Changes for 2019

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The links are circled in red:
upload_2019-1-16_17-48-17.png


Also on the What's New tab and its drop-down menu.

The beta site is horribly bogged down right now so you may need to wait until it is more responsive.
 
I'd use the Pub Member Blue theme, but the SatelliteGuys logo was not designed with a dark background in mind:
Screen Shot 2019-01-17 at 00.23.15 .png

Otherwise, I haven't found anything that would irritate me going forward with this update. Heck, if I can tolerate Office 365, I guess xenForo 2.x will work.
 
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Foxbat said:
Heck, if I can tolerate Office 365, I guess xenForo 2.x will work.
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This month's megadose of damning with faint praise.

The ribbon is the worst UI contrivance since Bob (and perhaps the Quickbooks Green Eyeshade Guy) and it has robbed the world of many orders of magnitude of productivity. Of course Office 365 also stands out for having more bugs that take longer to patch (the on-again off-again WINMAIL.DAT bug is currently resting but I expect it will be back by Tax Day).

That said, Homeland Security announced 82 vulnerability issues with Google Chrome this week.
 
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If reference to funding and the fiscal state of Satelliteguys, here is my 2 cents-

First- I have always been against the concept of a lifetime membership. It has permitted many ( not all) to make a relatively small donation and then use the service for free the rest of the life of the forums. This falls in that category of short term gain- long term pain. I do recognize that a few here donate from time to time even with the lifetime banner. But considering the numbers of members you all are an extremely small bunch of generous people.

Second- While Satelliteguys was born from a need for satellite TV services support for enthusiasts it has evolved quickly to offer a wide range of technical and non-technical subject matter. Some of the non-technical sub forums have active members who never even bother with the core purpose of Satelliteguys or non -technical areas. Therefore I would like to suggest that these unrelated and non-technical sections be like the plugin$- an added charge. I'm not going to suggest how much but the amount should be related to the cost of hosting these unrelated forums based on post numbers.

I understand that some of the income for running the forum is advertising related. Would there be a way to increase the revenue from ads if they were added back to the most popular forums for all members and leave the Pub remain ad free? This is my least favorite suggestion as I love to skip ads on TV and pay a premium for subscription TV to avoid ads. But, maybe it would be possible to end the free membership and make it a very small fee to have an account and then an ad free ( pub membership ).

Look, nobody likes to pay more for less, but unless you have more money than brains, the more affluent members here shouldn't be expected to pay for the free loaders either. Save that for your favorite charity. Satelliteguys is a business, not a charity, so it's time for all with a log in account to pay for the service it renders.
 
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I'm not in favor of adding back in ads except for the Pub area. That would just encourage the use of adblockers.

I have an alternate idea:

A fund drive. I'll start out. I pledge $25 per quarter for the next year. I'll donate $25 today. Again in April, again in July and again in October.

Do I see any other takers on this?
 
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long_time_DNC said:
I'm not in favor of adding back in ads except for the Pub area. That would just encourage the use of adblockers.

I have an alternate idea:

A fund drive. I'll start out. I pledge $25 per quarter for the next year. I'll donate $25 today. Again in April, again in July and again in October.

Do I see any other takers on this?
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Good idea.
 
I will match donations for up to 2 people that have not yet donated before.

There, I should be safe. :)
 
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TheForce said:
Second- While Satelliteguys was born from a need for satellite TV services support for enthusiasts it has evolved quickly to offer a wide range of technical and non-technical subject matter. Some of the non-technical sub forums have active members who never even bother with the core purpose of Satelliteguys or non -technical areas. Therefore I would like to suggest that these unrelated and non-technical sections be like the plugin$- an added charge.
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At the end of the day, page visits / views are what matters. Google, the ad agencies, etc don't give a **** what section a user visits. Plus, Scott has encouraged the growth of the site to be more than just a satellite-TV focused.
 
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TheForce said:
If reference to funding and the fiscal state of Satelliteguys, here is my 2 cents-

First- I have always been against the concept of a lifetime membership. It has permitted many ( not all) to make a relatively small donation and then use the service for free the rest of the life of the forums. This falls in that category of short term gain- long term pain. I do recognize that a few here donate from time to time even with the lifetime banner. But considering the numbers of members you all are an extremely small bunch of generous people.

.
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As a lifetime member, I resent that fact. Speaking for myself, IIRC lifetime memberships were offered for a short time when this site was experiencing financial woes. We came to the rescue with an infusion of cash. Unfortunately, as you point out, it was a one shot deal while the needs are continuing. I get value from this site, so I've just made a contribution for the year (no it's not a huge amount) and would ask that other lifetimes consider doing so as well.
 
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EatMyVolts said:
As a lifetime member, I resent that fact. Speaking for myself, IIRC lifetime memberships were offered for a short time when this site was experiencing financial woes. We came to the rescue with an infusion of cash. Unfortunately, as you point out, it was a one shot deal while the needs are continuing. I get value from this site, so I've just made a contribution for the year (no it's not a huge amount) and would ask that other lifetimes consider doing so as well.
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and to further that, we Supporting Founders donated money at the beginning to give the site a footing. The Force is one of us. Scott gave us a free shot as a thanks for that support. I think most of us have donated over the years anyway. Yes, I know of at least one of us donated a pittance at the beginning and then boasted that he was responsible for making the site operable while not any further donations. But those kind, I think are far and few. All that said, I think adding ads for all forums except the Pub is a terrible idea. That ruins the incentive to donate and makes the site totally ad driven for income to keep the site going.
 
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Bobby said:
and to further that, we Supporting Founders donated money at the beginning to give the site a footing. The Force is one of us. Scott gave us a free shot as a thanks for that support. I think most of us have donated over the years anyway. Yes, I know of at least one of us donated a pittance at the beginning and then boasted that he was responsible for making the site operable while not any further donations. But those kind, I think are far and few. All that said, I think adding ads for all forums except the Pub is a terrible idea. That ruins the incentive to donate and makes the site totally ad driven for income to keep the site going.
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I once asked Scott why he didn't get rid of the supporting founder status. He replied that we founders tend to contribute more voluntarily than if we were making the yearly renewal. I know I make it a point to kick in at least every year and whenever Scott asks. I believe most of the active folks do so as well.
 
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Thanks to Bobby's help (the link), I donated $25 today and will, as I pledged, do so the first month of each quarter for this year (and do my Pub renewal in December as well). If things continue well (financially) for me, I'll do it again in 2020 as well.

Anyone else want to pledge some quarterly or monthly amount to help keep things going here? It's a great online "home". :)
 
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I see some of you didn't understand what I was suggesting when I mentioned ad revenue change as a way to fund the added costs of the forum. So let me repeat the phrase again. I said it was my least favorite idea on funding. But the concept I suggested was a variety if approaches. One is a similar subscription model done by Hulu which is a standard small monthly rate for ad based and a higher rate for ad free. I also said that the Pub and Pub access sections would remain ad free. If this plan is to be implemented, then there would be three rates people would pay. The amount of each should be determined by the revenue needed to cover running costs and permit an appropriate cash reserve for the major upgrades when required.

I do believe there is something wrong with the business model if it requires that Scott has to come begging to his Pub members for donations to his business to "keep the lights on." Time for a serious review.

Tampa8 said:
I make donations because of who runs the site and will do so again.
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ditto! And, I will determine when and how much that will be. Many of you don't know this but when I was in the hospital and came out of a coma I had two visitors. My wife and I received a gift from Scott and Satelliteguys. I will never forget that. It's why I am concerned for the financial health of this place.
 
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