New Forum Management

[Jon]

Hello everyone, my name is Jon, and I'd just like to let everyone know in case you haven't already heard that me and my partner Brandon have taken on ownership of this forum. We are very excited to be able to resurrect this place from the neglect it's suffered over the years and hope to turn it into a great forum and network overall. We have loads of ideas stirring and a pretty large annual six figure budget for upgrades, marketing/advertising, contests/prizes, and giveaways too.

I have been made well aware of the situation that had occured a few years ago with some issues concerning many members here about security, viruses and spam. I for one am against all three of those evil things. My partner Brandon is a technical and security expert, and we are in the middle of putting a very strict and custom system into place that will negate all of those factors from ever happening here again. Our biggest priority is to run a safe community for everyone to enjoy and feel as if they are protected.

Over the next few days you will notice some changes. We have already moved the forum to a new server so that it no longer runs slower than a snail. I'm sure anyone reading this by now has noticed that you can fly through the forums without any lagging. This has been a successful phase one. The next phase will be an upgrade of the vbulletin software. The third phase will include visual and modification upgrades, both custom and standard.

All technical phases and security upgrades will be complete by Thanksgiving on Thursday. This place will no longer have any security, virus, or spam threats. We have a VERY powerful custom security system in place that rivals those used by most financial and enterprise institutions. Although costly on our part, we think it's a necessity that everyone feel assured that they cannot be harmed in any way shape or form by being here.

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[tsquared]

It is great to know people are caring about how things are running here.........thanks bunches for making this a place once again to come and relax and have fun without the worry of where information was ending up.........

[Jon]

Some enhancements that we are going to put into play by Jan 2007 include:

+ A rewards and forum currency system.
+ Daily, weekly, and monthly contests.
+ Exclusive deals and coupons for BBS/BBF members only!
+ Automatic updates of deals, freebies, contests, and sweepstakes.
+ Member loyalty rewards.

We are currently in negotiations with the following stores to include dedicated reps to appear here and take customer service questions, issues and feedback:

Wal-Mart
Kmart
eLuxury
Overstock
eBay
Amazon
Macys
Verizon
Nextel/Sprint
Alltel
QVC
HSN
BestBuy
Dell
CompUSA
IKEA
JC Penny
Kohls
Target
..and many more!

Due to our contacts and good standing connections within the retail industry we hope to be able to secure over $500,000 in giftcards from all of the retailers combined, along with the exclusive savings codes.

I can assure you, if you though this place was big many years ago, you haven't seen anything yet!

We do need your feedback though to make everything a success, so we will be starting a seperate section where you can give us ideas or general information. We will also have polls running asking for information (all anonymous and no personal data required) on how you found this place, what you like or dislike, etc.

Perhaps you can quickly tell us what draws you to a forum like this, and what you would like to see that no other forum or site has that would keep you here or bring others here.

Thanks again for your continued loyalty and patience while we go through the necessary upgrades. I can assure you, the wait has been well worthwhile!

[nanajoanie]

This is fantastic news. Hope it all goes according to the plans. Best of luck. I myself have been missing in action for about a year now because of a virus. I was assured that it no longer the case. So I'm back and ready to pester everyone with nonsense.

[freeby4me]

Wow this is awesome and so nice that you guys are doing this! This site has always been a favorite of many to come and chat so my only suggestion would to be make sure you dont take away the "Family" feeling this place has. I love coming and chatting and asking advice from people and it feels much more real than going to a chatroom or something! Thanx again and GREAT JOB!!

[Jon]

This is fantastic news. Hope it all goes according to the plans. Best of luck. I myself have been missing in action for about a year now because of a virus. I was assured that it no longer the case. So I'm back and ready to pester everyone with nonsense.

We've already okay'ed our development team to start making a custom virus scanner specifically for members here. It will also pre-scan links to make sure they do not contain any other potentially harmful devices such as adware/spyware, phishing, identity theft scams, etc. We have a pretty extensive database that one of the biggest anti-virus companies uses from the data we collect for it, so you can be sure nothing will screw with this.

We also have a toolbar idea in the works that will scan our database for realtime coupons and codes no matter what site you are on. I think it would be a cool idea to include the virus/spyware scanner into it so that no matter where you are, you can be protected and at the same time alerted of savings, deals, coupons etc.

I appreciate the overwhelming positive response to our server change as well, you guys deserve the thanks for sticking around though and making this possible!

[Jon]

Wow this is awesome and so nice that you guys are doing this! This site has always been a favorite of many to come and chat so my only suggestion would to be make sure you dont take away the "Family" feeling this place has. I love coming and chatting and asking advice from people and it feels much more real than going to a chatroom or something! Thanx again and GREAT JOB!!

We are going to make some rule changes and adjustments, but keep it fun, safe and best of all FREE for everyone to use and enjoy. Although we are going to allow a more lax/laid back no real censorship (profanity allowed), there will be a custom control for everyone to have that will censor material they may find offensive. Not to mention an image alert in the form of a post icon that will warn you beforehand if it is NSFW (Not Safe For Work). Nudity, porn, and anything overly offensive such as hate/racial terms will continue to never be allowed here.

[DonnaWV]

Thank You for all your hard work. I can see that the forums already run faster. I am glad that things are going to be better here. This can be the best forum that there is. I love all the ideas that you have. Good work.
How about a spell checker, everyone here knows I can not spell

Opps I just saw that little abc sign, never saw that before

[freeby4me]

How about some new avatars? Us computer stupid people have a hard time going through everything to get one up right now LOL

[Pepsi4me]

Wow! That all sounds great.


Thank you from someone who has been her for a few years.

[Kyla Kym]

Welcome aboard Jon & Brandon!

I'm really enjoying the speed of the board today!

One of the things that I have always loved about this board is the simplicity of it. It's streamline and not allot of unnecessary clutter, and forums to navigate through. I also hope that the family type atmosphere is not jeopardized. I believe that had allot to do with all the good members that use to be here, and still are.

We all look forward to seeing the new changes! Thanks for taking over and I hope you both have great success with the site.