Jacen123 Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Thanks! something tells me I'm going to feel really stupid once I get there to do this. Edit: Well, I was right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I'm with Driver. We have the memories, do we really need to be able to re-read them word-for-word? I'd like a big open forum for discussion. And maybe a "private" forum that you need to be a member to see, but isn't available to casual browsers.Personally, I think the "members only" private forum is a terrible idea. Sounds pretty cliquish and divisive. Who decides who gets in and who doesn't? What are the criteria to get in? Who polices people talking behind other peoples' backs? What content gets restricted and what is left open to everyone? I know there is a mod/admin forum that is sort of like an exclusive "private forum" to a certain extent already, but one of the things I always liked about nightly was that things were all open to everybody. Dividing nightly like that would definitely change the vibe at this board, and not for the better, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good God a Bear Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I think she meant for the member forum if you have an actual Login name. It wouldn't be available for people to read that are just browsing the site and don't have a login for the board in general.I could be completely on crack as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 If that is what she meant, that does change the conversation. But if you have things restricted where non members can't read it before joining, how do you expect to get new members? People have limited time and don't necessarily want to have to wait 10-15 minutes to get set up before reading something that may end up be something they aren't interested in. Unless that is the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacen123 Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 If we do that, where will people go to talk about collecting soccer balls? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I think the point is that IPB is a little more private than, for example, phpBB. So having a private, members only, forum would help keep the riff-raff out and allow us to discuss things that maybe we don't want the entire world to know about, especially if we're having just two forums. Not sure how I feel about it that solution either. On the other hand, are we really trying to get new members? We've had, what, one new member in the past 5 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Yeah, but he turned out to be a tool. Soooo... As far as exclusivity-- I think Cerina just meant that it can be like it is now-- where it's open save for a contributing donator member forum. therpf is good model. Not sure what system they use, but there are relatively unintrusive ads when you are a genera member in-line in threads. It's not that bad. If you buy a premium membership, the ads go away, and the cost goes to paying for the site. We might not have the traffic or membership for that though. I think the first step is to determine what our traffic is like currently and what our bandwidth needs are. I'm sure another aspect of upgrading is people keeping user-names and post-counts. Those are also not transferrable to a new system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I think the point is that IPB is a little more private than, for example, phpBB. So having a private, members only, forum would help keep the riff-raff out and allow us to discuss things that maybe we don't want the entire world to know about, especially if we're having just two forums. I have zero experience with phpBB except as a poster on another forum, or any of the ones I googled and posted on page one. What do you not like phpBB? Do you see anything that could be usable there? Or, do you see problems? If so, what are they? Yeah, but he turned out to be a tool. Soooo... As far as exclusivity-- I think Cerina just meant that it can be like it is now-- where it's open save for a contributing donator member forum. therpf is good model. Not sure what system they use, but there are relatively unintrusive ads when you are a genera member in-line in threads. It's not that bad. If you buy a premium membership, the ads go away, and the cost goes to paying for the site. We might not have the traffic or membership for that though. I think the first step is to determine what our traffic is like currently and what our bandwidth needs are. I'm sure another aspect of upgrading is people keeping user-names and post-counts. Those are also not transferable to a new system.Yeah, for some people user names and post accounts are important. So it is worth taking in consideration. But then again, if a new board is created, the user name aspect wouldn't be much of an issue. Post count wouldn't, but one could record it off their old account, and place in their signature, or somewhere on their account. And I agree it should be determined how much bandwidth, and storage is needed before deciding anything. I think it would be ideal if trimming some old and unread posts, and maybe unused forums would save enough money to make the cost reasonable, again. And I can contribute, once we know what direction nightly is going. What is the deadline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerina Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 Sorry for the confusion. I mean what if we have one discussion forum that's open and readable by any yahoo with an internet connection where we discuss things like the upcoming elections, the Olympics, Game of Thrones, dead celebrities, all the latest SW gossip, etc., and then another one that's visible only once you've joined the board (which, let's be honest, will pretty much be just those of us here now) where we can post more about say our kids, our health, personal stories, and other things we don't mind being "public" but just away from the general public. We already have private forums on here that not everybody has access to. The supporter forum that's about as dead as the DIY forum, MO where most of the gossip happens, and the admin forum that's nearly all business. It's not a cliquey as you might think. Nothing like people think this place was like 10 years ago. These days the cliqueyish group on the board are those who think only those who've studied GRRM's word are worthy of discussing Game of Thrones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Thanks for clearing that up, Cerina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I think the point is that IPB is a little more private than, for example, phpBB. So having a private, members only, forum would help keep the riff-raff out and allow us to discuss things that maybe we don't want the entire world to know about, especially if we're having just two forums. I have zero experience with phpBB except as a poster on another forum, or any of the ones I googled and posted on page one. What do you not like phpBB? Do you see anything that could be usable there? Or, do you see problems? If so, what are they? phpBB is very usable, it just requires a little bit more tweaking. Mainly because it's open source instead of proprietary, so everyone has access. If you just set up a phpBB on a server, with no advertising of any sort, you're guaranteed 50 spambots within the first day. There are ways around it, of course, but like I said, it just takes a little more tweaking. Support also isn't as strong, because, again, open source and free and you get what you pay for. But, all in all, I'd be willing to work with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Thank you for going over that Fozzie. And I just want to make clear I am not pushing for moving to something like phpBB, or the ones I posted. Just saying it is worth considering. I only offered that as an alternative, because reddit came up, and that is something I would not be in favor of replacing nightly. At least with phpBB, it is a BB format with all the same basic features (at least on the surface) as what nightly currently has. Initially, they seemed like a good idea, since they are free, but you are right, you get what you pay for. If nightly did move to something like phpBB, and if help was needed to police the spammers and I were asked to do so, I would help out as much as my schedule allows. But if it is decided to keep Nightly as is, or with tweaks, I will contribute for sure, so you can count on me. Just let me know when its decided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Our bandwidth may be low enough now that the taxing search queries to maintain archive indexes may not be a big deal. Ditching the archives and downgrading our monthly bandwidth caps might be enough to save us money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Krawlie Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Many of the threads in the archives wouldn't really be comprehensible anymore unless you were actively part of it when it happened. I went through every single page of Lando when it was getting closed down to flag threads I wanted to archive, and then Cerina went ahead and archived it all anyway. Trust me, many of those threads make absolutely no sense now, and I don't just mean because it was Lando. Esoteric, board-centric humor and references tend to be forgotten after so many years, that what was hilarious to me in 2007 leaves me staring blankly now. There's definitely some gold in there, no doubt about it. But nothing so sacred that we can't survive without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerina Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 I'm fairly certain we could all benefit if the Mara Jade II thread disappeared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good God a Bear Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Wait we have to keep that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerina Posted June 15, 2016 Author Share Posted June 15, 2016 Have you read it lately? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 I haven't read it ever, but I feel like I should agree that we need it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poe Dameron Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Our bandwidth may be low enough now that the taxing search queries to maintain archive indexes may not be a big deal. Ditching the archives and downgrading our monthly bandwidth caps might be enough to save us money.With due respect, if you guys are paying even a penny for the search function around here, you should get your money back. It's pretty worthless. It's easier to find things with a straight-up Google search. Anyway, what preceded my frustration with the search was me checking to see how far back the posts go. The funny thing is that a strong majority of posts that were ever submitted around here were deleted over a decade ago as a part of routine maintenance. I assume at some point in 2004 or so, archival space became cheaper or something and the number of posts went down, so they stopped deleting the old stuff. But, yeah, a lot of it's already gone and is mostly unmourned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good God a Bear Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I'm fairly certain we could all benefit if the Mara Jade II thread disappeared.I was thinking of the original one where the engagement was announced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 With due respect, if you guys are paying even a penny for the search function around here, you should get your money back. It's pretty worthless. It's easier to find things with a straight-up Google search. I don't know if that is even possible, but Poe is right. The search feature is pretty bad. Google is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Our bandwidth may be low enough now that the taxing search queries to maintain archive indexes may not be a big deal. Ditching the archives and downgrading our monthly bandwidth caps might be enough to save us money.With due respect, if you guys are paying even a penny for the search function around here, you should get your money back. It's pretty worthless. It's easier to find things with a straight-up Google search. Ain't that the truth. No matter what software we've had it's always been abysmal. Which begs the point, even if I wanted to find some buried treasure in the archives, would I even be able to find it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I just looked through some of the archives and all it did was make me sad when I saw dozens of members I wish were still here. Burn it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odine Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 So I just caught up.. We're downsizing to keep going? And looking to move to different server/software? I'd love to be able to donate to keep this place afloat but in my list of worldly expenses nightly is pretty low (no offense), and I'm not particularly flush at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Are we interested in trying to raise enough to limp along for a month at a time as we figure out what to do? Or should we just say that if we don't have enough for a year, we'll fold up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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