United3dArtists Archive

The united3dartists.com domain name is expiring on May 21 and the web hosting is expiring on June 12. The forum software is not currently up to date. The last backup for the website was generated on July 2019. There is no treasurer for the website so my idea, if possible, is the following:

1. get the forum software up to date
2. move the forums to my personal website
3. create a forwarding page on this site in place of the forums
4. the forums expire and hopefully everyone has updated their shortcuts to the new site

I am currently backing up the website now.
I think domain names are inexpensive so I'll look into buying it which would make steps 3 and 4 a none issue.

Let me know what you think or if you would like to take over the finances of the site.

I suggest leaving the site, forum, domain name where they are and appointing a Treasurer.

Costs
Domain Name with GoDaddy = $28 for one year, $56 two years, $84 three years*
Private Registration with GoDaddy = $15/year
Hosting with InterServer = $4 or $5 per month

*$28 dollars doesn't seem right. Regular price is $17?

Private registration hides the domain owner's contact info. in whois so the Treasurer's phone etc. is not visible there. It provides a proxy instead.

I'm poor and I have those domain and hosting services for my websites.

Since there are two active admins (aren't there?) (Prodigy is not so active now) they could both be Treasurer also. One does the job and one is backup in case the first is unavailable. In essence, both admins would be all powerful for admin, moderating, tech support from InterServer, and paying the bills.

That way the forum is independent of the existence, participation, web resources, etc. of one person. Its resources and responsibility for them can be passed from person to person as needed just by giving login info. and changing authorized persons with a few companies.

The Treasurer should:
1. Be the official owner of the domain name, hosting account, etc. with the companies providing those services.
2. Have the login credentials for the domain name, hosting, etc. accounts.
3. Collect donations from forum members to cover expenses.
3.a. Have a PayPal account or similar global online payment system to receive the donations.
4. Pay the bills.

If needed due to impending deadlines and if the Treasurer is financially able he could pay various bills himself and collect donations later to recover his expenses.

@Clintonman My info. and login is still active at GoDaddy since I was Treasurer. I'll email that to you so you can change it to your info. and take charge of the domain name.

I am good to kick in $25 USD to keeping this going whatever shape it takes. If I can help with the admin let me know.

Probably best to keep the site where it is. In the unfortunate event Clinton would not be able to work on the site it would be better for him to avoid granting admin access to someone else.

Just a thought

you can keep the domain and set it to hosting, no need to forward or something.

I can also volunteer to place the web on my hosting for free. Even if the domain will expire, i can register it.
https://www.wedos.com/domains#cenik-domen

.com is for 12 Euro here. I have been using this provider for years.

Let us know where to send funding.

When I tested if my old login for GoDaddy still worked I saw the $28 one year renewal price I noted in the post above. That doesn't seem right if it is just for the .com. One of my .com's and its private registration auto-renewed yesterday at GoDaddy and it is $28 total for domain plus private registration which makes sense.

clintonman wrote: 21 Apr 2020, 18:30 The united3dartists.com domain name is expiring on May 21 and the web hosting is expiring on June 12. The forum software is not currently up to date. The last backup for the website was generated on July 2019. There is no treasurer for the website so my idea, if possible, is the following:

1. get the forum software up to date
2. move the forums to my personal website
3. create a forwarding page on this site in place of the forums
4. the forums expire and hopefully everyone has updated their shortcuts to the new site

I am currently backing up the website now.
I think domain names are inexpensive so I'll look into buying it which would make steps 3 and 4 a none issue.

Let me know what you think or if you would like to take over the finances of the site.

Just wanted to says thanks for your generous offer!

I guess we all need to decide if we still want this site as is or not. A few offers of money is a good start.

Finis, do you recall what it costs for a year completely?

We would need some one from the states to hold the money because the site is in the states. I notice paypal has a thing called a money pool to put money in. Anyone? Not completely sure how it works yet but it I don't think it uses the donate button. That seems to be for business accounts only. We all would need to donate to the cause as we can't expect a single donor to pay the whole shot like has happened before. It's up to us..There are other methods to collect money from strangers too but really it should be us.

Any suggestions on keeping this place independent?

IMHO: I appreciate the goodness of everyone offering to host it but it is simple from my point of view. Pay the bills and keep the site as is or decide if we want to quit, move it, or what.

Time is short since the resources expire soon so we must act quickly. Let's simplify this. Suggestion:
Simplified Procedure
1. Clintonman take charge of the InterServer and GoDaddy accounts. Become their customer and master of our stuff at those companies.
2. I'll send Clintonman the money to pay now or he can pay it now. This defeats the impending deadlines.
3. Clintonman sets up a system to collect donations. The donations go to our "patron", me or him, so he gets his money back minus his own contribution.
3.a. A simple PayPal account works fine to receive donations.

This plan gets it done before the deadline, buys us plenty of time to debate the future of the site, and sets clintonman up to take care of all this stuff next time. He could allocate some of those duties of course if someone will do it.

Stan makes a good point: Do we want to keep the site? That is an unhappy thing to consider. I like the small town style here better than the big cities of the other CG forums. Though I don't use TS now I find value here because I like the community -- the good people. U3DA can always offer that even when very few are interested in TS.

@Stan I estimate $235 to $265 for 3 years. That is for hosting with current (cheap but good) InterServer and .com domain name at GoDaddy with private registration. Private registration costs $10 to $15 per year I think. It is slightly cheaper to get multi-year deals. InterServer and GoDaddy don't care where the customer is located. I don't know about long ago but when I was treasurer it was true that one generous forum member donated a large portion of the money and records showed that happened previously also. I'll check my costs (same companies and products as U3DA) and update this post sometime but the estimate should be close.

Lots of great questions and suggestions going around here. I'd be OK with Clintonman hosting the site, should that be the cheaper/more convenient option.

While I agree with Finis that this shouldn't be a trueSpace only forum and that it's a nice place to hang out... although, perhaps a few additional members wouldn't hurt to keep the forums alive and kicking, to justify its existence and maybe help cover some of the costs as well.

I think one reason for why this forum hasn't attracted that many new members over the years is that people are moving away from the board-style forum approach for online communities. Sites like DeviantArt, CGhub and Artstation just have a completely different approach to how art communities interact.
And speaking more in-general, Reddit is the more modern version of the board-style forum and Discord is what is becoming the go-to platform for creating new online communities.

I guess my point here is that maybe this should be a time to reflect not on whether we want to stick around but rather what needs to change in order for the site to stay relevant, both to its existing members and possible new ones.
I have a few suggestions:

• Once again update the site's look, properly this time. Something simple but a bit more modern.
• Organise the forums to give a better overview. Create subforum collections of the boards that aren't used as often anymore.
• Community profiles. This could be anything from a simple gallery where members can show off their work to letting members set up their own unique showcase page where they can show their work and receive comments, with the latest uploads shown in a public gallery on the main page.
• Member portfolios. A page set up by a member with a custom URL (like: united3dartists.com/mikomdudes-work) similar to the current showcase subforum but more customizable. If you already have a portfolio, perhaps this could re-direct to your existing domain instead.

This should make the site a bit more appealing to new members (although don't expect massive numbers coming in, just a few new faces to keep the place alive) and should prove beneficial to existing members as well.

I realize that this is something that'll require some work but I believe it is something we'll all look back on thinking that yeah, that was necessary in order to keep this site alive. Otherwise I fear the discussion of funding for the site will become a more difficult one each year and with less and less members being active, something needs to be renewed, not just the hosting.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

@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 wrote: 02 May 2020, 01:43 @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

Where the contributions go?

Finis wrote: 02 May 2020, 01:43 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.

@Draise See earlier post about you being treasurer. I'll PM you.

@Saul That question has no answer until someone becomes treasurer. So far Draise has possibly expressed interest.

@Mikom IMO your thoughts have merit. I think you should start a thread for that subject since this thread is about the forum's resources expiring.

@trueBlue Thank you.

Where is Clintonman?

Still here. Not much to contribute to the conversation. Waiting to see if we get a treasurer and spending some time testing and planning for the forum software update. I did a test run of the update this morning on my local machine and it seemed to go well.

My next steps are:
1. fresh backup of the website
2. update the site php version to 7.2 - this should be easy but had to do research to see if this would create problems (ver 7.3 would have broken the forums and 7.1 needed to be a minimum minor version that I'm not sure is available in the web hosting)
3. pause to be sure the updated php is ok
4. another fresh backup
5. update to the latest forum software version
6. maybe update to latest php 7.3.x or 7.4 - latest forum software does work with 7.3

The new forum software requires php version 7.1 and up. We are currently running less than v7. When I transferred the forums to my local machine running php 7.3 it seemed to work just fine. The phpbb forums said,"It looks like it's working, but it'll give you weird problems".

Ok, I can officially volunteer to do the domain and hosting renewal rounds and be the treasurer via paypal for the forums for now. I have got in touch with Finis and Clinton, and we most likely will do a poll to confirm. Sounds good?

Works for me ...
Thank you Draise.....
where do I send the cash!!!!

why do we need a poll.. you are the only one saying they will be treasurer ..set up a link in a fund raising thread Draise.
Put it in important announcements.

Ok! Set it up, ready to go.

I can't post to the Announcement Thread, so I may need some access there? I have posted it in the General Thread meanwhile.

Paypal Link + More information here:

viewtopic.php?t=5966

I moved your thread to important announcements.
I made a 25$ us. payment to your paypal.

Got through, so it's working! Thanks for pinning the message.

We are now at ~55USD.

Just reading through Finis post from earlier in this thread and this stood out to me

Private registration hides the domain owner's contact info. in whois so the Treasurer's phone etc. is not visible there. It provides a proxy instead.

You have to be careful with this because a lot of the time this is a way for the host to gain the rights to your domain name and will make it much harder for you to move your domain in the future. The reason why you have to register your contacts is because it is required by ICANN, the way hosting sites get around this is by registering your domain in their name, in other words: They charge you extra to gain the legal rights to your domain name.
So yeah, best not to go for that option I'd say.

Anywho. Just transferred Draise 20 dollars. Should be enough right?

UPDATE: I investigated this with my account at GoDaddy.

I logged in to my account there, found the page showing my domain names, clicked Manage for one of them. There was a link to remove privacy. Clicking it removed the Private Registration. There was also a way to change the behavior of the private registration proxy on the Manage page. That is, if and how they forward contacts through whois to you.

End Update
---------
"GoDaddy's privacy partner, Domains by Proxy®, protects you from hackers, hijackers, and data miners by replacing your name, address and other details in the public WHOIS directory with its business address and phone number. You retain complete control of the domain, including the rights to sell, renew, cancel or transfer it."
https://www.godaddy.com/domains/full-do ... protection

I've seen complaints but they seem to be either with fake top/bottom reviews (5 stars or one star, none between), from competitors, unreliable sites or sources, or otherwise unreliable. Many seem designed to play on emotions or naivety. However, GoDaddy itself doesn't have a top level reputation and PR does seem like good target for scams such as Mikom described so some caution could be worthwhile.

One complaint that could be correct is that once you have private registration it is hard to renew the domain without the PR at GoDaddy. I noted that $28 to renew the domain name for a year must include the PR since just the domain name is not that much. I didn't look for a way to renew only the name so you could check on that if you don't want the PR. (See update above.)

InterServer, our hosting service, offers domain name registration. You could transfer the name there if you prefer not to use GoDaddy. I have the same set up for hosting and domain names with the same companies as U3DA for my sites. In my dealings with InterServer I have found them to be honest as well as able and helpful.

My $25 USD on its way

We are now at $100 USD, nearly ready to do the rounds! Good work team! I'll take a look into the domain renewal later today.

Finis wrote: 06 May 2020, 01:17 InterServer, our hosting service, offers domain name registration. You could transfer the name there if you prefer not to use GoDaddy. I have the same set up for hosting and domain names with the same companies as U3DA for my sites. In my dealings with InterServer I have found them to be honest as well as able and helpful.

This seems to be the best idea without knowing the pros and cons.

Looks like InterServer has:
Price Lock Guarantee
The price you sign up for is your guaranteed price for Shared Hosting.
Renewal Cost
While our competitors have high renewal rates, InterServer does not!
$1.99 Domain Registration
Register or transfer your domain for $1.99 with the purchase of any web hosting package!

Sent contribution, but it said funds would be available June 6, 2020. Not sure why it's going to take a month.

We are now sitting at ~$200 USD. Just a little more then I can also renew the hosting.

I'm really impressed and am heart-warmed by all the love put into this place. I'm glad to be able to see it continue.

Looks like that loan won't be needed. Just ask if you do need it. What about the funds availability date June 6 that Spacekdet mentioned? The domain name must be renewed before then.

When we pay, do we pay as goods and service? or do i uncheck that option and pay the $1.88 fee?

I think there shouldn't be much issue to pay as goods and services. It is for a service after all. Go without the fee.

thanks Draise.

We are all contributing to a community fund not a community service. We are sharing expenses not buying anything.

We are all contributing to a community fund not a community service. We are sharing expenses not buying anything.

To late. Already donated. Oh well.

Ok! Good news everyone. We have reached the threshold, so I will now do the rounds to update and renew both the domain AND hosting.

Thank you!

I don’t want this place to disappear, there are too many good and talented folks here.
How many years are we good for?
Where else can I force people to look at my crappy ideas?
Keep up the great work!

Hurray!

I have officially renewed the domain for 3 years. We can breath there.

We have enough left to renew the web hosting for the next 3 years also. Still in the process of doing that round.

Good work you all! Hold your horses now! No more donations!

Good work Draise, Long live United3DArtists dot com!

thanks guys... i like this place.

The invoice for the hosting arrived today, so I will be renewing that soon now.

Ok! Hosting has been renewed for another 3 years. All set and done! Thanks for all the donations everyone, you guys are so heart warming.

Thanks! You da man, the bomb baby, cool, a bitchin' boss babe (no that's for girls), far out, a hep cat, spiffy, swell, and possibly the bee's knees.

Thanks to that righteous dude Clitonman too for his work down in the engine room keeping things going.