Woods Of Ypres wrote:should never have implemented the 'invitation only' to sign up.
prevents new people joining
mostly only older posters around now
Nick's has never been invitation only - anyone can register. The home page says "You must be registered to post messages in these forums. Registration is easy and free. Register now." Invitations are issued to members so that they can invite others, but that's the only place that the word 'invitation' is mentioned. Registration codes were introduced because we were being flooded by spam bots; the code system eliminated them overnight.
The database supporting Nick's is currently 15 GB, holding posts going back to January 1999 (before some of our posters were born). Before that the bulletin board had a format similar to the one still use by Hotrod's Bullet 'n' Board. Those posts, going back to 1996, have been archived. It's a significant social archive and documents, from a fan viewpoint, the past 26 years of the Club's history. The Bullet'n'Board started when we adopted a new format and Hotrod, preferring the old format, left to start his own forum.
[rant]
Apart from occasional donation which, last year, amounted to a total of $50, and the time and energy contributed by the moderation team I supply all the resources that the site uses and put a significant amount of time and energy into its hosting and maintenance. I realise that Nick's is dated and has shortcomings when it comes to using it from phones, but at the moment I'm not inclined to try and find the extra energy, time and expense required to upgrade what is currently a working site when it's not valued enough by 99% of its members for them to contribute.
Nick's has spawned many new sites over the years, started by others doing it better - only the Bullet'n'Board has survived. Nick's carries on.
[/rant]