What's next for YarisWorld?

[tk-421]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

I will need to read more into Discourse.

You can check out http://try.discourse.org to try out a live server instance. It's got a pretty cool and damn snappy UI even under not so great wifi.

you can read more about their reasoning behind this approach here: http://www.discourse.org/about/

It almost sounds like we would essentially need to perform a massive exodus from YW. Special pinned posts being placed with an explanation on why we are doing what we are doing and essentially just let YW become a stale point in the ether.

Well, yes and no. My idea is to grab all the threads that we want with us and integrate them into the new system. That way our existing community and our data is preserved and we get a way nicer platform as a result.

This isn't an "admin" thing, this is a straight up owner situation where for some reason they have the misconception that they have the ability to make money on a site that has been going the way of the DoDo for years.

Actually, YarisBueller has stated that he doesn't care if he makes money on YW or not, and I tend to believe him. It's just that if he's not interested in making money AND he's also not interested in being a part of the community, then what exactly keeps him motivated to keep YW afloat for the next 5 years?

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by tk-421

Actually, YarisBueller has stated that he doesn't care if he makes money on YW or not, and I tend to believe him. It's just that if he's not interested in making money AND he's also not interested in being a part of the community, then what exactly keeps him motivated to keep YW afloat for the next 5 years?

I suppose that I should clarify a little better. With what has been shared with me when the owner has been approached about possibly handing off the torch to someone else my understanding is there was a discussion about what the site was worth in a monetary measurement.

That is the last I will say about it. I have given my input.

[tk-421]

No worries, I totally understand your point.

All I'm saying is that what really makes YW valuable is the community and its data. The domain name is currently semi-valuable SEO-wise because we generate all this original content and most of the traffic for free, but if we move our traffic someplace else the actual value of the domain name would be diminished in a matter of months, if not weeks.

Not to mention that this new platform is way more SEO friendly and would be much more easily digested by search engines than vbulletin or phpbb are.

[why?]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

I'm just going to point out that the owner's resources (server/hosting/forum) are being used here to discuss this. Someone is paying so this forum continues on -- in my opinion, after all these years, that is GENEROUS of him at the very least.

Let's not forget how we were allowed to meet on here in the first place.

/rant

Yup, too true. And after years of complaints and forum degradation, it is obvious the owners don't care. The only reason this became the Yaris forum of note is because it was the first Yaris forum. As much as we tried to keep the echo forums open, they really never got the Yaris people. And even though there are several toyota forums, the Yaris/Echo sections are pretty much worthless.

All it would take would be for the owner to give a few active mods admin power, and everything could be great. That isn't hard or a big deal, but since it hasn't been done, full out revolt was only a matter of time.
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While moving away from traditional forum formats might seem nice, just take a look at the YW social groups to see how it really ends up. Although if it has a powerful search feature with the ability to search for new posts since your last visit, it might be ok. For a well run car community I always look at NASIOC.com, partly because it is gigantic, but also because they've been around a long time, been through all sorts of crazy stuff including massive forum turmoil, and still stand. Even with numerous competitors covering the exact same topic.
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ok Discourse does look cool.

[Bluevitz-rs]

IDK if any of you were a part of echofans.com, but I feel this site going the same way. There's only a couple of threads that I have really worth saving... One being my 5spd to 6spd conversion. But I have that saved as a text doc on my computer already.

[aussie muzza]

Guys
As a member who reads this site almost every day I would be very upset if the site disappeared. I don't post very often but I certainly use the information that I find. I am constantly astounded at the amount of knowledge Scott and some of the other high profile members post. It is all appreciated. I would be happy to make a small donation from time to time to keep it rolling. That is if you take Aussie dollars...
Best Wishes Muz.

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by aussie muzza

Guys
As a member who reads this site almost every day I would be very upset if the site disappeared. I don't post very often but I certainly use the information that I find. I am constantly astounded at the amount of knowledge Scott and some of the other high profile members post. It is all appreciated. I would be happy to make a small donation from time to time to keep it rolling. That is if you take Aussie dollars...
Best Wishes Muz.

Thank you for the input. The discussion really is about being able to attempt to elevate the community to a level it once was. The biggest issue really was the hack. Pre-hack this forum was bumpin crazy. After the hack when folks found out that the ownership was for one reason or another oblivious to what they started and what it was becoming because they didn't perform due diligence and have the database with a failover mechanism. Because if this lack of proper handling we lost too much information, etc which in turn caused the site to slowly plateau to what it is now. There shouldn't be a hand full of contributors. There should be a multitude, but most folks need that constant push to better the environmwnt they are in. This forum has lacked that push much to the dismay and chagrin of those faithful out there and that has happened in spite of the "core" folks trying their best. Let's be even more honest. YarisWorld is on life support and it doesn't have a battery back up in caee of a power outage.

[tk-421]

Sad but true. However, things can improve pretty quickly if we act as a unit.

[cali yaris]

I would be very upset if the site disappeared.

It won't. They are discussing a replacement forum with a different address.

The fact that 15 people have bothered to vote pretty much says it all to me. There are already a bunch of other choices to get information about the Yaris. It will never be the case that one location dedicated to the Yaris alone can be like this forum used to be. Just my opinion, and the reason I built our forums. Too many other interesting vehicles available these days!

[tk-421]

^^ Correct. YarisWorld would stay alive, just not as actively maintained as it is now (at least not by me ). At the rate things are happening now, spam bots are going to take over within a year or so. Moderators need better tools for the job at hand.

I made a little graph of all banned spam accounts separated by date: http://screencloud.net/v/aGCK

We currently have an average of 3 spam accounts being created per day, with the worst day being 198 accounts (back on 2013-04-13). This is pretty bad news, considering that just one of those accounts can generate hundreds of spam posts in a few minutes and that our current forum software and privileges only allow us do so much on our end. I have basically no doubt that it will get worse relatively quickly, especially is spammers are actually sitting down and reading this information and other threads discussing this stuff.

[yougojay]

Love this site, Love my Yaris & plan to keep it for the rest of my life (& I am serious, I am a keeper) I am more than willing to make a few donations a year to help the site out. I check-in quite a few times per day, and am trying to help keep the site active.
Have learned a heck of a lot about this car & other members adventures & lives, I just love this site. Count me in, I voted, same 'voting' glitch as others.
I don't know much at all about the 'behind the scenes' operations of a forum, but am pretty DARN good when it comes to figuring out how they work. They're all basically the same, you just need to follow some instruction and do a little research, example: READ The Instructions, or as we say here, Owners Manual
Whatever is decided, I'll be here & try my best to support. I owe a lot to the other members, they've filled my with all this cool Yaris stuff, it's swirling around in there hourly (believe me, it is!) and I think about, well, you know... yeah, THAT less than I used to...

[Yaristeve]

I too, just found this thread.

I don't mind donating but could it be once a year?

[tk-421]

I'm open to all ideas at the moment. Please keep them coming.

[Bluevitz-rs]

Does google do payed advertising? Maybe that could help

[47_MasoN_47]

Just going to throw out there, that if we really want to take this site over, we could just....take it. This thing is running on an old version anyway. Some people know things that can make some other people owners.

I'd hate to see this place go away. I'm not as active as I used to be just because I'm mainly focusing on getting my truck running again, but once that's back in action (hopefully after another week or two) I've got a whole bunch of Yaris stuff I want to do.

[Astroman]

Just a note I just got notified and am testing tapatalk on the forum. Maybe the admins had some upgrades going they hadn't told us about. This literally happened a few minutes ago.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[mazilla]

I may not log in every day but I do check the new posts and the tech guides are invaluable...I'd be in for 20-25 a year as a 'premium member'

[tk-421]

Originally Posted by Astroman

Just a note I just got notified and am testing tapatalk on the forum. Maybe the admins had some upgrades going they hadn't told us about. This literally happened a few minutes ago.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Yup trying it now myself... Can't really believe it finally happened.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk