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[BennyP]

I remember, I told you in some past posts, this is not a social network. We have now more than 15000 registered users (well, not all of them confirmed the registration) but we have a lot even in this case. Every day register about 100 new users. Do we need Facebook or advertisements on CNN or Al Jazeera channels? Let’s put a red lamp at the entrance. In other hand my friend’s Struceng opinion is to go to monastery (not you Struceng). In an ideal world the Admin opinion (as Struceng) is the best – only tips, but without codes, books and cracked software this forum will be dead or not relevant.
Yes we have a problem with the copyright but most of the cracked stuff can be found in other places. My contribution is to help users to find here what they not always know how to find there and how to try it, but every time I recommend and I really mean – try and buy. If you will use only cracked software tomorrow you will not find useful software at all.
I’m not the best moderator of 2009 because I gave more warnings than all other moderators (warned users don’t appreciate me) and not for the tips or the help I gave but for the software.
I personally don’t use cracked software. I install, I check (I’m a curious person) and I delete. I think my crime is maybe I downloaded sometimes mp3 or movies like everyone and watch them but I DON’T MAKE MONEY using cracked software. Maybe I’m old fashion but I prefer a printed book even if sometimes I use some information from a pdf downloaded from here or other source.
You must thank Admin for this forum and his location is the only guarantee it will not be closed tomorrow. A few days ago when the site was gone I made a search in AltaVista for the word Struceng (sorry but was because I saw your post about the problem before the site disappears) and the first place in search was civilea. Is very easy to find our forum in every search and every post here only give more chance to find it so no need to Facebook for posting the real photos of some users use as avatars.

[faros3000]

... I also agree with focusing on engineering tips and from now on as to be an example, I decide myself only posting in that way...

Dear Struceng, I have been trying to digest your position but still am not sure if it is the best at all. Do not think that all your effort goes the wrong way, as well as that of other posters and even crackers, and I think it´s only because the nature of CivilEA. Let me be more clear on some things:

ILLEGAL CONTENT. For ilegal content I mean not-licensed software, books and the like. I have found Benny´s posts very useful (as well as BennyP´s, but am not referencing him for now); and downloaded and used Shake2000v2 posted here. I found that software so useful for our bussiness profile, that we ended up buying not only Shake2000 v3 (the latest one), but also RspMatch and D-Mode from the same developer. I think if we could ask that software company its opinion, they would still be greateful to this forum for bringing them a new client. And is not the only case, we are now about to buy a license of Revit Structure, which first downloaded from here.

So, again, don´t think your effort necesarily goes in the wrong direction.

ENGINEERING TIPS. While we are 15K + members now, how many of all the posts give serious information? Two examples:

Some days ago a user asked for advice on the displacement of a building, giving his calculated displacement at top and the number of stories, which in turn resulted in a drift of the order of 0.006. Even for practices of Japan and Mexico, whose codes specify very small limits for drift, that value suggests a quite rigid structure. However, another user came and post something like "It is impossible that a structure may be subject to that high displacement" or something similar. What is the value of that comment?

Another case: In the discussion about the Burj-Duabi it was written "...The seismic load may be the one that may pose the major problem, thus the critical load (if the structure is located in a seismic zone (and if yes), the characteristics of the site and seismic intensity)..." Do you really expect a building that tall, with 1st period of 11sec and 2nd period of 10sec, will be governed by EQ forces?

Based on the above, I prefer a book of those posted by Grunf for example if I want to have a deeper look into an special subject. And is not as one of our moderators told me once: I am not smarter than you in anyway, just would say I work hard and stay informed; and only posts if I´m sure of what I´m saying! As always there are exemptions, many sometimes, as the value of the advices of Dell Brett (and others).

On the other hand, I couldn´t agree more with BennyP:
"You must thank Admin for this forum and his location is the only guarantee it will not be closed tomorrow". And also I think that "without codes, books and cracked software this forum will be dead or not relevant".

So, dear friend Struceng, I would ask you to give your decision a second thought; and I´m sure whatever is your final decision it will be the best.

Regarding the issue of facebook, my opinion is that in the end this whole idea of CivilEA is at first from Admin, and we are nothing but guests on a warm house of a friend of ours and then we can not call a locksmith to force the door.

Clearly, these are only my thougths and anyone of you may disagree with me.

[Veggeta]

:clap: It's better quality that quantity... I prefer the quality :JC_cheers: