MDS (17) from lack of life support and IT skills

[Boston Babe 73]

MyDeathSpace was born in 2006 before most social media to parents Mike and J. It was the source of discussion, entertainment, history, life and death, medical support and most of all. Life long friendships that would have never happened if it hadn't existed. People even got married and had children from meeting on MDS!

The cost to run MDS has rendered it obsolete. There are possibly ways to give it CPR and avoid the final nail in the coffin, but it would require someone with IT skills and knowledge about message boards to perhaps convert it to something more affordable.

If not, the entire history held here in it's hallowed halls will be lost forever. Families have memories of their loved ones here, we have our own members with their own threads here that will be lost. The love, the friendship and the all around fuckery will cease to exist without help. No more reading back through old threads and laughing at the memories.

Lurkers? This is your time to shine. We know you read these threads and we know that you're out there. Any suggestions to save MDS? Please come out of the shadows and help out, otherwise the days are numbered.

[raisedbywolves]

If anyone knows about message board options that are cheaper than Bulletin Board forums, adding ads to forums, or breaking apart the articles from the message boards, please message me or post here. We need your help to keep going!

[Boston Babe 73]

Hey there. Preemies. Let's comment on this thread with ideas instead of in preemie. Just putting it out there.

Suggestions I've heard/thought of so far:

1. A GFM. Not a bad choice, might buy us a a few months to keep it up until we have time to look at options.

2. We find an IT person that can help us reorganize in a more cost effective way without losing the history of this forum.

3. Instituting a subscription type platform that will open up preemie on a monthly basis open to people that already have preemie basically as a charity effort.

4. Implementing an advertising service to help with cost.

5. Separating the forum from the articles and killing the articles off to retain the forum and it's history letting us opt for a cheaper server.

Mind you, we don't even know how to do about 90% of any of that, so we would need to start with someone that knows how to do any of that.

This is serious, folks. If you care anything about this place, old or new, it's going to disappear within a month. So..... Yeah.

Help.

[J]

Hey there. Preemies. Let's comment on this thread with ideas instead of in preemie. Just putting it out there.

Suggestions I've heard/thought of so far:

1. A GFM. Not a bad choice, might buy us a a few months to keep it up until we have time to look at options.

2. We find an IT person that can help us reorganize in a more cost effective way without losing the history of this forum.

3. Instituting a subscription type platform that will open up preemie on a monthly basis open to people that already have preemie basically as a charity effort.

4. Implementing an advertising service to help with cost.

5. Separating the forum from the articles and killing the articles off to retain the forum and it's history letting us opt for a cheaper server.

Mind you, we don't even know how to do about 90% of any of that, so we would need to start with someone that knows how to do any of that.

This is serious, folks. If you care anything about this place, old or new, it's going to disappear within a month. So..... Yeah.

Help.

Oh Noes!

1. GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown?) doesn't get us anything. That's would be just a different format with the same issues.
2. Probably wouldn't be too bad to convert to something. The issue is we don't know what to convert it to. That needs to be solved first.
3. Not sure there's enough interest there.
4. Advertising is a no-go. We'd basically have to run porn ads or really sketchy shit. Adsense already kicked off MDS.
5. Separation is just splitting the problem. Still need to find solutions.


If there was a free forum hosting, something like ProBoards, that could be imported to, that would work. Articles could be imported into posts.

Another solution could be vbulletin hosting https://www.a2hosting.com/vbulletin-hosting/. Not sure if there are free options.

[jennafyre]

Would a private blog be an option? Just for us preemies I guess.

[Nic B]

I don't have any ideas but please don't kill the site, Mike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Boston Babe 73]

Would a private blog be an option? Just for us preemies I guess.

It's an option, but all of the history on here would be gone that way. We're hoping for a way to preserve the threads and keep the forum, but completely drop the articles. We really don't refer to them that often anymore so keeping it to just the forum and the forum's history would be the best case scenario.

[J]

It's an option, but all of the history on here would be gone that way. We're hoping for a way to preserve the threads and keep the forum, but completely drop the articles. We really don't refer to them that often anymore so keeping it to just the forum and the forum's history would be the best case scenario.

If there's a way to keep the forum, the articles could be imported into the forum.

[Boston Babe 73]

If there's a way to keep the forum, the articles could be imported into the forum.

Good to know.

Can you tell that we're technologically challenged here?

We're honestly hopeless examples of online people lol.

[of_corpse_not]

I?m a dumbass that hasn?t touched a PC since MySpace days but can the whole site be archived somehow? So if we move to a cheap/free forum we can just link to the archive?

We could have an MDS sub on Reddit and put a link to the archive in the sidebar?

Livejournal is still going lol

[Bewitchingstorm]

I?m a dumbass that hasn?t touched a PC since MySpace days but can the whole site be archived somehow? So if we move to a cheap/free forum we can just link to the archive?

We could have an MDS sub on Reddit and put a link to the archive in the sidebar?

Livejournal is still going lol

I like the Reddit idea.

[raisedbywolves]

Here are my concerns with Reddit. First of all there's no private preemie section, there is already a sub that Jumaki made and I guess is moderator of, and finally there is a lot of assholes over there and their format makes it hard to read (at least to me).

[Bewitchingstorm]

Here are my concerns with Reddit. First of all there's no private preemie section, there is already a sub that Jumaki made and I guess is moderator of, and finally there is a lot of assholes over there and their format makes it hard to read (at least to me).

Okay, scrap that then.

[raisedbywolves]

Okay, scrap that then.

I'm not saying scrap the idea, because I thought of it too and a couple of other people have mentioned it also, but just some things to keep in mind. Ideally I would like to figure out something where we could keep a separate preemie section like we have now.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I'm not saying scrap the idea, because I thought of it too and a couple of other people have mentioned it also, but just some things to keep in mind. Ideally I would like to figure out something where we could keep a separate preemie section like we have now.

I wonder if we could have a separate, private preemie section? I belong to a private group on Reddit and it works really well.

[raisedbywolves]

I wonder if we could have a separate, private preemie section? I belong to a private group on Reddit and it works really well.

Then you know more about it than I do, because I had no idea you could have a private group on Reddit, lol.

ETA: I think Capt. Jillian may have started the Subreddit that is there now.

[of_corpse_not]

I use the app BaconReader to access Reddit and it simplifies the format but idk if you can use that on a pc since I?m mobile

[Angiebla]

I can only do CPR on dogs and cats, not a website I will be beyond bummed if this place went away. Ive been here10+ years. Help someone HELP

[marshmallow]

I have no ideas but will ask a few people who might come up with some

[Bewitchingstorm]

Then you know more about it than I do, because I had no idea you could have a private group on Reddit, lol.

ETA: I think Capt. Jillian may have started the Subreddit that is there now.

I didn't either until I had a post that had over 10k likes and then I was invited to the private group.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I found this on Reddit...so this is definitely something we can consider.

Private

Private subs are just that. Only mods and those invited can see the sub. To invite someone basically means adding them to the approved submitters list.

Users can request invites via modmail and a button to do this is shown on the sub. Uninvited users basically see a splash page informing them that the sub is private and they must message to ask for access.

Private subs are good for chatting with friends, or as a private space for mod teams. We use one to draft and review guides.

[Boston Babe 73]

I found this on Reddit...so this is definitely something we can consider.

I wonder if you can have this and connect it to a public section as well. So that it's like a private sub of a sub. Part of why MDS is so fun is when strangers show up and comment on threads and then you have lurkers that genuinely love reading the stuff and not joining etc. I'll have to look in to that, but this could be an option. The only bummer is that all of the history would be lost that way unless we figure out a way to archive it on the cheap and be able to refer to it with links on Reddit. We hopefully could archive it and have a message to visitors that they can find us on Reddit under.......

[Boston Babe 73]

I think RBW was looking at TapaTalk as an option too. And we could move the entire forum to it.

ETA: Disclaimer. I know FUCK all about TapaTalk and have never been on it. I just heard about it so threw it out there as a suggestion.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I think RBW was looking at TapaTalk as an option too. And we could move the entire forum to it.

ETA: Disclaimer. I know FUCK all about TapaTalk and have never been on it. I just heard about it so threw it out there as a suggestion.

I am not a huge fan of TapaTalk, as it isn't as user friendly as Reddit...but that is just me.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I am not a huge fan of TapaTalk, as it isn't as user friendly as Reddit...but that is just me.

I should add their app is not as user friendly. So when on your phone or iPad, it is really glitchy.