"Hey I know! why don't we make a nice chatty message board where we can post pics and stuff and so on?" I gaily said.
The software for boards like our previous one was called Ikonboard, and Pani found with some dismay there was quite a lot to learn before we could actually pop one up on the internet - finding a host (endless trouble with this over the years but now seem to be settled with A2Hosting) - how to actually upload to a webspace - data bases - C-Panel - learning two new programming languages - and so on.
In the early weeks, poor daft chap, I think he entertained some vague notion I might walk this journey with him side by side, sharing the stress and learning together as we went, but I showed so little promise as 'fellow technician' finally we settled on him actually doing the work, and me making vague promises of 'posting a few puzzles on it now and then to draw people in.'
Amazingly he went with that so I sat back and watched while he created the wonder that is hard-facts, like a wizard weaving gold out of smoke, and then, being Pani, and fortunately an actual genius which helps, he set about adapting it so it was very personal to us all, and made a nice haven for like-minded people to come together. It took him about a week though he carried on making nice little adaptations to it over the years.
At one time we had probably 50 very active members posting regularly, and some of those, our Veterans, are still here with us, and very glad we are of that
Last year, 2022, two things happened. We made the Mill, for North and South fans, and that brought in some lovely new people; and then poor OldBoard died, and it died forever
So Pani was back to square one, after literally two decades of knowing everything OldBoard did or was capable of doing, and knowing almost every line of its programming, and how to find the spare teapot in the darkest furthest cupboard. He bravely found us a new board, this one, and while it isn't the same, it does very well. We can't adapt it as much as our old one, but it will do nicely.
So, although Pani doesn't post very often, he is always here, tweaking this and that and janitoring and keeping things tidy and everything backed up, so if it should encounter malevolent gremlins everything can be put back in a moment. (He actually wrote special automated programs to do this, and then there's Dora, a semi-intelligent AI program (sorry Dora. I only say semi, because the last conversation I had with you, you did fail the Turing test a bit but keep working on it) who automates all this and sends reports back to the Master and never bothers him unless she really has to. And then he wrote the Tweedles, I do love the Tweedles. They are two linked little scripts - Tweedle One checks that Dora is running and reports to P if she fails, and - this is the genius part - Tweedle Two's only job is to check on Tweedle One and check that IT is running ok
Anyway as you can see, Pani who is a somewhat silent figure to some of you, is vital to this board, and I want him to have The Best Birthday Ever.
Pani, we are so glad to have you
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow