New Ideas for the Site

Here's a bit of a stretch comment:

What if we registered as a non-profit, asked members to donate $5 a month each to cover a forum with much more bells and whistles, and maybe have enough left over to actually DO things - e.g. fund IRL lectures, bits of advocacy, self-publish books of our collective photography, etc (just blue-sky brainstorming here).

I wouldn't want to close the site to non-paying members, but maybe tier the permissions somehow - e.g. everyone can see and participate in the current discussion, but only paying members have access to the archives, etc

Stupid? Thoughts?
 
I don't like the idea of a paywall for the archives (what attracted me to the site years ago was ablarcs article on neon etc in central square) as they tend to have some amazing material. Perhaps paying members could get dedicated blog space on the server, which could also allow for a place to write for features which could go on the main page. I know I would use it to post up my transportation projects and buildings I've designed.

Edit: my class started as I was typing that. I would be in favor of a new feature being paid to help defray server costs as well as be put towards possible meetups, lectures or to fight towards a common goal. I enjoy the community enough I wouldn't mind paying $5 a month or so for an elevated status, and I think there is a bit of a consensus that the forum taking a more IRL stance would be a good thing. I just wouldn't want to see any existing features needing to be paid for.
 
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Pay us $5 each in damages for trauma caused by all the ersatz Rove-LaRouche-Moonbat-Developer Shill jello wrestling.
 
JohnKeith said:
How hard is its it to build a mobile site
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If they upgrade vBulletin (vB 4+), there is a built in mobile version. This is an ancient version. vB 3.7 was released in 2008.

I could theoretically build a mobile skin from the ground up in the skin editor (I did it for a forum I ran in 07-08), but it would be very time consuming and not optimized properly for today's mobile standards. The big selling point to vB 4 is that the backend code was completely rewritten, which included a reworking of the way the skins utilize CSS.
 
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I've been reluctant to upgrade to vb 4/5 because I've heard so many bad things about them. Ideally I'd like to migrate to a better alternative. Any ideas?

I'll make getting a mobile version of the board top priority. I'll keep you all posted.
 
briv said:
I've been reluctant to upgrade to vb 4/5 because I've heard so many bad things about them. Ideally I'd like to migrate to a better alternative. Any ideas?

I'll make getting a mobile version of the board top priority. I'll keep you all posted.
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4 is completely solid. The rollout was rocky many years ago (similar to 5's right now), but all the kinks have been worked out, especially for the basic functionality this board requires/utilizes. A like feature could easily be implemented too.

5 is a mess right now. Missing a ton of features and is rather unstable. It needs time to work itself out.

IPB actually isn't that bad nowadays. Definitely a solid platform. I had a license with them from 2010-2012.
 
The only other forum I visit regularly recently switched to a platform called Vanilla.

Seems similar enough to vBulletin from a user prespective, but I have no idea what the back end is like.

Edit: Looking into it a little deeper I see the Vanilla platform is just a tad bit more expensive than vBulletin. :(
 
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I remember when Vanilla was LGPL and free to use... it was underwhelming. Now it looks like it's just another SaaS. Meh.

Honestly, I used to love IPB when I owned a forum awhile back. Another major Boston-centric (though Sports related) site, Sons Of Sam Horn uses it and the mobile skin works flawlessly.
 
Vwvortex, which gets a ton more traffic than here (like 2 pages per section per day) uses vb 4.3, and its great. Although, I haven't had many issues with the back end here anyway. I think getting two more moderators would do a lot more for the site than an upgrade, but that's just me.

A mobile version would be awesome though, half the time I'm on here (currently) I'm on my phone, and it sucks…
 
I would like to see building height and stories right in the thread titles For us out-of-towners who don't know the addresses too well.
 
I think that issue was raised before the latest reformatting, and it was decided that the info beyond the project name and address would clutter the title.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
I think that issue was raised before the latest reformatting, and it was decided that the info beyond the project name and address would clutter the title.
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And with things the way they are the height and floor count changes a zillion times before the project gets capped off. PITA for the mods to keep changing it.

Not to mention, this isn't skyscrapercity: only a few members here fetishize height, and there is a general consensus that height and floor count isn't the end all. A solid, contextual building with good design, materials, and street interaction is far more important than comparing schlong size.


Edit: does vB let you have a subheading? It lists the OP's name, which IMO is the biggest waste of space. Can that be changed to more building info, or no?
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
I think that issue was raised before the latest reformatting, and it was decided that the info beyond the project name and address would clutter the title.
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So get rid of the clutter than. Building name, height, story's. What the fuck else do you need? And, really? Clutter the title?

THIS: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

is more clutter-some than this would be? Really?

Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 625" | 55 Stories
 
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davem said:
And with things the way they are the height and floor count changes a zillion times before the project gets capped off. PITA for the mods to keep changing it.

Not to mention, this isn't skyscrapercity: only a few members here fetishize height, and there is a general consensus that height and floor count isn't the end all. A solid, contextual building with good design, materials, and street interaction is far more important than comparing schlong size.


Edit: does vB let you have a subheading? It lists the OP's name, which IMO is the biggest waste of space. Can that be changed to more building info, or no?
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Skyscraper City isn't the only forum like this that does that. Most of them do, in fact. And it has nothing to do with "schlong size." It's important info to the project. Design, building materials, etc...that is shit you find IN the thread regardless of what the title is. I really don't care if a building is 10 stories or 50. But I WOULD like to know before clicking the thread and having to read through 74 pages to find that information out.

Whatever. Clearly it's a touchy, sensitive subject for some stupid fucking reason. Pretty sure ANY other publication would put the building size in it's headline - newspaper, TV, etc.
 
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I'm thinking the folders could go like this :O)

DUDE | GO | FUCK | YOURSELF
 
FSUViking said:
Skyscraper City isn't the only forum like this that does that. Most of them do, in fact. And it has nothing to do with "schlong size." It's important info to the project. Design, building materials, etc...that is shit you find IN the thread regardless of what the title is. I really don't care if a building is 10 stories or 50. But I WOULD like to know before clicking the thread and having to read through 74 pages to find that information out.

Whatever. Clearly it's a touchy, sensitive subject for some stupid fucking reason. Pretty sure ANY other publication would put the building size in it's headline - newspaper, TV, etc.
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Lol. You came in here and asked a question. Then passive aggressively posted when no one answered right away. Then bitch about the answer, and we're touchy? Okay, sorry we're so sensitive.

For better or worse this forum doesn't have many members with mod powers to change titles to your specifications. It is possible to have a back and forth about your question without flipping the fuck out.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Lol. You came in here and asked a question. Then passive aggressively posted when no one answered right away. Then bitch about the answer, and we're touchy? Okay, sorry we're so sensitive.

For better or worse this forum doesn't have many members with mod powers to change titles to your specifications. It is possible to have a back and forth about your question without flipping the fuck out.
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Nobody was "flipping the fuck out." The reasoning behind not doing it was absurd. It takes too much space? I just proved that the other way I suggested takes LESS space. I thought Bostonians were supposed have thicker skin than this?
 
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