Jump to content

MattyB

Administrator
  • Posts

    2,781
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About MattyB

  • Birthday 06/03/1981

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://www.clubupo.co.uk
  • ICQ
    0

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    South Staffs, UK

Previous Fields

  • Currently Driving
    VW Up GTi

Recent Profile Visitors

28,501 profile views

MattyB's Achievements

  1. Yes, do check in occasionally to make sure things haven't exploded So here's the thing. Way back when the forum used to generate enough revenue to pay for it, I used to subscribe to the IPB anti-spam service (it was actually a combined software update/tech support/antispam service). This subscription got more and more expensive as time went on, all the time while the traffic to the site declined, therefore the ad revenue started to massively decrease, further made more difficult thanks to ad blockers. Because I never used their support, as I never needed it, and the updates were pretty minor....I therefore stopped paying as I this point, I was having to pay out of my own pocket. And to be honest, spam seemed managable thanks to CAPTCHA picking up the worst of it. Up to now, it's been fairly manageable, thanks to the fantastic help from @Silver! and @lupogtiboy who's work is very much appreciated. Unfortunately, moving forward there are very few options. Paying $200/year to turn the support service back on is madness and as mentioned, AI registration is probably getting good enough to get past most CAPTCHA or questions. I could throw in a very technical question into the registation page...but it would have to be something AI can't easily answer. Alterntatively, I can turn on manual registration, but that's just hard work. For now, I can't see any other solution other than reporting/blocking spammers
  2. Had mine 3 years and done 35k - it's been faultless and has cost pennies to run. They're great cars. However for the love of God replace the Goodyears! They're well known to split - loads of stories. Either replace with PS4/PS5s, or I can recommend dropping down to 16" wheels - I've fitted some BBS and it's made a world of difference to the ride quality.
  3. Strange! Yeah there are a few virtual hosts running on this box, that's an old one that's not used. No idea how long that's not been working though, I've not messed with the config in quite a while. Will have a quick look now, might be an easy fix. Edit - seems fixed, but I need to regen the SSL to cover the redirect. CBA tonight
  4. Yep, latest forum software update. I was going to turn it off...then thought, nah. Shame it's not retrospectively counted, so everyone's a newbie.
  5. The ads are an unfortunate necessity to cover both the forum and hosting costs. All in, it costs just over £350 to keep this place running for the year - with the rise of ad blockers I don't even cover this cost, and I reduced the amount of of adverts and their size about 6 months back to try and make it as unintrusive as possible. I do use the hosting for a few personal things these days though so I'm happy to just pick the rest of the tab up myself. It's a difficult balance...happy to hear any suggestions. We did have a CL "Premium" which was a cost option, but I stopped this because the footfall to the forum was too low to warrant making arrangements with companies so I could actually offer any perks so it didn't feel fair to charge people for what amounted to nothing more than a title. So yes, happy to hear any suggestions.
  6. Yes - new forum update has changed the look a little. Not convinced yet, preferred the old look.
  7. You can use this if you want, but it's restrictive on sizes, so might be better to host elsewhere. Imgur is probably the best bet.
  8. Yeah, we've had a few issues with the server it's hosted on running out of space. All sorted now !
  9. Two of my "must haves" were Tungsten and Climate Control (I think it tidies up and modernises the dash massively) plus 5 door, only because they're easier to sell. No Lupo in storage, no, not owned one for a while now. My last attempt many years ago was when I bought a 1.4 Lupo with a bottom knocking end and tried to drop a 1.6 from a GTi into it, because Andi (Tigz on here) and someone else told me it was a straight swap. Turns out the loom is completely different and it's a massive job 🙃 I was looking to buy another LupoGTi as a daily, but ended up with the Up instead due to Volkswizard's praise (who I actually ended up buying mine from).
  10. So I purchased an Up GTi before XMas. I've not been massively impressed with it, but it's great for the daily hack, cheap to run, small and more than pokey enough for todays roads. I am planning to fit some KW's and drop the wheels down to 16's (17's look fantastic, but they're too big). I reckon dropping a size, less weight and a bit more tyre wall (plus better tyres) will massively improve things. I want JBS's switchable traction control, but don't really want a remap....so I'll have to see about that.
  11. It'd need to be edited individually, unfortunately. Once the site goes dead, the links will too.
  12. I wish a mouse would eat all the data! Ran out of space. Increased, back to normal....well, as normal as possible.
  13. This has long been on the "to do" list - and is now done. It's all HTTPS'd up.
  14. Err...yeah about that....😰 We moved hosts a few months back. I thought I'd copied everything over, and I left the old host running for 5-6 weeks to make sure. Everything seemed dandy, so I deleted it (along with the old backups, as they're attached to the old account and non-transferable) and it was costing to run both. That old host delete happened about 4 weeks ago, then I saw your message in the 'issues' forum, and I still can't figure out why it wasn't copied across as I was convinced I'd copied it all, and I've no idea why I'd skip the Wiki bit. I *think* I've got the database for it, but I can't find the actual files at all So what that means is, if I can restore it from my local backups (as I don't have my remote backups now) we'll have content, but no pictures. Anyway, I might have dropped the ball on that one. I'll let you know once I've got the database back and we'll see whats in there...
  15. Spotted this morning while having the Bora serviced - low, loud Silver GTi with Antracite alloys at Midland VW in Cannock. Anyone on here?
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.