.net back on line

[board]

Hi all,
Speaking as a relative outsider is there no way the two sites can be merged. I don't really know the history or the personalities involved but a merged site bringing the best of both i.e. the extensive knowledge and history of .net and the new fresh enthusiasm of .org would seem to be a great recipe. In addition Tim seems to find it a burden both in time and finances to run the site single handed but with the help of Gary and James might find it a much easier and enjoyable task.
I would congratulate all the people involved in both sites for their work which clearly gives a good number of people both help and enjoyment.
If my suggestion is way out of line then I'm more than happy to but out.

Dave

Hi Dave,

I have offered this along with the free hosting. Yes, hosting web sites does cost money but this is what I do. Having the .org or .net site running on one of our servers isn't going to make any difference to us. We never run our servers at maximum capacity and running a relatively lightweight site on one isn't a problem. From the crawl (copy) I did of the .net site (which included all the external images) it came to about 5GB of storage space. I don't think it can be using huge amounts of bandwidth (the data sent to and from the site itself) as it doesn't host any of the images. Some of our clients who have their servers with us are using multiple terabytes (TB) of bandwidth per month and i would be very surprised if .net was doing even 100GB per month so I don't see bandwidth being an issue either.

I'm not sure what modifications have been done to .net but I am a bit puzzled as to why it can't be upgraded, if that is one of the issues being fed back to us.

It is really up to the guys running the .net site, if they want help then it's on offer, but, I did offer many years ago and was turned down so I really don't know what the future holds. What I do know is that it's the people contributing to a forum that makes it work and I have seen many forums with lots of resources come and go over the last 12+ years.

I will carry on playing with the front end for the .org site and see if we can get something everyone likes and also keep tweaking the forum to add more facilities for everyone who wants to stay, if the two sites are to remain separate.

Cheers,
James

 

[billz]

Got to admit i am very happy with this site, very upto date and with peole running it who listen to its members.
bill

 

[zedonist]

I agree paying £10 to .net is not the way, it would appear it is paying for the time away from the site, and not the running, The excuse given for the time taken to resolve is in excusable, and demonstrates the level of commitment. £10 to MNDA is much preferred and is pound notes working, will be donating later on......

 

[g8jka]

I have always offered to host it FOC for them if that would enable it to keep running. If money is still an issue now then I guess it always will be.

Maybe Tim is unable to see his forum being run/hosted by someone else so would rather pay or ask for donations to keep it going rather than for someone else to take over. But I think it is time he needs to move on and let someone else who has more time and enthusiasm to run the forum or close it down.

Look what a success this forum is already, all because you have more enthusiasm, time and pride to make it what it is and look at all the praise that you have received ^^

zroadster.net was and is a great forum, it just needs to move forward and for Tim to pass it on to someone with more time and passion. I am sure everyone would support him with a decision like this and still appreciate all the work he has done in this past to make it a success.

Or we just stay here :-bd

 

[gookah]

I prefer the logo on here thanks for using it Gaz

 

[si-forks]

I have always offered to host it FOC for them if that would enable it to keep running. If money is still an issue now then I guess it always will be.

Maybe Tim is unable to see his forum being run/hosted by someone else so would rather pay or ask for donations to keep it going rather than for someone else to take over. But I think it is time he needs to move on and let someone else who has more time and enthusiasm to run the forum or close it down.

Look what a success this forum is already, all because you have more enthusiasm, time and pride to make it what it is and look at all the praise that you have received ^^

zroadster.net was and is a great forum, it just needs to move forward and for Tim to pass it on to someone with more time and passion. I am sure everyone would support him with a decision like this and still appreciate all the work he has done in this past to make it a success.

Or we just stay here :-bd

well said

 

[Phil]

There are lots of z sites or BMW forums with a z subsection so I dont see why this site shouldnt continue.
There is zedcars as well and the reason why that hasnt taken off is purely down to people using it.
Its also a question of all eggs in one basket etc.

 

[Garythefish]

The .org team have achieved a rapid rise in such a short time and I don't see why it shouldn't continue..

 

[board]

I have always offered to host it FOC for them if that would enable it to keep running. If money is still an issue now then I guess it always will be.

Maybe Tim is unable to see his forum being run/hosted by someone else so would rather pay or ask for donations to keep it going rather than for someone else to take over. But I think it is time he needs to move on and let someone else who has more time and enthusiasm to run the forum or close it down.

Look what a success this forum is already, all because you have more enthusiasm, time and pride to make it what it is and look at all the praise that you have received ^^

zroadster.net was and is a great forum, it just needs to move forward and for Tim to pass it on to someone with more time and passion. I am sure everyone would support him with a decision like this and still appreciate all the work he has done in this past to make it a success.

Or we just stay here :-bd

well said

I quite understand not wanting to hand over something that you've worked hard on for many years and so initially it was an offer for hosting only, rather than me doing any work to the site. I thought that it would mean Tim wouldn't have to fork out any money and it would stay exactly as it was so he could run it as he saw fit. I would just setup a hosting account (help move it if needed), hand over the keys, as it were, and off you go. At least then if a bill wasn't paid it wouldn't get turned off and if the domain wasn't requested to be renewed i would make sure it did so the site stayed running. It has to be hosted somewhere so I figured that could be my contribution to help such a fantastic site as I don't have a lot of time to do the amount of work that many of you do to contribute. I don't want to take anything away from the vast amount of information available along with all the hard work that has gone into creating the .net resource over the years but if the financial side is a burden and it affects the running of the site then there is a problem.

Sorry if i confused things a little by maybe giving an impression of a "take over bid" but it was intended as a "want some free hosting for your site" offer and that was it.

Both myself and are Gary hugely grateful for your support, thanks and praise. We were quite worried when we thought about putting this together for fear of being burned and banished to the dark depths of somewhere nasty where we would have to keep the roof up all the time but you have all been fantastic. I thank you all so much for taking it in the manner of which it was meant as quite often things can be taken the wrong way in the text world. ^^

If nothing else comes of this site, we are so proud of you all for raising the amount of money you have this week for such a worthy cause, the real stars of this week are you all for the good you have done. :ymapplause:

Cheers,
James

 

[Boysie]

There is zedcars as well and the reason why that hasnt taken off is purely down to people using it.

i just logged on to Zedcars i was the only one online

This site has a lot going for it, its friendlier and has a younger feel

I hope this site keeps going

Admin listen and reply to your suggestions
not like some sites x_x

 

[board]

There is zedcars as well and the reason why that hasnt taken off is purely down to people using it.

i just logged on to Zedcars i was the only one online

This site has a lot going for it, its friendlier and has a younger feel

I hope this site keeps going

Admin listen and reply to your suggestions
not like some sites x_x

I will make sure it stays running as long as it's not just me talking to myself )

 

[GazHyde]

I will make sure it stays running as long as it's not just me talking to myself )

I'll be here mate... :ymhug:

 

[billz]

Thats at least 3 of us then :-bd
bill

 

[SeaSurfer]

Im staying too, unless i get zapped by swampy
Gill

 

[Ragtop]

It will be a shame if .org doesn't grow bigger and better it certainly deserves to.

Does anyone know if Tim Cullis is aware of .org, and the recent offer from Gary & James to help host/run a zroadster site be it .net or .org?

I don't understand what Tim Cullis gets out of .net with only 12 posts to his name. :-??

Surely there is an opportunity for everyone to be winners here.

 

[skygrass]

Please keep it going guys so my £10 can go to MNDA!

 

[Jamezee]

Nice to see it back, it would have been a shame to lose all that information.

 

[Mouldy]

The Donation request on .Net is just that, a 'Request'.

Zroadster.net has been running for several years now with over 10,000 registered members.

Zroadster.org has a new feel to it but let's no be too quick to cast aside the good work done by zroadster.net because the site may look old and dated


Hopefully Tim will arrange to have the Forum updated, I understand some of the information would be lost if it were upgraded.

I absolutely understand that .net has been running for a number of years and that it has over 10,000 members, but how many of them are still active? I, amongst many others, made a contribution to .net when the last post was made requesting funds. There have clearly been no upgrades made to the site and it is still run by one person.

I do not know Tim, but get the impression that he is very protective of it and probably won't be persuaded to share the administration with anyone else. We have a fantastic opportunity to make .org even better than .net was, generate some funds that can be donated to worthy causes, such as MDNA and offer for sale some Forum related merchandise. Any profits made could be offered to the running of .org (if needed) or to add to the amount raised by charitable donations.

I personally feel slightly offended by Tim's first post for some time on .net requesting additional funds to help it creak along a bit longer, especially after having allowed the site to lapse for about two weeks through lack of maintenance.

Furthermore, I would be extremely sorry for Gary and James if .org were to fold. They deserve much better than that for giving us a new Forum during the uncertain times of .net. It has already developed and been upgraded during the first week of its existence with more new features promised. I wouldn't expect them, or anyone else for that matter, to go to a similar level of trouble should .net disappear again.

I probably shouldn't be on here making these comments as I no longer own a Zed, but do still enjoy reading the banter. I would miss it if it wasn't here and feel that the better long term option is .org.

 

[Daz3]

I'm with mouldy on this on I've always donated to clubs I've joined if a yearly membership is n/a there's so much good stuff that's helped me on .net but on here it seems the admin care which to me counts. This site .org looks like a good foundation on which to build an amazing site so long may it continue!

 

[badman gee]

I agree with mouldy, a lot of work has gone into .org already, and yes i suspect that not many of the 10000 users on .net are ever active anymore.

Why not combine the good parts from both sites into one?