Members run roadster forum

[The V8 Files]

Originally Posted by robo

Is there no way we as members could not buy this site and bring it up to date. Its not just the spam although its done untold damage. I think the whole site has outgrown the boots its wearing. I do believe it could do with things like a traders section, gallery, seperate build thread section, in the workshop section, and thats but to name a few. I had a quick look up on google and a forum would run out to pennies per member to run and maintain. How do we go about talking to haynes with the view running the show with the mods we have?????

Bob

Bob I agree with all your reasoning above, looking at other forums and their presentation this does seem a little dated and would really benefit from both updating and reorganising some of the material.

Whether Haynes would allow the use of their name/logo outside of their control is another question.

Just some randomly plucked figures - prior to the spam issue I believe there were approx 200 member, assuming only 60% would be willing to pay for example a £10 annual membership that could raise approx £1200 annually. I have no idea how much a forum costs to run.

I think what we're really missing here is any form of an update from Haynes/Admin!

Nathan I see your point but I think that could be easily solved by paying members electing the Mods, my guess is the existing Mods would be re elected without hesitation if that ever happened

Just my thoughts

[robo]

Other forums like the one below are free membership in part with paid up only to view certain areas. sign up is about a week while their vetting is done. No one joins without a bit of a proper email address with of few emails exchanged . A section for everything and thousands of happy bunnies Oh and no spam

http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/index.php

Bob

Only 5 oft the 25 currently logged in are proper members and 3500 of the active members are spammers .Great

[twinturbo]

4 ways forward.

1) It gets fixed up
2) It gets abandoned and we all say cherio
3) It gets abandond and we build a fresh comunity losing all the super content.
4) it gets transferred to new management/system with the old content rolled in.


3) & 4) require a platform

vBulletin is a pay for licence, however a converter is available to convert the forum to phpBBx

https://www.phpbb.com/community/view...f=65&t=1722325


there's various options for where and how to actually host it. Ranging from free to expensive.

TT

[twinturbo]

Actualy make that 5.

Admin get's devolved to the comunity but remains on Haynes Servers.

Rob

[spud69]

I seem to remember Ronnie, Bonzo, starting his own builders forum a while ago - guess what it's still live:

http://www.bonzoronnie.com/forum/

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by spud69

I seem to remember Ronnie, Bonzo, starting his own builders forum a while ago - guess what it's still live:

http://www.bonzoronnie.com/forum/

Indeed that humble forum is still alive ( Has been dormant for a good while though )

In all fairness, I must say that the forum was created during the last crisis that befell the Haynes forum & was not intended to be a rival to the Haynes forum.

During the last forum meltdown we lost 1000's of posts & threads due to a hack.
I was surprised to find that the admin of this forum did not take the time to make a back up of this forum, as a result we lost a lot of valuable information ( Gone for good ).

As said, my forum was created at the time so as genuine members could keep in touch with each other whilst the Haynes forum was closed down ( With no indication of when it would be back )

Some at the time thought I had a hidden agenda but that's not the case.

The Haynes forum was once a lifeline to the outside world for me, just trying to give a little back.

Would be happy to host the forum at my own expense ( Providing the costs were not prohibitive )
Already paying for plenty of empty web space.

I can see how folk are cheesed of with the current situation, it was all so easily avoidable.

Just the thoughts of this old fool

[robo]

I had no idea that site existed Ronnie, fair play to you Looks like its me that has to make the phone call tomorrow so i will post back the news good or bad. If it all goes pear shaped how could all the info and build threads be tranfered cos there are tens of thousands of useful bits and pieces on here

Bob

[PorkChop]

I think the problem ultimately is due to the outdated software the forum currently uses (V3.6 was released in 2006 IIRC). vBulletin are now going onto V5 (which is in beta release, the stable version is 4.2). The upgrade would cost $209, with an outright purchase being $249. Plus factor in admin time/cost to perform the upgrade, then there is a financial cost for Haynes to consider before it can be done.

I will say it would be a right shame to lose this forum, so I hope abandoning it isn't on Haynes' list of options!

[robo]

To wait any longer is not an option so who is going to make the phone call? Thats a call to someone that gives a stuff not an email to someone who seems to busy to care.

Bob

[shh120m]

Steve rendall is the man you want to get it sorted