Nathan Flowers
Administrator
Hi guys,
As Chris has mentioned in his thread, he's transferred ownership of VLJ to me. Some of you may know me as one of the guys who co-owns the Fedora Lounge. I started helping out with some behind-the-scenes stuff last year, and took over the site last week.
That said, I'd like to offer you guys some ideas of what I've been doing, and hear from you all about what you'd like to see happen with the change.
First, VLJ will not be under the umbrella of the Lounge. It's just me running it, and as such, won't be subject to any of the Lounge rules or moderation.
I don't plan on changing anything with the moderation or rules of the site as it has been in the years leading up to now. Bill, John Lever, and John Chapman are all still moderators, and hopefully will remain on board well into the future.
I don't plan on changing much with the design of the site, at least not right now. When I migrated the server, I did do some database maintenance and and upgrade to version 3.1 of phpBB, which is more mobile-friendly, but since you guys are so used to the design as it has been for so many years, I found a way to make the old theme work with the new version, which is what we have today. That said, I would like to make the site more mobile-friendly for you guys. We can explore ways of doing this, be it through designing a mobile style, or deploying the Tapatalk app. We won't do any of this without engaging you guys for feedback on it.
phpBB is a bit of a dog on the admin control panel side, and doesn't offer nearly as much customization for users as Xenforo (what the Lounge and other large sites use). We can talk about migrating to Xenforo if you guys would like, but the decision will be up to you.
You may have noticed that the forum is extra-snappy since Friday when I moved it over, and that's because I have it running with an excellent host, with multiple redundant hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly database backups. I'm paying for this out of pocket, and will continue to do so into the future. We will not be placing ads on the site for members, and we will not be charging anybody to post.
My main goals with running VLJ are:
Keep the site alive and growing.
Maintain and safeguard the vast amount of knowledge that has been shared here over the years.
Keep you guys happy.
If you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns, please share them!
-Nathan
As Chris has mentioned in his thread, he's transferred ownership of VLJ to me. Some of you may know me as one of the guys who co-owns the Fedora Lounge. I started helping out with some behind-the-scenes stuff last year, and took over the site last week.
That said, I'd like to offer you guys some ideas of what I've been doing, and hear from you all about what you'd like to see happen with the change.
First, VLJ will not be under the umbrella of the Lounge. It's just me running it, and as such, won't be subject to any of the Lounge rules or moderation.
I don't plan on changing anything with the moderation or rules of the site as it has been in the years leading up to now. Bill, John Lever, and John Chapman are all still moderators, and hopefully will remain on board well into the future.
I don't plan on changing much with the design of the site, at least not right now. When I migrated the server, I did do some database maintenance and and upgrade to version 3.1 of phpBB, which is more mobile-friendly, but since you guys are so used to the design as it has been for so many years, I found a way to make the old theme work with the new version, which is what we have today. That said, I would like to make the site more mobile-friendly for you guys. We can explore ways of doing this, be it through designing a mobile style, or deploying the Tapatalk app. We won't do any of this without engaging you guys for feedback on it.
phpBB is a bit of a dog on the admin control panel side, and doesn't offer nearly as much customization for users as Xenforo (what the Lounge and other large sites use). We can talk about migrating to Xenforo if you guys would like, but the decision will be up to you.
You may have noticed that the forum is extra-snappy since Friday when I moved it over, and that's because I have it running with an excellent host, with multiple redundant hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly database backups. I'm paying for this out of pocket, and will continue to do so into the future. We will not be placing ads on the site for members, and we will not be charging anybody to post.
My main goals with running VLJ are:
Keep the site alive and growing.
Maintain and safeguard the vast amount of knowledge that has been shared here over the years.
Keep you guys happy.
If you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns, please share them!
-Nathan