Forums website expiring soon

[Draise]

I'm down to chip in something and/or migrate to Clintons.

Whatever works. Just tell me where to paypal or something.

As Mikom also said, forums are aging. Discord, for example, is also very popular and live, free and complimentary to a forum - it works similar to how forums work to a degree. We could also fusion one or the other to link to the site to keep things live and interesting. I also like the small town vibe here. I always drop by every now and then. And all the data here would be priceless and really is a legacy. So.. yeah.. take my money!

[trueBlue]

I am down to chipping in too.
Honestly though, I have to say that this forum's participation has been slowing down to the point of no return.
I thought by inviting Roman back, there would be more interest.
The lack of replies in this thread seems to speak to the lack of interest as well.
If you look at the Members page, there is 804 members, half of which do not participate at all. Zero post!
It has to be disheartening if a new user comes here, post a question, and nobody replies.

Since implementing the more secure(?) https and the problem with being logged out when you select an internal link is troublesome too. So I hope that if this forum continues, that can be rectified.

[stan]

Don't worry about the lack of participation from lots of members..I should go through the list again and clean it out of members who have never posted. I did it a few years back with Steine. Most threads from new folks get answered, others are here just to download things.

If we have 20 to 30 regular members it's about how it's been for years.
If everyone contributed 20$ or 25$ us. funds that should keep us going for another three years.

I don't see it getting any larger group of users. This is mainly about old software and old friends.

Is Finis going to take the contributions? We need to start the collection soon.

[Finis]

Stan speaks good sense.

I'm not treasurer. As I noted here (link) three years ago, "I'm not your daddy". Other members have to "step up" and do this stuff.

If we will keep the site where it is then someone volunteer to be treasurer.

To be treasurer all you need is:
-- a PayPal account or some similar thing that members can use to donate
-- the login credentials for our hosting service and domain name (get that from Clintonman)
-- the trust of the members.

To InterServer and GoDaddy you will be their customer -- the owner of the hosting account and domain name. To do that log in and change the previous billing information to yours. It would be good to notify customer service that you are the new contact/customer for the account. It would be good if two members have the login credentials in case of disaster. They accept payment with PayPal.

Since the deadlines are close I recommended earlier in this thread that one person give the treasurer the total amount, about $250, so the bills can be paid soon. I will loan that if no one else will. Later a donation drive would be used to pay him back. Someone needs to be treasurer though to get the money to the companies.

[MikomDude]

I realize that my post got buried on the previous page but do have a look at my suggestions. I don't think we need to concede that this forum will just keep losing members and that is has no further appeal. There is a lot of knowledge and potential here but just like with anything else, you need to put a minimum effort into staying up-to-date.

I'd volunteer to help out, development-wise, however unfortunately I don't have the time right now to get into the code due to my game-project taking up all of my available time (and more).
My plan is to start getting into web-development next year in order to set up some better hosting for my websites and potential future web-services I may develop.
At this time I'd be happy to look into updating this site as well.

I hope we can all agree that this website isn't a sinking ship unless we let it sink, and there's still plenty of potential here.

[Draise]

Ah, don't have the funds to do this to do this asap. I do have paypal though.

[Finis]

@Draise If you want to be treasurer then PM Clintonman to appoint you or poll the members to elect you or whatever he wants about that. You don't need any money. I've made the point twice before in this thread that I will provide (loan) the funds up front and the treasurer can do a fund raiser later to pay me back. Someone less poor might volunteer to loan the money but it is no harm to me if I get paid back later.

@Mikom Good ideas about improving U3DA and with your design skills you would be great for the job. That's a long term thing though. Right now we need to keep it going by paying the bills. A great looking well designed website about "old software and old friends" won't attract new active members. What content do you propose offering on that improved website? No intent to sound mean. It is something you should think about as part of improving or expanding it.

[trueBlue]

@Draise If you want to be treasurer then PM Clintonman to appoint you or poll the members to elect you or whatever he wants about that. You don't need any money. I've made the point twice before in this thread that I will provide (loan) the funds up front and the treasurer can do a fund raiser later to pay me back. Someone less poor might volunteer to loan the money but it is no harm to me if I get paid back later.

@Mikom Good ideas about improving U3DA and with your design skills you would be great for the job. That's a long term thing though. Right now we need to keep it going by paying the bills. A great looking well designed website about "old software and old friends" won't attract new active members. What content do you propose offering on that improved website? No intent to sound mean. It is something you should think about as part of improving or expanding it.

@Finis
First and foremost, thank you for everything you have done to keep this forum going!
Would hate to see you NOT get reimbursed for your generous offer.
Sincerely,
Your Daddy

[Saul]

Where the contributions go?

[MikomDude]

A great looking well designed website about "old software and old friends" won't attract new active members. What content do you propose offering on that improved website? No intent to sound mean. It is something you should think about as part of improving or expanding it.

We should not tie the website to one specific piece of software but rather the combined expertise of the 3D veterans on here. Since you yourself are also working more in Blender, Draise is as well and even I am using Blender for a lot of things; I don't think it makes any sense to brand ourselves as a trueSpace only forum, and we're certainly not all using older software. I think this would be a good place to discover free alternatives to the big software and give a hobbyist/entry level direction to go in for people interested in these programs.
As for the small size of our community, that certainly has its upsides in that you're more likely to be heard and will get a response.

I think the ability to have ones own page on the site that one can link to from other sites and share may have its appeal as well. Like I said, I'm not expecting this to become the hot new thing, like the new deviantArt or Artstation, but it should make the site more appealing to a few new members. Enough to keep us afloat.
If you look at many 3D forums the key thing to have is a way to share your work, to get people interested and asking "how did you make it?". Provide people with a comment thread on each piece of artwork submitted where the artist can respond and you have just that.