Testing New Website

ulukinatme

ulukinatme

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Rack Em said:
I just whipped this up in my free time
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Irish_Mickey

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clashmore_mike said:
And I assume you are referring to the front page? Newest posts are displayed there just below the schedule module.
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I mean when you open a thread like this one. Is there a way to start with the most recent post (post #402) at the top instead of post #1?
 
clashmore_mike

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Irish_Mickey said:
I mean when you open a thread like this one. Is there a way to start with the most recent post (post #402) at the top instead of post #1?
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Ah yes. If you click the bolded thread title in the forum listing it will take you to the first new post since you last opened that thread. If it's the first time you have opened that thread since we moved over to Xenforo on Monday, you may have to click the button at the top of the page "Jump to new" but after that it will work properly.
 
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ab2cmiller

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I thought I saw clashmore post that site activity is up 60%.

Is this up 60% over the activity on the old site just prior to the switchover?
 
IrishLax

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ab2cmiller said:
I thought I saw clashmore post that site activity is up 60%.

Is this up 60% over the activity on the old site just prior to the switchover?
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Here is how I would describe site traffic, although we don't have historical numbers. Maybe Clashmore could do a database sort of posts-per-year or page views to grab some specifics, I dunno.

But basically the owners of the site stopped updating things, and more and more features broke over time. These include, but were not limited to, the ability for new users to even sign up correctly. Frankly, you cannot sustain a site like this if new people physically can't join. We repeatedly tried to get them to fix stuff but it was a herculean task to even get them to keep the security certificate current much less make any improvements. The software at the time we bought the site was about a decade out of date.

So site gets purchased, and it had traffic levels of X at the time of purchase. When I look at X versus what we had over the latter half of the year, it's about +60%. This is mainly because new members are able to sign up again and there are less site outages, and that's not counting December Brian-Kelly-to-LSU craziness which is an outlier in terms of unique visitors and posts-per-day.

Forward looking, the new software gives us a platform that actually works and is sustainable. So site traffic is just going to depend on the quality of community here + new people joining. It'd be great if we get a few more Rasputins. But overall, the goal isn't to make IE the BIGGEST AND BADDEST message board or anything like that... we just want it to work well, and we want it to be a place where ND people can discuss whatever they want with other ND people. One of the reasons I prefer posting here versus 247/ISD (even though I'm cool with those dudes) is because I can't, for example, go on 247 and post about something from another site or a rumor I heard from a bad source or Off-Topic nonsense that might not be politically correct. Like if you mention another site by name on ISD it'll get deleted. I assume that's pretty much standard practice across the board from those people. NDNation -- which is a free board -- also sadly acts similar, with tons of censorship and bans if you disagree with the prevailing opinion. Ergo, our goal in running this site is to be a little Switzerland that works consistently, and hopefully to have enough traffic to pay the server fees and other costs to keep the lights on. As long as we're doing that it's mission accomplished.
 
Cackalacky2.0

Cackalacky2.0

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ab2cmiller said:
I didn’t realize that new users couldn’t even sign up…. Crazy
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And to add to it, when the purchase finally went through, the whole point was to update the site to a newer software so we went to update to a newer vbulletin and that led to a whole cascade of issues.... for example many past features were not supported by newer versions like vbookie, reps, etc. and that was a bummer.

So, I like where the site is now and and moving forward it should be primed to be a great free site for all ND fans. I for one, and I think I can speak for the others as well... am very appreciative of those of you who stuck around and helped us navigate up to this point. I think we are sitting well to be a great place for the forseeable future.
 
IrishLax

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On a personal note, one of the sadder days for me was when an old lacrosse message board + power rating site that had been around forever went under with no warning or notice. It was called "laxpower" and everyone had used it since the early 2000s before social media. It was great. It catered to everyone from youth players to angry HS parents that would talk shit at each other to current college players to old fogies long retired. It even had a fantasy lacrosse league.

So what happened? The owner sold it to a company that then tried to make an app (???) with a subscription service and all this other stuff. They went bankrupt in short order -- because no one wanted that shit -- and then one day the whole thing was just gone. Poof. You went to the site, and it said "laxpower has been shut down."

The replacement site that someone made after LaxPower went down -- FanLax -- absolutely sucks and has a fraction of the traffic of the original site. So one of my personal motivations for getting control of IE is just to make sure that it doesn't suffer the same fate as LaxPower and many others. Given the neglect from past owners, the whole mod team was pretty worried we could be heading that direction a year ago.
 
DONTH8

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IrishLax said:
Here is how I would describe site traffic, although we don't have historical numbers. Maybe Clashmore could do a database sort of posts-per-year or page views to grab some specifics, I dunno.

But basically the owners of the site stopped updating things, and more and more features broke over time. These include, but were not limited to, the ability for new users to even sign up correctly. Frankly, you cannot sustain a site like this if new people physically can't join. We repeatedly tried to get them to fix stuff but it was a herculean task to even get them to keep the security certificate current much less make any improvements. The software at the time we bought the site was about a decade out of date.

So site gets purchased, and it had traffic levels of X at the time of purchase. When I look at X versus what we had over the latter half of the year, it's about +60%. This is mainly because new members are able to sign up again and there are less site outages, and that's not counting December Brian-Kelly-to-LSU craziness which is an outlier in terms of unique visitors and posts-per-day.

Forward looking, the new software gives us a platform that actually works and is sustainable. So site traffic is just going to depend on the quality of community here + new people joining. It'd be great if we get a few more Rasputins. But overall, the goal isn't to make IE the BIGGEST AND BADDEST message board or anything like that... we just want it to work well, and we want it to be a place where ND people can discuss whatever they want with other ND people. One of the reasons I prefer posting here versus 247/ISD (even though I'm cool with those dudes) is because I can't, for example, go on 247 and post about something from another site or a rumor I heard from a bad source or Off-Topic nonsense that might not be politically correct. Like if you mention another site by name on ISD it'll get deleted. I assume that's pretty much standard practice across the board from those people. NDNation -- which is a free board -- also sadly acts similar, with tons of censorship and bans if you disagree with the prevailing opinion. Ergo, our goal in running this site is to be a little Switzerland that works consistently, and hopefully to have enough traffic to pay the server fees and other costs to keep the lights on. As long as we're doing that it's mission accomplished.
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clashmore_mike

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ab2cmiller said:
I didn’t realize that new users couldn’t even sign up…. Crazy
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If I remember correctly, new users were set up to receive a verification email which included a link they had to click. That was the only way for users to be approved, unless a mod went in manually and searched for new users. The problem was those emails weren't being automatically sent for whatever reason, so basically new accounts were stuck in limbo for months without the ability to post or even send a PM to a mod for approval.
 
BeauBenken

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irishog77 said:
Have the quarterly owners' meeting moved to anywhere more glamorous than Whiskeyjack's youngest kid's bedroom yet? Banff, Blackberry Farm, The Greenbrier, etc.?
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Coming to a dive bar near you is more likely.
 
Whiskeyjack

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irishog77 said:
Have the quarterly owners' meeting moved to anywhere more glamorous than Whiskeyjack's youngest kid's bedroom yet? Banff, Blackberry Farm, The Greenbrier, etc.?
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Lucci and I are the only two west of the Mississippi, so if we ever have the scratch to facilitate a corporate in-person meeting, it definitely won't be at my house.
 
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