We are changing our Domain & Forum

[modernknight1]

This week has been the last straw for me with regards to Go Daddy! support. Not only have they been horrible in support, usually they have no idea about what is wrong when you contact them.

They can’t break up forum pages into smaller bits and their registration process has been broken almost from Day 1

I didn’t want to use them from the beginning because of their stance on SOPA and after some of the things that have happened right here, I suspect we might be the victim of some shady stuff. I happened to view our site on an international app which appraises its traffic free of Google meddling – which if you wanna talk about Google, we have never been able to get a proper Google recognition from day 1 – so ZERO Google viability or appraisal and no one at Go Daddy has been able to figure that out! I don’t buy it. Here is what I saw when I looked at our traffic with no manipulation:

I knew we were getting a much larger chunk of international traffic simply because all of the emails about my articles and the numbers of likes on them.

So lets say good buy to this clunky old wordpress forum and Go Daddy site hosting. So here is where I am thinking about moving us: https://www.namecheap.com/hosting.aspx

I am still searching for some alternatives for the forum. I actually don’t like Xenforo because they lack security support. So if any of you have some recommendations on good alternative Forum hosting that we could tether to the new site over on Namecheap let me know.

I will let you know when I am ready to pull the trigger as it will be about a 10 day ordeal to get everything moved over. For much of that time the site will be off line. We will have the same address.

Been really quiet here the last couple of days which is really demoralizing for me after all of this work. I think I may just get this transfer done and give Jeffrey my new city stuff to port in for next year’s version – and then go on another vacation for a while.

You my members will determine what my next actions are.

MK

[Orazio]

I know vBulletin and phpBB are among the most used, but I’m not sure about their security.
They should be pretty secure, but every once in a while a new zero-day gets discovered and many sites get hacked. I guess you can’t be 100% sure with any software you will choose..

Honesly I feel it was about time to change the forum software. This site is very very slow, and have problems with caching I suppose, I usually have to refresh a page several times to see the new content, especially new messages on the forum. And the registration seems broken too.
I believe the use of a specific forum platform will drastically improve the site. WordPress is not really good as a forum, from my point of view.

[Devoidbrah]

well if you look here, first thing I do before making deals with business partners, is i check them out through previous reviews:

GoDaddy Review

I think GoDaddy was not the best choice, but afterwards everyone can lament. Its the wise decisions we dont aknowledge 😉

If you need any help, feel free to email me, I wrote you a PM 😉

[Hraktuus]

I tend to use Zetaboards for making forums. They’re free and the forums are fast and well designed, but I can’t say anything about their security. Forums that can be well organized by admins and mods and easily navigated by users are really needed for Buccaneer’s Reef. Right now I’d say that’s one of the biggest weaknesses holding it back from getting a more active community. It’s rather difficult to find things on this site. There’s not good organization of forums, subforums, and threads. So good riddance to GoDaddy/Wordpress. Hopefully you can find a really good service with great forum design.

[modernknight1]

Thanks for all the great recommendations my friends. I will look into every one of them!

MK

[Devoidbrah]

Just a question, when are you planning on switching to another provider? Or is it already in progress. No rush, just a question out of curiousity.

And sorry that I have been mostly lurking. I still follow the reef but I was VERY busy progressing in my job and doing study on the side. Looking forward to the new layout though ^.^

[modernknight1]

Dennis, The short answer is that I don’t know yet.

I have had a really bad year. I lost one of my favorite dogs a few months ago. The death of my nephew last month has made things REALLY bad. I almost just quit all of this altogether. I know a couple of you I talked to privately thought I was going to. But I am not.

Why??? Because this has all got way bigger than me now. We are now a community albeit a small one where it comes to actual contributing members. Orazio’s contributions and new ship and Jeffrey’s continuing break-throughs have kept this place going and have kept me from losing heart or faith in continuing on with this hobby.

In addition, more contributors are beginning to emerge – and that is very exciting. I won’t say anything more about that until I am certain they want to share what they are doing publicly.

We also have a presence beginning to emerge on ITCH.IO

I have asked Jeffrey not to make that site public yet until we get a few more things sorted out but the site is there and Jeffrey built it.

I still plan on transitioning the web site to a new domain and new forum this year but its honestly my last priority right now with all of the exciting things going on with our game development right now that most people are not aware of at all and will be forthcoming in the new announcements that will be posted soon.

I guess bottom line, if we all of the sudden had about 10 or 20 actual contributors come out of the woodwork who started sharing and commenting here, I would make a real effort to transition the website over – but mostly we just get 200 to 300 lurkers here a day that are happy to click on our download links and that’s all. Jeffrey and I both have become a little resentful about that and that is why we have been more quiet lately about all the new stuff that is happening. Frankly why should I update the site, or share what we are working on when no one else gives a damn.

Everyone will find out what we are doing when we are ready.

MK

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