New forum admin

[Porsche]

Hi all

I've taken over Justin as the new forum admin. I want to thank Justin for all the work he's put into setting this site up. I have to say that without him the Register would not be where it is today with a vibrant online community such as this.

I want to state upfront that I am doing this to help the Register. I do not want to be part of any "conflict" that seems to be appearing in the background between different members of the Committee or Members - I am absolutely not interested in being part of it or being caught up in it.

My main objective is to ensure that this forum runs well to achieve the vision of the Register, which is to bring early 911 Aussie enthusiasts together.

I want to also indicate that I did delete that one post made by Justin in the other thread, not for any reason except that it is a repost of a private post made by a Committee member in a private Committee forum which he is not supposed to have access to. Again, I am not removing the post because I disagree or agree with it - FWIW, I am alarmed at the content of that post made in the private forum myself - however, I removed it because I don't think posting a private post made privately in a private forum is helpful as it is not only a breach of privacy for the poster but it will cause further conflict and split the Register even further.

I apologise for removing that post Justin, but as the new forum admin, my main concern is to ensure that rules of this forum are kept and the peace of the online community is kept, and if there are no rules in relation to reposting private posts or private PMs in public, I will ensure that such rules are drafted and enforced.

Again, I want to emphasise that I am not here to take sides in any behind-the-scenes disagreements - in fact, please keep me out of it!

I believe strongly in growing this online community as it is the way of the future for the Register and will serve to link up members from all over the country.

So I repeat again - I apologise if I have offended anyone - my aim is to ensure this site grows.

In terms of what is planned - I will be upgrading the forum software from the current open source one to a commercial product which is a lot more robust and secure, as well as more feature-laden. This should be done by tomorrow. At this stage, after much deliberation, we will keep the current host and domain name registrar - I own my own servers and am a domain name reseller so I can host both for free if needed, but best to keep things at arm's length for now.

There will be a new forum style, colours, and new features including a car gallery for each member to post pics in. All the current features should remain, but there should just be more. Bear in mind the main homepage will need further work. But this should mean that it would be easier for committee members to post news etc. I'll be adding some modules to the forum to do all that.

People who want to chat with me directly can get my phone number off Clyde anytime - I'm open to suggestion.

Thanks for listening and I hope we can get beyond whatever issues we have and move forward together.

[Porsche]

You know what, obviously there are some major issues happening in the background with the Register - I'm going to take a step back and not do anything at all for the moment. People can post whatever they like out of whatever private forum they like. When things settle down, and are happy to move forward with the site, someone can come back to me. I don't want to get caught up in whatever crazy conflict is going on here.

:shock:

[JDCW72]

New forum admin

The Forum index page still indicates that I am the newest member of this group and as I have not personally met any other member of the Register, I feel qualified to make some objective comments before this group is torn apart.
As we all probably have reached that stage of life where we can indulge ourselves in these magnificent old cars, I am assuming that we are no longer teenagers and therefore perhaps we should reflect, as adults, on the reasons for belonging to the group in the first place.
The TYP901 Register exists because a group of adults share a passion for a particular car from a particular era. The forum is a fantastic means by which information can be shared.
While there will always be personality clashes when humans gather in groups of two or more, insulting remarks and mischievous posting of comments, however inappropriate, have no place in this arena.
Offers of time and expertise should be accepted with grace not vitriol.

[Porsche]

John, I agree 100%.

In any case, I've been told that I have had my Admin access removed by Justin and will get it back on Monday. So nothing will happen this weekend though I have set time to work on the site already. Means I get more time tomorrow to do other things though which is good. If people feel someone else should take over the forum or Justin wants to continue with it, I am more than happy to comply.

On a final note - remember that we are all mature adults here, not a group of online teenagers. When we post something on the world wide web, it's seen by everyone around the world. Be careful of airing our dirty laundry in public - it's embarassing, and to be honest, shameful, that we cannot sort these issues out like adults in private.

That's all I've got to say.

[Porsche]

I've finally got admin access.

I'm in the process of backing up the whole website at the moment, just in case, onto my home hard drive.

I've already purchased a license for vBulletin, the leading forum software, and will be upgrading the current forum software to vBulletin. Not only is vBulletin a lot better and has more features (including better security) but I'm a lot more familiar with it being an Admin of 4 vBulletin forums at the moment (one of them the 3rd largest in the world). This will be my 5th one I'm administering.

This whole process will take a few days because we're now into the working week and I've got things on the next few nights (meetings and such) plus I'm down with a virus, which doesn't help matters.

The first step would be upgrading to vBulletin. Once that's done, you will see the site with the default purple style of vBulletin. Once that's done, I'll ensure all forums and users are set up properly, then upgrade the style to the custom one.

Once that's done, it's the hard work of building a better and more dynamic php-based front page to allow Committee members the ability to instantly post news about the Register without needing to upload files.

All of the above will take a few days, with the new front page taking a bit longer.

Thanks for your patience. I hope that any downtime will be minimal.

[e72phil]

We all look forward to seeing the fruits of your labour Erwin. Glad to have your expertise available to us as you obviously have plenty in this area.

I look forward to working with the new vBulletin software which i understand has more features than are currently available under the current software.

[Porsche]

Test

[Porsche]

Okey dokey, as I am sick today, I didn't go to work, so I spent all day working on the website. Took me a while, and I'm sorry for any downtime.

The new site is up live with a new look and homepage.

Hopefully the site is still easy to use.

The forum buttons are all in German - have fun working out what they mean!

Anyway, the only thing left to do is to add the online Registry - I know just what code to use, but I can't get the code as the website with it is down, so I'll do it as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

[WERK1]

Thankyou Erwin!

Well done on the new site, it looks fantastic! So easy to use also.

I kinda like the German forum buttons.

Great job.

Cheers.

[Porsche]

Hover the mouse over the button and a tooltip will tell you what they are. But if you drive a German car...

[e72phil]

Sorry Erwin,

I already posted this as a bug before I read this page. I half guessed you might have done this on purpose. Hopefully everyone will get the hang of it.

What about date formats ? Are we stuck with using the U.S. format of M-D-YY ??

[Porsche]

Fixed the date issue.

[CamBiscuit]

Erwin,

Nice work on the Forum mate, thanks for picking up the baton.

Lots of new stuff to play with. If only work knew what I was up to...

[reedminor]

where are the old photos and the database of VINS / history from the old yahoo web site?

I haven't missed them until now ... strangely... but the new format has prompted the question

[Porsche]

where are the old photos and the database of VINS / history from the old yahoo web site?

I haven't missed them until now ... strangely... but the new format has prompted the question

I think they are still in the old yahoo website... they were not with the previous forum I don't think. They need to be transferred but I don't have access to the yahoo site. The old VIN info should be transferred across, I agree.