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2010 - The Year of TRF

S

St Helens RLFC

Guest
I am delighted with how busy the forum has been over the last two months. When December comes around we usually have a lull as Christmas approaches but that never happened this year. 2010 is our 7th year and I am determined that it'll be our biggest year yet. With the world cup the year after we have a lot of planning and preparing to do and a lot of time in which to do it.

I want to cup my ears, a la Hulk Hogan, to you, members of TRF. You're the reason we're here, you're our present and future, many of you a part of the past as well. What do you want to see from TRF this year? As one of the owners, I'll tell you what I want:

- I want to get a decent war chest. I have no money, Mite has no money and Charlie has no money, we're living off donations at the moment. I hate asking members for money but I am going to have to have a big donation run at some point this year because if we run out, I cannot simply start to pay for it every month out of my own pocket.

- I want to change the software we use to power the board. The forum software has served us well over the years but it requires a lot of work. I am looking at VBulletin. This is going to be a pain for us but ultimately I am 100% confident that it will improve your experience of TRF as a whole. I refer you to the Liverpool FC website my friend owns:

www.liverpoolway.co.uk

I intend to keep our frontpage look but the forums will look similar to this. Obviously I will have different skins to choose from. The revamp of the forum was great, 18 months ago, it really was. But it's got things broken that we just either can't or don't have the time to fix it. The problem with the rep system being a perfect example. It might sound like dropping a nuclear bomb on an ant, but I think a total revamp is the way forward for TRF. Me, Charlie and Chris are going to discuss this over the course of the weekend because it's something we need to sort out, but if it can be done I want it to be done soon.

- I intend to recruit more people to write articles. Poor O'Ro gets snowed under with them.

Give me your ideas TRF. It's your forum.
 
I've no problem donating, I just have to get the old paypal sorted out and get another 3v card. I'd love to write some articles as well actually.


Cheers lads for keeping the forum going despite the tought times.
 
By all means, articles, articles, articles. We can never have too many of them.
 
I don't mind writing them one bit, in fact I pledge to write more in the 10.
All I can say is c'mon TRF! Let's dominate the scene of Rugby, and I hope that you Leaguers can really pull in some recruiting action to boost that side of the forum.
Thanks to Dan, Charlie and Chris for taking on the financial burden that is TRF. I know that they are just avid fans like any of the rest of us.
 
I'll help write articles...spell checked articles. But what I can do I'll help. I'll also look at donating soon, I just have to get work in order.


Thanks to the TRF team for providing this quality forum :).
 
Indeed things are well. TRF is the 1st listing when you type "rugby forum" in google, so are very much a premier forum for rugby, eventhough we aren't a news source like many blogs around these days. Good show guys, bloody good show!
 
SH posters are letting the forum down. Plenty from the NH but not as many Kiwis and Aussies here as there used to be. Hopefully it will pick up when super 14 is on.
 
I agree we need more SH members, but I don't advertise anywhere so it's not like I can adjust any sort of marketing campaign.
 
Having done some research, we can transfer all our information over to the VBulletin board by creating a backup of our database now. Some things will need to change, such as smaller avatars and no images in signatures, we may also lose the rep system again (I know, sorry) but it will be replaced by a very reliable new system.

I am very excited about the prospect of changing software. I really am. I will need to go on a fund raising drive though, in order for all this to go through I anticipate that I will need to raise in the region of £200. I think that secures a life time license, I'll have to check that one out.

If 200 members donated £1.33 each we'd cover that almost instantly. I don't like to go out with my begging bowl, and I am not doing just yet, I will do an official fundraising drive when we know we can go for it, but I currently have £66 in the pot. That covers us for hosting until at least May and I'm loathe to touch that.

When the new site opens, I will find it easier to raise funds through a variety of initiatives. I'm not going to promise the TRF shop as I don't know if I'll have the time to run it. I'll soon see. But I will have more means to advertise without interfering with the look of the site, that's just for a start.


EDIT - http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=features

There's a list of features. It will mean something to some of you and nothing to most of you but when asking for donations I like to provide as much information yet.
 
As Chris says, the more the merrier. I really want this to be a big year for TRF. Whilst I don't think we're limited by this software, I think we can do it so much better somewhere else.

By the way, images in sigs can stay but they'll have to have a proper size limit on them.
 
I can't write for crap, but i'll gladly chuck a couple of quid towards it now that my student loans in (God knows i spend more time on here than in university anyway...)
 
If you want to donate go to the homepage (www.therugbyforum.com) and click the donate button to do so using paypal :)

Thank You for everyone who does, it will make the board better, yes there will be mayhem before but it will be worth it.
 
Received, thank you very much. A formal appeal will be made within the next hour.
 

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