NSXCB Finances and web server costs

[UnhuZ]

Hi all,

well... i followed the yellow banner, but i got a "NSXCB Forums does not have any paid subscriptions available to which you can subscribe."

Does this mean i already contributed?? don't remember doing it for a while...

[mutley]

Hi all,

well... i followed the yellow banner, but i got a "NSXCB Forums does not have any paid subscriptions available to which you can subscribe."

Does this mean i already contributed?? don't remember doing it for a while...

Same for me, my "platinum" status has expired and i would usually top it up. I think this may be due to looking at relocating to a different Admin team / Server

Cheers,
Jim

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi all,

well... i followed the yellow banner, but i got a "NSXCB Forums does not have any paid subscriptions available to which you can subscribe."

Does this mean i already contributed?? don't remember doing it for a while...

Due to Forum server going down frequently, making some changes in the background.

Disabled the Platinum contribution temporarily for now so to answer your question, no, you haven't.

Will be posting something to discuss the future of the Forum later.

Kaz

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Same for me, my "platinum" status has expired and i would usually top it up. I think this may be due to looking at relocating to a different Admin team / Server

Cheers,
Jim

Hi, Jim.
As you guessed, forumadmin handed the 'key' to some of us on here and will post something related to it later.
Sent thank you message to him but would like to mention our gratitude properly on here later.

Because of this, the Platinum contribution feature is disabled for now until we setup the new account.


Will be posting his wish and also what we found last week in the background later.

NSXGB spent quite sometime housekeeping several aspects of the site and already making some progress.
At one point, we had to reboot the server like 10 times per day but we haven't done so for several days now.

Will also post something to discuss the future of the Forum with members on here.

Basically, AI crawlers, facebook crawling bots (nothing wrong), etc were making frequent visits.

There is a module to limit and slowdown these bots for self hosting like our Forum.
Probably one of the reason to consider cloud hosting through well known companies as they will take care of these.

Kaz

[UnhuZ]

Hi,

thanks Kaz for the news... i want to contribute to help keep this up.

does the new forum "reality" go in the same direction that Prime did??
i mean, they switched platforms from vbulletin, and doing that they
knowingly lost all the member photo gallery, and with it lot's of threads
are now useless because only the test remained.

I always hosted my photos directly in the forum so the image links would
never be broken, never imagining that the admins would be the source
of that damage.

Thanks,
Nuno

[PeterW]

Thanks for people's efforts to sort this out, NSXGB and I'm sure there are others.

The article on the home page with the link is great. Super photo as well. As the behavioural scientists say, if you want somebody to do something, make it Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely (EAST). You ticked all four boxes.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Thank you NSXGB for setting up the payment account.

So, the Platinum contribution is once again open to everyone.


Kaz

[mutley]

Brilliant Kaz,

Done now.

Jim

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi,

thanks Kaz for the news... i want to contribute to help keep this up.

does the new forum "reality" go in the same direction that Prime did??
i mean, they switched platforms from vbulletin, and doing that they
knowingly lost all the member photo gallery, and with it lot's of threads
are now useless because only the test remained.

I always hosted my photos directly in the forum so the image links would
never be broken, never imagining that the admins would be the source
of that damage.

Thanks,
Nuno

Hi, Nuno.

The Platinum contribution is now re-opened so please feel free to make donation.

Regarding the future of this site, prefer posting all of my personal view in a single post and not part of it out of context over multiples threads but since you asked, going to share some of it.


At the moment, my understanding is that we have about 12 – 18 months worth of funding.

So, we still have some time but not cost effective paying £500/year when only around 20 - 25 users making Platinum contribution.

And the existing configuration can’t cope with the frequent and increased visit of bots.
Had to re-boot the server every few hours just this week.

NSX Prime went through similar process recently and while thinking about my own view, it was natural asking them for their feedback.
I wanted to know what they went through, background, pros, cons, IT skill level, future proof, etc.
Knew Honcho for years so good to be able to share the view each other.


Mentioned this somewhere but when making changes, ideally you want making everyone happy.
But in real world, one must make difficult decision even if that means losing something.


Obviously, at Prime, the number of members, vendors, traffic, etc are completely different from ours and they can generate healthy amount of funds.
So, can’t do direct comparison but without going into the detail, I think they made the right decision.

Went for the cloud-hosting, moved away from vBulletin and entered the XenForo world.

On-going great support from XenForo team even before moving the database to their platform.
Pricey but Prime can afford it.

From your point of view, probably moving to vBulletin Cloud would be the minimum risk and I believe they have trial period.


Already spoke with Heineken about the Blog posts.
We are the only ones using it.
There is a chance that we may lose all of the threads in there regardless of staying with vBulletin or moving away from it.

We both agreed that while it would be nice if we can save them but if it helps the migration to whatever the future platform, we are OK losing them.

I already mentioned this somewhere but I actually don’t mind losing about 2,700 of my blog posts if it helps the database conversion.

Once started using the blog, never liked the limited ability for customisation and the template format.
Prefer making it like organised ‘FAQ’ page, something you can find on modern forum software and mobile App.

Some blog posts contain very old info and no longer reflects my latest view.

Never shared the know-how so even someone referenced my posts, will never get the same result.

For example, the engine would sound differently even if using the same parts/procedures.

May improve but will never fully resolve the slow window operation by just replacing the regulator or by installing the aftermarket friction reducer.

Etc, etc, ....


There are lots to discuss with everyone.

No one owns this Forum.

All the contribution goes towards the running of the site.

NSXGB, Senninha and myself are just volunteers helping the site.

Probably fair to place priority on the view from those who made Platinum contribution but again, it’s just my view.

forumadmin forwarded his view on several points and to be discussed.


Kaz

[PeterW]

Kaz, you are too modest about the value of your blog posts. Any information one gets off the internet has to be viewed with caution. Typically maybe 10% of the stuff one finds is useful and reliable. The information in your blog posts scores >99%.
Regarding the other information shared on here in threads by people like Jonathan and Heineken to mention just two, it’s an invaluable repository.
There’s a discussion going on in the NSX Club Facebook group at the moment about a fuel leak. There’s some useful information being shared. I think that discussion would be better held on here where it’s better archived and more easily searchable.
... and I should have mentioned also the WhatsApp group NSX Tech Talk. I'm sure it's a well intentioned initiative but I can't help feeling the discussions on there would be better held on here.

Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned and need to catch up with social media ....?