bluesboy2003 Administrator
Zen Guitarist and
Pedal Steeler at Large
Posts: 1790
(6/6/05 9:36 pm) Reply
So what now?
Alright, guys. It's pretty obvious that GC101 has outlasted ezBoard. I need your feedback on where to move to, or even if we want to move anywhere at all.
There are basically three options
Option 1) Start our own bulletin board on a private server. Basically something like a phpBB. This is a cool option but it will take a lot of time to get set up. Taking into consideration that we have fewer than 20 hardcore members, including staff, this is an expensive option, although I may be able to finagle a server at work for us to use. Don't count on that, though.
Option 2) Move to another existing community. There's guitar.com, I suppose (please excuse me while I wretch ), and also Cyberjammin.com. I have no contacts with CJ.com, but hell, we've hosted a link to their site for years, the least they could do is adopt our hardcore members. I'm sure someone out there has at least one contact that could get us in. Disadvantages: we lose our low-key hangout place, and most of the higher-ranking staff are against it.
Option 3) Abandon GC101 and bulletin boards. Advantages: Um... you get back some of your time. Disadvantages: We say goodbye.
Speak up, and hope your post doesn't get deleted by the ezBoard gremlins.
Registered User
Posts: 2464
(6/6/05 9:51 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
Chris, Bro I'm really sorry to have seen what happen here.
I am sure Brett wouldn't have a problem with it.
One thing is that CJ really isn't a pg13 forum as in the use of lanuage and some threads.
not xxx but is a ma17 at times.
It is nowhere a Gcom.
A lot of great people there and some real players to.
You should email Brett., if you feel this is a option.
peace, bob
<!--EZCODE LINK START---<a href="http://www.robmizzi.com">www.robmizzi.com</a><!--EZCODE LINK END---
bluesboy2003 Administrator
Zen Guitarist and
Pedal Steeler at Large
Posts: 1793
(6/6/05 9:58 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
I think Dischord is the only person under 18 here, now, and even then, he's pretty mature for a 9 year-old. If anything, he can just ask his parents for permission.
Registered User
Posts: 280
(6/6/05 11:58 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
There is another solution too.
There's www.proboards.com. EZboard has been obsolete for a few years now. Most everyone I know that was on EZ have moved. Proboards is free (with some small ads) and really easy to set up. I've set up 3 of them myself, and they're really user friendly.
As for my opinion... I hate to be an axhole, but Guitar.com is full of kiddies and wannabes that do nothing but put down Yngwie, and compare Ephiphone to Gibson. I don't think I've seen a valuable post there in many months. I would just as soon move GC101 to Proboards. You can leave this site where it is and just post a link to the new board (that's what my other people have done). It could be set up in 1 day. If there's any questions about it I'd be happy to help answer them.
Anyway... I say LET'S KEEP IT GOING!
Litlgrl... what do you say?
~Vocals are what you stick in between guitar solo's~
Re: So what now?
A dedicated server is an interesting idea. I'd love to build and host one myself, but my ISP doesn't allow that sort of thing, plus it'd cost me a lot of money and I wouldn't be around to do periodic backups, troubleshooting, et cetera.
I think making the move to another board or something is a worthy choice, but that's going to take a lot of work. We might lose membership, but we've always had a tightly-knit core of posters.
Administrator
THE AUDITOR!
...hide the shredder!!!
Posts: 2953
(6/7/05 9:09 am) Reply
Re: So what now?
Like I told the other admins earlier.. If they decide to start over somewhere else, I'm willing to help in any way that I can.
If we move to another existing board, I won't be going. I was a CJ member for a time and it's a nice place, but not my kinda thing. I've only visited G.com in the past, and for reasons Mike mentioned two posts earlier, that isn't for me either. Looks like they haven't changed since I last passed through.
Re: So what now?
I'm on CJ now and my only complaint there is that they have some serious cliques that aren't easy to get close to nevermind penetrate. I've seen decent posts by people not in the cliques get 3-6 replies and something stupid by others get 30 replies. Other than that it's a nice layout and there are definitely a lot of helpful people there.
G.com has gotten better as far as the porn and stuff like that, but the personalities are certainly still there. It's a board with heavy usage and with that will always be a knucklehead or three.
I like the idea of the free board if it's doable. I don't think we could maintain a cash flow to go the route of a dedicated server. That does get expensive. So my first vote goes to exploring the idea of the free board mentioned above and see how that goes and a secondary plan would be a move to CJ (which would be preferred over a g.com move).
I've said it before, I've been here from day 2 and will continue to help in whatever capacity I can. Just ask.
Steve
__________________
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."
-- Plato
Re: So what now?
I was one of the first people here when things went up. I think that maintaining a private server would be expensive and time consuming, but, if possible, would be the very best situation. We'd have room to do a lot of things if we set our minds to it. Money-wise, I'd go with the other free board and see if it's going to work as well. Seriously, screw EZ Board though.
________________
Some guitarists are pandas too!
I don't care about bad press as long as they get my name right, and my name is Micah. Thats M-I-C-A-H
Re: So what now?
The proboards idea looks like a good alternative, if we don't want to spend the extra time/money/effort to have a dedicated server.
However, I would say that a dedicated server would be the best. Back during one of ezBoard's last total f*** ups, another forum I was a member of switched to it's own server (of course, the guy running it has his own server setup in house and a nice connection, so that saves some money), and aside from some minor downtime (I don't believe there was more than 2 days downtime, and that was when we switched BBS software, and he had to write a data-conversion tool himself), it's been a lot better than ezboard has ever been.
I don't believe they have any more "hardcore" members than we do, but many people there donate money to keep the site going.
I think if we really wanted to, we could find a way to do it. That way, we'd also be in control of what software to use, what the site looked like, and not succumb to the problems that ezboard has. Not to mention that we wouldn't be as big of a target for idiots who would want to cause trouble.
Registered User
Posts: 1822
(6/7/05 2:29 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
9 year old. Excuse me! :-p
I dont care what we do...as long as its not g.com
And i never though cyberjammin was anything "bad". I was there once,but kinda quit it...dont know why either..hmm.
Edited by: Dischord260 at: 6/7/05 2:31 pm
Just to give you an idea of the flexability of Proboards... You can decorate the place anyway you want to. Backgrounds, Link color main board colors, skins, images, etc... You can change the default avatar size, and the buttons. There's a "News Fader" that will scroll messages across the top of the page, and tons of little codes that you can use to add smilies, highlight topics on hover, dedicated private messages, and you can even add on a chat room. And there's a quick reply feature you can use too. The only problem I've ever seen on one is getting a message that says, "Too many connections, try back later." But the guy that owns Proboards has just completed an upgrade and that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.
If everyone moves to another established board (like G.com), I probably won't follow. I go to G.com already, but I do very little there. It's a waste of energy. A dedicated server is the perfect answer, but there's the time and money issues, and this is supposed to be for fun. I don't think it's really a feasable idea at this time.
.02
~Vocals are what you stick in between guitar solo's~
Registered User
Posts: 1823
(6/7/05 6:20 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
Ive never had the log out problem,but i dont really care for ezboards. I think proboards may be a good switch? Maybe we should just try it out for a while? And im with Ax,if you guys move to guitar.com...im gone.
Administrator
THE AUDITOR!
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Posts: 2954
(6/7/05 11:43 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
As far as cost goes, I won't finance the whole thing if payments need to be made but I will chip in. You can't see it now, but I was one of the contributors to the community chest here.
Administrator
THE AUDITOR!
...hide the shredder!!!
Posts: 2957
(6/8/05 10:55 am) Reply
Re: So what now?
Yup
And because of that, I've gotten into the habbit of typing up my posts in Notepad then pasting it... But sometimes I don't bother and just type directly. That's when Murphy's Law kicks in and I get logged out.
The odd time I'll come in and I'm logged in okay, then at some time when I'm just looking around I'll notice that a bunch of features I used to be able to see aren't there anymore. The first bunch of times I thought I was demoted back to regular member status... Then I realized I got logged out.
jimrthy Registered User
Posts: 6
(6/8/05 11:40 am) Reply
Re: So what now?
I certainly haven't been a hard-core member. I think this is the first time I've managed to drop by in 2 or 3 years. But I really enjoyed gc101 back then, and I'm really sad to see what's happened.
Looking through this discussion, it looks like most of you prefer the dedicated server option, except for the cost. Why not just get a web host to handle all the server details, and get somebody who's interested to set up, say, a phpBB? I won't make any recommendations (just so no one mistakes this for an advertisement), but you can find hosts out there for $10 a year (depending on the host, you might even get a free domain name out of it). Host some google ads, maybe, and you should cover that easily.
Registered User
Posts: 1208
(6/8/05 4:46 pm) Reply
Re: So what now?
Our St. Louis local music board abandonded ezboards about a week ago now, as a result of this. We were going to go on 7/1, but just moved it up because of the ezboard problems.
its a php thing.
the only cost is the server hosting, which ain't so terribly bad.
we just installed the php stuff & one of our guys did some programming.
you can check it out at www.gtp-inc.com/forum , and I'm sure our guy would talk &/or share some stuff with you.
Re: So what now?
Since I already am some sort of regular at CJ.com I don't have a problem with going that way. But I'd prefer this board to stay independent, so if the free alternatives suggested in this thread pass the judgement of those who know their shit about servers, board-software etc., that'd be the way to go, IMO.
), and also Cyberjammin.com. I have no contacts with CJ.com, but hell, we've hosted a link to their site for years, the least they could do is adopt our hardcore members. I'm sure someone out there has at least one contact that could get us in. Disadvantages: we lose our low-key hangout place, and most of the higher-ranking staff are against it.
Edited by: 
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