Ashoat Posted April 12, 2008 Posted April 12, 2008 Okay, I think it's time we changed some things around on HelioNet. This place is filled mostly with spammers who aren't able to read big red text. Also, HelioHost is getting too slow. That needs to be changed. Here are the changes I am going to make sometime in the next few months:Change HelioHost a bit. HelioHost is pretty slow, and needs to be updated.Get a new server. I'm going to finally purchase a server, instead of renting one. This server is going to get colocated, and it is going to have a quad-core Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB of RAM, and 1TB of HDD space.Remove ads from user-pages. That means you don't have to post on the forums to get no-ad hosting. This will be lessen spam here, and will boost our ratings way up to #1 on the biggest directories. This means much more members, which neccesitates more moderation (see point #2).Allow linking of HelioHost accounts with HelioNet forum accounts. This will make customer support easier. Also, I'll upgrade the signup script a bit... namely, have it check IP addresses, allow domains other than .com, .org, and .net, and email each user when their account is validated.Add new scripting languages on the new server. I'm hoping for Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and JSP on the new server, along with our current PHP, SSI, ASP.NET, Perl, CGI, and FrontPage extensions. I'm getting rid of ASP, as it is outdated.Add account moderation. Staff members (see below) will be assigned a number of accounts that they will need to monitor for illegal activities.Change the HelioHost web site. The site is outdated. Its "1337" image is outdated and attracts immature posters while detracting mature ones. Furthermore, the Flash format is bad for indexing, the intro is annoying, the site is way too small, and it isn't visual enough.Fix up cPanel. cPanel has that annoying ad at the start and has most of the content in bad positions. I'm going to fix those issues.Make cPanel auto-update email changes to the account DB and limit cron in cPanel. I'm going to synchronize cPanel email records with my own records in the HelioHost account database. Also, unlimited cronning is a big problem. I'm going to limit cron to a maximum of two crons, each running a maximum of once an hour.Push moderation way up. I'm going to: Add more staff members. Staff members' jobs are going to be to manage and watch HelioHost accounts, to moderate early users' posts (see below), and to generally keep posts high quality. They are going to watch HelioHost accounts through a console where they will check the user's webpage and their CPU usage.Force moderation of all new users' posts. That means that if somebody doesn't make a really good first ten posts, they will be banned.Make moderation easier. I'm going to put some AJAX moderation tools in topic view for moderators, so that they can easily put a user on probation, fine them, ban them, and warn them.Make points harder to get. It's too easy to get points nowadays. I'm going to fix this by:Cutting down the number of forums. Some forums on HelioNet are useless and barely contribute to the community. I'm going to get rid of them.Take down the interest level. This allows people with 100 posts to get domains. Not really fair.Make points based on post length and topic creation. This means that a short post will be worth 3 points, while a long expansive one will be worth more like 20 points. We will NOT allow copying and pasting of content to get long posts and therefore more posts.Also, I need to update the purchasable items in the store. Since Posting Standard accounts are now the same as the normal account, they should be removed. As for Posting Plus, I should just make "more space" and "more bandwidth" items available.Eliminate the points and store systems. Since the points and store systems no longer serve any real purposes, they have been eliminated.Gray = done Yah, that's all I can think of for now.
Wizard Posted April 12, 2008 Posted April 12, 2008 Cool beans. It's like x10hosting + frihost. Two questions though: How are you going to get the money for all this? Can I be considered in the choosing of mods?
Ashoat Posted April 13, 2008 Author Posted April 13, 2008 How are you going to get the money for all this?By putting the server purchase on credit and getting cheap colocation for non-profits, I am able to keep the price barely above the current. Hopefully additional ad revenue will balance the cost change out. Can I be considered in the choosing of mods?I'm going to setup an application process sometime later, which you can apply to. I've added that I'm also going to change the HelioHost website. Also, I've added fixing up cPanel.
JcX Posted April 13, 2008 Posted April 13, 2008 It's very glad to hear all these changes, which all leading for the goodness of the members! The most anticipating event for me would be the server staff members/moderators. Hopefully I'll be one of them since I already taken Heliohost as my home. By the way, I'm from eastern, can I apply? Hopefully can hear the nomination of candidates from you soon. p/s: The flash intro of Heliohost.org really need to be fixed. No offense.
AverageJoe Posted April 13, 2008 Posted April 13, 2008 That's great, I'm glad that your going to fix helionet up! I suggest that you make a user-user forum where questions are directed to the forum as a whole to answer, rather than just you. (Instead of contact helionet/costumer service). People would be encouraged to help others, as they would no longer be able to get their helions from posting whether or not they liked a movie.
Wizard Posted April 13, 2008 Posted April 13, 2008 When will this start happening? I need to know of any server downtimes for the next month because my website is going to be under review for a school project.
Ashoat Posted April 13, 2008 Author Posted April 13, 2008 By the way, I'm from eastern, can I apply?Sure - anyone can apply. I suggest that you make a user-user forum where questions are directed to the forum as a whole to answer, rather than just you. (Instead of contact helionet/costumer service).I'm planning to have a system of escalating support. Members and moderators will support on one level. If they can't answer a question, they will escalate the question to a forum where I will support. When will this start happening? I need to know of any server downtimes for the next month because my website is going to be under review for a school project.I'll let you know of any downtimes as soon as I know about them myself.
Trippin Posted April 23, 2008 Posted April 23, 2008 Wow this sounds great. I really like the support idea. I think once the server changes happen I would definitely be on the forums alot more. As it is right now I can't stand to be on here because pages take forever to load for me.
JcX Posted April 23, 2008 Posted April 23, 2008 Trippin using dialup connection? Well, actually if you have any question, many senior members will try to help you even though the support forum isn't set up yet. We're very friendly here :-)
Mark Wilding Posted April 23, 2008 Posted April 23, 2008 Theses changes sound great. I'm really glad to hear that the Heliohost site will be revamped. Since I signed up, I've been amazed by how good Heliohost is and it is a shame that up to now this hasn't really been reflected by the main site. I'm sure that improving the site will attract far more new members of the sort you're after! I only hope that you can manage to make enough money out of it, once these changes go through.
JcX Posted April 30, 2008 Posted April 30, 2008 LOLZ... HelioNet has been down for 2 days. And I thought djbob must have upgraded something. As I see here, there's no gray colour. So what's the reason for server down huh?
Ashoat Posted April 30, 2008 Author Posted April 30, 2008 Just some prick overloading the server again, probably. I have found coloation and a server to buy; however, I am searching right now for a credit card to put the purchase on. Stay tuned for more updates.
JcX Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 We will. hopefully after the server has been purchased and setup, Heliohost can keep running 24-7-365days non stop! this is what I wished :-)
AverageJoe Posted May 1, 2008 Posted May 1, 2008 Make sure you pay it off quickly has credit cards have a huge interest rate.
Ashoat Posted May 2, 2008 Author Posted May 2, 2008 Don't worry, I know how to use the credit cards to my advantage Just pick up a no-interest-for-12-months deal, and drop the card after 12 months. Of course, you can't use the card for purchases or else the company will decide that you have to pay your original debt first and the purchases will quickly accumulate interest. It's really quite easy to abuse the credit card companies, and I don't feel guilty about it either considering their conduct.
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