I like the sound of that!

Hell, I'd be in for $10 or $20 a year..............and my Roadstar has been gone for a couple of years. I stay for the Friday nite tunes .

remtool wrote:
Hell, I'd be in for $10 or $20 a year..............and my Roadstar has been gone for a couple of years. I stay for the Friday nite tunes .

I too no longer have my roadie but i stay for the friends i have made along the way and to share my knowledge with others. But $10-$20 a year is a drop in a bucket to keep us going.

I'm in for $20 a year - no problem.

I'd also be willing to offer time for oversight - say, 5-6 hours per week, if that helps.

NJ

If there is a start up cost please post it so we can all pitch in so the first guy maybe wont have to foot the whole thing. Sounds like we are getting close to a fix. It would be nice to see what Gram thinks of this idea, weather it would work or not.

Sounds great Jeff! Let's do it! Tomorrow!

I assume the past posts could be archived for future reference? Correct?

The only issues I see with the Cloud version is no 3rd party add ons and not being able to host @ Jeff's ISP means potentially higher charges.

The first issue is understandable but 3rd party add-ons can really help out on a site (better added in features than "stock" but keeping it easy to keep current on all upgrades may outweigh that. I'm betting it will be fine though, we will have so many useful and cool new features that will likely make up for it in the stock form.

MikeyC wrote:
If there is a start up cost please post it so we can all pitch in so the first guy maybe wont have to foot the whole thing. Sounds like we are getting close to a fix. It would be nice to see what Gram thinks of this idea, weather it would work or not.

Prices can be seen here

Depending on how much bandwidth would be used, the 75gb middle package plans are either $40/month or $360/year.

Jaybo wrote:
The only issues I see with the Cloud version is no 3rd party add ons and not being able to host @ Jeff's ISP means potentially higher charges.

The first issue is understandable but 3rd party add-ons can really help out on a site (better added in features than "stock" but keeping it easy to keep current on all upgrades may outweigh that. I'm betting it will be fine though, we will have so many useful and cool new features that will likely make up for it in the stock form.

That was also my thought.
Sounds nice to be able to add all kinds of Whiz-Bang goodies but the basic cloud version is pretty well 'optioned' right out of the box.
It certainly has more options & functions than the current forum has & I bet most users still don't touch all the things we have here now.
Go to vBulletin's own website & check out their forum, I wouldn't doubt it's the cloud version.
https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/

That's not to say if we find the need for the BIG ENCHILADA that we wouldn't buy the stand-alone version at some later date.
I just think we'd be safer sticking our toe in without any obligation before going straight up to the high dive platform.

First of all BubbaK.. THANKS SO MUCH for taking the initiative and time to do all this! It is GREATLY appreciated!!

The VBulletin cloud based system sounds perfect! I'm all for it!

And I too am more than glad to chip in $10-$20 a year to keep the sight going.

That said... I'm pretty strongly opposed to making this a pay to play site. Those of us who know what the RSC is, will gladly fork over, but it will *SEVERELY* limit new member signups.

And those of us who've been around a while, [hell Bubba,you've been here longer than I have], have seen many members come and go, some of us have even taken breaks, but it's the new members that keep the site alive in the long run. In order to survive long term the site needs to keep the new members coming!

Now from the sound of it, we should have no problem coming up with the transitional and first year operational funds. [In fact we might even have enough to pay for the first couple years.]

To that end I'd like to suggest is we keep it a free sight and take member donations, and ad revenue, to cover operating costs. We can even set up a fund that can *only* be used to pay for the annual hosting and maintenance. Maybe even see if we can get a discount for paying a couple years in advance?

What say you all?