Future of NZFF- Important Announcement

[toprob]

I did intend to keep a running tally of donations, but the timing is bad -- I've been fairly full-on producing Marlborough CDs. However, I've done a quick count-up this morning and it comes to $120. (7 donations, including 2 from overseas.)
I'm not entirely sure what will happen with renewal, there are a few different ways money can be raised throughout the year, but I think that none of us want copious advertising or such-like.
Personally I'd be happy to do this exercise every year, it seems like a good idea for our members to contribute the cost, which is pretty minimal -- $1 a year from each member would be ample!
There is no sponsor, the most likely sponsor of course would be Godzone, but I am wary of being perceived as attempting to purchase the forum:) I will make a donation, like everyone else, but it won't be as generous as some. (I didn't really think about asking people if we could put names to donations, and I don't suppose we will, but some people have been very generous. I spoke to one person last night who wanted to donate 50% of the total, but I had to talk him out of it.)

[creator2003]

Thats Awesome to hear that there is such ppls out there that are willing to help ,yup $1 isnt much for a year but then $5 -$10 isnt ether ,i dont think naming donaters will make any difference, but some ppl do like the fame and all and mite pay for it
anyway ive gone on abit this morning so thats me for awhile
cheers

[Alex]

I was thinking that we would cover the annual cost, as it isn't all that much, its great to see the generosity of people here - it will help immensely. Thanks NZFF!

Alex

[Ian Warren]

Nice little forum as mention'd always .. Heck I post some stupid things sometimes , nice to have another sitting on my shoulder to correct me
Well done to NZFF Admin: a little dollar can go a LONG WAY !

[Alex]

Just a little bump on this one, all things going well, we should be making the move late this week (sometime between Wed-Fri), the exact timing will depend on how fast our current hosters act, and how fast the Technicians can get our new board set up.

Alex

[toprob]

Donations are just over the half-way mark -- keep it coming, guys, it'd be great to wrap it up this week!
-Robin

[ZKTOM]

Just a little bump on this one, all things going well, we should be making the move late this week (sometime between Wed-Fri), the exact timing will depend on how fast our current hosters act, and how fast the Technicians can get our new board set up.

Will we be able to use NZFF while the transition is taking place?

[ZK-KAG]

Just a little bump on this one, all things going well, we should be making the move late this week (sometime between Wed-Fri), the exact timing will depend on how fast our current hosters act, and how fast the Technicians can get our new board set up.

Will we be able to use NZFF while the transition is taking place?

No...

[Alex]

Well, I was thinking that we closed most forums, but left a couple open (i.e General, Forum Community Discussion etc) in case people had things they urgently wanted to say.

There has been a little hitch, I've found that we need to pay for the backup of data from this forum, and organising that will take longer than I expected. So, at this stage I would say next week some time.

Of course I will keep you posted with any new developments.

Alex

[Alex]

Well, we have one more small payment to make, which should be done later tonight. We expect the technicians to start first thing Monday, and we should be using our new board by Wednesday.

To hold you out over the weekend, check out some cool features that our new board will have.

Alex

[scon]

Kewl

[creator2003]

looks ok but what is really so different to the free ones ,i know youll get server space ,like not much. and the admin controls are a little better .

sorry to be a downer just want to know what features out of the list i just read
were the ones we are going to use here on nzff ??
its alot of money to only gain just one or two new things in your control panel ..

also the message posts window looks abit more tricker to use like the one at shff
,youll see what i mean as you post 10 pics in bb code

and whats this rating on others stuff ,we not having that are we?

also can you tell us if you havent already above if all our stats and member history stay with us ,oh and do i have to back up my mail box as theres lots in there i need

mike

[Alex]

sorry to be a downer just want to know what features out of the list i just read
were the ones we are going to use here on nzff ??
its alot of money to only gain just one or two new things in your control panel ..

No problem Mike, I'm glad someone asked.
Every feature on those 7 or so pages will be on our forum, it will be faster (on NZ servers), more reliable, no ads, better search functions. Almost all of the new features will be on the user side, with most moderator/administrator functions remaining similar, as that is what we are used to, and works well for us. We will also have blogs and personal image galleries attached to the forum, that every member can use if s/he wants to.

We will also be able to customise our forum much more, and be able to create and implement custom skins much more easily than we are able to on this forum.

also the message posts window looks abit more tricker to use like the one at shff
,youll see what i mean as you post 10 pics in bb code

Those small pictures don't really give you a good idea of what it looks (and feels) like, I've taken some shots from another IPB from a VA I'm a member of. It is not any more complicated than the post system we have at the moment, it is just different.

and whats this rating on others stuff ,we not having that are we?

Although I'm not 100% sure what this is, I think it is something like I have seen on other forums. Where, under your avatar (usually) is a button that a certain member group can click, either "+" or "-". A 'score' then shows on that members profile of a number (e.g. if a member has got 3 "+" clicks and 2 "-" clicks, then their 'score' would be 1). I'm not sure if we will use this, it depends what you guys think about it.

also can you tell us if you havent already above if all our stats and member history stay with us ,oh and do i have to back up my mail box as theres lots in there i need

Yep, all your stats should be moved across no problems, and in the very unlikely event that they are not, we can do it manually. This forum won't disappear as soon as we start the new forum, so if there is anything you've forgotten you can come back and get it. That said, I am not sure how long we will be able to keep it active, so if you want to get something, don't waste time unnecessarily.

Hope this helps answer a few of your questions.

Alex

[creator2003]

yup that clears it all up cheers ,seeing this board is free it will last as long as you guys want it too ...
they dont delete themselfs ,but in saying the there mite be conflick to the web name so yeah it mite just dissaper ,if the url was changed before the swap like back to nzff.co.nr ,it should stay the way it is
just a thought not everyone will read this before it happens maybe a bulk pm email wouldnt go a miss for those that dont come here everyday like us simmer freaks ,just telling them of the changes and to back up mailbox data and contacts etc...
anyway good going guys and thank you alex for fronting
cheers mike

[Alex]

No problems Mike. We are planning to send an email out over the weekend, and also after we 'lock down' (stop new posts) on this forum, we will have information at the top of every page about how to get to the new forum, for any people who might not have got the word.

Alex

[toprob]

I'd quite like to remove the donation facility from my store at the end of this week, so if you intended to donate and haven't got around to it then please do so by Sunday.
After the initial interest, donations have been few and far between. We've raised approx 55% of the original goal, although some additional costs (approx $150) were met by a couple of businesses.
So let's have once last spend-up, and get this out of the way.