New Club Board - Need Help

[Sparky]

Ok, suggestions - options please.
Zarken is MIA again and I'm at the mercy of Shelly's sisters boyfriend to get the new site done. If we wait this out, it will never happen.

Do we know someone who could get this done in a reasonable amount of time - or should we contract and pay?

Help!

Mark

[cASe SenSiTive]

*sigh*


Awwww f*** it. Let's just give up.:mad:


Errrr... I mean, I have no problem with paying someone to do it. What's up with Mike (aka Shelly's sisters boyfriend)? Is he dragging his feet or what?

I honestly have ZERO time to devote to building a website. I wish that weren't the case.

Let me check with a couple people... I'll let you know by tonight if I can come up with someone.

[Geoff]

Do we have software? I have a little experience with frontpage. If it works with that, I could probablly set something up given an IP address and password and stuff. In fact, I'll check it out and let you know what I find.

We could always go back to EZboard!?!?!?!?!?!?!

-Geoff

[Sparky]

I guess the software is free and I think it's important that we get the thing changed ASAP and professional looking given our issues.

I haven't heard a word from Mike - - I'm going to try again and see if there is any hope.

Mark

[ChrisFrez]

I get the feeling Mike wants to be left alone. I just moved out after purchasing my first house and barely ever saw Mikey anymore anyways. Several people have asked me what happened to him - but he's still alive and well.

[Geoff]

Frez - do you have a number I could call you at Friday? I'd like to talk to someone in "the business" about what it takes to set one of these up. I've had a little bit of .xml and .asp and if the setup software is good I think I could handle it. All I would need is an IP address and access to Zarken's server in order to post the stuff up.

Here are a couple of board software sites I have found. Also, Infopop has pricing for setup if we want to get really serious.

phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/) - Free

Google Software List (http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Bulletin_Board_Systems/Software/)

-Geoff

[Sparky]

I really want this to look and operate first rate (to the point that all of us can easily do what we need to do to maintain it). Left Shelly's Mike another message and no response.

Gang - Chris: Any ideas on what it would cost to have someone do it up right? (and who to go to??!!)


Mark

[CMYZ28]

I'm soo dizzy my head is spinning..... I've got a little bit of experience with webpage stuff, nothing too crazy, but i'm fairly computer literate too..

[Geoff]

It looks like the hardest part is going to be setting up the web space and the sql database. I think Frez or Zarken would have to be involved just to initalize the board as it comes out of the box. Once it is installed and running on the internet, setting up the forums, colors, fonts, etc. is relatively easy. The software has everything built in and is menu driven. All the membership levels, access, posting, login, account info, etc., is built into the software.

If we want to spend a few bucks, Infopop will sell you the software for $199 and install it on your server for $175. The support you get from them is very limited, though. That is definitely the hard part, though, and they give you limiteed email support with a 3 day guaranteed turnaround.

Frez, do you have any recommendations on board software?

-Geoff

[Sparky]

If you're really want to try and tackle it, give Zarken a call and let him set you up. He already had a prototype working just didn't have the time to finish. We just need to get this done.

Brian Uptain
248-787-2084

[Geoff]

Thanks, I'll give him a ry tomorrow. Do you have the address for the prototype?

[ChrisFrez]

I would highly recommend going with Vbulletin software. I've converted all my boards over from UBB last year. Vbulletin is very nice and is highly customizable - and very fast!

I'm not familiar with setting up the free boards, and quite honestly i'm not impressed by a couple of them. I've never liked the Xoops board that Mikey setup. It seems pretty hacked together and eats up a lot of my system resources on the server.

I think a Vbulletin license is only like $115. This would be the way to go for a board in my professional opinion.

The board is not hard to setup at all - if you guys need help, I can do this for you no problem. What specifically do you want the new board to do? Expectations? Discuss away.

[Sparky]

Chris:

I agree, since we're starting from scratch - VBulletin is the way to go.

You've already done so much for us, I didn't want to ask - but since you mentioned it! :D

What would it take for you to set us up with an entirely new site that all of us could administer and Case and Geoff could modify as needed? (BTW: we appreciate all the pro bono stuff you do for us already such as hosting - but we are certianly willing to support this and any comprehensive development you do monetarily also)

I'll email you a listing of the new forums we were considering as well as the starting flow and content for the basics of our site. Let me know what you think!

Mark

[2001-WS6]

I do agree with Chris. I got ambitious last night and went through all of the PhpBB 2.06, Php 4.33 and MySQL 3.01 stuff last night. It's doable but there is work involved for sure in the setup and getting the right mix of hacks installed with PhpBB.

VBulletin appears to be a more complete out of the box setup and looks better price wise than UBB.xxx too. Performance looks better over all too. We plan to be around for a while so we might as well by the licnese at $160 and then the annual maintenance is $30. MySQL and PHP are $0 in our case as non distributors. The same with Apache webserver if we need to go that way too.

The one thing I wasn't sure with Brian's site is what the combination of hardware and OS was. I'm assuming Intel boxes but I don't know if he's on Linux and Apache web server or Windows and IIS web server? I know Chris prefers the world of Linux and Apache. :D

Rick

[Sparky]

Rick: I agree - this is a long term effort and we need to treat it as such.

Chris:
What did you think of the stuff I sent you in email? It's a much more refined forum list and those are the basic web pages we feel we'd need going forward.

Thanks!

Mark

[ChrisFrez]

Mark - the stuff you sent me looks pretty straight forward. The only thing I can't do is the Members Rides thing. Everything else is built into the board and very easy to implement.

[Sparky]

Cool! Are you willing to hook us uo!?

Mark