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Thread: Forum Status and Future Direction

  1. #1
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    Default Forum Status and Future Direction

    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
    Last edited by Greg Amy; 01-07-2014 at 02:23 PM.

  2. #2
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    Will the current version support a 'request for membership'?
    Andy Bettencourt
    New England Region 188967

  3. #3
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    No idea. Never managed VBulletin as other than light admin use, same rights as you have.

  4. #4
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    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
    Jeremy Billiel

  5. #5
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    There's always FB but FB does not allow for easy searching.
    Demetrius Mossaidis aka 'Mickey' #12 ITA NESCCA
    '92 Honda Civic Si
    STFU and "Then write a letter. www.crbscca.com"
    2013 ITA NARRC Champion and I have not raced since.

  6. #6
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    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?
    Earl R.
    240SX
    ITA/ST5

  7. #7
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    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.
    Dave Gran
    Real Roads, Real Car Guys – Real World Road Tests
    Go Ahead - Take the Wheel's Free Guide to Racing

  8. #8
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    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.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chip42 View Post
    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
    Dan
    2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013 Great Lakes Division ITB Champion

  10. #10
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    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?
    Houston Region
    STU Nissan 240SX
    EProd RX7

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matt93SE View Post
    Has this been considered?
    Nothing has been considered. None of us have full administrative access to this system.

    - GA

  12. #12
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    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.
    Dave Gran
    Real Roads, Real Car Guys – Real World Road Tests
    Go Ahead - Take the Wheel's Free Guide to Racing

  13. #13
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    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.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by dhardison View Post
    X2
    X3

    Glenn Lawton
    GSMmotorsports
    #14 ITS RX7
    NARRC ITS Champion 2012
    NERRC ITS Champion 2013 12 11 10 09 08
    NERRC STU Champion 2010

    __________________

  15. #15
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    PayPal where?
    Ed Funk
    NER ITA CRX, ITB Civic, ITC CRX (wanna buy a Honda?)
    Smart as a horse, hung like Einstein!

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ed Funk View Post
    PayPal where?
    Not yet. Let's discuss this out first. I'd like to discuss this thoroughly before any money starts changing hands. - GA

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Amy View Post
    Not yet. Let's discuss this out first. I'd like to discuss this thoroughly before any money starts changing hands. - GA
    If the upgrade allows a new user registration process to be implemented, then it's easy-peasy. We pay and tGA does ALL the work.
    Dan
    2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013 Great Lakes Division ITB Champion

  18. #18
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    Not a fan of combining with the "other" site............... I think we would lose credibility.

    Do the up grade. I will kick in money.
    Jeff L

    ITA Miata



    2010 NARRC Champion

    2007 NERRC Championship, 2nd place
    2008 NARRC Championship, 2nd place
    2009 NARRC Championship, 2nd place

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by JLawton View Post
    Not a fan of combining with the "other" site............... I think we would lose credibility.

    Do the up grade. I will kick in money.
    ditto. I have offered to sell IT.com t-shirts as well. Still possible.
    Demetrius Mossaidis aka 'Mickey' #12 ITA NESCCA
    '92 Honda Civic Si
    STFU and "Then write a letter. www.crbscca.com"
    2013 ITA NARRC Champion and I have not raced since.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by lawtonglenn View Post
    X3
    X 4, keep it separate, put together a budget and i am in.
    dick patullo
    ner scca IT7 Rx7

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