forum changes coming (4/16/08)

[Mike]

Hey all, once again my hosting service is crapping out on me, and I've been itching to use different forum software (either SMF, which is free, or vBulletin, which isn't free, but is the best there is), so... you'll notice some downtime over the next few days (hopefully most of it will be over the weekend), and a new interface.

I'll do my best to import all the contents of this forum into the new forum, so if anyone has experience and can give me a hand, great, if not, well, just wish me luck.

[Professor Fate]

How will I survive with out my CJ crack? I'll go into DTs! I won't be able go on any more... There is only one thing left... :dead:
Naaa. I'll go riding!

[eschmunk]

Hey Mike, you should put up a donation link for vBulletin. I am sure everyone would cough up a few bucks to cover the cost. I don't remember but it is only like $160 right, or you can do yearly subscriptions for less. Give those who donate a special icon by their screen name or something. Just an idea.

-e

[Sweetruss]

Or you could have a bike rally/run to help raise money to cover the cost of the website hosting.

What you need to do is get with Chris and ask if we can cook hot-dogs and hamburgers out side on a grill and sell them along with sodas and water and invite every biker in the area to stop by. Should be able to raise the money to cover the hosting and manage to unite bikers one more time, a Win-Win in my book.

PS the hosting isn't all thats wrong with this website.

[t-cell]

Thats a pretty good idea - make for a nice way to raise money and really kick off bike nights!

jason - sends

[MrDude_1]

PAIR NETWORKS! best hosting there is IMO. i love em!

[Mike]

Hey Mike, you should put up a donation link for vBulletin. I am sure everyone would cough up a few bucks to cover the cost. I don't remember but it is only like $160 right, or you can do yearly subscriptions for less. Give those who donate a special icon by their screen name or something. Just an idea.

-e

Yeah, I'll most likely go with vB just so I won't have to deal with migration ever again

Or you could have a bike rally/run to help raise money to cover the cost of the website hosting.

What you need to do is get with Chris and ask if we can cook hot-dogs and hamburgers out side on a grill and sell them along with sodas and water and invite every biker in the area to stop by. Should be able to raise the money to cover the hosting and manage to unite bikers one more time, a Win-Win in my book.

PS the hosting isn't all thats wrong with this website.

Yep, all good ideas, I just don't feel like asking for handouts.

What else is wrong?

[Sweetruss]

You're not asking for handouts, your giving us a chance to show you how much we appreciate you and your dedication to the website.

[Mike]

You're not asking for handouts, your giving us a chance to show you how much we appreciate you and your dedication to the website.

That is a different way of looking at it :smile

...so what else need to be fixed around here?




By the way, I decided to go with vBulletin :wtg:

[thehammer69]

Mike, many forums that I frequent use V-bulletin, and offer free and a small cost upgraded membership. Upgrade membership usually gives such stuff as larger PM mailbox, allow use of an avatar or larger avatar, larger sig size, access to closed forums, and sometimes other things.

[Mike]

Mike, many forums that I frequent use V-bulletin, and offer free and a small cost upgraded membership. Upgrade membership usually gives such stuff as larger PM mailbox, allow use of an avatar or larger avatar, larger sig size, access to closed forums, and sometimes other things.

Same here, which was part of the decision - becoming part of the de-facto standard should help give everyone here a more familiar feel.

I'll think about the fundraising/membership/donation/advertising thing a bit more later, but my priority right now is getting better hosting and converting the forum to vB.

[MrDude_1]

who are you looking at for hosting?

[Mike]

who are you looking at for hosting?

I haven't looked too hard yet, but lunarpages, godaddy, and yahoo are considerations. Basically, having a virtual private server with ipower hasn't worked out for me (downtime, overkill), so I'm looking for an account that'll allow me to host 10-20 small sites (subdirectories, ideally).

[MrDude_1]

no experience with the first two, but yahoo sucks. bad.

you might want to look into Pair Networks ( http://pair.com/ )... ive been using them for 3+ years now, and my total downtime is literally measured in minutes.. about 15mins downtime for 3+ years.

when i did get a problem, they had amazing 24hr tech support.
i dont get anything for reccomending them either... i just started using them because i needed a host, and a friend of mine reccomended them to me.

[OriginalOne]

godaddy has been pretty good to me, and they're pretty cheap considering

[Turbo storm]

All the computer stuff is above my head, but I'm willing to pay a membership due, or help sell a burger or dog...whatever it takes.
Dan da man

[Tootles]

Me too

[Chris]

if you can make it out next tuesday we can discuss this mike

chris r.

[Mike]

Three hours of downtime for all my sites today, including of course this forum...

I purchased a Pair Networks hosting plan, on advice from Travis, another friend of mine, and hours of research over the last few days. Once I move the forum (this weekend?), there'll be no more downtime, and the site should be considerably faster, all the time.

Sorry ya'll, but if it's any consolation, this ipower hosting bullshit has me pulling my hair out :mad:

[MrDude_1]

Three hours of downtime for all my sites today, including of course this forum...

I purchased a Pair Networks hosting plan, on advice from Travis, another friend of mine, and hours of research over the last few days. Once I move the forum (this weekend?), there'll be no more downtime, and the site should be considerably faster, all the time.

Sorry ya'll, but if it's any consolation, this ipower hosting bullshit has me pulling my hair out :mad:


yay!
once everything is transferred over, you wont have much to worry about.

this morning... it was so slow that i swear you had this hosted on a 386sx without a math co-processor... :p

[eschmunk]

Mike, so far so good though. I am sure once everything is moved things will go much smoother and then you can start working on the layout. I am sure there will be alot of opportunties to do some pretty cool stuff with vBulletin.

-e

[Mike]

Mike, so far so good though. I am sure once everything is moved things will go much smoother and then you can start working on the layout. I am sure there will be alot of opportunties to do some pretty cool stuff with vBulletin.

-e

Yeah, vB is a beast, and I mean that in a good way.



The move to Pair is complete. If for some reason you get to what looks like the forum, but it appears closed, it means that you computer doesn't have the address of the new location; since this address is updated automatically, just give it time.

[Professor Fate]

Nice work MK! The new CJ is almost as fast as Chad!:D

[Mike]

...too bad almost doesn't count :p

So part 2 of 2 is done - we're on vBulletin and on a new host, Pair.

Avatars and attachments are disabled for now, PM boxes might need to be cleaned out, and some other stuff is different. I'll customize the way the forum works over the next few days and weeks. A paid subscription dealie is coming for those of you that either want to help out and/or want more features, as is adsense, and maybe even sponsor advertising.

Let me know if you're having problems with this new forum at kadlubkiewicz@gmail.com.

[MrDude_1]

are we on the new host now? because the pages are loading fast as heck now.. they never loaded this fast before....

[Sweetruss]

......kadlubkiewicz@gmail.com (......kadlubkiewicz@gmail.com).


"I would like to buy a Vowel Pat, an I" :lol:


how about starting a new thread and giving some details on the subscription part. And PLEASE PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE, THERE IS A SPELL CHECK IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER......!

[Mike]

So part 2 of 2 is done - we're on vBulletin and on a new host, Pair.

are we on the new host now? because the pages are loading fast as heck now.. they never loaded this fast before....

No sir, nope, nuh uh, no way! Prove it, pal!

:lol:

[MrDude_1]

i did attend some school in south carolina......






i blame the schools.

[ItsDomino]

I just wanna find out what is required of me in order to become a "senior member" :lol:

[MrDude_1]

I just wanna find out what is required of me in order to become a "senior member" :lol:

its the default title thing... you just need enough posts... if he didnt change it, then the number is probably 100....

[ItsDomino]

:lol: I know,it was meant as a joke....not to mention that now i am trying to get to that almighty 100 mark.

[mccutch2u]

i am liking the new forum but I miss my avatar

[ItsDomino]

yea i miss mine too,i think i am missing something here though.Are we supposed to be doing these things or just wait for the word of completion?

[mccutch2u]

not sure still learning it myself

[ItsDomino]

just wanted to send some kudos to ya Mike,great job on the new site.It seems to be so much better,not sure if you remember the post i put up a few months ago about my browser not letting me stay logged in or not but i don't even have that prob anymore with this new site.Great job,i am sure it will only get better from here,now if i can just figure out what i need to do in order to get up to speed,lol. :yeah:

[Mike]

Thanks, I appreciate it. If no one gave a hoot, I'd have no reason to either.



Hey ya'll, as far as avatars, signatures, attachments, and other space and bandwidth features go, those will become available by subscription (as per some of your suggestions). I'm trying to work out reasonable rates. What do you guys think?

[MrDude_1]

Thanks, I appreciate it. If no one gave a hoot, I'd have no reason to either.



Hey ya'll, as far as avatars, signatures, attachments, and other space and bandwidth features go, those will become available by subscription (as per some of your suggestions). I'm trying to work out reasonable rates. What do you guys think?


i think if you said 'hey guys want to donate some to the board' id throw you a few bucks....

but if you want to sell me a 'subscription' so i can have avatars and stuff.... i guess i wont have an avatar.





but i suppose my attitude on the subject is diffrent then most...

[Mike]

Hmm, ok, so maybe I have it wrong with the subscription idea, and should just turn on everything, asking for donations? That's kinda what I've been trying to figure out the last couple of weeks, and I'm actually leaning towards the latter.

[MrDude_1]

Hmm, ok, so maybe I have it wrong with the subscription idea, and should just turn on everything, asking for donations? That's kinda what I've been trying to figure out the last couple of weeks, and I'm actually leaning towards the latter.


if you look on FastGM.com along with the "this isnt a GM site" disclaimer, i have a paypal link.
i just let it accumulate money all year, and when the time comes for the yearly bill, i put all of that into the bill, plus whatever its short...
its anonymous to everyone else.. only me and the donor know.. and honestly, i dont bother keeping track of who did what.

i noticed some people will donate $3 here.. $5 there.... others donate a couple more then that one time.. and theres always a few people that donate something like $50 or something that id never ask for... honestly they pay for the majority of the bill... but its off of their own choice. some people dont think twice about dropping a twenty or fifty because they like the site... others only have $5 to spare... or maybe nothing.
either way, i run it like they're all equal. doesnt matter if you're a moderator, admin, first time poster or been since day one.. doesnt matter if you can drop $50 on the site or choose to give nothing.. they're all equal from my perspective.
obviously this attitude carries some risk.. i mean, i may get stuck with the entire bill myself. but as long as people are reasonably happy with how the website is being run, or the people on the site, then theres always some donation in there.

[Mike]

That's more or less why I'm leaning that way myself instead of the uncomfortable (even for me) subscription idea.

I'll make the announcement here with all the specifics once everything's set up.

[Mike]

OK, since I like the voluntary donation idea more, all forum features have been turned on for everyone. If you'd like to donate, please do so to either Google checkout: mkfotos.com@gmail.com (my preference) or PayPal: mike@mkfotos.com or just slip me sum'n if/when you see me.
As far as the features go, here's what you should be able to do now:

- attachments up to 1MB (there should be no need for this, considering there are so many free services out there, such as imageshack, photobucket, flickr, etc., but some of you might want to attach here anyways)
- 100 PM inbox (moderators get 200)
- 600 X 800 animated profile pics, up to 64KB (yes, these can be separate from your avatar)
- 150 X 150 animated avatars, up to 64KB
- 500 X 100 animated signatures, up to 19KB
- up to two images can be used in the signature
- 500 character signatures, with the usual BB code allowed (in other words, you can change fonts, styles, colors, links, use smilies, etc.)
- user reputation system
- view others profiles and online guests (moderators get to see all the available data)

[Mike]

I'll be upgrading the forum software soon, which will give it even more functionality:

"

Inline spam management & prevention (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450764#post1450764)
Thread tagging (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450765#post1450765)
Search cloud / tag cloud (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450765#post1450765)
Thread prefixes (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450766#post1450766)
Reciprocal friendships between users (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450767#post1450767)
Public visitor messaging on profile pages with 'conversation' feature (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450768#post1450768)
User picture galleries with user comment facility (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450769#post1450769)
User-created social groups with invite only and moderated membership options (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450770#post1450770)
Extended member profile pages (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450771#post1450771)
Customizable member profile pages with admin-controlled styling abilities (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450772#post1450772)
Inline editing of custom user profile fields (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450773#post1450773)
Lightbox viewer for attached images (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450774#post1450774)
Viewable and comparable history maintained for post edits (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450775#post1450775)
Extended re-authentication for inline moderation actions (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450776#post1450776)
Notices system for navigation bar (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450777#post1450777)
Multiple human-verification systems including reCAPTCHA, image verification and Q/A (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450778#post1450778)
User change history (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450779#post1450779)
Social bookmarking integration (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1450780#post1450780)"

Taken from http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268833

[SUM650]

MK the site is awesome now!

[Mike]

MK the site is awesome now!

Thanks Barry. Had I known that it would run this fast and this well, I would've started off like this :wall:

[Professor Fate]

Them little bunnies sure are kick'n your arse in your avatar!:lol:
Great avatar...Even better forum! No longer stuck check'n one post per-hour.:smilebig: