IMPORTANT...What are your favorite forums sites???

[Bartman]

Hi everyone,

We've been down twice this week due to two DDOS attacks. That's when anonymous people use other peoples' computers, a lot of them (!), to overwhelm the servers that run the website causing the site to stop working and users like you to be blocked from accessing it. The first attack shut us down for 9 hours and last night we were down for about 8 hours.

The current hosting service doesn't love this kind of thing messing up their hardware and affecting their other hosting clients so I've got to think about getting a hosting service that handles DDOS attacks on a regular basis and if I'm going to move the site I might also plan a site update (appearance, software, features, etc.).

So, the big question is, what are your favorite forums sites (other than this one! ) and what makes them your favorites? I'm looking for overall appearance ideas, maybe a new forums software package, features that might make for a better MultiRotorForums.com website experience, etc..... If we're going to be a worldwide community then we need to be world class and world leading! We're not fooling around here anymore!

Let's hear what you have to say. I appreciate your input and will check out your suggestions as we try to cook up a path forward.

thank you, thank you, thank you!

Bart

 

[Bartman]

as for me, i'd love to have a classifieds area like RCUniverse has.

 

[Kilby]

My favorite is multirotorforums.com... duh!!

;-)

 

[Scott Drysdale]

For Multirotors it is definitely MultiRotor Forums.

 

[jes1111]

Agree with a software change - ipBoard (http://www.invisionpower.com/) is super-clean with great features.

 

[Bartman]

hmmm, helpful, appreciated, humbly accepted on behalf of everyone here, but.....um.......not what i was....um......looking for!

c'mon, where are all of those world class sites you guys visit when you're trying to break your MRF habit?

 

[fj_montilla]

Hey Bartman,

I visit fpvlab almost as frequently as multirotorforums, and rcgroups less frequently. FPVLABS I visit mostly for the fpv themes, vendors, retailers and tech discussions. In fact, I see a lot of participants I recognize from multirotorforums. But I visit mostly for information, not beacuse they have some special feature I love. Hope it helps

 

[jbrumberg]

I am a frequent flyer at rcgroups.com The ABCs of Radio Control - Aircraft, Boats, and Cars!. But comparing that site to this site is comparing apples to oranges. MRF is a more specialized and focused site for one thing at this point. All those banners and advertisements at RCG are annoying. The search engine at RCG is cumbersome, but I have not tried the SE here for comparison. Other sites that I have frequented/visited really do not meet my current levels of interests or have site specific "attitude". There are less "food fights" (if any) here due to moderation. Although a good food fight can be entertaining. There are some decent small sites, but they are really small, and they seem to be trying to find their way with even smaller memberships. I think part of the challenge here is that there is this mix of incredibly experienced members and incredibly in-experienced members all together. It seems to me and I am a newbee in this that unless a group of new member newbees bond together in a self help group with their own builds they can flounder unless they ask for help and some can not. The build thread was a great idea. I actually stopped following for awhile because as a group it got crazy with everyone wanting this or that frame, etc. It did work itself out in the end very successfully. All the threads and stickies dedicated to the newbee population helps. Some of the more experiences builders and fliers who "drop in" on us newbee flyers and crashers and offer assistance really helps.

Just some of my rambling thoughts.

 

[econfly]

hmmm, helpful, appreciated, humbly accepted on behalf of everyone here, but.....um.......not what i was....um......looking for!

c'mon, where are all of those world class sites you guys visit when you're trying to break your MRF habit?

Direct answer: I like the forum software on http://www.northeastshooters.com and http://ar15.com. The former has an active classifieds section that uses iTrader for reputation tracking, which is very helpful. Like many, I spend some time on http://rcgroups.com, but I find the interface to be a little busy.

 

[JoeBob]

Of the 4 forums that I frequent, MRF has the best software.

Hosting services for my still photo business:
Hostasaurus (now MivaMerchant) was a B to a B- .
DreamHost - Solid A

BTW: You must be successful for someone to mount a Denial of Service attack on MRF. Congratulations!

 

[JoeBob]

econfly: You're a bad influence. I just wasted 20 minutes looking at 194 pages of AR pics at NE Shooters. Not a single Grendel 6.5

 

[mongo]

as long as it isn't VBB i am ok with it.

 

[deluge2]

My top to MR website destinations are MRF and RCGroups. RCG is cluttered and sometimes has a lower 'signal to noise' ratio, but the underlying site functionality is good.

One feature that would be a nice add for MRF is a longer history for 'Active Threads'. I see no reason why this couldn't be a paged list. As it is now, I'm sure I miss things I'd otherwise look at because I don't have time to regularly visit all the individual topics and the active threads entries may not last long when the board is active.

Steve

 

[Motopreserve]

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about forum software-applications. But +1 for DreamHost. My experience with web sites has been good.

I do know that this site causes havoc with apple mobile devices. Can't just quick reply. Automatically kills the keypad when you hit a letter. Does it for a while then stops...sometimes. Never had that happen on any forum before.

I like FPVlabs as well. Clean layout, but their index is lacking (and trying to be clever IMHO).

While if like to see you make some as cash - RCGroups gives me an anxiety attack.

I always thought SOHC4 forum was simple and well laid out.

THIS is motorcycle site never bugged me either - except the color

thanks for for all the work you do here Bart. It benefits us all.

 

[Bartman]

My top to MR website destinations are MRF and RCGroups. RCG is cluttered and sometimes has a lower 'signal to noise' ratio, but the underlying site functionality is good.

One feature that would be a nice add for MRF is a longer history for 'Active Threads'. I see no reason why this couldn't be a paged list. As it is now, I'm sure I miss things I'd otherwise look at because I don't have time to regularly visit all the individual topics and the active threads entries may not last long when the board is active.

Steve

the active threads list as it is is actually a CMS page feature so it isn't possible to have it be multiple pages at the moment although that might be a feature available in other forums software packages. the "New Posts" page just below the Home button actually is a multi-page display of recent thread posts.

with RCgroups being high "signal to noise" I've also thought about a subscription based RC forums site where more serious modelers could hang out free from advertising and the associated censorship that goes on at most sites where advertisers call the shots. if people can't participate without creating a lot of drama they could be refunded their money and given the boot. if we could bottle up what makes this site work then it might be worth a try.

@motopreserve, thanks! it's a labor of love I guess, a daily labor of love.

 

[jfro]

One of my requests would be to make it optional to start at the beginning or ending of a thread and have all posts listed instead of paged for that thread. I get so tired of looking for old post when I know it's in a certain thread and have to go page by page.

 

[billmac]

Multi Rotor UK

 

[kloner]

i've been on dreamhost for 15 year, had my store going on a dedicated server, was money..... they have a decent support, but no phone number and i know bart loves the phone,,,, for extra money they'll call you back.

It is a mark on the bedpost, got somebody pissed at ya.

I've always like vbulletin forums, way better than the free stuff. maybee just a facelift with a new scheme or theme or something

 

[DucktileMedia]

+1 on the paged actives. Been asking for that for a while. But the one single thing that constantly steams my clams is the search feature. If you wanted to search for an xy8 for sale there isn't a box in the advanced search for classifieds. But mainly you have to be too specific or the search returns no results. If you typed in xy8, nothing would come up. I think it should just give you all the results and allow you to go through them. I've had mtiple situations where I was looking for my OWN post and had a hell of a time finding it. Is there anywY to improve on this aspect of the site?

 

[Bartman]

i've been on dreamhost for 15 year, had my store going on a dedicated server, was money..... they have a decent support, but no phone number and i know bart loves the phone,,,, for extra money they'll call you back.

It is a mark on the bedpost, got somebody pissed at ya.

I've always like vbulletin forums, way better than the free stuff. maybee just a facelift with a new scheme or theme or something

we're on a virtual dedicated server so we've got great speed, lots of storage space, the site runs great on it but they don't want to be hassled by frequent disruptions so i'm shopping around. phone service, what's not to like?? actually i do all of the service requests using their ticket system and they've been very quick to respond.

somebody's pissed, yup, probably because i wouldn't let them use the site for their own agenda or something like that.

vbulletin works great but my developer guy has said no to the Ver5 upgrade and i've been looking at other options. we'll see. it might take a few months to make a decision but we'll get it worked out.