Reply To: Come back from Deployment and ThinkAtheist is gone

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@Adam,

I was equally distraught…here is a reply from @Umar on the old site as to why the changes needed to happen…the most important reason in number 1.

Quote:

1. Think Atheist is using Ning social network. I have installed Buddypress on atheistzone.com. Ning is closed source while Buddypress is open source. Practically i do not own content of TA. I searched a lot. There are no working tools/script to export content to some other social networking software. It means if Ning decides to close their services, we shall lose all the content. That is why sooner we leave Ning and move to new site, more content we shall save.

2. Buddypress is flexible and has more options in form of plugins. I have not installed any plugin on atheistzone.com yet. I shall search for them according to needs. Currently what you are seeing on atheistzone.com are core features.

3. Currently TA is using Ning 2 that is a bit outdated. Ning 3 is latest. Ning 3 costs more but has less features. They are not updating Ning 2 and focusing on Ning 3.

4. TA is a white elephant for me and costs $60 per month. I am bearing $15 to $25 loss per month. Buddypress is free. I only need to buy theme and hosting that i can use for my other sites also.

5. Buddypress is official wordpress plugin. It will last/survive longer as compared to Ning.

6. Buddypress has also cons but i think it does not matter as there is no alternative to buddypress.

Ultimately it came down to the interest of preserving the years of content. Think Atheist is archived and saved, and we can always refer back to it without having to worry that it’s going to be erased….and all the same people are still here. We’re still a community. Now we need to just work on building the community. I think if we can get a chat going again that’s great. I suggest you voice your opinion strongly about what you don’t like so it can be improved.

Example: The font was hard for Unseen to see so he complained, and Umar darkened and enlarged the font. Changes like can that be done and in that way we can sort of re-design the site as WE want it. It’s just that we have to say what we need/want.

I’m very glad you’re home safe. Thank you for your service to our country. Please don’t be a stranger.

Hugs.