RPGCodex consumes the WORLD

[chrisbeddoes]

He would just type some random shit to make the posts longer.

And gain a special title if he /she chose to do that like *MORON* . I think he/she would stop after a while.

 

[Whipporowill]

You realize it's Volourn were talking about here? The thing that wouldn't learn or change it's views of anything ever?

 

[chrisbeddoes]

You realize it's Volourn were talking about here? The thing that wouldn't learn or change it's views of anything ever?

If he/she really could not change well ok. But we have to try.

 

[Transcendent One]

Volourn has neither an avatar nor a sig. Yet he/she is the non-administrator user with the most posts on the site, at least half of them being spam and full of emoticons. I think he/she should be made to pay. Just my two cents :twisted:

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Can anybody confirm if this text can be removed from PHP
now that we cannot select themes ?

Its about 8 K and it reloads EVERY F***NG time

<!--
/*
The original rpgcodex Theme for phpBB version 2+
Created by subBlue design
http://www.subBlue.com

NOTE: These CSS definitions are stored within the main page body so that you can use the phpBB2
theme administration centre. When you have finalised your style you could cut the final CSS code
and place it in an external file, deleting this section to save bandwidth.
*/

/* General page style. The scroll bar colours only visible in IE5.5+ */
body {
background-color: {T_BODY_BGCOLOR
background-color: #00FF99;
};
scrollbar-face-color: #596170;
scrollbar-highlight-color: #3F3F3F;
scrollbar-shadow-color: #596170;
scrollbar-3dlight-color: #353F55;
scrollbar-arrow-color: #B3B3B3;
scrollbar-track-color: #48505F;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #000000;
}
/* General font families for common tags */
font,th,td,p { font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif }
a:link,a:active,a:visited { color : #B3B3B3; }
a:hover {
text-decoration: underline;
color : {T_BODY_HLINK; color: #FFFFFF;
}; }
hr { height: 0px; border: solid #353F55 0px; border-top-width: 1px;}

/* This is the border line & background colour round the entire page */
.bodyline { background-color: #3F3F3F; border: 1px #000000 solid; }

/* This is the outline round the main forum tables */
.forumline { background-color: #3F3F3F; border: 2px #000000 solid; }

/* Main table cell colours and backgrounds */
td.row1 { background-color: #48505F; }
td.row2 { background-color: #596170; }
td.row3 { background-color: #353F55; }

/*
This is for the table cell above the Topics, Post & Last posts on the index.php page
By default this is the fading out gradiated silver background.
However, you could replace this with a bitmap specific for each forum
*/
td.rowpic {
background-color: #3F3F3F;
background-image: url(templates/rpgcodex/images/sidebg.gif);
background-repeat: repeat-y;
}

/* Header cells - the blue and silver gradient backgrounds */
th {
color: #AEBADC; font-size: 11px; font-weight : bold;
background-color: #B3B3B3; height: 25px;
background-image: url(templates/rpgcodex/images/footernavbg.gif);
}

td.cat,td.catHead,td.catSides,td.catLeft,td.catRight,td.catBottom {
background-image: url(templates/rpgcodex/images/belownavbg.gif);
background-color:#353F55; border: #666666; border-style: solid; height: 28px;
}

/*
Setting additional nice inner borders for the main table cells.
The names indicate which sides the border will be on.
Don't worry if you don't understand this, just ignore it
*/
td.cat,td.catHead,td.catBottom {
height: 29px;
border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
th.thHead,th.thSides,th.thTop,th.thLeft,th.thRight,th.thBottom,th.thCornerL,th.thCornerR {
font-weight: bold; border: #3F3F3F; border-style: solid; height: 28px;
}
td.row3Right,td.spaceRow {
background-color: #353F55; border: #666666; border-style: solid;
}

th.thHead,td.catHead { font-size: 12px; border-width: 1px 1px 0px 1px; }
th.thSides,td.catSides,td.spaceRow { border-width: 0px 1px 0px 1px; }
th.thRight,td.catRight,td.row3Right { border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; }
th.thLeft,td.catLeft { border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; }
th.thBottom,td.catBottom { border-width: 0px 1px 1px 1px; }
th.thTop { border-width: 1px 0px 0px 0px; }
th.thCornerL { border-width: 1px 0px 0px 1px; }
th.thCornerR { border-width: 1px 1px 0px 0px; }

/* The largest text used in the index page title and toptic title etc. */
.maintitle {
font-weight: bold; font-size: 22px; font-family: "Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif",Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration: none; line-height : 120%; color : #FFFFFF;
}

/* General text */
.gen { font-size : 12px; }
.genmed { font-size : 11px; }
.gensmall { font-size : 11px; }
.gen,.genmed,.gensmall { color : #FFFFFF; }
a.gen,a.genmed,a.gensmall { color: #B3B3B3; text-decoration: none; }
a.gen:hover,a.genmed:hover,a.gensmall:hover { color: #929FB6; text-decoration: underline; }

/* The register, login, search etc links at the top of the page */
.mainmenu { font-size : 11px; color : #FFFFFF }
a.mainmenu { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.mainmenu:hover{ text-decoration: underline; color : #929FB6; }

/* Forum category titles */
.cattitle { font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px ; letter-spacing: 1px; color : #B3B3B3}
a.cattitle { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.cattitle:hover{ text-decoration: underline; }

/* Forum title: Text and link to the forums used in: index.php */
.forumlink { font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.forumlink { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.forumlink:hover{ text-decoration: underline; color : #929FB6; }

/* Used for the navigation text, (Page 1,2,3 etc) and the navigation bar when in a forum */
.nav { font-weight: bold; font-size: 11px; color : #FFFFFF;}
a.nav { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.nav:hover { text-decoration: underline; }

/* titles for the topics: could specify viewed link colour too */
.topictitle,h1,h2 { font-weight: bold; font-size: 11px; color : #FFFFFF; }
a.topictitle:link { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.topictitle:visited { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.topictitle:hover { text-decoration: underline; color : #929FB6; }

/* Name of poster in viewmsg.php and viewtopic.php and other places */
.name { font-size : 11px; color : #FFFFFF;}

/* Location, number of posts, post date etc */
.postdetails { font-size : 11px; color : #FFFFFF; }

/* The content of the posts (body of text) */
.postbody { font-size : 12px; line-height: 18px}
a.postlink:link { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3 }
a.postlink:visited { text-decoration: none; color : #B3B3B3; }
a.postlink:hover { text-decoration: underline; color : #929FB6}

/* Quote & Code blocks */
.code {
font-family: Courier, \'Courier New\', sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: #C5CEE7;
background-color: #353F55; border: #353F55; border-style: solid;
border-left-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px
}

.quote {
font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: #DEDEDE; line-height: 125%;
background-color: #353F55; border: #353F55; border-style: solid;
border-left-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px
}

/* Copyright and bottom info */
.copyright { font-size: 11px; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #DEDEDE; letter-spacing: -1px;}
a.copyright { color: #DEDEDE; text-decoration: none;}
a.copyright:hover { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: underline;}

/* Form elements */
input,textarea, select {
color : #FFFFFF;
font: normal 11px Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
border-color : #FFFFFF;
}

/* The text input fields background colour */
input.post, textarea.post, select {
background-color : #3F3F3F;
}

input { text-indent : 2px; }

/* The buttons used for bbCode styling in message post */
input.button {
background-color : #48505F;
color : #FFFFFF;
font-size: 11px; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

/* The main submit button option */
input.mainoption {
background-color : #353F55;
font-weight : bold;
}

/* None-bold submit button */
input.liteoption {
background-color : #353F55;
font-weight : normal;
}

/* This is the line in the posting page which shows the rollover
help line. This is actually a text box, but if set to be the same
colour as the background no one will know
*/
.helpline { background-color: #596170; border-style: none; }

/* Import the fancy styles for IE only (NS4.x doesn't use the @import function) */
@import url("templates/rpgcodex/formIE.css");
a:link {
color: #FFFFFF;
}
a:visited {
color: #FFFFFF;
}
a:active {
color: #FFFFFF;
}
-->

 

[Sheriff05]

I just kicked down $40.00 thats .12 a post for me at that rate Volourn owes ya $350.00


Seriously, good idea everyone who can afford it should pitch in, if you look at this site daily

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

*snip*

Yeah, he should pay for every emoticon he uses. And an additional fee for every time he uses that 'R00fles' bit. [imagine any form of evil grin here]

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Send the bill to Bethesda. Their PR-brainfart of a Fallout 3 announcement is why the site is suddenly flooded with teh n00bz.

 

[EvoG]

Yea...just donated myself.

Talking about this is ridiculous. You like the site, help out. *shrugs*

Cheers

 

[chrisbeddoes]

I just kicked down $40.00 thats .12 a post for me at that rate Volourn owes ya $350.00


Seriously, good idea everyone who can afford it should pitch in, if you look at this site daily

Sherif bravo but the problem is that donations without benefits never work in the long run because most people do not have credit cards or do not care.


On the other hand donations with benefits make people care and do save bandwidth.

Yea...just donated myself.

Talking about this is ridiculous. You like the site, help out. *shrugs*

Cheers

Does this means that now every time that i call phoenix vaporware i will feel guilt ?
Oh no !

And to be serius i do not have a credit card.
1 year that i had i found out that i spend 50 % more.
So no credit card or pay pal for me.

Oh and the min cost for sending from greece to usa with the western union is 20 $ i think.
Sad.

 

[Spazmo]

Sherriff, EvoG: Thanks a bunch. We haven't really got the whole GOLD MEMBAR SUPREMO crap set up (nor will we ever, I should think), but take it from me: you guys are terrific.

 

[EvoG]

Sherif bravo but the problem is that donations without benefits never work in the long run because most people do not have credit cards or do not care.

I sense this is the problem a lot of people have with you. You don't donate to GET something, you do it because you enjoy what you have now. In this case, assuming sherrif feels the same, we enjoy the community and conversations. I want to see that continue and some money here and there ensures that...I'm not expecting anything in return.

No different than going to the zoo, wanting to make sure that you can help out the animals for their food, care and facilities. You enjoy the zoo so you contribute because you care about it...not for what you can get for it.

Does this means that now every time that i call phoenix vaporware i will feel guilt ?
Oh no !

Bravo chris

 

[chrisbeddoes]

I sense this is the problem a lot of people have with you. You don't donate to GET something, you do it because you enjoy what you have now. In this case, assuming sherrif feels the same, we enjoy the community and conversations. I want to see that continue and some money here and there ensures that...I'm not expecting anything in return.

No different than going to the zoo, wanting to make sure that you can help out the animals for their food, care and facilities. You enjoy the zoo so you contribute because you care about it...not for what you can get for it.

Right . How about doing this with commercial games ?
Download the game from free from Kazaa and if you like it send us $50 ?

It would not work .
It also will not work on this forum.

Why ? Most people do not care or do not have a credit card.

It is better to give something and get something.

 

[plin]

If I had extra money and a paypal account, I would pitch in a little.

But alas, school/food/gas/rent/bills are sucking my funds dry.

 

[EvoG]

Right . How about doing this with commercial games ?
Download the game from free from Kazaa and if you like it send us $50 ?

It would not work .
It also will not work on this forum.

Why ? Most people do not care or do not have a credit card.

It is better to give something and get something.

You're kidding right? You're getting ths community and forum...you think ITS free?

Just by your comment though, its absolutely clear you have no clue, so its obvious that explaining this to you, AGAIN, would be fruitless.

Anyone else want a shot?

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Right . How about doing this with commercial games ?
Download the game from free from Kazaa and if you like it send us $50 ?

It would not work .
It also will not work on this forum.

Why ? Most people do not care or do not have a credit card.

It is better to give something and get something.

You're kidding right? You're getting ths community and forum...you think ITS free?

Just by your comment though, its absolutely clear you have no clue, so its obvious that explaining this to you, AGAIN, would be fruitless.

Anyone else want a shot?

What exactly i do not get ?

Please explain.

This community is not free however most efforts to keep a community afloat by getting donations without linking the donations to a benefit have failed.


On the other hand when the donators get a benefit and the recognition of an oficial title then the donations are enought to keep a community afloat.
Also the fact that people that do not donate cannot use certain features saves bandwidth costs.

When did i say that hosting these forums were cost free ?

Please explain.

Your analogy was flawed

I sense this is the problem a lot of people have with you. You don't donate to GET something, you do it because you enjoy what you have now. In this case, assuming sherrif feels the same, we enjoy the community and conversations. I want to see that continue and some money here and there ensures that...I'm not expecting anything in return.

No different than going to the zoo, wanting to make sure that you can help out the animals for their food, care and facilities. You enjoy the zoo so you contribute because you care about it...not for what you can get for it.

and i have proven it by showing that the analogy will not work in say commercial games with my own analogy.

Maybe you misunderstood something ? Maybe i did not make it clear enough ?

 

[chrisbeddoes]

EvoG because i do not want to be seen editing my post let me repost this here to you.

My thesis

in the forums

link payment to benefits.

Your thesis.

No donate because you like it.

My thesis.

This will not work for this forums in the same way that it will not work in commercial games.


So in order to keep the codex afloat you must link payment (gold member , sustainer) to benefits ( sig, portrait) the same way
that in order to make money from commercial games
you must link ability to pay with payment ( link payment with benefit)

What it is that you do not understand ?

Or you just look at the keyword "Kazaa" and after that you did not even bothered to read or understand my post ?

 

[plin]

If people love the community enough (keyword: enough), they would donate (if they could) just to keep it alive, they wouldn't give half a shit if there were benefits or not.

Games and websites aren't the same at all, so don't even bring up this half-assed analogy.

 

[Volourn]

"And Volourn would be pissed ! Another bonus ! "

I don't get pissed over 'net stuff. besdies, my short posts have a lot more content than your crying and whining. But, hey, if you need 80 paragraphs to get a simple point across; that's your problem not mine.

Keep dancing to your tune.

All the Normal People: If my posts are such a strain on the server that it might crash and burn.. the 'Codex big wigs really only have one option. I don't pay to post anywhere. Period.

On top of that, I neither have a sig or an avatar - two things that hit servers hard - so I doubt my posts either big or small - do that much damage compared to someone like Chris who whines too much with a billion links to the same pics. (see: Iraq war thread in GD as example )

Once again, stop crying likes babies. Seriously, as much as I like the 'codex, the worse that can happen is that it closes and I can interact with other opininionated assholes elshweres. I'll survive. :D

P.S. Seriously, this doesn't mean i don't appreciate the 'Codex; but no message board is important enough to pay for. Sorry.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

If people love the community enough (keyword: enough), they would donate (if they could) just to keep it alive, they wouldn't give half a shit if there were benefits or not.

Games and websites aren't the same at all, so don't even bring up this half-assed analogy.

If I had extra money and a paypal account, I would pitch in a little.

But alas, school/food/gas/rent/bills are sucking my funds dry.

Obviously you do not love the community *ENOUGH*

The keyword is *ENOUGH*


Oh and that discussion could be usefull.

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/arch ... php/t-1617

Mudusa
Our site takes donations, strictly to cover costs of hosting and software license yearly.

Members who donate $20 CAD get to post:

Custom user title
profile pics
avatars
uploaded pics for display in posts

They also get a 5 meg webmail acct

We also recently had issues with a friend and donator who was furious that an off-topic and inappropriate thread was deleted per forum rules, and made a last night ranting post about censorship. He argued that his donation gave him the right to have a say in how the forum was moderated, we disagreed. We don't yet take in enough donations to cover hosting+software, and when we finally do, the extra $ will be used to purchase items for raffle which only donating members can participate in.

In this thread ppl that run forums talk about adding premium memberships

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/arch ... php/t-3012

chrispian
I've seen a few posts about premium memberships and just wanted to get an idea of what everyone else thought about them, and if you use them, how well do they go over?

What all do you offer in premium memberships? I was thinking somethign along the lines of:
- Private forums for Premium Members
- Higher limits for Private Messages
- Larger Avatar size

Mainly, my idea behind this is to give users who want to help support the site some perks, but nothing they would *have* to pay for to enjoy the site. I was thinking of a really low fee for it as well, like $2.95/mo or $3.95/mo.

Anyone else given this any thought? I'm just thinking outloud and would love to hear what you all think about it.
FansofRealityTV
This thread has a bunch of info on that:

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/show ... php?t=2824
PacMan
I will be selling premium memberships soon on my site. I will give premium members 15 megs to upload pictures, while regular members will have a 3 meg limit. I will also increase the PM limit, change the colour of their username and add a "supporting member" button below their name. Im thinking of charging them $20 a year for these perks. Regular members will still be able to enjoy the forum with almost no restrictions at all.
chrispian
This thread has a bunch of info on that:

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/show ... php?t=2824

Gak! I thought I searched for threads on this already. I losing my mind. Thanks for the link, good stuff in there! Exactly what I was looking for. Didn't mean to start another thread on it
SecretAgent
We try to make money on premium memberships by volumne and sell them cheaper since a lot of our members are cash-strived. We have two options, $10/year and $14/year, and they offer basically the same benefits:
- email account
- option to turn off ads
- larger PM box
- a little bit of web hosting
- can change member title

It is a good deal for them, and since we're nowhere near our 80GB storage/1200GB bandwidth limit (just use a lot of CPU) the only cost to us is potential lost advertising revenue, but in this market that's not much.

 

[fnordcircle]

What might help an insignificant amount and also eliminate one of my pet peeves is to quit all the unnecessary quoting.

You'll never address something like this through policy. Especially considering what the poster thinks needs to be quoted changes from person to person.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Since my other post has become too long


http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/arch ... php/t-2824

I think that it is the recognition that people get from everybody seeing that they have helped the forum that is important in making ppl pay.

So what are you waiting for ?

turn Sherriff, EvoG name green.

will that work in this forum ?

Maggie, you don't need a hack. Create a usergroup for Premium Members, and in the "username markup" boxes, put the HTML for the color you want, like this:

(in the first box)
<font color="green">

(in the second box)
</font>

FORT,
I was browsing through your site and noticed the premium member announcement which seems to have a billion (positive) responses so far. From what I could see you gave suers a few perks like specially colored usernames, more pm space and such but nothing major (i.e. they still see ads) and users still seem to to be itching to sign up. Given that you have launched what seems to be a sucessful program can you share your tips/hints with the rest of us, mainly in terms of what you setup in advance and what you had to do after you launched that you hadn't thought about previously?

I'm sure you want to keep some secrets but I know that I'd be greatful to hear anything abotu this type of offering in practice not just in theory and I imagine a lot of other users who have thought about setting it up would like to hear from you too!

P.S. Ive been away from a machine for a few weeks so forgive me if you already posted about your service without me noticing.
FansofRealityTV
I offer the following, for $2/month:

* Double-sized PM box (from 500 to 1000)
* Turn their name green everywhere (which seems to be the biggest selling point, believe it or not)
* They can have a profile picture
* Access to a private "general discussion" forum
* A FORT e-mail address, if they choose (only about 1/3 choose to)

I set up 3 subscriptions (in vBulletin): 1-month non-recurring (for a trial), 1-year non-recurring, and 1-month recurring (using the hack at vb.org). I also found that almost 1/3 of my users preferred to mail me a check.

The biggest suggestion I can give is set up a spreadsheet and track everything. People pay through paypal under a different address than they signed up on your site with, and when it expires, you'll have no way to track it back. And when people send in a check, you need to be able to track that back as well.

If you don't allow custom titles or avatars, you could add those in for a bigger offering. But for $2/month, people enjoy being green most of all.
noppid
It is amazing what pushes peoples buttons. Thanks for the tip. It actually makes me recall being a member of a forum way back when that has glowing names that were popular. Interesting stuff.
Kathy
I love being green at the FoRT. Its the only perk I was interested in....

On my site I have upgraded memberships too and they get lots of goodies for their 25.0 per year fee. However, on top of that, we also have "gift" of 5.00 and they get a gift icon under their name. We call them "member badges" and they can get them in various ways. My members love collecting them.

 

[Sheriff05]

I sense this is the problem a lot of people have with you. You don't donate to GET something, you do it because you enjoy what you have now. In this case, assuming sherrif feels the same, we enjoy the community and conversations. I want to see that continue and some money here and there ensures that...I'm not expecting anything in return.

No different than going to the zoo, wanting to make sure that you can help out the animals for their food, care and facilities. You enjoy the zoo so you contribute because you care about it...not for what you can get for it.

Exactly, nobody needs gold star or a fucking green name (where are we the NWN servers?) If you use something and a can afford to contribute, do it, if not, don't.

Beddoes, I don't know what's up your ass about asking for a donation but you got balls complaining about "what you get" when you use more bandwidith than about anyone posting graphics and such. Not that I don't like alot of the stuff you post but you need to shut the fuck up. Implying that we're looking for anything other than just
kicking in, because we can..is really fucking petty and not very socially progressive of you

 

[Volourn]

"Exactly, nobody needs gold star or a fucking green name (where are we the NWN servers?) If you use something and a can afford to contribute, do it, if not, don't.

Beddoes, I don't know what's up your ass about asking for a donation but you got balls complaining about "what you get" when you use more bandwidith than about anyone posting graphics and such. Not that I don't like alot of the stuff you post but you need to shut the fuck up. Implying that we're looking for anything other than just
kicking in, because we can..is really fucking petty and not very socially progressive of you"

Sherriff is my hero.


P.S. He now gets one free insult on me without any would be comebacks from me.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Sherrif my banner is hosted elsewhere
http://www.walagata.com

and on the site it really only adds this text

{url=http://www.terra-arcanum.com/~chris/}
}img]http://mercury.walagata.com/w/chrisbeddeos/car_banner_small.jpg[/img}[/ur}

I have changed some char to make sure that the text not the banner will appear.


Now. About donations.

You and Evog donated without expecting anything in return other than the posts u made about it . (Others might have donated without posting here).
It is very positive that you have made such a move.

However a lot more people will donate if they can get something little in return.

You do want a lot more money from a lot more people to be donated to the codex dont you ?

Chris.