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Old 02-20-2013, 09:12 PM
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davelant davelant is offline
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Behind the scenes of the forum

I was reading about a software project called the "civilized discourse construction kit," meant to modernize the software used in internet discussion forums. Now for all I know this may be necessary, but it got me to wondering what goes into creating and running a forum like this. Even though discussion forums like this constitute the tiniest fraction of today's internet, this type of civil discussion group based on shared interest is the most valuable part of today's internet world to me.

So what does it take to run a place like this? I'm imagining money and lots of hours of admin work, but how much? What is the base software, and what do you think of it?

I used to think that organization around a common and uncontroversial hobby interest had a lot to do with the low level of "drama" here. But we have seen similar groups descend into squabbling and worse. Is there a "secret sauce" or is it luck?
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Old 02-20-2013, 10:02 PM
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rickstef rickstef is offline
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Dave,

Interesting questions you pose.

I know that we run the vBulletin board operating system, I do know that we pay a subscription fee to have access to the most current version of the OS.
And we pay a fee to the hosting company for bandwidth.

Admin duties varies from day to day, most of the time we are approving new members and their threads and posts, some days we are battling spammers

And I think the biggest reason this forum has survived, is the passion of the members, and the experience the staff has running various incarnations of the forum.

Rick
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Old 02-20-2013, 10:34 PM
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Jim Nunn Jim Nunn is offline
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Rick,

How about allowing the members to donate a few dollars to support the forum. I know this has come up in the past and you have said that it was not necessary. But there is a cost to running this forum and though it may not be a burden for you to do so I believe a lot of us would like to help. All that is needed is a link to PayPal and let us do the rest.

Jim Nunn
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Old 02-20-2013, 10:50 PM
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Jim,

As much as I would like to approve that, and trust me, I would, this is strictly a Jason question.

Rick
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Old 02-21-2013, 12:24 AM
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mbauer mbauer is offline
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Very interesting.

Member of some other forums. One thing that stands out here is the knowledge base.

On another site someone asked a question, most screamed troll, and then the deluge started. Got to thinking about that, the person did not know the right questions for the answer that he was looking for.

The biggest problem was he asked a question on a forum that most members know how to construct a kit, but not how to design (basically don't know how to think outside the box).

The replies degenerated into an attack on the OP. Had to ask myself . Why?

Clearly most didn't understand what was asked, they jumped to conculsions, and decided "troll". and then the mob mentality took over.

Here it is different. You have a very sound knowledge base. Members ask question that others have experienced.

Designers and experienced builders =
Instead of trying to hide lack of skills by attacking, you have members who try to help, by sharing their knowledge.

Mike
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Old 02-21-2013, 10:46 AM
lisatnp lisatnp is offline
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you are indeed right mike,
i have been a member of many boards over the years,
and i will say, you guys are by far the friendliest,
you guys don't look down on us when we ask questions, or get snotty and say
"Google it" well i would think that most on the net today do try to Google for their answers, but that doesn't always help. and we would rather here it directly from someone who has experience.
Problems that i have seen on boards is folks selling stuff.
you think that because there are there selling that they would be legit, but that is not always the case. i got burned on a mini pocket bike i bought off a forum last year, guy was on there alot, selling stuff, turns out he sold the same bike ( just showed everyone different pictures of the bike) to about 5 people for the tune of around 500.00 each. long story short, it was a big mess and we did all get our money back eventually but there was alot of work involved in getting it back.
( sorry i guess that really doesn't have anything to do with the topic)
if there's a place to donate i would be more then happy to, just to keep this hobby alive!

Last edited by lisatnp; 02-21-2013 at 10:47 AM. Reason: because i can't spell!lol
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Old 02-22-2013, 10:33 AM
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whulsey whulsey is offline
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This board is great, the only one I really go to now on a regular basis.

BS level is really low. Not that threads don't go spinning off in wierd tagents occasionally, but even those are usually interesting and civil. The only real problem is its so interesting and entertaining I spend way too much time here.
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