Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

As I am sure you can figure out on your own things have changed a bit here at nopistons.com.

I've struggled with this decision for over a year, but after running the site for over a decade it's time to pass the torch so to speak. Time and money have been huge factors in this decision and trust me I didn't make this decision easily. My goals when looking for a new owner for nopistons were 1) make sure all of the valuable information is secured for the foreseeable future an 2) make sure the site didn't go to some giant corporation that drives it into the ground. After over a year of back and forth with Rick and browsing through his other automotive related websites I knew nopistons was going to a good home.

I'll let Rick outline some of the changes and what to expect from nopistons in the future. Rest assured its all good news!

Depending on how you interpret it the good news ( or the bad news) :D is I am going to remain as an admin of the site, Rick will take over the day to day operation, running the server, staff, etc.

I'm sure you all have thousands of questions, feel free to post them.

It's been my pleasure to be so active in the rotary community for the past decade, it's been one hell of ride. It's a huge load off my shoulders knowing nopistons will be around for another decade.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Hey everyone & thanks Scott! I wanted to take a moment and introduce myself and answer some questions before they come up in the hopes of making some of the changes easier on you.

So first off, my name is Rick and I am from Ontario Canada.
I run a single person company called Forumedia Inc. I incorporated in 2009.
I acquire / manage forums for a living. My vertical of interest is auto. I currently own 16 auto sites and 1 rc website (i like nitro boats and lipo onroad).
I am in my 30s. I have wrenched on my own cars and I have owned an Rx7.

Whats happening to NoPistons?
NoPistons has been going through a migration. By the time you read this the DNS and the site contents will have been moved to my personal servers.
I have been speaking with Scott for some time with regards to taking over the site and finally this year he agreed to it.
NoPistons is going to be migrated to vBulletin away from IPB (more on that later).
One of the goals is to turn NP into an active site, increasing active users from 250.
Other than that, its going to be NoPistons as usual.

Why migrate to vBulletin?
Its pretty simple. All the sites I run or assist with are vBulletin. The people who can help me from other sites all know vBulletin. All the development I have ever had done is only for vBulletin. That means all the neat extra features my other sites have NoPistons will get.
It is a cost effective move and an ease of management move.

Do you have any other Mazda sites?
Yes, I currently own
www.miataturbo.net
www.v8miata.net
www.miataforumz.com *new*

Will vBulletin have all of IPBs / NoPistons features?
To be honest, I dont know. What i can tell you is that NoPistons has always been a work in progress, like any forum. Its my job to ensure we stay cutting edge and relevant. So that means after the migration I will certainly be fielding comments and questions, some that I imagine will have to do with making NoPistons vBulletin similar to NP IPB.

Will there be advertisements?
There will be advertisements. While we will be keeping some of the current ads we will be adding some. There will be a supporter system in place and we will honor current site supporters. If you support, you dont see the ads. Regular members will be subject to them.
During the first few days give me some time to fix who sees what. If you see an ad and you are a supporter, PM me. I will fix it.
*note, the groups are pulled over from IPB. So if you were in a supporter group then you will be put in a supporter group now.

Will there be new sites rules?
The current rule set is here:
https://www.nopistons.com/forums/ind...ion=boardrules

The new rule set / additional details can be found here

After the changes my account is messed, i'm about to spazz, help!
Send me a pm outlining what is broken. If I can fix it, I will.
If i cant fix it right away I will have a sys admin look at it.

I am a mod, was a mod... what the heck?
Only one during a migration in the past have we lost the staffing credentials and privleges. At the time of writing this, after our first test migration that was not the case.
Don't freak out if something isnt right, just shoot me a PM. Replying to the thread about your mod privs may go overlooked. While I will be trying to answer every question or concern, sometimes things get overlooked.

Some features are broken, WTF!!!!
This is / will have been a large migration. First off, I don't do migrations often to begin with. I do have 1 person helping be hes also human and not a pro at IPB to vBulletin. We will try and fix everything of the course of a few days. If I am not responding to you right away its likely because i am working on something else related to the site.

Broken Other stuff
This has been a bit of a struggle migration for myself and a hired gun.
We know at the time of writing this and after a test migration that the gallery will need to be kept up in an archive capacity until its migrated. This is something we will be tackling both in keeping it up and possibly later migrating it to the current system.
We know attachments to threads had some issues during our test migration. This has more to do with the current tool we are using. We will be trying again. The good news is we have the attachments, worst case is threads get stripped of them (which is really bad IMO).
There wont be an arcade.
There wont be a garage though we will try and keep it up for archive reasons.
** broken stuff takes time to fix. please be patient. I am honestly doing what I can to resolve everything with help and on my own.

Decals?
Yes, once we get sorted all of the new site supporters will be eligible for a set of NP decals.

The Store?
The store was ran by Scott. I have no intention of running a store or selling gear at this time. If there is a demand for hoodies or t's its something we can look at doing.
Scott will still be here with us and whatever inventory he has is for sale as far as I know, contact him :)

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Well, everything seems to be pretty much intact. Looks okay. Fast page loads.

Good to meet you, Rick. :D

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Thanks!

There is a few things that still need to be sorted out, so there is still some work to be done.

Speed will only increase. There is more tweaking to be done to the site as well.

Some rearranging, condensing etc. Shoot me a PM if you have any ideas! :)

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Rick, This is/was banzaitoyota, can you reset my old account please?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Does your email on that banza account not work?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Images shared via direct link from the old gallery will be working.
Will be looking to get the old gallery full up and running later.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Did Rick get your sorted banzai?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

replied to his email. :)

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

All fixed, thanks you 2

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Glad you made it!

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Thanks Rick! Scott can finally enjoy his retirement.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

HA HA, thats the plan. Although its been feeling less and less like retirement the last year or so....

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

hey its Rich just wanted to say that if we can get some sort of themes going on cause this bright theme is kinda killing me

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Yessss Nopistons turns Canadiannnnn!!!!!!


:naughty:

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

The CRA approves :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I haven't been to London in ages. I have fam in St Thomas.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

so sad... but true.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Canada: leading the world in being north of the US for over 200 years eh?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

There's still a strict no French Canadian policy enforced.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Some fine trolling going around here today. Bringing back the classics

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

nice to meet you rick! I was a mod but I'm not really worried about not getting it back since i don't have internet at the house anymore. Now i check periodically from work but once I have the internets again I'll drop by a lot more lol.

Overall the change is pretty nice and definitely seems a hell of a lot more secure so kudos!

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

hi there :wavey:
ahh so 2012 really is the end of the world... :ohnoes2:
so how does this differ from ib n the club? :dunno:
any priviledges returning? :rippedhand:
in phins we trust :SELLIT:

ahh I miss this place. :happysad:


what the hell a captcha thingie to post a reply?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

thanks for pointing that out. its long gone now.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Lol

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

where'd the fsm's go? lol

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

so that's a no?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

They still appear to be there. https://www.nopistons.com/fsm/

Are they not loading in the topics?

Contact rick he is juggling the moderator set up now. He trimmed some of the non active mods and just wants to know you are going to be active.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Rick is a one man show, just like me. He's not a giant corporation. He's into cars, he just has several other forums. Feel free to check them out, you will see he runs a very good operation.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

i used to be a slightly more active mod. till all of a sudden email and 75 repu account no workie. I see changes all around, but the banner with James' vert remains, thats awesome. nice to be back. hopefully I can get 75 Repu (account) restored soon!

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

welcome back REPU!!!!

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

i got a dodge with a cummins now too.

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

No more garage? I've been using that as the most complete, running total of what I've done/spent on my car...

Is there a way I can get into the archive and still see it or print it out for my records?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

So, who do i ask so i can restore my original screen name, priviledges?

Re: Welcome To The NEW Nopistons.com
 

Either Phins or NP_Rick. I just a lowlife muderator