Welcome back UU

jnicholes said:

I HATE THE FACT THIS FORUM MAY GO DOWN!!!!

I was just getting a lot of friends, having good interaction, and having a great time. Now, all that is being taken from me. ITS NOT FAIR!

It's like everything is against me!

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Jared,

I know you are upset. A lot of us feel the same way. Many people have expressed what you are feeling, just with different words. The Forum is like a family to us, and it’s scary to think that we might all become orphans. But this thread is long, there have been many good suggestions, people are willing to help financially, and the mods are willing to listen. Because of the ongoing discussion, I am hopeful that the Forum will survive. So hang in there for now. We’re all in this together. We just need time, and faith, that a satisfactory solution will be found.

Jan

PeteS said:

I did install Discord on my computer but as well as being dark and,for myself with rubbish eyesight,hard to read I was a bit at a loss with it. Being a 76 year old computer dinosaur it was confusing to me and seemed intrusive so I uninstalled it. I will be putting it on my tablet which for some reason I find easier to use when trying something different.

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Changing the screen to white doesn’t make Discord much better but I’ll paste the instructions I posted a few pages back:

Click the "gear" symbol down on the bottom left of the screen for the settings.

In "settings" page, click "Appearance" near the bottom left of the screen.

Select "Light" theme.

Click the "X" on the top right of the screen to go back to the forum.

Hopefully that translates to whatever you’re viewing it on.

(Edit: only relevant on the web browser version.)

Jan D said:

... ...But this thread is long, there have been many good suggestions, people are willing to help financially, and the mods are willing to listen. Because of the ongoing discussion, I am hopeful that the Forum will survive. So hang in there for now. We’re all in this together. We just need time, and faith, that a satisfactory solution will be found....

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Yesssssss!!!!!

Ed1 said:

I hope everything can be worked out here. But if not, there is always the option of creating our own. I believe this site is running on vBulletin. Letting that company do all the work of setup and maintenance could cost about $800/yr. If there are other costs, the vBulletin web site doesn't mention them. That certainly isn't $xx,xxx.

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This was my reaction as well when I heard the news. I immediately started researching how to setup and host your own forum. Didn't get that far since Rayan already mentioned he's already looking into alternatives. I think it's better to have a forum under an established brand (UU in this case) rather than have some random community members put up one since it will gather much more interest from people that way. But depending on how the situation develops I may look into it more.

That ~$800/year cost for vBulletin is for the gold level cloud version of the software which means that vBulletin would handle all the hosting, upgrading, etc. so there shouldn't be any more costs for it. Then again, I've no idea if the bandwidth limit for that gold plan is enough. Also all the plans have a storage limit of 100GB which I'm guessing wouldn't be enough which means you'd probably have to negotiate a custom plan with vBulletin. They do offer a one time payment for a license but then you have to host the software yourself, as I believe UU is doing currently. The issue there is that on top of the hosting and database costs you also need to maintain and update the software which is far from trivial. Also, updating to a newer version of vBulletin also has a fee which I'm guessing is the reason for UU not doing it before.

There's quite a number of free open source forum software available that should have better moderating and security features than this version of vBulletin. Obviously you need to host those yourself but even hosting has quite a few alternatives to just buying server capacity. For example, some cloud providers like Azure already support at least certain forum software for relatively easy setup. I'm personally looking into something like that if this forum goes belly up.

mjh42 said:

I have read through the posts. I have signed up at Discord.........The irony of the name

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Yes! Strange choice for a "friendship" forum.

Dohle said:

There's quite a number of free open source forum software available that should have better moderating and security features than this version of vBulletin. Obviously you need to host those yourself but even hosting has quite a few alternatives to just buying server capacity. For example, some cloud providers like Azure already support at least certain forum software for relatively easy setup. I'm personally looking into something like that if this forum goes belly up.

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Well, if UU doesn't keep this going, there are many options to explore. About 25 years ago I created a non-profit (the Board becomes a group of caring people) for the sole purpose of having a web site (to educate the public on an issue). In those days, what we would call "the cloud" today was too expensive so we created our own web site and kept the server under my desk. After a decade, I bowed out and gave it to the board, including the domain name. Those folks are still involved and keep it going. I wouldn't recommend that approach today; It would be best to let others setup, maintain, and keep it secure.

So, if some folks (five to ten is a good number) created a US non-profit for the purpose of educating the public on the importance of music in their lives (especially the ukulele , many things not thought of could happen. For example, perhaps UU would donate the "use" (not the ownership) of this forum to the non-profit which would pay the cost and maintenance of the site, would administer it, and would use it as the basis for educating others.

I hope I'm not hijacking this thread. I only put this out as one of many things that could happen if UU isn't able to keep this forum alive. I prefer not to have everyone scatter to the four winds of the internet if the forum closes.

What does one get from the VIP membership?

Rllink said:

What does one get from the VIP membership?

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You are contributing to keeping the forum going. You do get more space for PMs and there is a VIP section of the forum but it's basically a way of helping to pay for the upkeep of the forum. I joined not long after joining UU. I felt the forum was worth contributing to keep it going and I still do.

The advantage of a forum over a chat room IMO is that it is asynchronous as as UU's membership spans the globe, literally with members on every continent, the problem with chat is a topic can have moved on before you had time to see it because it started on the other side of the world. With a forum your posts are still there when you get up and you can contribute often over a quite considerable period of time. With a chat site, it's gone. Anyone who is regular on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. will be aware of that key difference.

I should have added my thanks to Rayan and the mods. I don't just play ukulele but there is no forum quite like this for the other instruments I play nor for my wider musical interests.

Jan D said:

Jared,

I know you are upset. A lot of us feel the same way. Many people have expressed what you are feeling, just with different words. The Forum is like a family to us, and it’s scary to think that we might all become orphans. But this thread is long, there have been many good suggestions, people are willing to help financially, and the mods are willing to listen. Because of the ongoing discussion, I am hopeful that the Forum will survive. So hang in there for now. We’re all in this together. We just need time, and faith, that a satisfactory solution will be found.

Jan

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Thanks for saying that. About yesterday, I was quite upset. Under a lot of stress because of many things. This Forum was just one thing.

I apologize about my outburst yesterday.

Jared

jnicholes said:

Thanks for saying that. About yesterday, I was quite upset. Under a lot of stress because of many things. This Forum was just one thing.

I apologize about my outburst yesterday.

Jared

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Any time you are feeling stressed and want to PM me with an outburst feel free. I think we all need to lean on each other. I'm doing pretty well, and right now a lot of people aren't. I'm here if anyone needs me. Just putting that out there.

kolibri said:

A new UU VIP here, too. I hope that the forum will be going on, in some form or other, because chats are something else. Anyway, becoming UU VIP now is my thanks to the mods and this fine community for the knowledge sharing and fun.

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Let's keep this UU VIP thing going. I know times are tough for many,many folks right now, but help is on the way. It all comes down to your priorities. If you really value this forum as much as I do, then you will find a way to squeeze 12 cents a day out of your budget. We all love "freebies" but the cost of a one of a kind forum that this is should be shared by all.

sam13 said:

I think this should become a mandatory paid site for those who want to participate with it.

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That might be more response-ability than ryan wants to take on at this point.

I am a very new member and would not have a problem ponying up though.

As people have mentioned, Discord is not a forum, it is a place to chat and requires many people to be online. It loses out to a forum like this in that information sharing is timeless on a forum. Or at least it was.

The VIP membership and donate option were always so low key as to be almost invisible. I figured that the UU "Learn to Play the Ukulele" button was the main source of revenue for this forum (and maybe it is...).

It is a valued part of my ukulele journey and occupies me (sometimes obsessively) daily. So yesterday I joined VIP as a small contribution for my positive experience here. I am more to willing to pay a membership or other fees to keep it in operation.

Of course, thanks to all the moderators. Again, they have been so low key that they are underappreciated.

Another vote for keeping THIS forum going. I've been to the Discord site, but frankly can't quite figure it out, and certainly don't see any advantage to having a "chat" room over a more traditional discussion board. I'll happily contribute $25 or so a year to keep the current forum going. Anybody have a sense of how much will be needed?

Please add me to the chorus of those who want to keep UU going. For many years it has been a valuable resource for all things ukulele. Belated thanks to Rayan and the moderators who have kept the site active. You have all been under-appreciated. .. Unsung heroes.

I also haven't thanked the crew enough for their hard work. Thank you all.

---

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

Thanks for being straight up and sharing. I used to be a moderator at a teachers forum that quite suddenly just turned off without warning. Not even the mods knew why.

It was 13 years ago today that I bought my first ukulele, and my enjoyment of it would not have been the same with UU. Is there stilll a shop I can get UU swag?

I didn't read all posts but it seems that some of the posts mention funding issues. Many forums rely on advertising and sponsors for their revenue. I see many referrals in posts to stores like HMS and Mims, and to major brands like Kala, Ohana, Martin etc. Companies that get frequent referrals and praise should be sponsors of this forum and be prominently identified as such, since the UU members certainly contribute considerably to their bottom line.

jnicholes said:

Thanks for saying that. About yesterday, I was quite upset. Under a lot of stress because of many things. This Forum was just one thing.

I apologize about my outburst yesterday.

Jared

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Jared,

Your outburst was perfectly understandable. And perfectly okay. Because that’s what “family” is for. Being there for each other.

Here’s a thought ... why not write a song about your fears, concerns, or whatever it is that’s stressing you out right now. And then share it with all of us here on the Forum so that we can listen to it and relate. Because we all have fears or concerns, and stress is no stranger to anyone of us.

Peace, my friend.

Jan