Arc, current and future information

Heads up regarding Arc site and its future. First of all i was able to one off restore the deleted accounts , so that gives those interested a second chance to use their accounts, at the beginning of May i will permanently  delete inactive accounts.

Secondly, the long term viability of the arc site is now in serious doubt, Forumotion have just added running costs well above what im prepared to sub, basically  they have created 3 operating packages, currently we are on free one. As of next year if we want the domain reinstated, ads blocked etc we will need to pay for package 3 which will when you add domain, ads and the package come in at around £90  per  year.

The slightly cheaper option which allows for disabled ads etc but no custom domain will cost around £50 per year.

Unfortunately it seems we are now on borrowed time.

Hey Keltic,

Not sure how viable an option is but what about hosting on a different platform, we have been using proboards for years and whilst it would mean a revamp to an extent, it could also indicate a fresh start and arc members that loved arc for what it always was, will always follow :)

Wotsit

Well yeah, I mean there’s plenty of free forum software out there but I’m just not sure what hosting prices are like over there these days. Are we pretty much locked in to using forumnotion for what ARC needs?

Granted, changing platforms will mean all the old stuff will be gone (unless there’s some conversion tools available) but if you’re revamping/relaunching the site anyway is that such a bad thing?

If it comes to that i may consider it, but to be honest its probably not worth the effort and time needed to rebuild the forum at another site unless there are guaranteed numbers willing to follow over. I'll take the wait and see approach for time being.

I have offered this in the past and would happily host the forum on my own server the only thing needed would be to register a domain and I would cover the hosting myself. The only other issue that would arise is moving the forum itself and I'm not sure how possible that would be but there are plenty of alternatives like phpBB which I use for RGC so if something you would be interested in I can research being able to move the database etc.

D

Just noticed that the forum is running a variant of phpBB so should be very simple to move if needed

Unfortunately not, Forumotion don't have this option available, basically while it's a version of phpbb it's also modified to their servers or something like that anyway.

I'll research this as noticed some old converters so I'll see what I can dig up and get back to you

Thanks, but just having looked into it again, forumotion refuse to allow access to the database, something to do with privacy laws etc. I think best option if it comes to it is move to another free provider and set this board to read only archive, i suppose it will depend on the membership here and what is wanted.

Hi Keltic yeah I can see that they have their database locked down to stop users moving away but there have been some scripts created to bypass that but it looks like a headache and a half to do anything. If the decision is made to make a move at a later date I would happily setup a board using phpBB that you could then customise to your hearts content the only thing being needed is a domain to be registered. If its something you need at a later date let me know.

D

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

It's crazy to see them taking these pricing steps considering the many challenges the whole forum cultures face like FB and Discord.

Yeah the scripting is a pain to move it all over, this is something I looked into when me and Wezbloke took over, but other Forum providers were cheaper to work on Domains and add removal. But, way to much work and trickery to get around it all.