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[Steve]

Hi all,

You'll probably remember that there was an

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in order to raise funds to cover website renewal fees and you guys went above and beyond.

Fast forward to now and it's that time again. I've let it sit several extra months this year, as it doesn't appear that there have been any super huge and significant updates to the XenForo core that we're missing out on. However, there was a patch released recently (

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) that plugs a few security holes and fixes a handful of bugs. Well worth an upgrade even if it doesn't really boast of any new features per se.

This year, however, we'll be migrating over a new XenForo style called 'Ace' by ThemeForest and also incorporating a very cool-looking 'Feeds' add-on which will modernise the forum experience a little. 'Feeds' makes it faster and easier to see what's new at a glance and provides options for the user to customise how the forum homepage behaves for them. Here are some links for those interested in learning more about the new style and add-on we've got in mind:

'Ace' Style:

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'Feeds' forum mod:

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We have been provided free access to both of these items, so there's no extra cost on that front. As it stands, here are a breakdown of the renewal costs:

Costs break-down

XenForo renewal: $70 for 12 months access
Domain name: $12 for 12 months access
'

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' add-on renewal: $10 for 12 months

Spoiler

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Supporter 2021 Badge

If you decide to donate $5 or over, you'll receive a 'Supporter 2021' badge for your profile. The text may be modified slightly to something like 'Supporter (October 2021)' or similar to retain the same vibe as last year's fundraiser badge.

If you're interested in helping us out with raising funds, you can do so via either of the following two links:

All done - thank you Morgan for your incredible and very generous donation! We'll get the update process started over the weekend!

Possible Extras

As an aside, whilst putting together this post, it turns out that ThemeHouse were giving away quite a lot of add-ons for free. I'll be looking into which ones would be a good fit here. Here's what's available:

Spoiler

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Cheers! Any questions - feel free to ask!

 

[Steve]

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Oh man - Morgan gets us to the goal within 24 hours! Thank you so much, Morgan! We'll get the update process started over the weekend!

As part of the update, we're able to pre-emptively roll out new Giphy support which is built straight into the forum's post editor:

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[Steve]

Looking to fully push the updates live over the next 24 hours. If anything breaks - that's on me!

 

[therogis]

I'm finally on PC and not on mobile, and I just came here to say I like the new layout and updates a lot!

 

[Steve]

Thank you very much @therogis I'm still trying to find time to really look into the level of customisation available, but I'm also liking what I'm seeing so far!

 

[Steve]

Ha! I forgot to mention that we're also running the 'Holidays' add-on from

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. That should explain why there's a sombrero graphic above everyone's avatar!

I'm not sure which holidays are supported, but it'll be cool to see what sort of decorations are added for the next major holiday!

 

[Ryuuou]

Keep up the good work. I try throw in some when I can afford it. Not going to let this site go down.

EDIT: Maybe add upload from file on post section? Could be useful.

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[Steve]

Keep up the good work. I try throw in some when I can afford it. Not going to let this site go down.

EDIT: Maybe add upload from file on post section? Could be useful.

You must be registered for see images

That's super kind - thank you, Ryuoou! We're good for funding, but I'll certainly take all of the help I can get!

I've considered enabling file uploading from posts (it may already be enabled for all I know), but I think what has me leaning more towards no is it just means additional bloat to the website and backups will just become trickier and trickier to manage. One of the things that drew me to forums years and years ago was the idea that people could share files and whatnot, as it happens!