Hi everyone! I'm not quitting on you. I'm happy to keep the domain tweak3d.net active and a basic web hosting account that allows us to keep this community together. But about 10 years ago I closed off new user accounts because 99.9% of them were spam. 99.9% of new threads from any new users was spam. The whole user database was corrupted to the point where almost every account is spam other than the original people from 1999-2010 or so. Finally I stopped allowing people to register and post from new accounts which also stopped the growth of new users (which was almost 0 anyway). I really don't have time or the skills to maintain and upgrade forum software, keep on top of security issues, and deal with new users. All of this also presents privacy risks for everyone (as their username, email, passwords, and anything they've posted or sent from this forum could potentially be leaked/shared online). So my question for you loyal users is do we need this old school type of forum for such a small group? Or are there alternatives that we can try instead? I need to figure out what to do next and I'm thinking the future for this community may be something like Discord, Slack, or Reddit. I would like to get some of your thoughts on what to do next. Have you used these services and have a preference? I was thinking we could make a Discord server, assign some moderators, and copy some of our favorite stuff over / separate channels and project groups etc. But I don't really know how to do all that or who's interested in helping. And what all should we try to archive from this old forum and how? I really don't want this site to be hacked again/deleted, and I also really don't want to risk anyone's security at this point. Personally I've had numerous data leaks, identitity theft and so-on which creates incredible stress and liability for people involved. Alternatively I could make the whole forum private - since everyone that's posted in the last few years is an old registered user. I could update the software "one last time" (I say that but it might be a few more in the future) at the cost of a few hundred bucks and a weekend or two playing with it. I'd be willing to do that of course. However, if there are security patches and exploits in the future we may still need to go to another cloud based / remote forum or chat software instead of a Bulletin board system. Even these big ones like XF and Vbulletin really aren't what they used to be, and even a private forum can be hacked the same as a public one. I would be a lot more inclined to go this route if someone can volunteer to help me keep up with the security patches or spam issues if we did ever keep it open again.
It's a catch-22. I'd like something more modern, but there is an archive here of old posts that are nice to revive sometimes. Is there a way to secure the entire forum that isn't totally labor intensive? I'd volunteer to be a mod but it would be light work, I'm looking at a new job and grad school. You should have replied to my FB message a few years back. I was hammered and offered to pay for the software upgrade.
Keep the forum if you can. Like Hans there is a ton of things here I enjoy revisiting. I can do light mod work as well. I have some extra expenses since my Mother passed in Jan, but I can help with a few dollars if you need it for the upgrade.
There needs to be a repository for Teh Timeline of History plus the lovely artwork donated by the lovely Giggidy. Oh, and Fiddy's travelogues, if those are still around. I can probably help, too. Unfortunately there are maybe only a half-dozen of us left. Discord may not be a bad idea.
wild to think we've made it this far.. question is.. who actually participates here regularly anymore.. i think some of us just pop in once a month or two? theres quite the history of us talking pretty stupid and silly here lol, not sure if that could cost us good boy points aka social credit score points in the future when the ai overlords take over the internet (if they havent already) another thing.. maybe in the future there will be young adults that are kids right now that will want to build an og windows 95 computer with a 3dfx card, so sources like tweak3d and remnants of old guides could be beneficial to them? What im saying is, i'm not sure how much value there is here besides us 'elders' just popping in to update and check on each other. This place for most of us was like a "diary" of sorts, which could be either valuable or embarrassing for our kids (for those tweakers with kids now) to read once we've passed on gone.. its a peek into our younger lives and immature funnies our kids may never know about.. Whiskas passing had me thinking about that and im sure others too..
