time to redecorate AO

[mpsd]

Well, I've been visiting AO on a daily basis for the past 7 years and I post almost at the same rate.

MCB charges $10 a year for members and they have several members over there. I wouldn't say 500 but they have some and I believe this helps. I pay there and I'd pay here as well. Just by having a BST only for members on which members offer discounts on their sales to other members already pays of to contribute.

[BTAutoMag]

I'm so happy I bumped this

[knownothingmags]

here is what TK ended up telling me about the site.

"The forum needs someone with programing experience to work on it. It also needs a software update which costs money. We own the sever and once it dies, that's it. The service provider is telling me its so old, its not worth doing anything with. To transfer the data to new hardware would again cost money and require software upgrades. So unless you can figure out a way around the money problem just labor is not the problem. I appreciate the offer to help, if someone wants to step up with funding I will let you know.

Thanks

Tom"

[going_home]

Jeesh a PBN membership is $30 a year, and for what ?

Scott see if you can get it set up for some sort of premium membership.

I'd do whatever amount is decided.

[knownothingmags]

i for one would be willing to donate/ contribute to keep this site alive,
ive got CA$H on it as we speak, just need to know where to send it once there is a fund set-up.

[BigEvil]

here is what TK ended up telling me about the site.

"The forum needs someone with programing experience to work on it. It also needs a software update which costs money. We own the sever and once it dies, that's it. The service provider is telling me its so old, its not worth doing anything with. To transfer the data to new hardware would again cost money and require software upgrades. So unless you can figure out a way around the money problem just labor is not the problem. I appreciate the offer to help, if someone wants to step up with funding I will let you know.

Thanks

Tom"

This site can run on a new server for under $300 a year. A new vbulletin license would be under $200 (last time I checked).

I know the person who can make this happen, lease the server space and handle the migration.

Things like graphics could be handled by the members.

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[BTAutoMag]

Lets figure out a goal we need to meet to keep the site alive. transfer the data to another server and yadda and go from there.

[VecTor]

I for one would contribute to the fund as well. I cant image not having this site avail. If its new hardware/ cpu box i bet we as a community could come up with that.

I know for a fact that players are going back to automags. In my area of Oklahoma automags are comming back (slow but sure.) I think having a section dedicated to the new styles of the automag and contacts to those who do it would be great!

[BTAutoMag]

yes, automags are making a comeback!!!! I got so many people around here in awe of them

[Bunny]

I would love to help donate/invest in automags.org. It would be a shame to lose all of the valuable data we have in the archives just because we didn't have enough $$$ to keep it running.

Within the past few years it has filtered out the type of AOer in the community and seems like the people that are left are some of the most die hard fans out there. You should poll the forum and see how much of an investment we have in AGD products, I bet you would be surprised how many thousands of dollars we have sunk into our paintball guns.

I think kickstarter.com would actually help automags.org and give us an idea on what we could accomplish. Sure, some folks wouldn't want to pay anything, but there are still a few people around AO that have the time/money to help keep this community going.

[BigEvil]

Scott see if you can get it set up for some sort of premium membership.

I'd do whatever amount is decided.

That is easy. It is built right into the software out of the box. I am not up to date on all of the bells and whistles that come with the latest version of vBulletin. Most everything you would need is included. There are other add-ons such as the Gallery package and VBADVANCED that MCB uses. That would be an additional $500-1000 (depending on current pricing) just to purchase those plug in modules.

No one seemed to mention anything about the Google Ads at the top. IIRC, someone said they can (or used to) generate $100-$150 a month. Is that still the case? If so, there is your funding source.

Once the database is backed up, optimized, and migrated to a new server, the old one can be 'retired'. I propose an "Office Space" style send off with baseball bats, while the Ghetto Boys plays in the background.

[Olsson]

i would gladly pay to be a member on AO, and I would gladly contribute to any kind of fund to keep AO online. If we manage to get a larger crowd to AO while we're at it, it would be a nice bonus. Bottom line, a fee wouldn't scare me away, rather the other way around - ensure that I most definitely try to keep AO online.

[OPBN]

Im not sure if it has been addressed, but IIRC some people have said in the past that they had issues getting registered here. I think its possibly was spurred the growth of the AGD sections on peanut butter and MCB. Would migrating to a new server/software make it easier for new registrants, or has this issue been solved? BE has a point, if Google adds are generating $1200/year it sounds like the funding is easily there.

[Bunny]

Just thinking off the top of my head...... instead of using Vbulletin we could transfer over to PHPBB or any other type of open source web forum.

I also worked with Joomla in the past and it would be perfect to blend content pages with a community forum as well. They have bridges that can be used to go from Vbulletin to Joomla and can transfer user data over. (All of which would be free!)

[Dayspring]

PHPBB isn't REALLY designed for major communities. VBulletin is.

I would be happy to help with this - I've been running a smaller VB site, but can certainly help with all of this.

The real issue is server costs - you can't run a site this large on a shared service. You'd need a dedicated server or a Virtual Private Server.

Here's an example of the fees around this:

http://dreamhost.com/servers/compare-our-products/