The "End of Days" for this board

[piski125]

I wonder if this board is gonna switch to vBulletin.

I don't know, Vbulliten is like $180.00, while phpBB is free.

[Gil]

99% chance it will stay phpBB. That's what everyone's used to.

[JasonC]

I wonder if this board is gonna switch to vBulletin.

The board will stay as phpBB, and it will be upgraded to version 3 (it will probably undergo a slight face lift as well). Old threads will either remain in place or archived. No major changes are planned, and any user input is welcome (a thread will be started later on this).

[thunderbolt1003]

Oh okay, sorry. I didn't know there was a big difference in the two.

[12kvLive]

I suggest the following even though a plan sounds like it's in action.
1. Adam Smith- Sounds like you are stepping down. I thought this might happen since it seems your interest has changed to steam whistles and ship horns. Well if you leave thank you your board it has offered much knowledge and possibly the inspiration for me to operate the first privately owned siren in unincorporated Cook county.
2. Let's Form a actual club with a president, a vice president, teasurer and a secretary. Now also add an executive board of 12 members. All these people to be voted for by site members only. Now to be a executive board member you must pay $25.00. That will cover the operating cost of the board and give notariety to members (that are voted for by us the users)
3. Terms are once a year and anybody who wants to run for executive board can pay $25 each year to be put on the ballot. Officers are live out positions since they are the founders of this board. There are no fees for officers.
4. Any extra money can be used for contests (best vid or pic) and/or some sort of social or small convention to rent a hall once a year on a weekend we can all meet.
Well that's my idea Adam hope you like it? Everyone on this site talks about how to make this a better site or make it cheaper. I say lets make a club to make this site stronger. Adam email me and I'll shoot you my number and we'll talk. Take care.

[JasonC]

I suggest the following even though a plan sounds like it's in action.
1. Adam Smith- Sounds like you are stepping down. I thought this might happen since it seems your interest has changed to steam whistles and ship horns. Well if you leave thank you your board it has offered much knowledge and possibly the inspiration for me to operate the first privately owned siren in unincorporated Cook county.
2. Let's Form a actual club with a president, a vice president, teasurer and a secretary. Now also add an executive board of 12 members. All these people to be voted for by site members only. Now to be a executive board member you must pay $25.00. That will cover the operating cost of the board and give notariety to members (that are voted for by us the users)
3. Terms are once a year and anybody who wants to run for executive board can pay $25 each year to be put on the ballot. Officers are live out positions since they are the founders of this board. There are no fees for officers.
4. Any extra money can be used for contests (best vid or pic) and/or some sort of social or small convention to rent a hall once a year on a weekend we can all meet.
Well that's my idea Adam hope you like it? Everyone on this site talks about how to make this a better site or make it cheaper. I say lets make a club to make this site stronger. Adam email me and I'll shoot you my number and we'll talk. Take care.

Actually, there used to be a club of sorts (SECA) but nothing ever happened with it really. The club idea is nice, but we just don't have enough members to reach critical mass to create a club. Unfortunately, the same goes for paid board memberships and all. I can see all sorts of problems arising from that, and would probably piss everyone off at some point. In essence, we also really want to shy away from anything requiring money. The same goes for to many positions of power (it's been the subject of several problems in the past). As far as contests go, unfortunately, there is no need for them anymore, as Youtube and similar sites have rendered contests obsolete (at least for the foreseeable future) and we all live to far apart to meet up in any large numbers. You have some interesting ideas, but unfortunately they just don't work for this site in general.

Also, as a side note for everyone, although Adam may be handing the board over to someone else, he will still be a member and will continue to share his knowledge about sirens (even though he isn't as active as before).

[Franz?]

With a few years of boards in several areas of intrest under my belt, I'll say the following.

Regardeless of the area of intrest a board serves, the population is transient. Peoples intrests and economic situations change, so they come and go over time. I've observed recently that the general amount of time most boardmembers on any site seem to stay interested is about 2 to 3 years.

A second observation is that power corrupts, and power over an internet board corrupts rapidly. It seems a lot of people who want to be moderators quickly prove themselves the worst people for that job. Club based boards, particularly those who feel the necessity to become 501 c3 corporations become insaneasylums at breakneck speed.

With that said, I freely disclose my knowledge of computers wouldn't obstruct a gnat's arse. I do however find a shortcoming in this present setup, that being the necessity to put a photo or picture on another site and link to it. For the computergeeks it might be a simple function, but to me, and possibly a number of others it's a pain in the arse. I hope any new system will eliminate that situation and pictures can be directly posted to the site itself.

Also, I'd like to point out there are still a lot of dialup users, and well may be more given current economic situations. Things like videos and huge pictures really don't serve a purpose if they take an hour to download.

I also know there is too much time, and knowledge on this site for it to disappear, and what I've read above seems to indicate it won't.

[JasonC]

With a few years of boards in several areas of intrest under my belt, I'll say the following.

Regardeless of the area of intrest a board serves, the population is transient. Peoples intrests and economic situations change, so they come and go over time. I've observed recently that the general amount of time most boardmembers on any site seem to stay interested is about 2 to 3 years.

A second observation is that power corrupts, and power over an internet board corrupts rapidly. It seems a lot of people who want to be moderators quickly prove themselves the worst people for that job. Club based boards, particularly those who feel the necessity to become 501 c3 corporations become insaneasylums at breakneck speed.

With that said, I freely disclose my knowledge of computers wouldn't obstruct a gnat's arse. I do however find a shortcoming in this present setup, that being the necessity to put a photo or picture on another site and link to it. For the computergeeks it might be a simple function, but to me, and possibly a number of others it's a pain in the arse. I hope any new system will eliminate that situation and pictures can be directly posted to the site itself.

Also, I'd like to point out there are still a lot of dialup users, and well may be more given current economic situations. Things like videos and huge pictures really don't serve a purpose if they take an hour to download.

I also know there is too much time, and knowledge on this site for it to disappear, and what I've read above seems to indicate it won't.

Good ideas Franz. We are looking into having a feature to where you can upload photos directly to the board as well as embed Youtube videos directly into the forum. Automatic picture resizing may also be something we can do (with link to the original of course). We have a few months to play and experiment with everything before the transition. I'll get the ideas thread up soon for you guys.

[md5]

With a few years of boards in several areas of intrest under my belt, I'll say the following.

Regardeless of the area of intrest a board serves, the population is transient. Peoples intrests and economic situations change, so they come and go over time. I've observed recently that the general amount of time most boardmembers on any site seem to stay interested is about 2 to 3 years.

A second observation is that power corrupts, and power over an internet board corrupts rapidly. It seems a lot of people who want to be moderators quickly prove themselves the worst people for that job. Club based boards, particularly those who feel the necessity to become 501 c3 corporations become insaneasylums at breakneck speed.

With that said, I freely disclose my knowledge of computers wouldn't obstruct a gnat's arse. I do however find a shortcoming in this present setup, that being the necessity to put a photo or picture on another site and link to it. For the computergeeks it might be a simple function, but to me, and possibly a number of others it's a pain in the arse. I hope any new system will eliminate that situation and pictures can be directly posted to the site itself.

Also, I'd like to point out there are still a lot of dialup users, and well may be more given current economic situations. Things like videos and huge pictures really don't serve a purpose if they take an hour to download.

I also know there is too much time, and knowledge on this site for it to disappear, and what I've read above seems to indicate it won't.

Good ideas Franz. We are looking into having a feature to where you can upload photos directly to the board as well as embed Youtube videos directly into the forum. Automatic picture resizing may also be something we can do (with link to the original of course). We have a few months to play and experiment with everything before the transition. I'll get the ideas thread up soon for you guys.

Sounds like phpbb3 with additional BBCodes.

I'm all for that, just please do not use the new phpbb theme, use the classic one. The new one is horrible if you ask me.

[siren_face2000]

So, from what I've read, there's going to be a new board?