Improving Toolian.com and how you can help.

[Dan]

You'll notice the "Chip In" widget at the top of the board, with a possibly lofty goal of raising $1,000 for improvements to the board.

There's a few reasons why I want to do this.
1) I want to build the community further. Yes, odd coming from someone fairly absent; but I don't want Toolian withering away, and I believe the others who frequent this board feel the same way.
2) I want the community to be sustainable. If (when) the community gets significantly larger, the demands on the server will increase. We'll need improved software and hosting, and a way to make that happen that without breaking my bank.
3) Selfish pride. I like this site, but want it to be more, want it to offer more to both users and society (lofty, yes).

I need to raise money to acquire some things to achieve the above goals. Below is what the money will go to, in another beautiful numbered list:
1) Software that's better than phpbb. I'm looking at software that will better handle spam (moderators should not have to battle with this so much). I also want the forum software to better attract new users through increased organic traffic, better aesthetics, and increased features. One feature will be the ability to add some low-cost ads (affordable enough even for users to promote something they may be working on) which will accomplish the "sustainability" goal.
2) Promotion. I'd like to do some promos to bring in more users, increase new conversations, etc.
3) Hosting. Extra money will be going to hosting bills.

Feel free to email me (dan AT toolian.com) with any questions or post below.

All donations are appreciated. Let's get this done and make this place even better!

Dan

[defeat]

Is the chatroom a thing that will come of this?
I know it's been talked about.
I don't particularly care either way, just wondering and asking for others.

p.s. If I worked, I'd definately contribute. Sad face.

[Dan]

A chatroom is more demanding on a server/bandwidth. This is something I will look into though.

[Dan]

Thanks to those who have donated!

30% there, and a few months to go.

[Dan]

Special thanks to Clint and Derek who donated enough to move forward.

The plan now is to upgrade the board to vBulletin. I believe this will help the site and moderators/admins. This will require the board being down for a period of time as everything is migrated over. After the upgrade, all users will have to reset their passwords (so make sure the email address associated with your account is correct).

I'm hoping to perform the upgrade in the next month. I may look for assistance as I am not familiar with vbulletin. If you are, or are well versed in phpmyadmin/mysql please contact me at dandurick@gmail.com

Thanks everyone.
Dan