The Official Revscene is Broken and We Should Probably Band Together t Fix It, Thread
 

Forked from the "No Need to Start a New Thread" thread, because... there is a need to start a new thread :p.

The Official Revscene is Broken and it Needs to be Fixed, Thread
 

So the time to move on from 20 year old forum software is upon us.. I mean it was a decade or so ago, but now we REALLY have to move on.

The options are to upgrade to xenforo (new version of vbulletin). This is the easiest to migrate to, has the closest interface, and is the best way to keep things the same

The problem is it costs $200 for a license, plus $60 per year for updates and support

There are free options that I could look into, but before that I want to see if someone wants pool together and chip in for the upgrade

The other option is to let it finally die. It seems to be getting less and less busy over the weeks.

I was just wondering about this the other day -- would there be any interest in setting up an RS community on WhatsApp to supplement the forum? The idea was just to have something quick and instant to supplement (and not replace) RS.

Personally, I really see chat groups and forums serving some very different purposes, and I'd really prefer a forum environment for the better discussions that we can hold in it. But if the options are between having no RS at all, versus having it only exist in instant messenger form, I'd take the latter.

The downsides with WhatsApp, of course, is you lose the anonymity -- your name and phone number would show up. You can still sort of mimmick the subforms with different chats within the community.

Discord would be better than WhatsApp if you wanted to go that route

We can’t let this die. Everyone fork in money and keep it alive !!!’

big whoop,$200.

That's a lot of avocados that I'd have to leave off my toast!

I'd happily chip in money to help pay for this.

Could Hehe put in the $1500 seed money that can generate $60/yr for the annual fee. That's like just pocket change from CNY red envelope money.

I was faced with a very similar situation last year. I own and operate a private vBulletin-based forum for my close friends. The traffic isn't very high anymore as many of us have other priorities, but we all agreed to keep the forum alive. A string of events lead to us having to upgrade the old vBulletin forum for a variety of reasons.

First, the host we were using stopped supporting the version of MySQL, so the forum was bricked, much like the errors some of you experienced the other day. Second, the PHP version became unsupported, adding more salt to the wound. In a panic, we had to find a new web host and upgrade to the new version of vBulletin, at a very high cost. The upgrade came with some of its own headaches, but we managed to sort it out. However, the overall look, feel, and user environment was not the same, and I feel that pushed people to visit the forum less and less. Had I known about the Xenforo forum software, I would have gone that route. It was created by the original team who started vBulletin.

In the end, it's a lot of work to manage an online community, especially a forum of this nature. I genuinely hope the forum stays alive as it has been a very meaningful part of my life and I am thankful to everyone who has posted on the forums over the past 20+ years.

I’m in for like $20 for sure just need 10 of us, I can collect the $ if need be I sent $ to skinny before for watch repairs.

That's only like half a meal for you! Can just YOU fork money?

Thanks for offering since $200 is nothing to you. :alonehappy:

$60/y, even if it's USD is hardly a huge amount of money. I'm sure some rich mofos can afford that given they just blew 17k on a new Tesla :lawl:

If we do this forum upgrade, will we finally have the ability to block post visibility to randoms (people who aren't logged in)? And to block new registration for anyone who isn't vouched for?

And I guess this means the forum database stays intact?

That's basically how it is now for registrations. Nobody has contacted to join yet though

Maybe after the update everyone can remind some old members that it's still around, and will be mobile friendly for once

Ok, I'd love to chip in to keep the forum alive, provided post visibility is blocked for people who aren't logged in.

Otherwise yeah I think I'd prefer Discord or Whatsapp or something. Seems kinda creepy for unknown randoms to just go through everything. Esp now that it's a smaller group of folks, which has made the content more personal.

Whoever wants to chip in, PM me and I'll keep an accounting of everything on a thread in the mod forum. I can accept interac. It'll be $255 USD (so $355 CAD)

I'll also keep track of it anonymously in this post, so you can see where we are in donations:

1) $50 ($305)
2) $20 ($285)
3) $30 ($255)

yeah if you move RS to any different platform be prepared to lose 75% of the existing already small member base... just keep it alive

RIP to our forum (IYKYK)

If this forum dies again. At least ban me one more time

On a serious note, maybe registration needs to open again, with a couple anti-spam filters for sign up. As others have said, we are down to a fraction of users, and you can see it tailing off every few weeks

You trying to say you don't want investment advice from a stranger?!?

Those scammers invade WhatsApp groups.....it's rather annoying as I generally don't silence notifications on my WhatsApp.

This forum is fascinating.

In some posts you have guys bragging about retiring at 40, poopooing the latest Lambo cause ugly, claiming to be big ballers, yet stringing $300 to keep a forum alive is like pulling teeth.

Funny that.

Can't we just start a private subreddit and leave it at that?

It's harder for people to come out to a car meet and make a charitable donation to a social cause such as the BC Children's Hospital Foundation unless a bet was made! :ahwow:

All walks of life here. I only know how to be poor. I live my rich life through you boobs.

You may think most are chinese

But they are actually jewish