[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
Look down at the bottom of the page.
<snip>
“Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7”.
[/QUOTE]
Then they better do a freaking upgrade because vBulletin is up to version 3.6.8!! It’s only $30 freaking dollars to get the upgrade!! I just paid for half of it with the renewal of my subscription!!!
[QUOTE=erie774]
Then they better do a freaking upgrade because vBulletin is up to version 3.6.8!! It’s only $30 freaking dollars to get the upgrade!! I just paid for half of it with the renewal of my subscription!!!
[/QUOTE]
If they’re on the subscription plan, upgrades are free, but I don’t think the cost is the issue - upgrades are fraught with peril, particularly when the back end database is misbehaving/unstable anyway. And it’s not just like upgrading Firefox or something - it’s a migration task that takes time and must be managed.
Not that I’m trying to make excuses for Jerry or TPTB - back when it was free, we used to be told “look, it’s hard to convince the Reader to treat this as important when it doesn’t make them any money” - now that we’re paying, we don’t get told that any more, but we also don’t seem to be conspicuously getting any greater attention.
What’s the over-under on the number of complaints they’d see if the upgrade got entirely borked?
[QUOTE=Rysto]
What’s the over-under on the number of complaints they’d see if the upgrade got entirely borked?
[/QUOTE]
Is your point that they get lots of complaints regardless of the way the board is screwed up? Yeah, the world sure is unfair.
Just pointing out that an upgrade won’t necessarily solve all of our problems.
Enjoy The Board – when I can find it that is. Don’t mind paying the seven or eight bucks, but you’d think (logically, specially on a board based on it) that after we went PpP they’d get their shit together.
Hasn’t happened. As already posted upthread, not paying for crap service beats the hell out of paying for it. Still and all, I suppose eight or ten bucks are unlikely to break most/any of the posters here. Thus I’ll keep re-upping till I tire of it or find a replacement, with the same caveat: service SUCKS in this place, thus I’ll only move on to a similar smart/liberal board if they offer better servers and less bullcrap.
Where that might be, I have no idea. Certainly, DU nor FR, don’t do it for me – nor do any other echo chambers.
Start a new board? E-mail me with ideas. I have some resources on the side that could be put to good use. But please, other than investing, I wouldn’t volunteer running the darn thing. I’ve already run a forum of my own for years and besides the money invested – which really wasn’t much – the headaches were priceless.
Again, feel free to send me some ideas…just don’t expect me to answer all of them.
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso]
Maybe it’s on your end. I’m doing fine out here in the sticks.
[/QUOTE]
Hilldo, your end and sticks all in one sentence make me think that there is a hidden dirty joke in there. I just can’t quite put my finger on it
[QUOTE=Sapo]
Hilldo, your end and sticks all in one sentence make me think that there is a hidden dirty joke in there. I just can’t quite put my finger on it
[/QUOTE]
I think you just did.
Though the OP does have a penchant for trolling (sometimes annoyingly, sometimes adding a bit of levity - a mixed blessing), I have to agree. Hell, I’ve always agreed.
I’ve started multiple threads on this very topic over the years, but nothing ever seems to change.
They’ve known for a long time that the problem could be fixed by reducing the size of the database and letting us view old threads in an archival format, but that still doesn’t seem to be happening (ETA on that one, IMHO: 2014).
Far too many of the old posts made from long-time users like me are dust in the wind. They’ve been pared down to reduce the size of the database.
Other boards that don’t bring in as much money can do it right. Why can’t the SDMB?
Well, they’ve already told us; our membership fees don’t necessarily go towards the operation of this message board. They drop straight down into the coffers of the Chicago Reader, which never once gave a shit about the SDMB.
To them, it’s just a revenue stream, the complaints of which they can safely ignore, since they know that there are thousands of people who wouldn’t stop coming here, no matter what the inconvenience.
Oh, sure, we’ve gotten some petty new features added, but what good does a five-minute edit-window do when the board is timing out for the entire five minutes? That annoyance happened right before I posted this.
Honestly, I’m sick to death of this shit. Since we’ve gone pay-to-post, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars to work with, in addition to the Google ads. Nothing ever seems to get done, though.
(FTR, since others have posted erroneous information: the Charter Member renewal price is $7.48, not $4.95.)
[QUOTE=neutron star]
Honestly, I’m sick to death of this shit.
[/QUOTE]
Man, you must lead a sheltered life. Crappy service on a messageboard isn’t even in my top ten things I’m sick of, much less to the point of death.
Oh, for fuck’s sake, are you completely unfamiliar with the definitions of either “hyperbole,” or “turn of phrase,” you goddamned fucking idiot?
Seriously, in over seven years, that’s one of the most idiotic responses I’ve ever read.
[QUOTE=neutron star]
Oh, for fuck’s sake, are you completely unfamiliar with the definitions of either “hyperbole,” or “turn of phrase,” you goddamned fucking idiot?
[/QUOTE]
I’ve got news for you; Dorothy Parker, you ain’t.
[QUOTE=Fear Itself]
I’ve got news for you; Dorothy Parker, you ain’t.
[/QUOTE]
WTF? Your strategy is to pick a random, caustic, celebrity and say “X, you ain’t?”
Seriously, man - you’re wrong; you lose.
Just give up now, because the two posts you’ve submitted thus far have been beyond humiliating. Honestly, they really made me wonder how drunk you are right now.
And, if you’re not drunk, well, you don’t even want to know what I’m wondering.
[QUOTE=neutron star]
Oh, sure, we’ve gotten some petty new features added, but what good does a five-minute edit-window do when the board is timing out for the entire five minutes? That annoyance happened right before I posted this.
Honestly, I’m sick to death of this shit. Since we’ve gone pay-to-post, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars to work with, in addition to the Google ads. Nothing ever seems to get done, though.
(FTR, since others have posted erroneous information: the Charter Member renewal price is $7.48, not $4.95.)
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, sorry. Not a pack of smokes. Maybe a twack of Mountain Dew and two Red Bulls? Two shitty reconstituted “Chai” teas at Starbucks? Seven Chee-tos Big Grabs?!
If – and it’s a big IF – my life is ever ruined because I got timed out on the Edit Window, I’ll consider complaining. The thing is you and Hildo sound really pissed. And that I don’t get.
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
Well, do ya wanna know what the difference is? Are you interested?
Last month, your OP was basically content-free, just an obscenity-laden whine, obviously off the top of your head at 3:00 in the morning.
This month, your OP comes across as if you actually, like, composed it. It has content. It scans. It’s got a good beat and we can dance to it.
We Pitizens likes us a good rant. Your July Rant wasn’t. Your August Rant is. That’s the difference.
[/QUOTE]
Wow, bitchy much?
This horseshit debacle all falls into the Chicago Reader’s lap. How a column like The Straight Dope has been going on for 30 fuckin years and still has only about 2 dozen syndication contracts shows the utter lack of management this piece of shit publication has ever displayed. Cecil/Ed, fire you fuckin agent already. For fuck’s sake, when I was a kid, I had to read fuckin Ask Andy.
You think cunts as clueless as this are going to spring for more bandwidth? Not fuckin likely.
Well, I’m glad you can feel free to vent here. At least you won’t have to kick your Cocker now.
[QUOTE=neutron star]
Oh, for fuck’s sake, are you completely unfamiliar with the definitions of either “hyperbole,” or “turn of phrase,” you goddamned fucking idiot?
Seriously, in over seven years, that’s one of the most idiotic responses I’ve ever read.
[/QUOTE]
Now, when you say goddamned fucking idiot, have you performed IQ tests on him? Do you know if he is sexually active? His religion and his status on it?
I don’t know, man, I think that Bruce Wayne you ain’t.
[QUOTE=neutron star]
Seriously, in over seven years, that’s one of the most idiotic responses I’ve ever read.
[/QUOTE]
So, if you’re serious, that’s not hyperbole, right? And you’re singling that out as one of the most idiotic responses?
Wow.
[QUOTE=neutron star]
Seriously, man - you’re wrong; you lose.
[/QUOTE]
No, that would be the first person who is reduced to sputtering “goddamned fucking idiot”. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable posting your barbs over in YouTube Comments, where the caliber of the wit is within your grasp.
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo]
Wow, bitchy much?
[/QUOTE]
???
Er.
“Bitchy”, never. “Almighty pissed off”, occasionally, but merely “bitchy”, never. You probably oughta lurk more, get to know the people here.
If you managed to read “bitchy” instead of “informative” into that post, maybe it’s time to switch to decaf.