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Frank Hagan

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Posts posted by Frank Hagan

  1. New benefit for Supporting Members: Clubs!

     

    Supporting Members are entitled to create two clubs per year for family, local class association, community or any group of people they care to invite. In each club, you can create forums (topics), polls, calendars, and events. The Supporting Member controls whether the club is open to everyone, or completely private (and a couple of options in between). 

     

    Your club does not have to be boat related, but our normal rules apply.  And we ask that everyone honors our primary rule on messing-about: Be nice. 

     

    The club remains in place and active (unless abandoned), even if you don't renew your support in future years.

     

  2. On desktop or larger displays you may notice that several posts are displayed incorrectly. I have a support topic in for this and will keep you updated. I apologize for the inconvenience - it popped up after a recent security upgrade.

  3. Thanks, guys!

     

    I have to kick myself for moving from a supplier I had been with, completely trouble free, for three years. The thing is, I went with another company for the server in Las Vegas that I respect and have had good luck with in the past. And the lure of saving $264 a year in server fees was pretty strong. But it wasn't worth the hassle. With the donations from the Supporting Members, hosting fees I charge for others and occasional ad revenue I'm at a break even point. So no tears, just a lesson learned.

  4. In my efforts to reduce costs where I could I made what was, in retrospect, a bad decision and moved to a less expensive server back around Jan. 4th. After several days on the new server, I realized it just wasn't worth the downtime and problems getting things to run smoothly. I have reverted back to my prior data center in Dallas, on the more reliable server. While it costs me about $22 more per month, it is at least stable.

     

    BUT, that means posts from about the 4th or 5th until today are lost to the ages, and I won't be able to recover them. You may have posted, replied, etc. and now they are gone. It's nothing personal, just my screw-up!

  5. I have been forced to upgrade the server for messing-about.com due to increasing resource usage. After negotiations the new configuration still results in a 60% increase. I have added Google Ads to help defray the cost.

     

    Several of you have asked about ways to support messing-about.com. There are two links in side column on the main index page:

    • $12 a Year Supporting Member - Member status will be upgraded to Supporting Member and ads will not be shown to you.
    • $60 a Year Premium Supporting Member - Includes the upgrade to Premium Supporting Member, and optionally provides a year of hosting your website at HOSTkabob (a 50% discount from our regular rates). 

     

    You can choose to pay by credit card or PayPal after clicking the link. The forms pop-up, so if you don't see them ... turn off your pop up blocker and try again.  Or, if you prefer to keep it casual, you can send money via PayPal to frank@frankhagan.com.

     

    Finally, I want everyone to know that we completely understand if you don't decide to join in the monetary support effort; messing-about has always provided free access to those who qualify simply by virtue of their contributions and ability to "be nice" to everyone else. It is an honor for me to be associated with all of you. 

     

     

  6. The server has been upgraded, and luckily there hasn't been any disruption that I can see. 

     

    To pay for this I have added advertisements in two areas, at the top of the page and in between the first and second post. I'm using Google Ads, which at least monitor the ads and keep them virus free. 

     

    For those who want to contribute, there are two links at the top right of the main index page to support messing-about.com, a $12 a year option to remove the ads, and a $60 a year option that removes the ads and optionally includes a full year of HOSTkabob website hosting if desired. 

  7. Trying some Google ads now, and may hide those for people who donate once I get a donate button set up. I hope they aren't too intrusive.

     

    Things are stable on the server side but I probably will need to upgrade by the end of the year. I hope to avoid that but it looks like I will need more resources for things like the image hosting, etc. by then anyway.

    • Like 1
  8. 2 hours ago, Oyster said:

    Since this is probably one of the best run places on the net, can the members participate in the funding?   Its great to come here and not be buried in junk at any time day or night.

     

    I could put up a donation button for PayPal or Patreon; I'll look into what I could add for paying members as a bonus. 

     

    I'm working with the data center now on mitigating the attacks and turned the registration form back on with some changes; we'll see how it goes with the other measures in place. I'll keep everyone posted!

  9. Unfortunately I have had to disable registration due to excessive resources being used by phony registration attempts and "contact us" form spammers. I am looking at upgrading the server and resources, but I am not sure the 64% increase in costs is worth that solution.  

     

    If you have someone who wants to join messing-about let me know and I'll add them manually for now. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
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