Combining boards

Danny Stewart · #1 March 14, 2005, 9:57 AM

As most of you know, I run three sites. Two of the three sites are falling apart and becoming outdated, so I am considering combining all three message boards into one single set of forums for all my users, so they can post anywhere and do whatever they want. I'm still a while away from implementing it, but what would people's thoughts on this be? (It would probably be on my personal site, DannyStewart.com.)

Ross Hendrie · #2 March 14, 2005, 11:43 AM

Hmm, well it would succeed in bringing activity back to all three sites(then we can finally finish that Dr who rp on DS.com), i think it's a good idea.

Danny Stewart · #3 March 14, 2005, 11:47 AM

Glad you approve. Combining accounts might be difficult, but I'm sure we could work it out. The script is designed to combine usernames that are the same. So David, I could change your username from Ross Hendrie to David Hunt on DS.com (or vice versa) and then your two accounts would be merged. As long as I did that the whole way across, we should be good to go, and then we'll still have everything we ever had, just on one site instead of three. And that way, activity will surely shoot up on all three sites (or rather on the one new site).

Chris Britton · #4 March 15, 2005, 5:25 AM

Sounds like a good idea. it would add a lot of depth to the sites and give us a lot more things to do. it could help us get activity up further as people could go on longer and post more and more. I am behind this idea Captain it sounds really cool and is very smart. It is always nice to add new things.

Does this mean Tetryon would be moved to dannystewart.com since you did say two sites would be moved?

Danny Stewart · #5 March 15, 2005, 6:19 AM

Thanks Chris. Currently my idea is essentially to have everything on DannyStewart.com. I may have dannystewart.com/tetryon be the Tetryon's main page, and when you go to the forums, it'll take you to a category on the forums reserved for Tetryon. Things may change though. We'll see.

Ross Hendrie · #6 March 15, 2005, 12:14 PM

Perhaps you could install all three skins on the board and have the Tetryon accounts with permissions set so they can only see the forums relevent to Tetryon and with the LCARS skin, and the same with the DS.com accounts we could have their permissions set so they can only see the Ds.com forums, and then the SGJ accounts so they can only see the SGJ forums with the SGJ skin, it would be incredibly complicated but could work. For example i would keep my three accounts but when i signed in to David Hunt, id see the Tetryon forums and the LCARS skin, then when i signed into Ross Hendrie id see the DS.com skin and the DS.com forums. When i signed into Matthew Davis id see the SGJ skin and the SGJ forums.

That was incredibly confusing to type, and would be even more confusing to work out, but it would work.

Danny Stewart · #7 March 15, 2005, 12:21 PM

Way too complicated. I'm not keeping three accounts per person. The whole point is to combine the boards, not make them indistinguishable from the originals. It would go something like this, all on the same message board:

GENERAL FORUMS
-- Some general, non-specific forums
DANNYSTEWART.COM FORUMS
-- DannyStewart.com TV discussion and RPG forums
U.S.S. TETRYON FORUMS
-- All Tetryon forums currently here, possibly combined and/or reorganized
STARGATE JOURNEYS FORUMS
-- All Journeys forums currently there, but most likely condensed

Ross Hendrie · #8 March 15, 2005, 12:29 PM

Well perhaps you're right, that would be a lot easier.

Danny Stewart · #9 March 16, 2005, 10:42 AM

What I'd really like to do is scrounge up enough money to pay $160 for a vBulletin license. That'd be sweet. But it ain't gonna happen.

Chris Britton · #10 March 16, 2005, 4:15 PM

What is this vBulliten License you are on about? it sounds good. The idea of combining accounts is a good idea. not too confusing and you only have one password to remember.

Ross Hendrie · #11 March 16, 2005, 4:58 PM

Either that or have the same password for all the accounts

Also on the combined board, id like it if i were allowed to keep all 3 of my accounts, as with one account i cant really have 3 names for it, and id find it a lot less confusing.

Danny Stewart · #12 March 17, 2005, 9:30 AM

It'd make it a lot more confusing for me and everyone else. Besides, new members might not even know you were the same person. We are certainly, certainly having one account per person.

And Chris, vBulletin is:

vBulletin is a powerful, scalable and fully customizable forums package for your web site. It has been written using the Web's quickest-growing scripting language; PHP, and is complimented with a highly efficient and ultra fast back-end database engine built using MySQL.

vBulletin is the ideal community solution for all medium-to-large sites.

It's hands down the best forum software around. I tried using it illegally once, but fear of being caught forced me to tear it down. As much as I would like to use it, I would definitely need to pay for a license. Donations? :-D

Ross Hendrie · #13 March 17, 2005, 12:05 PM

Erm okay, but which name do i use for my account...

Chris Britton · #14 March 17, 2005, 2:44 PM

Sounds like a really good sever for you to have. i wish i had it. i would donate to you as i know the pound is strong against the dollar at the mo. but beofre i donated i would need to knoe exchange reates and where i could send the momney too?

Ross Hendrie · #15 March 17, 2005, 5:26 PM

Perhaps we should just stay the way we are just now, prove to everyone that we can be a good rpg without a whatchamacallit license.

Danny Stewart · #16 March 17, 2005, 9:42 PM

Chris, thank you so much for considering a donation! I really appreciate that and am very touched!

The current exchange rate is:
1.00 GBP = 1.92356 USD

And not that I expect you to pay for the whole thing yourself, but that works out to be:
83.1777 GBP = 160 USD

Also, I have a PayPal account if you can send money via that. Contact me via e-mail (stewart.danny [at] gmail [dot] com) for more information.

And David, I want what's best for the crew. If I could have one vBulletin license, I can run all my sites on a top of the line forum software that everyone can use, works well for me, and would be perfect all round. I'd happily pay a one-time $160 fee for that.

Chris Britton · #17 March 18, 2005, 9:21 AM

I could donate some money to it. i have a job that pays well so i copuld contriute some money to your license. Once i get ack form my holiday i will take a look at what i have in my bank account and donate some money.

Glad to be of help. i want what is best for everyone.

Ross Hendrie · #18 March 18, 2005, 11:55 AM

I am against this, donations are not a good idea. We should go on without this license.

Danny Stewart · #19 March 18, 2005, 12:13 PM

David, you can be against donations all you want. I want the license. It's something that would be great for me and great for my sites. And great for my members, too. And there's no harm in opening a donation box, just as there's no harm in someone contributing to it. If Chris wants to do this, it'd be an extraordinarily kind thing for him to do and he's welcome to it. If you (or anyone else) does not want to or is not able to contribute, that's perfectly acceptable. Chris understands (I hope) that his standing on Tetryon will not be affected positively or negatively by his donation. It's purely voluntary. Just as yours, David, will not be affected positively or negatively either.

Danny Stewart · #20 March 19, 2005, 8:43 AM

Okay, folks, I posted on the vBulletin support forums and asked how the registration process worked. They told me that we can buy a leased license (which is pretty much just a board that's on loan to us from vBulletin) for a mere $85, then within 30 days we can upgrade to an owned license (which is technically much cheaper because it is a one-time fee rather than a yearly fee) for another $85. Yes, that means it's $10 more expensive unfortunately, so we have a choice. Raise enough money for a leased license, then make absolutely sure that we'll have enough to upgrade within 30 days (otherwise it is full price again), or just raise $160 initially and go for the owned license.