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AndyP
6th December 2005, 12:36 AM
OZgolfers

As you know this is a non-commercial site, and all costs to date have come out of the pocket of goughy and clikchic. The fact that we are non-commercial gives us the freedom to run this place however we want, which is how we all like it.
However, the Goughs aren't exactly rolling in money, and there is no reason why they should be funding something that we all use.

I have now placed at the bottom of every page of the forum some paypal buttons to enable you to donate a little to help keep this site running. $5, $10, or choose your own amount (37 cents?), there's no obligation, but every little bit will help pay for server costs and forum upgrades to keep this site going from strength to strength.

Thanks
Andy

Jarro
6th December 2005, 05:39 AM
great idea AndyP 8)

could the powers that be maybe tell the members exactly how much it costs to run this place, and also what options we have with regards to maybe paying extra to get a bigger/better forum :?

Matt 3 Jab
6th December 2005, 06:20 AM
i cant use paypal but i would like to contribute?

Jarro
6th December 2005, 07:41 AM
i cant use paypal but i would like to contribute?

you could always give some cash to Jono/3oneday/Trung and they could paypal it for you :wink:

they're very helpful fellas :P

Keza_G
6th December 2005, 08:01 AM
Donation sent..... :D

Cheers

Keza

Courty
6th December 2005, 09:34 AM
Donation sent...

Keep up the great work guys.

Courty

Jono
6th December 2005, 10:46 AM
Great idea, AP. For Sydneysiders who don't have Paypal account, you can give me the cash at the next Ozgolf day and I can put it through Paypal for you.

AndyP
6th December 2005, 01:33 PM
great idea AndyP 8)

could the powers that be maybe tell the members exactly how much it costs to run this place, and also what options we have with regards to maybe paying extra to get a bigger/better forum  :?
Not really my idea, I'm just announcing it on behalf of clikchic and goughy, although I have been telling them to accept the assistance offered by some members for a good while.

I'm not sure of the costs involved for this server, or the previous one.  Server stuff is in clikchic's domain.
However, I was looking at different forum software yesterday (VBulletin) and there are costs involved in maintaining a license and getting updates for that, if we decided to head in that direction.

Fishman Dan
6th December 2005, 09:25 PM
Someone's spammed the site. There's ugly PayPal stickers everywhere.. :roll:

AndyP
6th December 2005, 09:28 PM
Someone's spammed the site. There's ugly PayPal stickers everywhere.. :roll:Would you like them on the top of the page as well?

Fishman Dan
6th December 2005, 09:34 PM
Someone's spammed the site. There's ugly PayPal stickers everywhere.. :roll:Would you like them on the top of the page as well?

That'd be real purdy... :wink:

Eag's
6th December 2005, 10:11 PM
I want to donate but don't have paypal access, so might have to give the money to someone who does.

Jono
7th December 2005, 03:48 PM
Someone's spammed the site. There's ugly PayPal stickers everywhere.. :roll:

I reckon the donation amount should be your number of posts in cents.

So that's about $40 for you Fishy ... :wink: How much would Jarro have to pay? :shock:

3oneday
7th December 2005, 03:57 PM
So that's about $40 for you Fishy ...  :wink:   How much would Jarro have to pay?  :shock:Jono, ummmm, it's about 7662 x $0.01 mate, so about 76 odd dollars :wink: :roll:

Lucky you're a doctor hey !!! :shock:

:lol: :lol:

Fishman Dan
7th December 2005, 05:13 PM
I prefer 'sense', therefore i owe this board nothing! :wink: :lol:

terryand
7th December 2005, 06:32 PM
I prefer 'sense', therefore i owe this board nothing! :wink:  :lol:

If thats the case,you are in debt to this joint till the day you die :? :shock:

Terry.

Pinglauncher
7th December 2005, 06:50 PM
Donation gladly sent.

Should this be an annual occurrence :?: :?:

AndyP
7th December 2005, 07:16 PM
Donate whenever you want to. But maybe we'll bump the thread at certain times.

gazgolf1
7th December 2005, 07:28 PM
Donation sent from the Champ....least I could do. :lol:

3oneday
7th December 2005, 08:03 PM
I prefer 'sense', therefore i owe this board nothing! :wink:  :lol:

If thats the case,you are in debt to this joint till the day you die :?  :shock:

Terry.and his kids kids ???

:lol: :lol:

clikchic
8th December 2005, 01:18 PM
Wow! Thanks so much everyone for your generosity. We really appreciate it and are blown over by such a great response. We have now covered last years hosting fees and if it keeps up, will soon cover next years as well.

I am really keen to upgrade the forum to vBulletin so that may be something to look forward to in the not too distant future. Hopefully AndyP likes it as much as I do! LOL I had a look at the admin panel for VBulletin yesterday and it looks a lot more user friendly than phpbb and it certainly has a lot more features and I think it is also a more professional package overall.

Anyway, thanks again everyone! You guys are the best! :wink:

Robyn

goughy
10th December 2005, 05:15 AM
Finally stuck my head in to say thanks to you all as well. We've had a few changes over the last year and a half. The last server we were with allowed us 50mb of space for our plan. When we were having problems recently it was because they had allowed us to extend past that limit to about 160mb :shock: . Geeze you guys like to talk :P .

Plans are afoot. Clikchic and andyp are investigating some options for a new bulliten board that will hopefully give us better functionality and stability and make andy's life so much easier. He has put in some hard yards to keep things up and running and to add features to the site. And hopefully with the new server things will also run smoother.

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks. Every cent donated will go back to the site in some form or another.

AndyP
12th December 2005, 03:20 PM
i cant use paypal but i would like to contribute?

I want to donate but don't have paypal access, so might have to give the money to someone who does.
Gents, if you have access to internet banking, you could transfer the money to me, and I will pass the money on to the Gough's via paypal. PM me if this suits you.

AndyP
13th December 2005, 08:43 PM
As Jono noted in another thread, the 'Choose Your Own Amount' link only gave the option of donating in US dollars. I passed this onto clikchic and she has changed it to Oz dollars, and I have updated the link.

Thank you for the donations so far.

Golfgirl
14th December 2005, 03:23 PM
Sorry for the late contribution - only just got around to doing it :oops:

Let's aim for next year's fees! :D

Jono
14th December 2005, 04:59 PM
Just so that Robyn doesn't think I'm making all the donations ...

I have donated for Trung ($25) and TS ($20).

Any NSW Ozgolfers who want to donate (hopefully that's everyone) but don't have Paypal and don't have internet banking, send me a PM. If you have internet banking, PM AndyP.

3oneday
14th December 2005, 09:29 PM
Any NSW Ozgolfers who want to donate (hopefully that's everyone) but don't have Paypal and don't have internet banking and don't have cash, send me a PM.there you go, Jono will donate on your behalf !!!!

Very kind Mr John !!!! :wink:

:lol: :lol:

Fishman Dan
19th December 2005, 06:38 AM
Jono - are you making any of the donations? :lol:

Jarro
19th December 2005, 06:55 AM
i haven't donated anything yet ... but plan on doing so when my Qantas bonus comes in :P :smt082 :smt046

3oneday
19th December 2005, 07:09 AM
i haven't donated anything yet ... but plan on doing so when my Qantas bonus comes in  :P  :smt082  :smt046So...it's not a performance bonus then Jaroo :wink:

:lol: :lol:

Grunt
19th December 2005, 07:15 AM
i haven't donated anything yet ... but plan on doing so when my Qantas bonus comes in  :P  :smt082  :smt046

Is that a redundancy Bonus Jarro?

Jarro
19th December 2005, 07:18 AM
probably Grant :roll:

Grunt
19th December 2005, 07:20 AM
:cry: Not sure how long QANTAS want engineers for? Could be about 12 months or 12 days? Dixon only wants more money.

AndyP
22nd December 2005, 10:26 AM
Congratulations and thank you for your donations so far, OZgolfers.
I have just been informed that we have covered the hosting fees to date, and for the next period. Hoozah!! :D

In regards to an upgrade to new forum software, we have decided to put that on hold. It's quite an expensive exercise, particularly upfront costs, so we will assess how the forum 'kitty' is going later on down the track to see if it can happen.

So for now, I'll get back to just adding MODs to this one.

Thanks again
Andy

Jarro
22nd December 2005, 10:33 AM
maybe if you let us know how much it would cost ... those of us that haven't donated so far could up our contributions :wink:

AndyP
22nd December 2005, 11:00 AM
maybe if you let us know how much it would cost ... those of us that haven't donated so far could up our contributions  :wink:
Over $200.   :shock:

clikchic has installed it on her own forum, so there is no rush for us to install it, as it gives her a chance to assess how good it is, although everything I have seen of it is good.

clikchic
22nd December 2005, 11:15 AM
Thanks again guys for your generosity. :-)

I have installed vbulletin on my own website, although it isn't live yet. I am having some installation issues with the new portal so I need to get that working first. I am currently still running phpnuke and phpbb (mod version) which have been rather buggy and don't integrate well with the gallery, which is why I am upgrading. (have been saving hard! :-) )

So I am hoping to get it all up and running within the next few weeks fingers crossed! I will let you know when it is up in case you feel like having a squiz around. :-)

From what I have seen so far, particularly from the admin side of things, as well as features, vbulletin is far superior to phpbb. Much more professional get up and I personally think it is more user friendly. 'tight' while it is band terminology, it is the word that comes to my mind when describing the program in comparison to phpbb.. :smt023

Of course I am no programmer, this is strictly from a novice/hack point of view. :D


Robyn
:smt114

AndyP
28th December 2005, 04:02 PM
BrisWesty opted to give his donation the manual way - cash in hand. Thank you, I will pass it on.

goughy
28th December 2005, 05:33 PM
Thanks again to all for their support. As most would know clikchic and I have been pretty busy the last few months but hope to now get on top of things. We've been looking things we can do to make things better/easier etc for ozgolf and will keep looking now we have more time. We've also been chatting to andy about it since he's the one who's been doing the brunt of the work here.

We'll let you all know what we're thinking of in the near future.

Grunt
28th December 2005, 06:45 PM
I finally got round to contributing today, sorry for taking so long. I kept forgetting :?

clikchic
13th January 2006, 02:32 PM
Hey Guys!

Ok, finally have my site up and running and while the setup of the portal was a pain in the bum it allows for a lot of flexibility and gives a lot of options. The good news is, that now that I have the portal setup for my site, I can just use the database as a template for one for ozgolf, which will make things a lot easier setting it up here.

Anyway, so far I am LOVING vbulletin and vbportal. I think it is quite user friendly and a definate improvement over phpbb. (IMHO)

So, if you want to see for yourself, take a look at www.clikchicdesigns.com

It took me 3wks of hard work and neglecting my family to get it set up (mainly the portal) so be nice. :wink:

Courty
13th January 2006, 02:44 PM
Very snazzy indeed, clikchic.

AndyP
13th January 2006, 02:50 PM
Definitely looks smart.

clikchic, does the stuff down the left hand side have to be there?

clikchic
13th January 2006, 02:57 PM
Nope, it is fully customisable, you can put anything you want there, put it on the left, the right the middle or get rid of it altogether... You can do RSS news feeds etc..

You could put up a buddy list instead... etc etc etc

Courty
13th January 2006, 02:58 PM
You can do RSS news feeds etc..

RSS. :smt023

AndyP
13th January 2006, 03:20 PM
Nope, it is fully customisable, you can put anything you want there, put it on the left, the right the middle or get rid of it altogether...
Just to clarify, is that the stuff down the left hand side of the forum pages (not the portal) that can be removed or moved around?

Jarro
13th January 2006, 03:23 PM
looks good.

can't wait till we use it 8)

goughy
13th January 2006, 05:09 PM
The only part of the forum that can't be changed is the forum menu bar at the top of that page. Everything else can be changed or removed.

clikchic
13th January 2006, 05:21 PM
Yup, I am guessing you mean you don't want the menu there when viewing the forum, and yes, you can set it to be there for the front ozgolf.net page, but not the ozgolf.net/forum page if that makes sense.

The main purpose of this site IS the forum, so you wouldn't want any extra stuff on the forum pages, but since my site has a lot more different extras, such as the gallery, store, articles etc, it is more useful to have the menus etc there so they are easily accessible.

AndyP
13th January 2006, 05:28 PM
The main purpose of this site IS the forum, so you wouldn't want any extra stuff on the forum pages, but since my site has a lot more different extras, such as the gallery, store, articles etc, it is more useful to have the menus etc there so they are easily accessible.
Yep, that's where I was coming from. Cool.
Is the gallery at your site the same one that we've got installed here (but not set up or using)?

clikchic
13th January 2006, 05:39 PM
Nope, mine is Photopost, ours is coppermine, but I have checked, and you can integrate coppermine with vbulletin, which should mean you can also do that with the portal. And I also found a hack that allows you to do a featured pic/s, much like on my site.

I might get started on setting that gallery up in preperation.

goughy tells me that we are about halfway towards getting vbulletin once he gets paid for some of his club sales. :-) YAY!

I had better get started on designing a header. ;-)

Jarro
13th January 2006, 06:05 PM
goughy tells me that we are about halfway towards getting vbulletin once he gets paid for some of his club sales. :-) YAY!

yes i know, i know ... i've ben a bit slack with the PayPal deposits ..... i promise i'll get onto them next week when i get paid again :roll:




I had better get started on designing a header

Do you have something in mind ... or are you asking for help with it's design :?:

I'm sure there are some artistic types out there just itching to get stuck into this one :wink:

clikchic
13th January 2006, 06:13 PM
Do you have something in mind ... or are you asking for help with it's design Question

Yup, already have it open in photoshop.. and working on it.. :-) Me thinks a new look is in order he he... :-)

Jarro
13th January 2006, 06:15 PM
can we ditch the green and orange look :roll: :lol:

clikchic
13th January 2006, 06:24 PM
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

He he he he I won't show you what I have done so far..... ROFL

goughy
13th January 2006, 08:36 PM
goughy tells me that we are about halfway towards getting vbulletin once he gets paid for some of his club sales. :-) YAY!

yes i know, i know ... i've ben a bit slack with the PayPal deposits ..... i promise i'll get onto them next week when i get paid again :roll:

Don't concern yourself jarro. With the couple of items sent we're about half way there. Still a bit to go yet. But it's looking good.

And I'll get around to taking some photo's of that bag for ya this weekend.

AndyP
13th January 2006, 10:31 PM
can we ditch the green and orange look :roll: :lol:
Hope not. It's our trademark....

goughy
23rd January 2006, 08:55 PM
Well, things may really be on the change. Thanks to some equip sold and especially to a generous donation tonite the change to vBulliten shall be on the way.

As many know the site was down today, and it appears ozgolf crashed the whole server. So it seems like a good time to move onto a more stable, customisable and friendly format. I for one can not wait. We'll be using a program of the same order as those used by isg, golfwrx etc (a different program from them, but of the same level) and you guys have helped make happen.

Thx all.

AndyP
23rd January 2006, 10:55 PM
Well, that's very interesting......

Jarro
24th January 2006, 05:18 AM
LET'S DO IT :D :smt038 :smt026 \:D/ =D> :mrgreen: