Welcome back UU

Let me start by saying a huge thank you to the folks behind the scenes that have been keeping the UU forums alive all this time. It has been an incredible resource for all things ukulele. In my opinion, the absolute best resource on the internet. True, it is an antiquated software, but it contains a vast amount of information and knowledge. It is a place where conversations and discussions happen, ideas are exchanged, knowledge is passed on, and it is persistent and searchable. It is this last bit, the persistent and searchable part, that I feel is the most important part of it. Just yesterday I was looking for information about what strings people liked on a Bruko #6, and I found threads going back to 2009 with a simple Google search. That same Google search also lead to other discussions, web pages, and videos, so even if I didn't have a lot of experience with the resources and ukulele community, I got to the UU forums and what I was looking for in basically one step.

The new Discord servers are a different beast. Discord is, in my experience, essentially a group of real time chats organized into loose channels. They are meant for a much more synchronous conversation than a traditional forum. They are meant for near real-time communication about topics but are essentially transient. If you aren't in the discussion at the time, you probably aren't finding that particular discussion without a *lot* more digging; scrolling back through a very long thread and hoping to find the piece you were looking for. You have to keep up all the time, or you lose out. Well, I don't really have time for that, to be honest. I am not some ancient luddite either, I am still (relatively) young and consider myself a technophile, but I also know that I only have so many hours in the day. I don't drink from the firehose, I just read the threads that actually interest me.

There is, to my knowledge, no other resource like this one. The r/ukulele sub-Reddit is a poor substitute for the kind of in depth discussions which occur here. I know of no other "proper" forum focusing on ukuleles anywhere on the "true" web. I say this to differentiate it from the siloed communities such as Facebook. The internet is meant to be a platform for the free exchange of ideas and information, not to be hidden behind multiple accounts for the purposes of selling advertising. (I realize that this is a bit idealistic on my part, but I truly believe, deep in my soul, that this is true and that the compartmentalization of the free and open network makes us weaker in the long run.)

At the end of the day, I could not begin to ask for the UU team to keep the lights on. But should it happen, the current plan of a Discord server simply will not serve the same function. Should they decide to keep it going, I don't know how I can help, but I know I want to. Losing it for just a day was proof enough for me just how much I have come to depend on its existence.

Whatever happens, I am thankful for what time I was able to spend here.

I'm looking for some other type of forum replacement software as well. The issue really comes down to the time it takes to keep it up and running. The mods do so much work behind the scenes and vbulletin is not an easy software to maintain a community on.

Like I said, I'm open to any kind of suggestions. I've looked at other forum software, but even if we do that, we need more mods to help and a way to pay for the new software as it probably would be a hosted solution.
 
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Rayan,
Thanks and kudos to you, and all the Moderators and managers. UU has been my haven for everything ukulele for several years. I'd rather be here than Facebook, any day.

I've joined several Forums, and none of them compare to UU.

I'm not interested in any chat site, whatsoever. Chat is more outdated than forums, IMHO. It's the 1st thing I got involved in on the internet in the late 90s. That was the days of dial up and AOL.

I'm old, and cannot read, let alone type, fast enough to enjoy chat. Ha, I don't even like phone texting.

I used to have a UU VIP account, but after I retired, it became too expensive for me. I don't go out much, except to do music, and I spend at least an hour a day here!


What about the idea of a more affordable membership, get everyone to sign up for a small fee, after a 60 day trial? Could the memberships be annual, not 5 years long? (I"m so old I don't buy green bananas)

If we lose UU, a lot of people like me will be lost!

Thanks for reading my rant.

Be well.
 
Current forum gets a thumbs up. I am not one that would participate much in Discord chat.

I am willing to pay a membership fee to continue this forum and would miss it should it terminate.
 
Current forum gets a thumbs up. I am not one that would participate much in Discord chat.

I am willing to pay a membership fee to continue this forum and would miss it should it terminate.

That was the original idea for UU VIPs
 
I've been looking at options to move the forum to, but they're all more expensive and like I said earlier, this forum doesn't cover costs as it is.. I am open to any suggestions and advice though.

I have no idea what a forum would cost. How many active users are here (as opposed to how many are signed up). Maybe it would work to have a small yearly subscription fee.

Perhaps it can be an option to have different levels with increased privilege. There could be limited access to those who find it on the web and want to explore, where they could read but not post. That could eliminate the spammers. Maybe that would limit access beyond a short time as some news sites limit the number of articles one could read per month.

A basic membership at a low cost could allow limited postings, or limiting the ability to send PM or email, maybe limiting access to buying/selling posts, etc. Full membership would allow all features. Perhaps you can have a poll with different options and see what people would be most interested in.

I would love to see this remain the great community that it has been.
 
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That was the original idea for UU VIPs

Just how bad is the gap between the revenue coming in and the cost of keeping it running? Is this the kind of thing where it is feasible that folks could step up and make a dent, or is the gap far too great for that? I am afraid I have no real sense for the kinds of numbers we are talking about here.

(And I also understand that one of the big hurdles is mods. The time commitment for something like this cannot be underestimated.)
 
I am also a member of several guitar related forums and not all are on vbulletin. Almost each guitar brand has their own forum and the acoustic guitar forum is huge. Some forums have corporate sponsors others use advertising as revenue source. There are many approaches to recruit moderators and volunteers. Slowing down the UU community would be a huge loss and I am sure a review of other successful large forums would provide many feasible approaches for sustainability.
 
Rayan,

Thanks for all you've done! When things are going as they should, yours is a thankless effort at best. And when we loose access to our precious forum, the bitching begins :)

I'm down with the idea of getting more members to contribute a small amount if it is a means to keep it going, and I'm certainly willing to do my part there. But I do think it could drive a percentage of the members away.

My brief preview of Discord does give me pause, especially in regards to how some of the sub-forums like SOTU would work. But, i'll join there and see how things work, and i'll continue to keep an eye on this thread to see how the winds shift as we move forward.
 
During the last month I have witnessed the demolition of Macintouch.com, and the closing of MacSurfer.com. Both were sites that I visited daily. The moderators decided to move on.
I wish I had found this thread before I found your other one. I would not have created a discord account if I had realized it was a Chat App.
Not interested. If this forum goes away, I won't be joining in the chats. Topic threads are useful. I'm sad to see them go.
 
During the last month I have witnessed the demolition of Macintouch.com, and the closing of MacSurfer.com. Both were sites that I visited daily. The moderators decided to move on.
I wish I had found this thread before I found your other one. I would not have created a discord account if I had realized it was a Chat App.
Not interested. If this forum goes away, I won't be joining in the chats. Topic threads are useful. I'm sad to see them go.

I can understand why those forums have shut down. Its a challenging thankless job keeping a forum up not just for me but for the mods as well who deserve most of the credit. I'm looking at solutions but they all seem to cost more than what we're paying now. I have no immediate plans to shut down the forum, but it is something we've been debating because its been a challenge to keep up for the last 5 or 6 years.
 
The bulletin board forum concept—the model I prefer, but I'm a geezer—is a child of the 1990s and younger posters may find it antiquated and unfamiliar compared to the social media and instant messaging they grew up with. Witness the many forums that have faded into the cyber mists in the past few years...
 
I can understand why those forums have shut down. Its a challenging thankless job keeping a forum up not just for me but for the mods as well who deserve most of the credit. I'm looking at solutions but they all seem to cost more than what we're paying now. I have no immediate plans to shut down the forum, but it is something we've been debating because its been a challenge to keep up for the last 5 or 6 years.

I get it. It costs money and time. Time is precious.
I appreciate my years here. I'll be sad when the forum closes down.

I've already deleted the Discord app.
 
As a casual member who only drops in every once in a while and who never knew I was supposed to donate money, I have no business telling anybody what to do. I have certainly been in situations where I was spending a lot of time and cash for other people to have a lot of fun and, yeah, I ultimately started to resent having to be the moneybags and everything else. Thank you for keeping this going for such a long time. I cannot afford to fund you, and I accept that this means you may not be here when I "drop in" again next week or next month. I'm a little curious, however, as to why you aren't just moving to Facebook, a platform with which many people here are probably already familiar.
 
Thanks for running this forum for all these years. I agree with the comments that it seems like a thankless job and a money pit.

I’ll give Discord a chance even though I’m initially unsure about its functionality. If it’s a choice between Discord and nothing, why not give it a chance before checking out altogether? But if it was Facebook, I wouldn’t bother, so maybe others know something about Discord that I don’t. Nothing to lose, and if it just doesn’t gel, I’ve freed up some spare time for more playing.
 
So what would it take for UU to be self-sustaining? I think there is a perception that the forum is supported through ad revenue and being a "VIP" isn't necessary to keep the lights on. Obviously that is not the case, but I don't think think that is "common knowledge".

I wonder if a new revenue stream would help. Perhaps a crowdfunding site like ko-fi or gofundme would gain more traction than the VIP program?
 
So what would it take for UU to be self-sustaining? I think there is a perception that the forum is supported through ad revenue and being a "VIP" isn't necessary to keep the lights on. Obviously that is not the case, but I don't think think that is "common knowledge".

I wonder if a new revenue stream would help. Perhaps a crowdfunding site like ko-fi or gofundme would gain more traction than the VIP program?

The UU Forums need a Patreon!
 
Like others here, I am grateful for the work you've done to provide this forum. The knowledge that has been captured here is a tremendous resource for the global ukulele community. It would be a shame to lose it.

Am I correct that there are several different issues here? From reading this thread it seems like these are the problems. Please correct me if I'm wrong, since I am only writing this to seek clarification:

1. It costs too much money to provide server space to host the UU content archive.

2. The current bulletin board platform is outdated and cumbersome to maintain; you want to migrate to software that's easier to work with.

3. You don't have enough qualified people who volunteer to be forum moderators.

These are all fixable problems but it would be difficult to tackle them all at once. What is the one most pressing immediate problem, and how can we help to fix it? You are not alone here.
 
I just joined Discord just now and I too don't see a chat service as the way to go. I have an account with Flea Market Music and looking it over, I'd rather go there than Discord. From day one of my membership to UU I became a VIP, worth every penny, for now I'm sticking with UU and wait to see where it goes.


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
 
I signed in to the Discord site and must say, I much prefer the forum format where I can catch up on each topic at my leisure. The chat format seems like a mishmash similar to the running chat on a bald eagle site that I used to follow. It was chaos.

Having said that, I do appreciate that volunteers keep these forums running and time and money become an issue. Thanks for all the effort you have put into this site.

I have never had a clue as to what it takes to run these forums, so am one of those who has blissfully and cluelessly enjoyed the site without thought of supporting it. I can see value in some kind of suggested contribution that would keep things going. If the kind of funding that is needed, can't be supported by the members, that would be problematic. Are forums simply not sustainable? I am a techno-idiot so I don't have any constructive ideas. But I would miss the postings if they disappeared. Let us know what is needed. Thank you again.

Dale
 
Ryan

I have no interest in a live chat group. I’m here specifically for this forum.

A forum can be a relaxing place to check in and follow topic, threads, posters we’ve come to know. Live chat is a completely different concept. I feels completely different. It’s not moving to a better structure. It’s like closing a neighborhood hamburger stand and opening a art gallery for hamburger paintings.

Being retired I can’t afford anything more than a token sign up fee.

Perhaps uke related businesses can become sponsors although this may be a very tough time to ask them to step up. What is happening to a store like Uke Republic based in a mall must be frightening. I hope places like HMS or Mims can do well based on the need for a stress reducing hobby of playing and buying ukuleles but for many here now is not the time to buy.

With the current crisis situation I feel now is a terrible time to bring this up. I don’t really know what the behind the scenes is like for you. I do appreciate, very much, that this forum is here and that based on your posts it must be time consuming and possibly very annoying to keep it here.

Being brought up at this time makes it seem that there must be an emergency threat to its existence. Is that the case?

Cutting off a dynamic group experience in this time of social distancing, job loss, recreational loss, gathering loss, uncertainty, would be a real blow to active members be they readers or posters.

The large data base seems to be the most discussed aspect. Can that be managed to be less of a problem?
Possibly split off and archive posts and threads that are old to be maintained as a seperate entity? Are there other things to be tried? I don’t even know if this is a silly idea.

Again, thanks to all who have worked to maintain this safe and very usable space. I really appreciate it.
 
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