread that it will continue under the new subject (and new section, if appropriate). <BR> <BR>Thanks for your understanding and cooperation! We are thrilled to be able to continue to provide our Discussion Board services.
 
Well, last night's topic consolidations didn't happen as expected due to some Perl implementation issues with our web host. All seems to be corrected now, so we'll try again tonight. Accordingly, some boards may not be accessible for brief periods of time this evening. We thank you in advance for your patience as we implement these improvements to our discussion boards.
 
All done!! The boards have been combined, with no loss of data suffered. The <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">No-Bull Ski Reports</FONT> are now included in the <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">Lift Corral</FONT> section. <BR> <BR><I><whew!></I>
 
We apologize to our users for system errors encountered when trying to post a message after 11:24 pm EDT last evening. The script that runs our boards detected a corruption in the database used to create the messages, and shut down the board rather than risk losing the entire book of messages. It's really a rather remarkable script, in that it is smart enough to detect these errors and close the boards to new messages rather than risk errors. <BR> <BR>Rest assured that all has been resolved now, and you're free to post again. We again apologize for any inconvenience.
 
After our 3-week holiday-induced hiatus, our regularly-scheduled Wednesday night <FONT COLOR="ff0000"><FONT FACE="comic sans ms">Fireside Après-Ski Chats</FONT></FONT> will resume tonight at 9pm EST/6 pm PST (that's 0200h GMT, which technically is Thursday there). <A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/chat.htm" TARGET="_blank">Click here</A> to enter our chat room at or a bit after 9pm EST and join in the fun!
 
<FONT FACE="comic sans ms">First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine</FONT> is proud to announce that it will transition from a virtual server, stored on a partition shared on one of our web host's servers, to its own dedicated server in the racks of our northern Virginia-based web host. This transition will ensure our ability to deliver more content to you with faster transfer times. <BR> <BR>If all goes according to plan, we'll be flipping the switch on the DNS changes to the new server during our historically slow overnight hours this weekend. While the transition should be seamless and invisible to most users, folks should understand that it may take anywhere from zero to 48 hours for the DNS changes to be propagated across the Internet to each ISP's DNS cache. <BR> <BR>What does this mean to you? It means that for anywhere from zero to 48 hours after our transition to a new, dedicated server, your own ISP may still be routing you to <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine</FONT> stored on our old server. If you're one of the unfortunate few to be routed to the old server for an extended time you won't be able to see any changes implemented to <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine</FONT> after the transition occurs, including postings to the <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">Liftlines BBS</FONT>. Likewise, if you're one of those to whom the DNS changes come late in the game, any postings that you may make to the <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">Liftlines BBS</FONT> will not appear on the new server. <BR> <BR>By scheduling these changes during the overnight hours, we hope to minimize the impact that these changes may have. Due to the nature of DNS propagation across the Internet to all ISPs, this is a situation that we do have the opportunity to minimize, but cannot eliminate. We thank you for your patience in this process, and hope that you'll share with us the excitement that these changes will bring to <FONT FACE="comic sans ms">First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine</FONT>. <BR> <BR>We will update you regarding the progress of the transition as it occurs.
 
<center><b><font color="ff0000"><font size="+1">THESE BOARDS ARE NOW CLOSED TO NEW MESSAGES. PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW LIFTLINES DISCUSSION BOARDS AT <a href="http://www.FirstTracksOnline.com/boards/index.php">http://www.FirstTracksOnline.com/boards/index.php</a> FOR CURRENT DISCUSSIONS.</font></font></b></center> <BR>
 
Back
Top