time to redecorate AO

[RT Lover]

I have been here and gone a few times but i feel it is time to update the forum, we have old threads and sub fourms that dont work. Why not get some new wall paper up? The Angel thread is no more y not put something else in to get some more foot traffic and when a outsider see's what we r doing here they will be infect with passion for a Automag... with the only treatment is to customize your mag and to horde parts lol, lets mix it up and update this bad boy get some young blood in here and grow even more!

[BTAutoMag]

bump

EDIT:

People willing to donate:
-BTAutoMag
-Bunny
-going_home
-Olsson
-Dayspring
-dark_side

[Olsson]

Good bump, made me see the thread. I would greatly appreciate if the old threads with valuable info could be resurrected. There are a lot of stickies and other how-to threads where all the links and pictures are dead, and where referrals to air smiths and anno shops are outdated. That would be the single greatest improvement in my mind.

[BTAutoMag]

it makes me sad to see this place fall into dissrepair. this was my teenage years

[AGD]

Your lucky its here at all. We are one server crash away from oblivion. If anyone wants to get a fund going for a revamp let me know. There is no money being made any more in paintball so this is what you get.

Tk

[knownothingmags]

Your lucky its here at all. We are one server crash away from oblivion. If anyone wants to get a fund going for a revamp let me know. There is no money being made any more in paintball so this is what you get.

Tk

TK/AGD,
wish i would have meet you near 2001 when i started shooting your awsome marker.

but im down to push some $$$, the way of this fund,

i would hate to see this forum go to the wayside,
please anyone who is able to keep this afloat please post up.


i am personally not set up to manage a fund like this.

TK... if you could PM the details of what it takes to keep the servers alive per year... i may be able to fund/ help fund us from going down.

thankyou,
KNM.

[BTAutoMag]

lets get a paypal donation button

[Arstron]

I would be willing to donate a spot on my dedicated server.

[Bunny]

Here is a post from Tom describing what it takes to run Automags.org.....

AGD: 09-18-2006, 11:00 PM
Well the problem is we own our own server at Delaware.net and it hosts all our sites. Its not so easy to just dump AO off to another provider becasue I still have the expense of the server etc. As you all point out, and I certainly understand, paying money and forums don't mix.

It costs about 5-600 a month for the whole package and we get about 150 from Google. That means we would need about 450x12 months=5400.00 to cover everything. Roughly thats 540 subscribers for 10 bucks a year. If you watch the "who's online" numbers you will see that a huge majority of people are not members but "guests" and in effect lurkers.

So I am wrestling with this and might just sell the forum off to someone who can fund it and keep it free.

Thanks,

AGD

Btw, anyone want to make a Kickstarter for automags.org

[BTAutoMag]

If e could turn automags online into the powerhouse it used to be we could do that easily.

[RT Lover]

Im thinking if we update it with pics of some of the markers that have be personalized, we can pull in new younger people! I would be down to donating to the automag cause! so lets get this moving and get us back on top!!!

[OPBN]

Not to be a naysayer, but I think it's going to take more than a fancy new forum to breath life back into AGD. I think it's obvious from TK's statement that AGD has essentially given up.

With that said, I would be willing to donate $10-20/year to keep the forum going more as a resource than a means to bring more people to the fold.

I know I'm not going to be popular for my statements above, but it is what it is.

[Arstron]

I wonder how many/what other sites they are hosting other then AGD and AO? at $500 a month, thats a heck of a server for a few websites.

[bbotts77]

I wonder how many/what other sites they are hosting other then AGD and AO? at $500 a month, thats a heck of a server for a few websites.

I'm guessing they're doing a co-location and their server is just old.

I would also be happy to let AO (and possibly the other sites) live on one of my servers.

Tom, if you want to PM me some stats (disk space used, bandwidth, clock cycle(if recorded)) for each of the sites on that server, I can look into where I can put them for you and the community.

[BigEvil]

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.

[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.

^
^^
^^^
^^^^
^
^
^

[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/

[RT Lover]

Im sure there are people here who wouldnt mind helping in the design just for the love of the marker! I my self would do leg work no problem im just not a web designer lol, if we update it im sure it will bring more people in and look way better! im not saying this site is crap or anything but broken or missing links, updated markers, some of the custome parts and bodies are unreal, and newer pics from people playing would be awesome!!! We can show the world that it may not be "mainstream" but the automag is stronger then ever

So TK put it together, lay out what is best for you! Im game no matter what! Just to have you comment on a thread of mine is bad ass lol! Oh yea, i will buy ao right now from you... I will even take the business.... lol i wish

[BTAutoMag]

Oh yea, i will buy ao right now from you... I will even take the business.... lol i wish

Dibs on product testing

[Bunny]

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/

I would like to see some numbers from Tom or Dave (whoever ownes automags.org) to see the traffic and bandwidth this site uses. Other than a few webpages at the top, most of the content is text based. I just can't see this website costing so much money.

I may be wrong, but the hosting company is making it sound worse then it actually is.

Btw, when I ran a few sites, I used Dreamhost and <3'd it!

[BigEvil]

I would like to see some numbers from Tom or Dave (whoever ownes automags.org) to see the traffic and bandwidth this site uses. Other than a few webpages at the top, most of the content is text based. I just can't see this website costing so much money.

I may be wrong, but the hosting company is making it sound worse then it actually is.

Btw, when I ran a few sites, I used Dreamhost and <3'd it!

Traffic numbers are deceiving. They are inflated due to the constant barrage of spambots

[Dayspring]

Still, bandwidth at Dreamhost is unlimited. Plus, if we upgraded AO to the new VBulletin, you can open registrations to ALL of the free domains by adding a secret question to the form that bots can't handle.

Means no more spam.

And in regards to PHPBB, I had SOOOOO many issues with spam bots with that software. Soon as I went to VBulletin, it all stopped.

[BTAutoMag]

a point I would like to make:


AGD was a super power in the paintball world and why? because the design is simple, reliable, low cost and fast. name one other paintball marker that has all 4 of those attributes.

and then came AO. Tom would say what should I make next? and we would tell him. or he would say look what I made and we would go, THATS AWESOME or I dont like that at all.

Ideas like the deldrin bolt which died quickly because we the site put its through the ringer and found the fatal flaw... who found the flaw? WE DID!

Automags have become IMO the longest lived single paintball gun thats still competitive and the FIRST open source paintball marker!

In AO you have everything to keep a company going. look what Luke, hill, renie and eeryone else has done for the mag, AGD stepped back and we forced its evolution.

Long live AGD, Long live the MAG.

Let us design the future of this company YOU founded Tom. You will will be amazed at what a group of fanatics can acheive with the permission to do so

[Bunny]

Btw, I totally agree with upgrading the forum to the latest vbulletin it would be way easier to transfer old accounts.

[skipdogg]

I will contribute $$

[RT Lover]

i am going out on a limb but i think the vast majority of use would pay a membership fee, just do different levels, like low, med, and high... and the pay out with more foot traffic would make it worth it... make it appealing to younger people and show them all that a mag is! i like the v bulletin idea transfer over the data and wammo! I personally would drop more cash up front. just to have a gold supporting member and to see what i love grow is what i want lol. I sure with newer people it will bring a new dimension to the mag!

I guess we need stats or some idea on what TK thinks is best. Like i said i would do all i could do to help!!

BTAutoMag thanks for bumping!

[Tron]

Go for http://xenforo.com/ drop VB 4 nothing like VB 3 used to be. If you guys want a front end go simple and use WordPress or use the add-ons Xenforo have. Nginx and Xenforo and this place will be rocking fast and up to date.