archBOSTON Update: A New Dawn

[Shepard]

My one and only concern is the how easy the forum is to read. My vision sucks. The current font + colors are very easy to read. The Toronto forum linked previously is not easy to read at all. Unfortunately, if the color + font of the Toronto forum is replicated here, I wont be able to post much.

Chrome has several accessibility-oriented browser extensions that will allow you to customize fonts, font sizes and foreground/background colors across individual websites or all websites. For example:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/care-your-eyes/fidmpnedniahpnkeomejhnepmbdamlhl?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/high-contrast/djcfdncoelnlbldjfhinnjlhdjlikmph?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/midnight-lizard/pbnndmlekkboofhnbonilimejonapojg?hl=en

Any of these might help you whenever you're online.

 

[jass]

Chrome has several accessibility-oriented browser extensions that will allow you to customize fonts, font sizes and foreground/background colors across individual websites or all websites. For example:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/care-your-eyes/fidmpnedniahpnkeomejhnepmbdamlhl?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/high-contrast/djcfdncoelnlbldjfhinnjlhdjlikmph?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/midnight-lizard/pbnndmlekkboofhnbonilimejonapojg?hl=en

Any of these might help you whenever you're online.

Ill have to take a look to see if something like that is available for Firefox (I do not use Chrome)

That being said, basic accessibility for websites shouldn't be a bonus, it should be standard. And all I am asking is for Edward to not screw things up since this current iteration works well.

Too many web designers prioritize "sleek" and "minimal" over "useful" and "easy."

I forgot what website it was (since I no longer visit them) but they did a redesign which made it impossible for me to use cntrl+scroll wheel to zoom into the text. The text would move to the left of the screen and images would cover it. They lost my readership for good.

 

[stick n move]

Did you read Briv's last post? He's delusional and he deleted all discussion of how badly he dropped the ball because he is embarrassed by his performance.

To be honest, I was just a little upset at Briv for selling the site to an outsider when we already had a plan, but I can see the potential for what Edward can do for us. Now however, I'm really pissed that he tried to gaslight us all.

I'm done with Briv. I held my nose and thanked him back when he was still in control. Now that he doesn't hold us hostage anymore, there is no need to kiss his butt and prop up his delusions.

He was a lousy admin for YEARS.

He failed us.

Good riddance.

I did and I agree Im not standing up for him. He also said he checked the site every day, if true thats even worse because that means he purposely ignored everyone. None of that is acceptable. Thats why Im glad he sold it. At the end of the day its his site and he can do as he chooses, but Im hopeful skyrise understands the community and that less is more, just let us talk and post thats all we need.

My 1 point was regarding the thread about moving the site, nobody can expect him to keep that up. That would be a horrible business decision. Although he didnt do much, Id expect him to take that down and cant blame him. Besides that though yes agreed.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Well, as soon as I saw that large gap appear at the top and bottom of the forum yesterday, I knew exactly what was coming. Here come the ads.

Also, thanks for everyone's vote of confidence. It is much appreciated.

What's an ad? Seriously, people...less complaining, more uBlock.

Unless you're on a work machine that locks down browser addons in draconian fashion, there's no excuse for browsing today without an adblocker and watching the entire web slow to a crawl under the weight of third-party ads. Adblockers very much do give you the right to whitelist a site like aB where you see the click revenue going to a good cause, while filtering out the other 99.9% of unwanted, unsolicited, and performance-degrading ad clutter out there.

 

[Blackdog]

I wish Briv had given us, the community, the ability to match the offer that he got from Edward. I believe we could have crowd sourced the money and then we'd have control of the site.

 

[kmp1284]

I wish Briv had given us, the community, the ability to match the offer that he got from Edward. I believe we could have crowd sourced the money and then we'd have control of the site.

I’m surprised someone was willing to pay anything at all. Even at a few thousand bucks it’ll take Edward a long time to nickel and dime his way back into the black on the ad revenue.

 

[odurandina]

I'd reiterate mod support for Data, Equilibria, Beton, Beeline, and the existing Mods (Statler and Van - anyone else?).

100% agree. This list is great.
Sorry Van, for neglecting to include you in my long post.
Beton is also a great submission to the short list for mods.

 

[FK4]

100% agree. This list is great.
Sorry Van, for neglecting to include you in my long post.
Beton is also a great submission to the short list for mods.

Forgot Equilibria, yeah him too.

 

[SkyriseCities]

Thanks for all the comments. Let me say the following:

1. I have no interest in messing with the content of the forums. That's the lifeblood of the site. That means hands-off outside of removing content that is racist, sexist, harmful towards others etc. Trolls and spam accounts will be removed.

2. The banner ads are helping pay the bills. There will be no other changes beyond this.

3. I don't have anything to add to any of the previous discussions that took place here regarding the future direction/ownership of the site. I was approached a couple of weeks back to purchase the site. Seeing the state of the current site I saw an opportunity to improve it. I do own UrbanToronto and have run it since 2002. I know how to operate a forum like this and know what it takes to manage a vibrant community.

4. My plans right now are two fold:
a. Build up a team of moderators (PM with suggestions)
b. Upgrade the forum software.

I know some people are upset by the recent changes. Let me state I have no interest in damaging what is a successful site that just needs some tlc.

 

[whittle]

Thanks for all the comments. Let me say the following:

1. I have no interest in messing with the content of the forums. That's the lifeblood of the site. That means hands-off outside of removing content that is racist, sexist, harmful towards others etc. Trolls and spam accounts will be removed.

2. The banner ads are helping pay the bills. There will be no other changes beyond this.

3. I don't have anything to add to any of the previous discussions that took place here regarding the future direction/ownership of the site. I was approached a couple of weeks back to purchase the site. Seeing the state of the current site I saw an opportunity to improve it. I do own UrbanToronto and have run it since 2002. I know how to operate a forum like this and know what it takes to manage a vibrant community.

4. My plans right now are two fold:
a. Build up a team of moderators (PM with suggestions)
b. Upgrade the forum software.

I know some people are upset by the recent changes. Let me state I have no interest in damaging what is a successful site that just needs some tlc.

I'm sorry if I'm sound rude, but this is coming across as, "I'm good at this trust me," and many of us would like something more than that. Like what have you done to make Urbantoronto and SkyriseCities so successful that could also be done here? Is it just good moderators and software?

Also, Urbantoronto seems to feature in-house development news and the "services" page indicates you do some more business with developers than selling ad space to them (it looks like some type of consulting business?). Should we interpret, "There will be no other changes beyond this," as meaning you don't intend to bring either of those aspects of your business here? Not that I'm opposed to either of things, it would just be nice to know what we're getting into.

 

[HenryAlan]

Thanks for all the comments. Let me say the following:

1. I have no interest in messing with the content of the forums. That's the lifeblood of the site. That means hands-off outside of removing content that is racist, sexist, harmful towards others etc. Trolls and spam accounts will be removed.

2. The banner ads are helping pay the bills. There will be no other changes beyond this.

3. I don't have anything to add to any of the previous discussions that took place here regarding the future direction/ownership of the site. I was approached a couple of weeks back to purchase the site. Seeing the state of the current site I saw an opportunity to improve it. I do own UrbanToronto and have run it since 2002. I know how to operate a forum like this and know what it takes to manage a vibrant community.

4. My plans right now are two fold:
a. Build up a team of moderators (PM with suggestions)
b. Upgrade the forum software.

I know some people are upset by the recent changes. Let me state I have no interest in damaging what is a successful site that just needs some tlc.

Thanks for reiterating this. I don't think many of us are bothered by the ads at the moment. I consider them to be completely unobtrusive to the extent that I barely notice them. If they can cover the cost of hosting, license, etc., I think that's great/ Beyond that, I suspect everybody is good with the plans outlined in item 4. That said, I recommend moving quickly on 4a, but waiting on 4b beyond anything required to stabilize the platform. The first part will help you to establish trust with the community. Once that is established, we will likely be very interested to have a conversation about the second part.

 

[SkyriseCities]

I'm sorry if I'm sound rude, but this is coming across as, "I'm good at this trust me," and many of us would like something more than that. Like what have you done to make Urbantoronto and SkyriseCities so successful that could also be done here? Is it just good moderators and software?

Also, Urbantoronto seems to feature in-house development news and the "services" page indicates you do some more business with developers than selling ad space to them (it looks like some type of consulting business?). Should we interpret, "There will be no other changes beyond this," as meaning you don't intend to bring either of those aspects of your business here? Not that I'm opposed to either of things, it would just be nice to know what we're getting into.

Not sure what kind of response you want. UT works. archBOSTON needs work. What you are getting into is what I mentioned above. The forum will be upgraded and moderated properly. New members will be able to join. Trolls will be banned. And so forth. That's the plan.

 

[SkyriseCities]

Thanks for reiterating this. I don't think many of us are bothered by the ads at the moment. I consider them to be completely unobtrusive to the extent that I barely notice them. If they can cover the cost of hosting, license, etc., I think that's great/ Beyond that, I suspect everybody is good with the plans outlined in item 4. That said, I recommend moving quickly on 4a, but waiting on 4b beyond anything required to stabilize the platform. The first part will help you to establish trust with the community. Once that is established, we will likely be very interested to have a conversation about the second part.

Moderation is what I'm working on.

 

[ulrichomega]

Not sure what kind of response you want. UT works. archBOSTON needs work. What you are getting into is what I mentioned above. The forum will be upgraded and moderated properly. New members will be able to join. Trolls will be banned. And so forth. That's the plan.

Would it be possible for you to outline a set of upgrades you're planning to make? Things like moving to a different software (will the archives be persisted), adding features to the existing setup, any non-forum features to be added?

 

[whittle]

Not sure what kind of response you want. UT works. archBOSTON needs work. What you are getting into is what I mentioned above. The forum will be upgraded and moderated properly. New members will be able to join. Trolls will be banned. And so forth. That's the plan.

I feel like this was a rather specific question:

Also, Urbantoronto seems to feature in-house development news and the "services" page indicates you do some more business with developers than selling ad space to them (it looks like some type of consulting business?). Should we interpret, "There will be no other changes beyond this," as meaning you don't intend to bring either of those aspects of your business here?

And I think the main reason I'm asking is you've told us to look at your other sites to see what can be done here, and when I look at them, I see something that's somewhat more than a well moderated, modern forum with banner ads. But then when we've asked you to explain what your plan for here you seem to be insisting that it's just going be a well moderated, modern forum with banner ads.

 

[DZH22]

^Sorry, but I don't agree with DZ and Stick as mods. They are way too controversial. I'd rather have someone like Data or Beeline.

I agree, I wouldn't want DZ to be a mod. That guy talks way too much smack sometimes. I'd rather just look at his pics and ignore (most of) the rest of it.

With that said, some of the people here are way too thin-skinned. I don't want to see half of the posts deleted just because you don't agree with them. Sometimes conversations get off topic, but then well-thought out, time-consuming posts are removed as part of it. There's nothing more enraging than spending an hour to write a well-researched post and have it disappear.

 

[DZH22]

.....But, I just want to reiterate to people, I NEVER ABANDONED THE SITE. I continued checking on and reading the board daily. I made sure the lights stayed on, and if there were any technical problems, which did pop up from time to time, I made sure they were resolved.

It became clear to me recently that I no longer had the time nor the inclination to run the site anymore and something needed to be done. I attempted to reach out and figure out a new direction for the site with some members but, again, the organizing was impossible for me. People were going in too many different directions and I couldn't figure out the way forward. I threw up my hands in frustration and decided I just didn't want to do this anymore.

Oh man, you must work in HR. Nobody spews the BS quite like the folks in HR. I'm guessing you don't have any mirrors in your house.

PS thanks for starting the site, but you also did your best to ruin it by leaving all new members hanging for.... years?

 

[tysmith95]

I agree, I wouldn't want DZ to be a mod. That guy talks way too much smack sometimes. I'd rather just look at his pics and ignore (most of) the rest of it.

With that said, some of the people here are way too thin-skinned. I don't want to see half of the posts deleted just because you don't agree with them. Sometimes conversations get off topic, but then well-thought out, time-consuming posts are removed as part of it. There's nothing more enraging than spending an hour to write a well-researched post and have it disappear.

No offence man. You're a great contributor.

As far as deleting things, I like the way Van and Statler have handled it over the years, trying to keep the political bickering out of the project forms but not doing much sensoring beyond that.

I'm also a fan on how they handled the harbor garage thread, which was becoming a constant ranting thread.

 

[DZH22]

No offence man. You're a great contributor.

None taken. I didn't write that sarcastically. I can be a huge asshole when I want to be, and sometimes I absolutely DO want to be. We don't need a mod like that. I'm happy to just keep providing a steady stream of pictures and pro-height, anti-width opinions!

 

[FK4]

I don’t remember ever seeing anything deleted until recently… What I did notice was the moderators would sometimes move conversations to a different thread, and that only when things got out of control, rantwise.