What's happening in 2010 on the DSF?

[Justin]

My intention in the new year is to move the Forum to a better platform on a different hosting package. The upside to this is that we'll have more facilities and far more flexibility. The downside is that it appears we cannot get the database from Forumotion to allow all of the exising threads to be migrated across. I'm told there may be a way to do this but it's a long shot and would seem unlikely. The only alternative will be to manually input the threads onto the new forum We have a lot of useful information on here so one way or the other we'll move it all across.

Everyone will need to re-register but this shouldn't be a problem. Basically we're starting from scratch, something I'd hoped not to do but long term I'm sure it's for the best.

Financially there will be the need to raise some money but it won't be an awful lot. I may be able to cover this myself, that's the preffered option. Otherwise, I have been approached by a couple of suppliers interested in advertising. If we do use adverts they won't be too intrusive but as I say this isn't my first option. I've pretty much ruled out any form of membership because this kind of goes against my initial reasons for setting up.

If there's anything in particular you want to see on the forum that we havn't discussed please send me a PM.

I'm hoping to get the new forum up and running asap. Both will run side by side for some time until I'm happy we can make the transition.

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to thank all of our members for their support since we started out just 3 short months ago. I never expected the forum to take off as quickly as it has and with the new forum just around the corner I expect we can see a leap forward in the new year.

Happy New Year to you all and your families.

Take care & stay safe............and keep posting in 2010!

Justin

[Stitch Up]

Personally, I'm not overly keen on advertisers paying for the forum especially when some members have suggested a donation button. The forum will lose some of it's independence when we accept paying advertisements.

What is the anticipated cost of running and hosting this forum over the next 12 & 24 months?

What do others think?

John

[JSR]

Personally, I'm not overly keen on advertisers paying for the forum especially when some members have suggested a donation button. The forum will lose some of it's independence when we accept paying advertisements.

What is the anticipated cost of running and hosting this forum over the next 12 & 24 months?

What do others think?

John

I'm with you.

If we know upfront what the costs are, and there's a running tally next to the donation button, I'm sure the costs can be covered. If that doesn't happen, then maybe that will be the time to consider advertisers.

[Justin]

This is my preffered option. At the moments the costs don't look too bad at all, I'm just getting everything together. I will enable a donation button on the new site and we'll have to monitor this to see how it goes.

If I can avoid advertising I will

Justin

[Paul]

This is my preffered option. At the moments the costs don't look too bad at all, I'm just getting everything together. I will enable a donation button on the new site and we'll have to monitor this to see how it goes.

If I can avoid advertising I will

Justin

I am not big fan of adverts but I am not the enemy of it if we have to that means we have to. end of story. but as JSR said. we wont be independent.
Justin. Can you simply say what is the cost so we all know? and what do you mean by "new site" ??

[Justin]

I want to move the forum to a phpBB platform with a new hosting package under the same domain name (eventually)

Cost wise, the hosting is likely to cost no more than £5 per month to start with. I will be transferring the domain name into this new host package so that will be included, currently it is a seperate cost.

Other costs will no doubt arise but we can deal with these as and when., this will partly depend on the features that we want. I may need some help setting up the new forum as my time is limited. I'm still hoping for a way to grab the data off here but havn't found this as yet.

Justin

[Justin]

OK. Hosting costs are £6.95 p/m. If we can pay upfront for 6,12,18,24 months it gets cheaper. I'll start us off on monthly and cover the setup fee and first month to see how it goes. I can transfer the domain name over pretty quickly, may take a bit of work with the re-directions to this forum so we may have to use the Forumotion address for a couple of days......

http://subli.forumotion.com/

[Justin]

Also looking at templates for the forum. Do we want to keep it clean and simple like existing or do we need something a bit better?

Links to ideas welcome, I'm looking at a few now. take a look at this.....

http://osc.template-help.com/nuke_3839/

Not really what we would be after but how about a similar layout to allow for different sections, supplier lists, tutorials etc?

[accdave]

Not really what we would be after but how about a similar layout to allow for different sections, supplier lists, tutorials etc?

I'm lost. Whats up with this one ?

[Justin]

We want to be able to expand on the information here, tutuorials, guides etc.
If we stay with this particular platform it makes any future expansion very difficult. We may already have to start from scratch so the sooner we make the hop the better.

At the moment this platform works really well for us but I think we need to look to the future. I appreciate all input though