Upcoming changes + Small Donation Request

[armeleia]

Hi guys,

I am just writing to touch base with you guys as your host and one of your admins. I haven't really posted here in this capacity before, so bear with me. I have a few things I'd like to talk to you about.

Upgrading to 4.x

I haven't really been on the ball with keeping this forum's software maintained since we moved to the Den of Angels server. We're running an outdated version of 3.8... and while I am immensely fond of vB3, it isn't really being supported anymore and as the rest of the internet moves forward, it can make our site unstable or hackable. None of us want that!

Additionally, 4.x has a lot of features that 3.8 does not. If you use DoA, you can see that there are personal albums, etc. There is a bit of a learning curve (and the forum will be ugly temporarily as I build a new skin), but it is ultimately a good change.

Advertising

While the Joint isn't a huge bandwidth sucker, to be hosted here we have to pull our own weight and contribute to DoA's server funds. For this reason, after the upgrade the Joint will have a banner ad spot at the top right similar to the ones shown on DoA. I may branch out in terms of advertisers and seek targeted advertisers for art/sculpting/casting materials and other things that are specifically relevant to our interests as dollmakers. This may take a bit of time, but it is my hope to keep everything on the Joint focused on the creation side of BJD.

Blogs

As many of you may know, we were originally hosted on bjdartists.com under Dollfair's umbrella. When we had our emergency move from the bjdartists.com server, I had to buy us a less expensive vBulletin license than the one we were used to because I was borrowing from DoA's funds. We lost some features, most noteably our blogs! I miss the creation blogs and would love to bring them back.

To do that, we need to raise approximately $95. If you would like to contribute money for this upgrade, please send a donation of your choice to ads@denofangels.com. I would ask that you send more than $2 for US members or $4 for foreign members as Paypal charges fees and we could otherwise actually lose money on your donation.

Thanks for reading!

[cloudedmind]

When we send a donation should we put "For the Joint" in the comments field?

[armeleia]

Yes, please. Though small donations for random amounts would be recognizable to me as not being for advertising (which tends to be in certain specific increments).

[Arabidopsis]

Would it be possible to use personal payment where the person sending the donation covers the fees or would that cause problems?

[Anasthasia]

I sent it as a personal payment and I pay the fees. I hope is OK! let me know if you receive it! ^^

[armeleia]

Thanks for your donations so far! We're almost all the way there.

Personal payments are fine.

[dhawktx]

I sent in a bit too - thanks armelieia!

[armeleia]

I'm hoping to do this upgrade this weekend. Thanks for the donations!

[dollsbestfriend]

I can't get the email to work for me as I use the computer at the library. Could you PM me with the address where I can send a check.

[Articula]

I just donated via PayPal... I've been absent from The Joint for some time, but I may actually have something to post about soon (finally getting back to dollmaking after a few years off). I just saw this post and want to help!