Message Board Renewal.

[Brian the Automator]

Our current term with ezBoard (our message board provider) is set to expire on February 13th. There had been an a tentative plan on my part to write my own message board software from scratch, and then move the message boards to a dedicated server. Unfortunately, due to a lack of time on my part, I had not been able to achieve this.

 

The positive news is that we have been given the opportunity by ezBoard to upgrade to their new software, Yuku, for a reduced price. The idea is that if we renew our message board at a 6-month price, we would get a year's worth of service. I've decided to take them up on their offer.

 

Initially, I hadn't liked Yuku much at all. I tried a beta of it, and while it had a lot of nice features, I thought it was too buggy to go to at the time. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but the reality is that ezBoard is no longer being supported with new features, and I'd rather not be left holding the bag when it finally gets killed off.

 

The financial bottom line is that we need to raise $947, of which we already have $287 in our community chest (which is now visible at the top of the forum). Many of you are already signed up as ezSupporters ($12 per year), and that has helped defray the cost greatly. However, there is a large community of lurkers out there whose visits count add to our service charges, and because they don't have accounts, aren't signed up as ezSupporters.

 

A little info on Yuku before you donate. Your ezBoard account is transferrable, and all our forums and posts will be migrated over to the new site, so there won't be any interruption in service (or a very minimal one). There are many exciting new features such as RSS feeds, and the interface follows a "web 2.0" paradigm, with many dynamic features that should make browsing the forums more intuitive (not to mention a search function that actually works).

 

So, if you get a fair amount of enjoyment from our forums, please donate to the community chest, and keep Brewerfan rolling.

 

If you have any questions at all, please post them in this thread. I know Casey has already done a fair amount of research into the nuts & bolts of Yuku, so between us we should be able to answer any questions and concerns you may have.

 

Thanks!

Brian Kapellusch

[MessiahRp]

Why aren't you just going to a free phpbb and spending $9.99 a month for an unlimited server? $947.00 seems like a lot for a very limited BB, IMO.

 

Rp

[BMuch]

Brian

 

Just an FYI - When you click on the "Make a Contribution" link, the goal of the chest is listed at $0 and it states that $0 of contributions are still needed.

[Brian the Automator]

[ Why aren't you just going to a free phpbb and spending $9.99 a month for an unlimited server? $947.00 seems like a lot for a very limited BB, IMO. ]

 

There's two primary reasons:

 

1) I don't believe there's a migration path from ezBoard to phpBB. We have a lot of history of posts and user accounts, and I want to do everything in my power to keep people from re-signing up.

 

2) The $9.99 per month deals are lousy when it comes to the amount of traffic we have here at Brewerfan. We're averaging 1.3 GB of transfer per day from the message boards alone... and that's at a time right now when there's not even any baseball being played. Some hosts offer gaudy transfer totals per month that seem terrific, but the reality is that they choke performance wise when it comes to that amount of traffic. EzBoard has, a large majority of the time, given us great scalability, and the last thing I want to do is experiment with other hosts with the bread & butter of our site.

[honuswagner21]

Just so I am clear, it was posted awhile back that we should not sign up for EZ Supporter because the thought was that the forum would be moving. Now we are sticking with the current setup correct? I would have signed up for EZ Supporter back then but held off. So now you are saying that it would be great if everyone signed up for EZ Supporter? I will be happy to sign up but I just want to make doubl-y sure that is what you want those of us who haven't done so to do.

 

I didn't realize all of the costs involved with making this site work. I am really glad that Brian has been so open with that so we can all rest assured as to what any donations would be going towards.

[Brian the Automator]

[ Just so I am clear, it was posted awhile back that we should not sign up for EZ Supporter because the thought was that the forum would be moving. Now we are sticking with the current setup correct? I would have signed up for EZ Supporter back then but held off. So now you are saying that it would be great if everyone signed up for EZ Supporter? I will be happy to sign up but I just want to make doubl-y sure that is what you want those of us who haven't done so to do. ]

 

At this point, it's much more worthwhile to donate to the community chest than to sign up for ezSupporter. As I understand it, Yuku doesn't currently have an ezSupporter system, so that benefit doesn't translate over there.

[1992casey]

Hold off on ezSupporter renewals. Yuku doesn't currently offer an ezSupporter equivalent, but plans to offer one in the future.

[Cyanogen5]

I am curious what the previous fund raising thread was for...sometime in October? I was under the impression that it was for renewing the board. Did we not raise very much money then, or was it for something else entirely?

[1992casey]

Brian can get into more detail, but the October fund-raiser was to defray Brewerfan.net-related costs rather than ezBoard/Yuku costs.

[Brian the Automator]

[ Did we not raise very much money then, or was it for something else entirely? ]

 

That was for:

- "main site" costs ($50 per month)

- Fanfest 2006 losses

- Cafepress.com store costs ($7 per month, of which $1 per item sold in the store is recuperated, but that falls short).

[pogokat]

I donated $50, though for some reason it hasn't shown up yet (not bragging, just making sure the money actually went to the necessary fund)

 

were about halfway there and should easily hit the necessary donation level in about 30 minutes at this rate!

[Cyanogen5]

OK, I figured it was something like that...I was hoping we had raised more than a couple of hundred dollars then (what the chest was showing when I logged on this morning)

[1992casey]

If you used PayPal, the directions tell you to click all the way through until you eventually end up back on the contributions page.

 

If you used a credit card, I'd check with the company to see if you're account has been charged.

[dadofandrew]

Brian, I donated something (cannot remember how much, maybe Paypal has a history) last year, and I don't show up...does that only include money during the pledge period?

[1992casey]

The Community Chest is a separate ezBoard thing (that can only be used for ezBoard/Yuku costs). It hasn't been open since 2004, so October's donations don't show up there.

 

In Paypal, if you poke around a little, there's a way to get to your past history.

[pogokat]

yeah, paypal shows that my payment was accepted, though it doesnt register in the history for some unknown reason...anyway its there..

[dadofandrew]

Mine was 10/6/06, just wanted to make sure you got it.

[Brian the Automator]

[ Mine was 10/6/06, just wanted to make sure you got it. ]

 

Yup, I got it, and it's very much appreciated.

[RyDogg66]

I get paid tomorrow and I'll donate what I can afford.

 

Thanks for all the hard work here Brian.

[Diskono]

Quote:

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Why aren't you just going to a free phpbb and spending $9.99 a month for an unlimited server? $947.00 seems like a lot for a very limited BB, IMO.

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phpBB has a horrible security track record and IMO, nobody should ever use it. There are other BB systems out there that are much better, but I have no idea if they have any ezboard migration capabilities.

 

In terms of web hosting, you usually get what you pay for, and $10 is not very much. Most of these cheap hosting companies are resellers that don't even have their own servers, much less physical access to them. For a site that does over 1 GB/day, you probably want something a lot more reliable. For that, $947/year isn't bad, considering everything included.

[amccabe32]

Getting close!

 

The total raised on 1/18/2007 as of 12:52 pm - $620

The total raised since hawing made the first donation on 1/14/2007 - $690

 

Thanks for all of the hard work Brian!

[1992casey]

Is pogokat's contribution included in the total but simply not showing up in the itemized list?

[LV Brewer Fan]

Do I win anything for putting us over the top??? Just kidding! Brian (and to all other contributors) thanks for maintaining this site and keeping us Brewer Fans up to date with the latest and greatest information. The donation is the least I can do to say thank you!

 

LV

[pogokat]

is it possible that paypal numbers are not showing up in the total because it usually takes tham a day or so to process transactions?

 

anyone else pay directly with money in a paypal money market?

[greeg35]

Quote:

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anyone else pay directly with money in a paypal money market?

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Not sure exactly what that means, but I did use paypal, and my contribution is on the list...