New Avatar-Forums Upgrade

[Woodsprite]

Considering our ties and where we all came from, I thought it appropriate to note what Avatar-Forums is doing now with the website:

Originally Posted by Lon on 9-22-10

I'll be upgrading the forum software from vBulletin 4.03 to 4.07 either today or tomorrow. During this time, which should take less than 30 minutes the forum will be closed. In addition I will be removing the older style choices, which frankly hardly anyone uses anyway because the upgrade will make them even more buggy.

Thanks for your understanding and continued support!

[From: Forum upgrade coming soon!]



All will notice, the forum layout has completely been changed to the regular, default look of any other vBulletin forum, where all other options have been removed.


....I love how the words are inserted: "Thanks for your understanding and continued support!" as if the changes were agreed upon by everyone.



...Thoughts?

[Gunny]

I wonder if it will actually only last 30 min...last time that was said it was messed up for days

[Grif]

There is a reason why I left that site awhile ago...

[Human No More]

I do seem to remember mentioning this would happen quite a while back.
Also, AF now has in-text ads? eurgh...

[Woodsprite]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Also, AF now has in-text ads? eurgh...

I think they've had those for about 3-4 months now. They were explained as "helping the website" alongside the picture ads when the donation system was done away with.

Fortunately, the donation system is back, but it's more like a counter system now, detailing how much more needs to be made for one month, instead of just representing a humble, charitable system that wasn't shown off...

...AF's come a long, long way.

[Neytiri.]

Originally Posted by Woodsprite

I think they've had those for about 3-4 months now. They were explained as "helping the website" alongside the picture ads when the donation system was done away with.

Fortunately, the donation system is back, but it's more like a counter system now, detailing how much more needs to be made for one month, instead of just representing a humble, charitable system that wasn't shown off...

...AF's come a long, long way.

That sucks, AF used to be just as amazing and close nit as TOS. Sad sad day.

[caveman]

Originally Posted by Neytiri.

That sucks, AF used to be just as amazing and close nit as TOS. Sad sad day.

It still is. Well, there's less members, but there's still a lot of great people. Really, the only thing people are complaining about are the ads, the layout, nothing that really affects how I enjoy the forum.

[electrosphere11]

Originally Posted by caveman

It still is. Well, there's less members, but there's still a lot of great people. Really, the only thing people are complaining about are the ads, the layout, nothing that really affects how I enjoy the forum.

I know I still go between the two as there are alot of good people still on AF. It'd be a shame to see the place go.

[Empty Glass]

Yep, this is why I'm personally happy with ToS.

I actually see hardly any ads on AF thanks to the adblocking of my browser, but nevertheless I still like this place more. The people who post here make it great too.

[Apollo]

Lon and the devil are the same to me, I gave the man a chance to explain himself for his actions. He didn't, he destroyed a peaceful place. Our relocation made that clear. The bulk of the good community came, and it feels like old times still. It's almost been a year now. A year. I wish I could say that for other forums I've been on, this is very rare. And I'm damn proud of it.

Lon reminds me of an evil leprechaun. He'll lure you into his pot of gold, and steal all your goods and add them to the pot.... that evil midget.

[Neytiri.]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Lon and the devil are the same to me, I gave the man a chance to explain himself for his actions. He didn't, he destroyed a peaceful place. Our relocation made that clear. The bulk of the good community came, and it feels like old times still. It's almost been a year now. A year. I wish I could say that for other forums I've been on, this is very rare. And I'm damn proud of it.

Lon reminds me of an evil leprechaun. He'll lure you into his pot of gold, and steal all your goods and add them to the pot.... that evil midget.

Hahahahahaha oh god this made me laugh so hard, I love you for typing this, I feel the same way and that is the best way I've heard it described, I love everyone here and i hope it stays this homey forever. In fact if there's ever a money issue I'll probably end up donating a large cash sum or just choosing to be one of the main supporters of this site, This place feels like home for me and i would do anything to keep it this way <333

[electrosphere11]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Lon and the devil are the same to me, I gave the man a chance to explain himself for his actions. He didn't, he destroyed a peaceful place. Our relocation made that clear. The bulk of the good community came, and it feels like old times still. It's almost been a year now. A year. I wish I could say that for other forums I've been on, this is very rare. And I'm damn proud of it.

Lon reminds me of an evil leprechaun. He'll lure you into his pot of gold, and steal all your goods and add them to the pot.... that evil midget.

This

[Isard]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Lon and the devil are the same to me, I gave the man a chance to explain himself for his actions. He didn't, he destroyed a peaceful place. Our relocation made that clear. The bulk of the good community came, and it feels like old times still. It's almost been a year now. A year. I wish I could say that for other forums I've been on, this is very rare. And I'm damn proud of it.

Lon reminds me of an evil leprechaun. He'll lure you into his pot of gold, and steal all your goods and add them to the pot.... that evil midget.

He's a guy trying to make a living, and at this point, probably regrets buying the site. If you want somebody to be angry at, get angry at the old admins who dropped the site for a quick buck.

[caveman]

Originally Posted by Aihwa

He's a guy trying to make a living, and at this point, probably regrets buying the site. If you want somebody to be angry at, get angry at the old admins who dropped the site for a quick buck.

Thank you.

If anything, he's doing me and several others a favor by keeping that site alive. He's probably losing his own money from it. And it's easy enough to write him off as a "evil leprechaun" because he changed the skin of your favorite forum but really, he's just another guy, just like you, trying to make ends meat.

Originally Posted by Woodsprite

....I love how the words are inserted: "Thanks for your understanding and continued support!" as if the changes were agreed upon by everyone.

He's thanking the community for still being there. The few that remain are the reason that site isn't a complete money drain. If anything, we(dual members) should thank him for his support and his understanding.

Really, there was no reason for this thread. If this is a way to demonstrate partnership, than AF and ToS are pretty bad partners.

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Lon and the devil are the same to me, I gave the man a chance to explain himself for his actions. He didn't, he destroyed a peaceful place. Our relocation made that clear. The bulk of the good community came, and it feels like old times still. It's almost been a year now. A year. I wish I could say that for other forums I've been on, this is very rare. And I'm damn proud of it.

Lon reminds me of an evil leprechaun. He'll lure you into his pot of gold, and steal all your goods and add them to the pot.... that evil midget.

I feel the same way... I've been on so many forums, at the time AF was something truly unique, that I have never seen before and doubt I ever will outside ToS now.

Originally Posted by Fkeu'itan

Yeah, it's been months since i've signed in there too. (I actually just decided to, just for some arbitrary reason.)

I think there are still a whole load of good people over there 'waiting to be discovered'. ( so to speak). I don't dislike the community or the people over there, I just can't contest the image of the site and it's layout in my mind. It's just too disheartening, remembering what it was like for those first amazing, brilliant months and seeing what it's become now.

Still, ToS is here now, and that feeling still largely remains preserved here as far as i'm concerned.

I know the feeling... when I spent hours per day on AF and it was a small piece of Pandora in this dying world, then it was all changed from the beautiful bioluminescent forests into Hell's Gate... I actually found it hard to spend time there - not just from it being ugly, but also hard to use. I'd still say that the feeling there was going downhill in general, but the changes certainly accelerated it.

We lost our Hometree, but we found another.

Originally Posted by Aihwa

He's a guy trying to make a living, and at this point, probably regrets buying the site. If you want somebody to be angry at, get angry at the old admins who dropped the site for a quick buck.

I certainly have no sympathy for them... But I genuinely don't know the actual situation - what their intention was.
Either way, buying a forum in order to make a profit is an exercise in futility and that should be obvious. A forum will break even with donations of people who like to support it, but based on the time and effort it takes, running one should be out of passion for the community and it's subject, not out of financial interest.

Originally Posted by caveman

Thank you.

If anything, he's doing me and several others a favor by keeping that site alive. He's probably losing his own money from it. And it's easy enough to write him off as a "evil leprechaun" because he changed the skin of your favorite forum but really, he's just another guy, just like you, trying to make ends meat.

I was suspicious at first, but in my opinion, the number of chances I gave was more than enough to show whether or not the community's interests were taken into consideration.

AF is still going and in a way, I'm happy for that, and I know that there is still discussion there... it's just not the forum many of us joined 9 or 10 months ago. What matters is that we've brought that with us though.