Cost

[Gary Lewis]

My intent is for this to be a cost-free and an ad-free forum.  I am already paying the freight on my web site, and within reason will pay for any additional cost for the forum part thereof.  And, since I don't think it is right to accept money for advertising when I'm using thousands of screenshots of the master parts catalog, the users of the forum should not see any ads.

But, am I missing something?

[ctubutis]

Gary Lewis wrote

My intent is for this to be a cost-free and an ad-free forum.  I am already paying the freight on my web site, and within reason will pay for any additional cost for the forum part thereof.  And, since I don't think it is right to accept money for advertising when I'm using thousands of screenshots of the master parts catalog, the users of the forum should not see any ads.

But, am I missing something?

I don't think you're missing anything at all, and the lack of monetary acceptance is a Good Thing IMO.

[Ford F834]

Gary, I agree that if it is feasible to operate a forum without advertising or mandatory dues that is a very good thing. The guy at Fordification mentioned specifically that he avoided FTE threads because of the 'spam'. I think this is worse when you view the site without logging in as a registered user, but still. At almost exactly the same time that PhotoBucket killed image sharing FTE's mountain icon started launching a pop up ad over the text field. It cannot be closed or dismissed, and blocks key features including the option to insert another photo and even the "post" button (you have to go preview > post). I can live with banners and side bars even though they waste space and slow down performance, but what FTE is doing is starting to look like spam and is the type of site behavior that makes me worry about the cyber security of my online device and I hate it. I wonder how much IB has control over it? I even wonder if the advertisers buying the space are being conned by false 'hits' just because users are trying to find a way out of the pop up. Again, I know IB is a business, but lately it feels more like a pushy rude salesman selling a scam. And the fact that they leverage that against user to make them buy paid memberships to "get rid of the ads" is a huge turn off.

[Gary Lewis]

I agree that FTE is getting bad about the advert's.  I was without my Supporter status for about 2 weeks recently and was appalled at what I was seeing.  And by that I don't just mean the quantity of advert's, which was large, but the raunchyness of them.  YUK!

But so far it looks like adding a forum will be no additional cost over what I'm already paying.  That is, if Nabble will do it for us, and it is looking better the further I get in.  However, there are other aspects of Nabble beyond the forum, such as photo gallery, news, blog, and mailing list & archive. And they say there are more to come.  But I have to idea if there is a cost to any of them.

So, that sorta brings us back to staffing.  I have no idea how many people it takes to make something like this run.  Chris - do you know?

[ctubutis]

How many people are needed depends on the skillsets available; one person can do it if they're clueful and much of it can be automated (backups and the like) but it'll take a bit to set that up.

It's the initial configuration that takes all the time, everything can more or less take care of itself from there assuming we set up automated tasks (hopefully Weebly allows such a thing, I imagine it can be done).

But we probably don't want to leave the keys to just one person, I've seen where that's happened on a Tempo forum I used to be on and that person plum abandoned everybody and everything related to that site, it's now offline (and has been so for years, I'm not gonna spend the money to try and resurrect a site from backups when the car itself hasn't been made in 20 years).

~~

Try using FTE without logging in as any username, the advertising is just overwhelming; IB knows how to maximize profit which I guess is the goal of any business but I don't like the feeling it leaves me with (as Jonathan just mentioned).

~~

My friend Tom showed up today and helped me with my electricity, we're 95% there with the 110V stuff, something I said at least a month ago and then decided to add more features & devices and I learned how bad it is to combine circuits, you can cause real problems where NO circuit breaker blows and the wiring just fizzes and burns up in your face. I still need the professional electrician to come explain how a ceiling fan/light kit was originally wired and how it needs to be now, I still have one stray red wire hangin' out of the breaker box and part of the garage has got either an open neutral or open ground, but it should be relatively easy to track down I hope.

-ct

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From: Gary Lewis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <[hidden email]>
To: ctubutis <[hidden email]>
Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2017 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Cost

I agree that FTE is getting bad about the advert's.  I was without my Supporter status for about 2 weeks recently and was appalled at what I was seeing.  And by that I don't just mean the quantity of advert's, which was large, but the raunchyness of them.  YUK!

But so far it looks like adding a forum will be no additional cost over what I'm already paying.  That is, if Nabble will do it for us, and it is looking better the further I get in.  However, there are other aspects of Nabble beyond the forum, such as photo gallery, news, blog, and mailing list & archive. And they say there are more to come.  But I have to idea if there is a cost to any of them.

So, that sorta brings us back to staffing.  I have no idea how many people it takes to make something like this run.  Chris - do you know?

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[Gary Lewis]

But, don't we need moderators?  Could just a few of us handle a forum like this?

As for having the "keys", you don't need to have editor rights on my web site to manage the forum. I could make all four of us administrators, which allows creating sub-forums, moving posts or threads, blocking people, etc.

Being an editor on the site allows you to create new pages, add/remove/edit content, etc. But I can make someone an editor on one page or every page on the site. Right now you are a site-wide editor. And that's what I was talking about when I asked you not to edit the site with a mobile device. But managing the forum can be done with a mobile device. For instance, I just created a new sub-forum called Garage/Shop & Tools on this iPad. But I wouldn't dare go into the Weebly editor, either the browser one or the app for the iPad, with the iPad as that is very likely going to cause serious problems.

And, speaking of garage, I'm glad you are getting the wiring sorted out in yours and in the house. You need to get that thing whipped into shape so you can do a road trip!  👍

On Saturday, August 5, 2017, ctubutis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

How many people are needed depends on the skillsets available; one person can do it if they're clueful and much of it can be automated (backups and the like) but it'll take a bit to set that up.

It's the initial configuration that takes all the time, everything can more or less take care of itself from there assuming we set up automated tasks (hopefully Weebly allows such a thing, I imagine it can be done).

But we probably don't want to leave the keys to just one person, I've seen where that's happened on a Tempo forum I used to be on and that person plum abandoned everybody and everything related to that site, it's now offline (and has been so for years, I'm not gonna spend the money to try and resurrect a site from backups when the car itself hasn't been made in 20 years).

~~

Try using FTE without logging in as any username, the advertising is just overwhelming; IB knows how to maximize profit which I guess is the goal of any business but I don't like the feeling it leaves me with (as Jonathan just mentioned).

~~

My friend Tom showed up today and helped me with my electricity, we're 95% there with the 110V stuff, something I said at least a month ago and then decided to add more features & devices and I learned how bad it is to combine circuits, you can cause real problems where NO circuit breaker blows and the wiring just fizzes and burns up in your face. I still need the professional electrician to come explain how a ceiling fan/light kit was originally wired and how it needs to be now, I still have one stray red wire hangin' out of the breaker box and part of the garage has got either an open neutral or open ground, but it should be relatively easy to track down I hope.

-ct

---

From: Gary Lewis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <<a href="javascript:_e(%7B%7D,&#39;cvml&#39;,&#39;[e-mail]&#39;);" target="_blank">ml+s12971n61h36@...>
To: ctubutis <<a href="javascript:_e(%7B%7D,&#39;cvml&#39;,&#39;[e-mail]&#39;);" target="_blank">ctubutis@...>
Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2017 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Cost

I agree that FTE is getting bad about the advert's.  I was without my Supporter status for about 2 weeks recently and was appalled at what I was seeing.  And by that I don't just mean the quantity of advert's, which was large, but the raunchyness of them.  YUK!

But so far it looks like adding a forum will be no additional cost over what I'm already paying.  That is, if Nabble will do it for us, and it is looking better the further I get in.  However, there are other aspects of Nabble beyond the forum, such as photo gallery, news, blog, and mailing list & archive. And they say there are more to come.  But I have to idea if there is a cost to any of them.

So, that sorta brings us back to staffing.  I have no idea how many people it takes to make something like this run.  Chris - do you know?

Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads, Weiand intake, Street Demon 750/ZF5/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
Blue: 2015 F150 Platinum 4x4 SuperCrew wearing Blue Jeans & sporting a 3.5L EB & Max Tow
Big Blue: 1985 F250HD 4x4: 460/T19/3.55's

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[ctubutis]

I left this alone for a while because I felt like I was saying things incorrectly and pissing people off. It's your site and I don't want to tell you what to do or how to do it, nor do I want to interfere and get in the way. As for Moderators, I would take a "wait and see" approach and add people/functionality as needed, if needed. The photo album/picture gallery thing is good to have but I haven't played with it too much.

[Gary Lewis]

I didn't sense that anyone was concerned. Not at all. So I don't understand. And I'm certainly am glad that you are "back". We need your input!  And especially on the FAQ/how-to issue. 

On the moderators issue, my concern is in getting in over our head. But if you think it won't be an issue then I'll rest easier. 

Welcome back, Kotter!

On Monday, August 7, 2017, ctubutis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

I left this alone for a while because I felt like I was saying things incorrectly and pissing people off. It's your site and I don't want to tell you what to do or how to do it, nor do I want to interfere and get in the way. As for Moderators, I would take a "wait and see" approach and add people/functionality as needed, if needed. The photo album/picture gallery thing is good to have but I haven't played with it too much.

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[Gary Lewis]

I had a chat with a guy that's been using Nabble, the actual forum infrastructure which we are using, for a long time.  Apparently Nabble is considering placing advertisements on the free forums.  He said that the last time they did that it was either $4 or $5/mo to get premium service w/o the adverts.  So, my intent is to pay for premium service if they do foist the adverts upon us.

[ctubutis]

https://adblockplus.org/ My response to that kind of advertising.

[Gary Lewis]

The ad-blocking software hasn't worked perfectly for me. When my status on FTE wasn't re-upped I ran adblocker on my Windows machines and it seemed to work. However, then I realized that it also eliminated some things that I relied on, like the link to go back to the main forum. And, whatever adblocker I have on the mobile devices didn't help at all. 

I don't like ads. 

On Tuesday, August 8, 2017, ctubutis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

https://adblockplus.org/ My response to that kind of advertising.

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