MEMBERS VOTE NEEDED ON MOVING FORUM!

[SunburnedPenguin]

Please read all the information below, and vote on wether to leave the forum as it is, or move it.

As this is YOUR forum, and I value your opinions, I want to put something to you. I have discussed this with the moderators and we have agreed that it may be worthwhile, but we dont want to do anything without putting it to you guys first.

Why on earth would I want to move it? Well....the short answer is that this is a free forum hosted with a free forum host/provider. This means that I rely on a 3rd party, the forum host, for technical and security support. The level of support I have come to expect from the host is laughable. In short, we have no control. I am very limited to what I can do with this forum....for example the chatbox has been broken since day one, and if I could access the php and sql I could have fixed it immediately. There are also many mods and tweaks that we could add if we had control, have a little look here for a list of some of the mods we can use.

The other advantages are having our own domain name, for example losties.com, much more versatility when it comes to modules we can install (for example Karma/Dharma Points!) and more customisation with the skins and graphics.

The one disadvantage is that as I have no access to the database of this forum, everyone will have to start again. I can install a mod to alter members posts counts, so that wont be lost, and can link back to this forum as an archive, but each member may have to re-register on the new forum. There may be a way that we can do this for you, but I will have to investigate this further.

I would like you assure you, that at no point in the future of Losties, wherever we end up, will I consider charging members, as any cost incurred to myself would be very minimal and something I am more than willing to do in order to create the forum we all want.

So guys and gals....its up to you!

I will leave this poll open for 2 weeks, to give everyone the chance to discuss it....feel free to use this thread to discuss or ask questions, or of course you can pm me.

[wtfsignmeup]

As long as its not costing you too much,I say go for it Jaxx

[StitchExp626]

I agree with WTF, the cost worries me a bit.

That said I think having a url like losties.co.uk or losties.com would make this site much easier to find.

I think that if we move to a new site then we could really develop this site as a great addition to the internet.

I would also like to see us involved with some competitions/activities with other Lost websites.

Eg trivia competitions and or debates. We could choose our current debate champion to debate another websites contender and get a third website's members to act as judges. This would be good in getting us known and building better relationships with other Lost forums!

Stitch

[SunburnedPenguin]

I agree with WTF, the cost worries me a bit.

That said I think having a url like losties.co.uk or losties.com would make this site much easier to find.

I think that if we move to a new site then we could really develop this site as a great addition to the internet.

I would also like to see us involved with some competitions/activities with other Lost websites.

Eg trivia competitions and or debates. We could choose our current debate champion to debate another websites contender and get a third website's members to act as judges. This would be good in getting us known and building better relationships with other Lost forums!

Stitch

Thats an awesome idea!! I will definitely investigate that once we make a decision, oh yes I really like that

Please dont worry about cost, maximum i'm looking at is an initial outlay of £5 - £20 for the domain name and then about £5 a month for the hosting, which is peanuts and not worth worrying about, its definitely not an amount I would begrudge paying to improve the site

[StitchExp626]

Well that sounds reasonable if you can some helpful support team from the host.

As long as it is not too much of a financial burden

Stitch

[SunburnedPenguin]

If we get the vote to go ahead, the first thing I will be doing is calling the support numbers for various hosts and checking them out, see how helpful they are etc....you get what you pay for....as I have realised using a free host lol!

I wont take on anything that is a financial burden, and we can always have a couple of small google ads to pay for it if it comes to that

[TheHolyStickman]

Yes I'd be happy to move sites as long as everyone knows and its not causing any problems.

[StitchExp626]

HSM, I am pretty sure that you will find us wherever we end up. You know where AC and my StitchExp626 blog is. So if you ever lose us, go there ok?

Stitch

[TheHolyStickman]

Ok cheers Stitch.

[SunburnedPenguin]

Dont worry HSM, this forum would stay open as an archive for old posts, a blog for the development of the new site, and a pointer to the new forum. Plus I will send out a global email on the day we switch over, which will be with plenty of notice anyway. No fear of getting "Lost" hehe.

[chirpey1987]

Oh are we moving to the caves now lol,

Am happy to move am a bit excited actually

[Irocz28]

Whatever you want to do SBP is fine with me. I will follow the group wherever we go. But, I feel like I just got "settled in" here after the LT meltdown. I am fine with the way this site is right now. It is already 10x more advanced than our old home (Bad Gateway, 5 minutes for waiting for posts to appear) and it is also superbly moderated.

That being said, I will vote to keep the forum as is.

[chirpey1987]

i love the forum as it is but i like change

[SomeArztOnYou]

There's no turning of a frozen wheel involved in moving the forum, is there?

[Irocz28]

HaHa. Hopefully not, because whoever turns it can never come back! Is there anyone here willing to make that sacrifice?