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Greg Amy
01-07-2014, 01:15 PM
I've been having emails conversations with the owner of this forum, Bill Sulouff. Many of you know Bill, he used to race VDubs in ITB. The topic of our conversations has been the future direction of this forum and how we were going to handle the ongoing invasion of spammers. We made a short-term change to the forum a few weeks ago by blocking new registrations, but obviously that's not a long-term growth strategy.

I offered to buy the domain name and take over the expenses and management of the forum, but Bill did not want to sell. However, he has offered that if we were to have a money drive and come up with the funds for it, he would upgrade the forum to the latest version of the software and give to me full administrative access to it. From there I can perform and/all management of it as well as distributing the administrative load.

An alternative offer was made to incorporate this forum as a sub-forum to "the brown board" (a.k.a., RRAX) but persons on both sides of the idea have some reservation (persons here did not like the brash nature of discussion there; persons there did not want to deal with the pedantics of the persons here). However, it is possible to create a discrete forum on that same physical location, but it would mean a complete break from the current forum and we would not have access to the host name of "improvedtouring.com".

Of course, one option is to just remain a close community with no new registrations, or re-open the registrations and deal with the spam. However, if you choose that last point - no changes but open registrations - I'm personally not going to take time deleting posts and banning users, and this place will revert into a spammer wasteland.

So I'd like to get some feedback from you, the participants of this forum, thoughts on where you'd like to see this place go. If you have other ideas, pass them along.

- GA

Andy Bettencourt
01-07-2014, 01:38 PM
Will the current version support a 'request for membership'?

Greg Amy
01-07-2014, 01:45 PM
No idea. Never managed VBulletin as other than light admin use, same rights as you have.

Jeremy Billiel
01-07-2014, 01:48 PM
It sure seems that most of the traffic is slowing down on this board as most have migrated to the brown board anyways. I see no reason to not have a sub-forum over "there".

I would think it would be cheaper to join forces than to pay for new software, etc

mossaidis
01-07-2014, 01:54 PM
There's always FB but FB does not allow for easy searching.

erlrich
01-07-2014, 01:57 PM
I would prefer to keep this site separate from others. It has its own identity, and even though it doesn't see the traffic some other sites do, the discussions here tend to be more relevant, and in most cases, more helpful than those on other boards. More civil too...most of the time.

I think Andy's question is a great one; if we could set it up so new registrations would require an admin's approval, that would be ideal. If not, I would be willing to chip in for the upgrade. How much $$$ would we need to raise?

gran racing
01-07-2014, 02:14 PM
Not on the Sandbox. That purpose is to be more of a closed environment and not on search engines whereas I'd hope this to be open to the public.

VB isn't that expensive. A new license is $249, an upgrade is $209.

VB does offer different ways to reduce spam such as the registration process. I started to incorporate a VB forum on my site, but never moved forward it for whatever reason. Can't even recall why any more.

Chip42
01-07-2014, 02:21 PM
stay here, do upgrade. get some paypal address and I'll send money. if 20 of us do that, we're golden. I think we can all list 20 people active here who could and should help.

dhardison
01-07-2014, 02:30 PM
stay here, do upgrade. get some paypal address and I'll send money. if 20 of us do that, we're golden. I think we can all list 20 people active here who could and should help. X2

Matt93SE
01-07-2014, 02:37 PM
What Chip said.
Sooooo many forums have anti-spammer stuff built into the registration process that I think it's silly to NOT do that as a first step.


Did a little bit of searching for a potential EasyButton online and came up with this:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248470

Has this been considered?

Greg Amy
01-07-2014, 02:51 PM
Has this been considered?
Nothing has been considered. None of us have full administrative access to this system.

- GA

gran racing
01-07-2014, 03:12 PM
Maybe that's the direction Bill needs to take. He's had several of us as moderators on here for many years now. It's not like we're talking about this massive forum where he's earning a significant amount of income.

Greg Amy
01-07-2014, 03:28 PM
Note part of the current idea from my post #1 is for us to fund the upgrades and I get full administrative control. Have no clue what I'm doing, but I'll have access to eff it all up.

lawtonglenn
01-07-2014, 04:23 PM
X2

X3

Ed Funk
01-07-2014, 04:37 PM
PayPal where?

Greg Amy
01-07-2014, 04:47 PM
PayPal where?
Not yet. Let's discuss this out first. I'd like to discuss this thoroughly before any money starts changing hands. - GA

dhardison
01-07-2014, 05:00 PM
Not yet. Let's discuss this out first. I'd like to discuss this thoroughly before any money starts changing hands. - GAIf the upgrade allows a new user registration process to be implemented, then it's easy-peasy. We pay and tGA does ALL the work. :happy204:

JLawton
01-07-2014, 05:17 PM
Not a fan of combining with the "other" site............... I think we would lose credibility.

Do the up grade. I will kick in money. :023:

mossaidis
01-07-2014, 05:24 PM
Not a fan of combining with the "other" site............... I think we would lose credibility.

Do the up grade. I will kick in money. :023:

ditto. I have offered to sell IT.com t-shirts as well. Still possible.

dickita15
01-07-2014, 05:31 PM
X3
X 4, keep it separate, put together a budget and i am in.

Eagle7
01-07-2014, 05:42 PM
Note part of the current idea from my post #1 is for us to fund the upgrades and I get full administrative control. Have no clue what I'm doing, but I'll have access to eff it all up.

I'm in. I'd love to watch Greg eff it all up.

ajmr2
01-07-2014, 05:55 PM
I would prefer to keep this site separate from others. It has its own identity, and even though it doesn't see the traffic some other sites do, the discussions here tend to be more relevant, and in most cases, more helpful than those on other boards. More civil too...most of the time.

I think Andy's question is a great one; if we could set it up so new registrations would require an admin's approval, that would be ideal. If not, I would be willing to chip in for the upgrade. How much $$$ would we need to raise?

Ditto, amigo. I'd be happy to chip in to keep this forum alive. MR2OC has free access as well as voluntary paid annual and lifetime memberships, which might be something to consider. Don't know how that gets set up but I can put someone with authority in contact with the former forum owner for his input.
ANYTHING BUT FACEPLANT, please!

:024:

Matt Rowe
01-07-2014, 06:32 PM
Count me in for keeping this board active and separate from the "other" site. Plus I can't wait to criticize Greg for any change, or lack of change, that he makes as the new HMFIC.

chuck baader
01-07-2014, 06:41 PM
As long as it is :Improvedtouring.com" who cares where it is hosted?

Ron Earp
01-07-2014, 07:00 PM
I've installed number VB versions and have fully administered GT40s.com since 2001. I'll be happy to help in any way you need and willing to donate money to get new VB software and help configure it if needed.

That said, I would highly recommend using a VB installer. It is possible for you to install it, but developers who make a living with VB know the patches, problems, doors, etc. that need to be shut. Plus, they're cheap. Usually for under $150 they'll do a upgrade and patch work on such a basic forum as this one. I have a good developer I use for heavy lifting on GT40s.com I could refer you to, and many can be found on the forum for VB folks.

Ron

gran racing
01-07-2014, 07:06 PM
Chuck, it's not about hosting. It's about whether or not it's open to search engines. A sub forum in the SB would not be open to search engines.

Greg Amy
01-07-2014, 07:09 PM
I'm beginning to see a glimmer of the participants' desired direction for this forum...

Ron, I'll keep that in mind, but I get the impression Mr Webmaster is familiar with the system. I'll certainly suggest that to him, though.

A few more details to work out then we'll get the ball rolling.

- GA

pfcs
01-07-2014, 07:24 PM
I am on two forums who did recently and both are in terrible declines while they try to walk it back (hopefully to vB4 or less) with NO cooperation from vBulletin.
One is a members only forum (NJAGC-an aquarium forum. The other is a moderately large 17 year old spinal injury forum at Rutgers http://sci.rutgers.edu/vb5/forumwith millions of posts.

Traffic is down 80% after "up-grade"
http://sci.rutgers.edu/vb5/forum/sci-community-forums/announcements-feedback/2923933-sadly-surprised-when-visiting-carecure

jwasilko
01-07-2014, 08:24 PM
Please keep it separate. I'll kick in $ for sure.

When I was looking for info on improved touring racing, google brought me here. I'm sure it's the same for others.

Knestis
01-07-2014, 08:33 PM
LOL at it.com being the civil solution among racing web boards. :D

Under the circumstances, I think it would be a good idea to expand the concept a little to more comprehensively accommodate the STx world.

K

RSTPerformance
01-07-2014, 10:30 PM
Keep it separate AND keep it simple... The more simple it is the better IMO. Let us know the per person budget/goal.

Sort of site related, does Bill still race and can you still get stuff from Bildon Motorsports, for some reason I had thought they closed but I notice the adds all the time on this site?? I am not saying they are not, but I would like to see someone go after "advertisers" that are relevant and a resource to all of us... I haven't noticed new adds in a long time. Another idea to raise money would be some sort of inexpensive marketplace for vendors to post sales and offers.

No matter what happens, I like this site... If it goes I will be bummed but I understand as we have seen a decline in postings. The content is generally more focused and we don't have to sift through all sorts of random or political posts unrelated (not talking about spammers) I do like the other sites for what they are... Large crowds and some other funny an informative stuff I wouldn't otherwise know about.

Raymond "just some thoughts" Blethen

Campbell
01-07-2014, 10:38 PM
Count me as a glad to donate..

Terry Hanushek
01-08-2014, 01:51 AM
I definitely think that the blue board and the brown should be separate. Even though there is a significant overlap of members and discussions there are very different personalities as mentioned above - attitudes, search engine availability, etc..

Another this to consider is that this forum as a subforum of the brown board would presumably be done without the current owner and all of the history (218,000+ posts would be unavailable).

With the costs mentioned by Dave and Ron, I suspect then entire cost of the upgrade and reinstalled would be under $500 and could easily be raised from respondents to this thread. Heck, we may even be able to buy tGA's lunch on the day of the upgrade.

With admin control in our hands, the STx forums could be enhanced and Touring forums possibly added.

I'm in

Terry

lateapex911
01-08-2014, 03:55 AM
Yea, Bills a great guy, and don't shoebox him into just ITB, he made speed in an ITS Corrado as well.

I think the obvious play is to upgrade this to filer registrations, and do it in such a way as to not lose the history and membership here. I've been wondering when somebody was going to ask for $$.

lets figure out a budget and do a drive. i'm sure the $$ and maybe a hosting budget could be raised.

gran racing
01-08-2014, 09:09 AM
I am not saying they are not, but I would like to see someone go after "advertisers" that are relevant and a resource to all of us...

Who is someone? ;)

Seeking cash for advertising on websites that don't have huge draws isn't an easy, at least for me.

erlrich
01-08-2014, 10:16 AM
LOL at it.com being the civil solution among racing web boards. :D

Well, you know, it's all relative. Clearly I've visited one too many of the PP threads on the brown board...


Under the circumstances, I think it would be a good idea to expand the concept a little to more comprehensively accommodate the STx world.

K

Just as long as we never, ever, ever, consider including a crapcan forum, we should be okay ;)



yeah, it's fun to stir up shit every once in a while

Matt93SE
01-08-2014, 11:32 AM
Ron, I'll keep that in mind, but I get the impression Mr Webmaster is familiar with the system. I'll certainly suggest that to him, though.


I'm with Ron on that extent.. I know guys that play with this stuff every day. it makes sense to enlist a pro that knows all of the little details and can upgrade the software and close some loopholes in a few minutes or hours where it may take the current folks a day or two and multiple tries to get it right.

As much as I like doing things myself, sometimes I find it more prudent to call in an expert. :024: It it means I drop in $40 to the pot vs $20, then I'm OK with that..

webhound
01-09-2014, 02:09 PM
Lol. I love crapcan, street tires and the brown board.

But leave this exactly as is. Do a minimal upgrade if it's needed for security and/or spammers.

I'll kick in some money to keep it here, wherever here is...

Will

Greg Amy
01-09-2014, 10:00 PM
Ok, so here's the deal.

As I noted before, Bill does not want to give or sell the rights to the domain ImprovedTouring.com (nothing rude, just has other needs for the domain) and he wants to keep it a "community site" (his words). However, he has offered to continue hosting the forum at its current location, upgrade the forum software, and give me - and those I knight - full administrative rights to this forum. In exchange, he asks that we cover the upgrade and ongoing expenses.

I estimate the software upgrade will cost about $300 (we can't get the "upgrade" price because it's too old, it'll be the same price now as a new buy) and that he estimates the ongoing costs, with further software upgrades, will cost about $150-200 per year (which actually seems awful low). Contrary to popular belief, there's not a lot of advertising revenue as he's not been charging the banner advertisers lately (they've been getting a free ride simply because he hasn't bothered to follow up) and the Google isn't much.

Bill has pledged to use 100% of any payments to the health, well-being, and maintenance of this forum. Ask around, he's well-known and has a very good reputation.

So, if we want to do this, it's time to dig deep into your pockets and let's get some money flowing. Bill is now accepting PayPal payments to [email protected]. He's told me that once we gets at least half the amount needed for the software upgrade then we can discuss timeframes for doing the work (he'll do the upgrade work for free). If you want, you can send a PM to me on the amount sent and I can keep a running tally on our progress.

Thanks, and let me know if you have any questions.

Greg



Click Here to Donate with PayPal >> http://www.improvedtouring.com/forums/images/pp-buttn.gif (http://www.improvedtouring.com/forums/misc.php?do=donate)





.

mossaidis
01-10-2014, 12:09 AM
Just saw this... I would add $ for mobile options as well. Do we need funds for consultants? Also, for those that do give through PayPal, EMAIL Greg!

RSTPerformance
01-10-2014, 01:25 AM
Please recomend a "respectful" donation recommendation.... Some people have deep pockets here and some have empty ones but we all want to help.

Raymond "Glad I will still have a place to post my success with Street Tires :)" Blethen

Greg Amy
01-10-2014, 08:14 AM
Please recomend a "respectful" donation recommendation....
No recommendations. Give what you think it's worth, I assure you that all funds will go back into the forum.

The only suggestion I have is that this initial pledge drive is for the upgrades; anything extra can help to get "extra" features added. Then we're likely to ask again each year to keep the lights on.

- GA

Chip42
01-10-2014, 09:40 AM
money sent - I sent part of what I saved switching to street tires ;)

Ron Earp
01-10-2014, 10:05 AM
Cash sent!:)

lawtonglenn
01-10-2014, 10:13 AM
I am on two forums who did recently and both are in terrible declines while they try to walk it back (hopefully to vB4 or less) with NO cooperation from vBulletin.
One is a members only forum (NJAGC-an aquarium forum. The other is a moderately large 17 year old spinal injury forum at Rutgers http://sci.rutgers.edu/vb5/forumwith millions of posts.

Traffic is down 80% after "up-grade"
http://sci.rutgers.edu/vb5/forum/sci-community-forums/announcements-feedback/2923933-sadly-surprised-when-visiting-carecure

.

After I read Phil's post (above) I did some research, and can confirm that
the overwhelming sense in the interwebs is that vB5 is a disaster.

MANY boards are trying to, or have completed, a BACKGRADE from vB5 to vB4.

PLEASE upgrade IT.com only to vB4 and not beyond... please.

PayPal contribution completed. Greg PM'd. Greg... please post running totals, ok?

.

Ron Earp
01-10-2014, 10:27 AM
I still run VB 3.8 on www.gt40.com due to some features it has that don't translate well to VB 4.X. No way in hell I'd go to VB 5.

ajmr2
01-10-2014, 10:27 AM
money sent - I sent part of what I saved switching to street tires ;)

Ditto. I have saved some money on brake pads, rotors and hubs!

:023:

Matt Rowe
01-10-2014, 06:14 PM
Donation sent and thanks to Bill, Greg and all involved.

Eagle7
01-11-2014, 10:20 AM
Donation sent.

gran racing
01-11-2014, 11:02 AM
Sent.

jwasilko
01-11-2014, 12:45 PM
Cash sent!

Greg Amy
01-13-2014, 07:20 PM
Thanks all for the donations. I got an email from Bill last that we easily met the halfway mark and he's already purchased and downloaded the software. He's aware of the v5 issue so we'll be moving to v4. He's out of town this week but will be reading and planning the upgrade while away and will have a better idea of timetable next week.

If you've got any requests for add-ons, post that here.

And if you've got thoughts of donating, now's the time, no matter how big or small (every little bit helps). It will all be used or this forum only. Let's get the cash flowing and we can look into upgrading and moving forward.

Greg

tdw6974
01-13-2014, 09:00 PM
Funds Sent!:023:

JLawton
01-14-2014, 08:43 AM
Really? Only half way? I would have guessed we'd be way ahead by now.........

Paid mine!!

gran racing
01-14-2014, 08:48 AM
Yeah, me too Jeff. Or maybe the final amount is different than I thought.

Flyinglizard
01-14-2014, 12:14 PM
GA please state the mission for this site.

Thanks, MM.

Matt93SE
01-14-2014, 12:35 PM
While playing with forum software, I'd like to see Tapatalk plugin installed. It's free from Tapatalk and makes the site mobile friendly..

mossaidis
01-14-2014, 12:53 PM
I sent $20.

kcolbey
01-19-2014, 09:15 PM
I haven't been on much lately with work and all. However, I like the direction that has been discussed and donated a few $.

Greg Amy
01-20-2014, 09:33 AM
Really? Only half way? I would have guessed we'd be way ahead by now...
No, what I said at the time was "we easily met the halfway mark" which was Mr Webmaster's benchmark before he'd begin committing the time and money for the upgrade.

I had a brief email exchange with him last night, and we've met our funding goals, with enough left over to cover operating costs. Thanks to everyone! Mr Webmaster has purchased the software and is beginning the planning process for the upgrade; he assures me that he's done several of these and is well-versed on the process. We have no schedule yet, but once something is nailed down I'll let you know when.

There will be one maintenance task that I'll need help on. If you go to the user list (http://www.improvedtouring.com/forums/memberlist.php)you'll see that we have something like 15,000 registered users, the vast majority of which have no posts. In addition, you can usually pick out the spammers, which have random characters or obvious advertising in their userID (e.g., "All AmericanStorage (http://www.improvedtouring.com/forums/member.php?u=21168)" and "plquumber5f (http://www.improvedtouring.com/forums/member.php?u=19377)"). We'll need to prune all those outta there. No way one person can do it. So at some point I'll be asking the current admin staff to clean these up on a regular basis (no rush, long term process) and ask if anyone else wishes to help.

I'm also likely to purge out old classified ads, ones that have been inactive for over a year or so, clean up the database.

Other than that, we'll get upgraded, add in some challenges to reduce spammers, and move forward.

Greg

Edit: Although we made our 2014 funding goal, please do not hesitate to donate if you've been procrastinating. 100% of that you send, no matter how large or small, goes toward current and future costs of the forum, and is sincerely appreciated. Mr Webmaster is hosting and doing all the work himself without charge, and your administrator staff here is all voluntary.

Bill Miller
01-21-2014, 06:57 AM
I realize that I'm a little late to this. Greg, I know many of the folks that run VWVortex, a REALLY big VBulletin site. I can speak to them and get any tips/pointers/etc. if you or Bill would like. I'll be sending some $$ later.

Greg Amy
01-21-2014, 08:09 AM
Any feedback appreciated, especially for any add-on requests.

Ralf
01-22-2014, 03:14 AM
I realize that I'm a little late to this. Greg, I know many of the folks that run VWVortex, a REALLY big VBulletin site. I can speak to them and get any tips/pointers/etc. if you or Bill would like. I'll be sending some $$ later.

Especially find out how to avoid the meltdown they had when they upgraded. Not sure if it was software or hardware, but they were down for some time while they straightened everything out. A lot of the FAQ/DIY posts didn't fare too well.

highwayracer
03-18-2014, 09:50 PM
Just saw this thread as I'm exploring the new format. Daily visitor but rarely log in and even more rarely post, but appreciate the content and discussions. Donation sent. Hopefully it can be put to good use. Thanks for all you do!

Larry

Greg Amy
03-18-2014, 09:55 PM
Thank you, Larry. All donations appreciated, funds reserved explicitly for forum maintenance and improvements.

ajmr2
03-23-2014, 03:42 PM
Hi Greg. The new site is looking good, however one thing I can't seem to find is the old quick "Today's Posts" link which I could save as a favorite. I liked that function since it only showed very recent posts rather than a long list of them, some of which haven't been updated in weeks. The "New Posts" doesn't seem to work the same way. Thoughts?

erlrich
03-23-2014, 04:08 PM
AJ - look under "Quick Links", that's where it is for me.

ajmr2
03-23-2014, 04:56 PM
Thar she blows! Thanks, Earl. You gonna play at MARRS 1? Can't wait!

erlrich
03-24-2014, 02:53 PM
Thar she blows! Thanks, Earl. You gonna play at MARRS 1? Can't wait!

MARRS 2 @ VIR will be the first race for me. I may come up to spectate for M1.

lateapex911
11-24-2014, 09:13 PM
It's back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We thought we lost you!!!

Thankyou, mystery webmaster!!

Seriously, there is ton of great data buried in the archives. And there were a bunch of people saddened by the possible loss of the site. Good to be back online

pitbull113
11-24-2014, 09:40 PM
Thank you!!!!!

webmaster
11-24-2014, 09:45 PM
Guys I apologize. I got a couple emails in the last week that confused me. Why were people saying the site wasn't back online?
Well, tonight I realized that the redirect everyone else was seeing was something that I didn't see as as an admin or even when I was using my "test" account. I screwed up.
You all should have seen the site back about 2 weeks ago...but tonight I changed that.

Now.... we are not out of the woods yet. The spamming community has IT.com on some sort of "hot list", probably since it has been around since 2000. There is a real possibility that we could get shut down by the web host again if they attack us.

I will have more free time (finally) over the next few weeks and when not spending time with family (or looking for a new house, and a new car, and a myriad of other distractions) I hope to be able to make some changes to assure the future of IT.com.

Ron Earp
11-24-2014, 09:51 PM
Alright!! Way to go and much thanks for all the work on the site!

iambhooper
11-24-2014, 10:24 PM
Glad to see this bar is back open! Thanks!

Greg Amy
11-25-2014, 12:51 AM
Thank you sir!!!

Terry Hanushek
11-25-2014, 08:40 AM
Welcome back

Thanks for the effort repairing our data

Terry

team-gpracing
11-25-2014, 09:31 AM
Great news!!

quadzjr
11-25-2014, 04:43 PM
Thank you Sir. for your time and effort.

Tom Donnelly
11-25-2014, 07:16 PM
Thank you from me too! I'm glad we are back.

Gregg
11-25-2014, 10:41 PM
Thank you, kind Webmaster sir. Glad to have this great resource back.

backformore
11-25-2014, 10:56 PM
Where do we PayPal donations? I tried the button on page 2 but got "smiles"? And what was the comment about emailing Greg?

Thanks.

ajmr2
11-26-2014, 02:09 PM
Well done, Sir! Just in time for the winter doldrums!

Greg Amy
11-26-2014, 02:31 PM
Well done, Sir! Just in time for the forum silly season!
Fixed... ;)

ajmr2
11-26-2014, 04:20 PM
I was trying to be nice! haha

Campbell
11-27-2014, 05:21 PM
Really nice to have this back, thanks for your time and effort!!

Flyinglizard
12-09-2014, 09:43 AM
Nice job, seems to be much quicker now.
Thanks for doing this.
MM