Site updates - vBulletin 4.2, Tapatalk 4.1.0 aand a new version of Vision Collision!

[Monsta_AU]

Hi guys;

As you may have seen, I have taken a bit of time this afternoon to run some updates on the forums. The main changes are as follows:

• vBulletin patched & upgraded to v4.2.pl2
• Updated TapaTalk to v4.1.0
• Updated Vision Collision template to the vB v4.2 level
• Enabled ForumRunner (integrated vBulletin mobile app), a similar plugin to TapaTalk.

As you can see, the layout is a bit nicer thanks to the updated styles and things seem more responsive.

I will be upgrading further plugins as I get around to them, but I do not believe anything is broken. If you are having issues, please post to the Upgrade Issues thread.

-Monsta

 

[Mark1966]

Thanks for you work on maintaining this site mate.

I regularly click through adverts to try and generate some revenue. Now we are getting a few people here let us know if we can contribute to costs and how to do so. Even if you will not ask I've raised it now

 

[Mong.]

let us know if we can contribute to costs and how to do so

I thought I'd second this thought. I'm totally ignorant as to forum costs, but this place has been great help for me and I'd happily contribute a few bucks to help maintain it.

Thanks RM, you do a great job mate. If accepting donations isn't something you'd be comfortable with, I had another thought. I wonder if it'd be possible to tee up with an Aussie shave store some kind of customised merch that we common folks could buy, and the price could include a percentage to go to maintaining the forum. Something like a brush would be great, it'd be a practical and usable purchase or just a pleasant looking memento of this place. That's probably a tough option, but shit, even if it was a t-shirt I'd spring for one.

Might also be a good way to lure a few new members around too.

 

[Monsta_AU]

At this stage the running costs of the server hardware is fairly low ($35/mo) and about to drop to virtually nothing as I move it to my employer's hardware for free. I have needed a VPS for work purposes so I am able to claim some of it back on tax anyway.

The biggest cost is more the vBulletin licencing - version 5 is due out over the next few months and we will move to it as there are some very significant improvements in the management side. While we are licenced for v4.x.x, to move to the v5 branch will cost us around $300.

While I appreciate Mark's efforts on some of the Ads, the income from it is rather low. I would prefer a vendor contribution system but since the costs are so low at the current time, I am not worried.

Merchandising - we are simply not big enough yet. We wouldn't sell 50 custom brushes yet.

The best thing you can do is get out there and spread the word, get more people involved with the forums.

 

[eggbert]

I quite often use the New Posts page, but don't always want to read every single thread (I have generally read as much as I need to on the front page). Is there any way to mark threads as having been read from this section so they don't show up each time?

Not that you aren't all scintillatingly interesting writers, I just know (for example) that I would never want to buy any GEM SE blades so there is little use in me reading a thread about them. I also don't want to read others reviews until I get my mucky hands on the travelling PIF. I don't want to have opinions on the blades before I get to try them.

/Edit Excuse my ignorance, I just found the Mark Threads read button.