Links to most of PY Forums
 

Front Page (index.php) not working correctly.


Try these links, they get you to most of the Sub-forums which can go to the threads, or if you have a link to a specific thread it should still go there.


Everything seems to work, just not the front page.


Sub-Forums : General Forums:


General Classic PONTIAC TECH INCLUDING RACING & PERFORMANCE:


Sub-Forums : Classic TECH- specs, codes, resto issues FORUMS:


Search: Posts From Last Day :


Search:


Hope this helps!

EDIT: Just remembered that at the bottom of page is a drop down (Forum Jump) that will take you do different forums! (bottom right)

:)

This forum has really been struggling lately

Agreed... at first it was bots flooding every sub sections, like the 2500-3000+ "viewers" in just the street section, then it dropped to more normal few hundred. But besides that issue PY has had many other problems recently like when it was just gone for a few days or acted like dial up internet speed taking forever to post or edit replies... no other forums Im on have these problems, wonder why PY has so many issues lately?

Hope they get it cleared up soon, dont want to see this one disappear like some others have recently.

I feel like it's slowly going down the road TAC went down. Hopefully I'm wrong, but we've all seen how this usually ends up.

Hopefully not, happened to hitmans 78ta.com this year and 301garage a few years ago... just gone without warning & tons of valuable info accumulated over 10-20 years lost. :(

I'm on many different Chevy sites and so far so good with all of those.

Hopefully things will get straighten out here as it is a great forum.

I hope it doesn't I tell a ton of people to come here for specific questions!

Many thousands of forums operate without problems.

I think PY needs to be upfront about the cause of the problems. Outdated technology? Bad service provider? Cousin Billy Bob doing the coding? Locked into a contract with a poor IT company?

This site is basically HUGE, I mean a LOT of data that has to be handled, millions of posts, tens of thousands attachments, hundreds of thousands of photos. Transitioning it to a new platform, or provider, or forum software has to be a monumental task, and probably quite expensive.

I try to routinely donate, usually just $10 at a time, I think PY might get a better response if they actually outlined their financial needs and canvased for donations. The forum has certainly been worth more to me than what I have donated.

I agree with what you are saying - thinking.
However, to me the silence from the Admin is deafening to me.

Here's my two cent's worth:

We've always been told something along the lines of "you're lucky we have this site" - in the context of questioning if the powers that be need any help, finances ect - so threads like this, as merited as they seem, are probably for naught.

I sure hope this forum doesn't disappear, but all we can really do is try to support it, and the shadowy figures holding the power chord...

Odds are the powers that be started this as a fun side project, with no real plan for maintaining it - or maybe not even thinking that one day the membership numbers would be where they are today.

I would be completely open to some sort of support structure like on yenko-dot-net, but that would require something of feedback from the overlords, and someone who is a call away from fixing any issues which might pop up.

... ok, maybe that was more akin to thirty-wo cent's worth :p

Paying for a state of art server is the way to go, showing mods how to do a few daily chores is king too.
I never received any comments on the suggestions I made and I run a forum.
For the mods, there’s more to running a forum than moving postes and hitting people with infractions/bans. Gotta learn some maintenance.

What does a forum this size cost and how do other forums pay for it?

Who owns all the posts on this one and what happens to it all if this one goes away? It seems it is constantly getting indexed by every bot in the universe so where does it all go and can it be accessed another way?

Do more modern forum software and hosts make it easy to migrate the entire archive or is that a prohibitively massive undertaking? How big is the database for this one? It has been alive for years and holds images so has to be huge.

Last year the members paid for mine. This year I did, it’s like 350 a year for everything. I pay for back up too.
If you have your own server it’s just paying for the domain pretty cheap. But going with a good server is the way to go, if something’s not rite you have the best minds at the company working on it.

Who actually owns this forum?

And what is its size & cost compared to others? Pretty sure PY is a whole heck of a lot bigger than most others that can get by with a fraction of the members or amount of data PY has...

But on that note, Im on a few other forums that are easily as big or bigger than PY, they have a different platform or layout to their forums that seem to look more modern and can handle all the bots or guests or large amount of data without any problems seen here recently... maybe PY is getting too big for its current set up?

This is my guess/understanding of the way things went down:
(I could be totally off on several points)

'Performance Years' of old was a retailer of repop Pontiac parts which was fully independent;
'Performance Years' created this site;
PY was sold to Ames, but beforehand they (PY) created 'Pypes' (spelled as a pun-on to incorporate the initials of the company) - 'Pypes' started out as exhaust kits for Pontiac applications;
'Pypes' and other PY subsidiaries became 'Max Performance', and under the new name started offering kits for other brands/platforms;
Max Performance owns this site.

While I was typing this out, I found the following link: HERE

I have no idea about this stuff but here are Copilot's (AI assistant) guesses about "modernizing" the forum:

🛠️ What Migration Involves


1. Platform Selection

Options include Discourse, XenForo, Flarum, or custom-built solutions.

Considerations: scalability, spam protection, mobile responsiveness, ease of moderation.

2. Data Migration

Transferring decades of posts, user accounts, attachments, and private messages.

Requires careful mapping of database schemas and testing for data integrity.

3. Bot & Spam Mitigation

Modern platforms offer built-in tools like CAPTCHA, rate limiting, and AI-based moderation.

You might also integrate third-party services like Cloudflare or Akismet.

4. UI/UX Redesign

A fresh look can re-engage users and improve accessibility.

Responsive design is key for mobile users.

5. Hosting & Infrastructure

Cloud-based hosting (e.g., AWS, DigitalOcean) offers scalability and reliability.

Consider CDN integration for faster load times.

6. Ongoing Maintenance

Software updates, security patches, and community moderation.




💰 Estimated Costs


Platform setup & licensing $500 – $5,000 (one-time or annual)

Data migration services $10,000 – $50,000+

UI/UX redesign $5,000 – $20,000

Hosting (annual) $1,000 – $5,000+

Bot mitigation tools $500 – $2,000/year

Ongoing maintenance $5,000 – $15,000/year


Total initial investment could range from $25K to $100K+, depending on scope, complexity, and whether you use freelancers, agencies, or volunteers

Good luck with that fellows./

Finally I'm able to access this site. Thought I lost you guys forever-

It's fixed !! Good to see it back.