Massive hack: VerticalScope automotive forums - NOT US
- Thread starter bigwalton
- Start date
- City
- Richmond
- State
- TX
Remember, Eric does not ”own” the site. The site is technically owned by the same person that owns gr8tops (Matt Donaghy).
Eric does work tirelessly to keep this site running tip top and to stomp out bad juju when it rears it’s ugly head. We all owe a debt of gratitude to him for that! Thank you.
I agree that a lifetime membership helps a lot, but it does not provide perpetual funding of equipment upkeep, bandwidth, software updates, etc... I have no idea how much it costs to keep this dog hunting, but I have in the past repurchased my lifetime membership, and am willing to do it again when necessary.
Keep up the great work!
Eric does work tirelessly to keep this site running tip top and to stomp out bad juju when it rears it’s ugly head. We all owe a debt of gratitude to him for that! Thank you.
I agree that a lifetime membership helps a lot, but it does not provide perpetual funding of equipment upkeep, bandwidth, software updates, etc... I have no idea how much it costs to keep this dog hunting, but I have in the past repurchased my lifetime membership, and am willing to do it again when necessary.
Keep up the great work!
- City
- God's Country
- State
- AR
He's loaded. He got like 4 jeeps !
That would mean he is broke....and will always be broke...LOL
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Wow, since all that went down with VerticalScope and then the PhootBucket photo armageddon (which ruined almost everything of use on the sites that didn't pull the photos down locally) I haven't really paid much any attention to this stuff. I really appreciate you commenting because Matt and I have had to debate this over and over too many times.
We still have a means to contribute and it's even easier than the old forum, I probably need to change the wording because I don't think people realize what it is and think it's about contributing information or something. See the image below. We do still get new yearly and lifetime members, so it works to an extent but not nearly what it was before.
Lifetime memberships were a bad idea, to be blunt. I think I talked Matt into those and it was a mistake, honestly. Who the hell knew that we'd still be cranking EIGHTEEN years after the forum started with many of the same members? It's amazing to me any time I think about it.
To a degree, Matt kind of subsidizes this place by grouping it with the hosting for his other businesses, so we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for that. The other software updates and consultant costs are what we really have to cover with memberships along with maintaining a "disaster fund" if something happened that required a huge amount of the very expensive consultant time.
When we've had big issues, like the data loss problem and the move away from the unholy (and worsening) disaster that was Vbulletin/Tapatalk, members have stepped up with donations and we are grateful for the support.
I owe everyone an apology for not moving forward with some of the improvements I have wanted to make/that people have asked for now that we're on the new system. It's honestly been so nice that it just WORKS that I have been very hesitant to get in and meddle with anything. It's overdue and there are somethings that I really do want to make happen, though.
I'm glad to hear things are working out over at your new forum and I wish nothing but the worst on VerticalScope, they can suck rocks for all I care.
Now that I reread your comment, I think I get what you mean, you want another button on the Contribution page for some other/custom amount? I can look at that. The paypal address for the forum is info 'AT' cj-8.com though, so anyone who wants to contribute can just send a payment there.
Thanks again, I genuinely appreciate the comments
We still have a means to contribute and it's even easier than the old forum, I probably need to change the wording because I don't think people realize what it is and think it's about contributing information or something. See the image below. We do still get new yearly and lifetime members, so it works to an extent but not nearly what it was before.
Lifetime memberships were a bad idea, to be blunt. I think I talked Matt into those and it was a mistake, honestly. Who the hell knew that we'd still be cranking EIGHTEEN years after the forum started with many of the same members? It's amazing to me any time I think about it.
To a degree, Matt kind of subsidizes this place by grouping it with the hosting for his other businesses, so we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for that. The other software updates and consultant costs are what we really have to cover with memberships along with maintaining a "disaster fund" if something happened that required a huge amount of the very expensive consultant time.
When we've had big issues, like the data loss problem and the move away from the unholy (and worsening) disaster that was Vbulletin/Tapatalk, members have stepped up with donations and we are grateful for the support.
I owe everyone an apology for not moving forward with some of the improvements I have wanted to make/that people have asked for now that we're on the new system. It's honestly been so nice that it just WORKS that I have been very hesitant to get in and meddle with anything. It's overdue and there are somethings that I really do want to make happen, though.
I'm glad to hear things are working out over at your new forum and I wish nothing but the worst on VerticalScope, they can suck rocks for all I care.
Now that I reread your comment, I think I get what you mean, you want another button on the Contribution page for some other/custom amount? I can look at that. The paypal address for the forum is info 'AT' cj-8.com though, so anyone who wants to contribute can just send a payment there.
Thanks again, I genuinely appreciate the comments
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- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Correct, and Matt has been essentially 100% hands off from this site for years. He's got PLENTY to deal with with GR8TOPS.
That said, I was very excited when Matt and his family made it up to the 13th Annual SandBlast here in Michigan a couple weeks back. His youngest had his birthday and they were looking for something cool to do for it... he saw some pictures from the dunes up here and decided that's where he wanted to go for his birthday trip
It was awesome to see them out at an event, even if he's currently Scrambler-less
93_Fummins
CJ-8 Member
- City
- Edmond
- State
- OK
Might want to spin off a financial thread in the Site Topic sub-forum rather than continue talking about it in the VS Hack thread....
- City
- Monroe
- State
- NY
For everything that this forum has given me in terms of knowledge and enjoyment since I was lucky enough to find my scrambler I would be more than happy to contribute. I am constantly reminded that this platform is something special and keeping it functional and safe takes money. Count me in!
- City
- God's Country
- State
- AR
I remembered you telling me you thought the lifetime memberships ended up not being a great idea, because costs are constant/ ongoing, but then that one time contribution is a one time contribution.
On the new ATV board we started we don't even have memberships. Just guys who want to contribute who spend a lot of time there. Of course, you have a lot more Honda ATV owners than you do Scrambler owners... Some guys chip in $10 once a year, some guys drop $25/month, some do $100 and you never see them again. I was nominated bookkeeper so we post the expenses and the donations so guys can see when we need them to chip in, or when things are good. We have openly discussed the need for an "emergency fund" and people understand that, so we've been slowly building up a reserve. Not sure if we're going to disable the "donation" button when we get a good reserve built up, or how we'll handle it. That's also been discussed. I know I don't want to be sitting on a bunch of money, so I don't want that reserve to get overly large.
As far as "improvements" go, I like simple, and most old, cantankerous guys seem to share that sentiment. If it ain't broke......
And to clarify, paypay is "info" followed by a period, then @, then Cj-8.com? Wasn't sure if that period was supposed to be in there. We can simply send a paypal payment to that email address?
Thanks again to you and Matt for hosting this for so long. I've watched a lot of good Jeep boards come and go, and this one is the one that stands out as being the best.
- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
Damn, I edited that, it was an autocorrect period when I added two spaces in there. The only period is in the .com
Here's the correct address:
