Site update news ...

[gerryvz]

Hi Folks,

Just a quick status update....

I updated the VaultWiki software, which had a new small revision released about 2 weeks ago. Mainly security fixes and patches.

I am working on a couple of other small fixes (for the database errors pertaining to the "thanks for this post" plug-in) and other minor stuff, over the coming days. Most if not all of this should be transparent to all of you.

Thanks for your patience and continued support...

Cheers,
Gerry

P.S. Still working on finalizing the MB parts price database as mentioned above. My day job is getting in the way....

 

[Christian_K]

 

[gerryvz]

One small change you will see as the result of stuff I did today, is notification when you get a "thanks" to a post...

See attached sample notification.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Just so you see how the "sausage is made" ... I thought you guys would be interested to see the notes that I keep when I make changes and updates to the site.

Cheers,
Gerry



8-7-2011: To reverse random header mod back to single image, StyleVar->ImagePath->titleimage should be set to URL: images/misc/site_logo.gif

8-15-2011: Added new .htaccess and robots.txt files to the root directory to eliminate Baidu spiders from overrunning the site. Seems to have been effective.

8-25-2011: Installed vBadvanced CMS system. Install seems to have gone well, but haven't activated it yet.

8-30-2011: Added a new sub-forum "Tools and Shop Equipment"

10-6-2011: Upgraded to version 4.1.7. Took about 30 minutes but seems to be successful.

11-19-2011: Upgraded to version 4.1.8 (had skipped 4.1.7 Patch Levels 1 & 2). Took about 40 minutes, but all seems good and working, thankfully. Did a DB backup before upgrading.

11-19-2011: Implemented & unveiled CMS system. Set up 500Eboard domain to default to the CMS system. All working though tweaking of the interface needs to be done.

12-7-2011: Created a new, 400E/E420 specific sub-forum.

12-18-2011: Upgraded to version 4.1.9. Seems to be fine. Forgot to backup database before performing software update, but all seems OK. Will do backup now.

1-13-2012: Backed up and then updated to version 4.1.10. Skipped 4.1.9 Patch Level 1 because it was only out for a few days. New version primarily a big fix rev. No issues.

1-25-2012: Added new sub-forums to C126 forum: Press articles and AMG-specific information.

2-4-2012: Installed VaultWiki software. Began configuring wiki functionality. May consider upgrading to paid version, after checking things out.

2-6-2012: Upgraded to paid version of VaultWiki, and re-installed it as the free version wasn't working correctly. All good now.

3-1-2012: Performed database backup, then upgarded to version 4.1.11. Moderate bugfix with a few enhancements that aren't too relevant for this site.

3-27-2012: Performed database backup, then upgraded to 4.1.11 Patch Level 1. Seemed a security bug-fix. All went well though got an initial upgrade complete checksum error, but ignored without any seeming issue. Weird, but seemed OK in the end. Will watch for errors though.

4-4-2012: Installed the free Tapatalk module and registered 500Eboard.com with that site. All seems to have gone well with the install.

4-9-2012: Performed database backup, then upgraded to 4.1.12. Template anomaly with Tapatalk stuff, so will check Tapatalk to see whether I need to re-download a new version. I'd bet patch comes out in a couple of days ?!?

4-18-2012: Updated VaultWiki software to new revision that came out around the beginning of April. All went without a hitch and upgrade seemed to proceed well.

5-4-2012: Performed a backup and then installed 4.1.2 Patch Level 1 (security enhancements). Seemed to go OK. Checking status of mods now to see if any are updated. Also updated Gallery and VaultWiki mods with new versions.

 

[gerryvz]

Just an FYI to everyone - in the coming hours and days, we'll be performing an upgrade to the new vBulletin 4.2 software - a significant update to the platform.

Should be a fairly transparent process for everyone, but the site may be down for up to an hour while the update is happening. More about what the new version entails is below.

Cheers,
Gerry

The release contains:

Activity Stream
Navigation Manager
Members who have Visited Today
Cron-based Batch Email Sending
UserCP Reputation Display
Reputation Notification
User Profile Reputation Display
Who has Read a Thread
Doublepost Prevention
Enhanced Reputation Checks
Updated Readme.
Integration with Post Release - Company Website


vBulletin 4.2 contains a total of 218 new features, projects, bug fixes, hook requests, improvement requests, and feature requests

 

[gerryvz]

Hello All,

Had a bit of scrambling tonight once I got the software updated....seems that the CMPS (content management system .. what you see when you just go to the main page URL www.500eboard.com instead of directly to the forums www.500eboard.com/forums) was out of date and needed to be updated. Had a bit of a scare with that but it ended up being a fairly simple configuration issue.

Next up was the inability the post. I was getting a fatal error when replying to posts. Some sleuthing and collaboration with the vBulletin folks quickly identified the issue as the Wiki plugin software. So, I had to disable that. Not a huge issue becuase all of the content is still there, and editable. It just doesn't have the wiki-editing interface. Evidently there is a conflict with the Wiki software and the new version of vBulletin, so I will report this to the VaultWiki folks and hopefully they'll issue a fix so that I can re-enable the Wiki editing interface.

The rest of the forum should be good, and there are some interesting new features that hopefully y'all will discover with a bit of poking around.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Gerry

P.S. Please do let me know if there are any issues that you come across.

 

[gerryvz]

Well, it turns out that they released a new version of the Wiki software just today (corresponding with the 4.2 version of vBulletin) so I updated it and I think we're good to go...

 

[gerryvz]

Added a couple of smilies for y'all

 

[gsxr]

oh cool, Hobbes and Def Leppard! Nice!

 

[gerryvz]

I thought the Bingster would be all over that Union Jack....

 

[bing]

wicked! be sure to let me buy you a pint, uncle!

 

[gerryvz]

I will plan to have my normal London drinkfest whilst there ... likely will be on or around June 26-27 in the evening. Don't know where in London you are at Bing, but I'll be staying in the Earl's Court area (within crawling distance of said Tube station). Thus, will be holding court in my normal West London (Chiswick/Hammersmith) environs, out back on the upper deck overlooking the Thames at The Dove, on the Upper Mall in Hammersmith. You'll recognize me by the array of quaffed pints of Fuller's ESB and London Pride on the table in front of me. Drunk-tubing the District Line, post last-orders, is an annual GVZ specialty.

 

[bing]

West London is my patch! Areas you mentioned are all within 10-15mins from where I am, Notting Hill. Great !! I'll PM you my contact and we'll hook up .

 

[gerryvz]

The site may be down tonight for 30-40 minutes for a maintenance level software patch, to remedy a couple of potential security issues. If it is, just come back a bit later and everything should be up and running.

I'll try to make it as quick and painless as possible, so as to minimise 500Eboard withdrawls for you...

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Administrative announcement:

Just as FYI to everyone -- Jelmer has been promoted to full Administrative status in our efforts to help combat the steadily increasing scourge of spam and false users, as this site continues to grow.

Congratulations to JB, our Flying Dutchman !!

Thanks
Gerry

 

[Jelmer]

Yay to me! And I already banned my first spammer and deleted his thread.

While on that subject: I noticed both 2phast and 036 had managed to respond to the thread, discussing how odd it is to see more and more spammers. I would like to ask you not to reply to threads like these, don't check their information and of course don't click on their links. Instead, use this button to report the topic:
View attachment 9900

 

[gerryvz]

A number of you have reported spam via the reporting link that Jelmer outlined in the previous post -- Jono and others have done this recently. The "report spam" button does immediately send an alert e-mail to the Forum administrators so that we can take care of it, and this is much more effective than responding to the Spam as Jelmer mentions. Generally between all 4 of the site Admins (myself, Glen, GSXR and now Jelmer) one of us will be able to take care of the spam within an hour or two.

Having Jelmer in the Central European time zone will be advantageous because he will be able to take care of issues that come up at night US time, before most folks in the US even wake up in the morning to see it.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gsxr]

Yay to me! And I already banned my first spammer and deleted his thread.

Congrats, Jelmer! And welcome to the Muppet Club! LOL!

 

[gerryvz]

Tonight I did a little site administrative work.

In addition to re-enabling reverting to the Tapatalk 4.0.0 plug-in, to enable mobile access to the forums, I also updated the "Post Thanks" hack to a version that was updated in late June.

This "Post Thanks" hack provides the "Thanks" button at the bottom of posts and allows members to thank other members for useful/informative posts. The issue was that the older version of the hack was causing occasional SQL errors when certain types of database queries were executed (for example, if you wanted to see all of the kudos provided to a particular forum member). This slightly updated version of the hack should solve that SQL syntax error problem.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

West London is my patch! Areas you mentioned are all within 10-15mins from where I am, Notting Hill. Great !! I'll PM you my contact and we'll hook up .

By the way, the Victoria pub was great (and we shall meet there again) but I definitely did hold court on two different nights at the Dove, pictured above. One of the evenings even out on the balcony at the extreme left center of the photo. Best seat in the house !! Fullers has a new American-style IPA this year that was quite tasty ... brewed with the same hops that Sierra Nevada uses for its Pale Ale. Hoping to get back to London either in January or February for a week, Bing !!

 

[gerryvz]

Hello 500E Runners ...

I have begun receiving e-mails from the vBulletin folks about an upcoming release of Version 5 of the vBulletin forum software. It appears that vBulletin will, when Version 5 is released, probably curtail active support for version 3.X of the software (which is what sites like Benzworld.org, MBWorld.com and Peachparts.com are using). At the same time, they will continue to enhance the current Version 4.X of the software that we are currently using. I expect they will continue to enhance Version 4 for at least the next 3-5 years, so we have a long life left on the current platform.

There are no plans at any time in the near- or mid-term future to move this site to the Version 5 software. There are several reasons for this:

• The first version of vBulletin 5 will likely contain A LOT of bugs
• The first version of vBulletin 5 does not contain as much functionality as the current Version 4 does
• The add-ons we have (such as the vBulletin 4 CMS and VaultWiki, not to mention the add-ons that provide the "Thanks", enhanced Gallery, and random header image functionality, will NOT be compatible with vBulletin 5
• There is significant cost involved to upgrade to the vBulletin 5 platform

Of course, there are other reasons too.

Some other things to mention, in terms of the long-range planning and scoping for 500Eboard.com. I have become increasingly disenchanted with the vBulletin platform since implementing it a little over a year ago. It is one hell of a large, bloated, and increasingly sizable piece of software -- much like Microsoft Windows has become over the years. The vBulletin folks have tried to add everything and the kitchen sink into the vBulletin 4 platform, and the result is a usable but really quite sizable and bloated platform, of which we realistically use perhaps 30% of the capability of. (How much of the functionality of Microsoft Word or Excel do you find yourself using, in real life?)

Furthermore, a few years back, the original company that created vBulletin, a firm called Jelsoft, was sold off to a larger company called "Internet Brands". Not long after this happened, the founders of Jelsoft (and the original creators of vBulletin) left the company and founded a new company and have created a new forum platform called XenForo. This software was introduced last year and is still in its infancy, but it is (from a software architectural standpoint) much more advanced, and the vBulletin creators were able to take much of what they learned from the creation of vBulletin and put it into the creation of XenForo.

With the advent of vBulletin 4 in late 2009, it became MUCH more of a commercial platform (with the intent of providing a platform to make money for forum operators and for Jelsoft/Internet Brands) and much less of a platform for hobbyists and such. All of this creates software code and overhead (which affects site performance) that is 100% unneeded for a forum of our type here.

Furthermore, one of the primary drivers of the adoption of vBulletin 4 for this site, was to provide a quick and seamless migration path in case the original 500Ecstasy forum ever surfaced -- 500Ecstasy was also based on vBulletin 4.X. With every passing month, it seems that the possibility of the content and brain-trust of the original 500Ecstasy ever surfacing becomes more and more remote. It is my desire to integrate all of that content with this site, but it also is becoming more and more out of date. Furthermore, the content here on THIS site has reached the point of critical mass as to where it can stand alone against the accumulated knowledge that was encapsulated at 500Ecstasy. The main value, in my opinion, of 500Ecstasy at this point in time is of historical information, as well as the contributions of certain members of that forum such as Talbir and LiquidIron.

Unfortunately though, it appears (and I fear) that 500Ecstasy content may well never see the light of day again. What a crying shame.

While I have no plans to adopt XenForo as the platform for this site, I am watching the maturation of the XenForo platform with interest. When it reaches full maturity, likely in the next 2-3 years, I will actively look at it as a POTENTIAL alternative platform, depending on the functionality and capabilities. There are also other modern and less-bloated forum platforms, such as the IPB (Invision Power Board) that are also fairly mature, notable, and worth considering at the point of any sort of future migration planning.

If, and ONLY if there is compelling reason to migrate, would we do so. And if the decision to change platforms were EVER made in the future, certainly it would be a gradual process, and as with the migration to vBulletin the members of this site would be kept well informed along the way.

I reiterate, there are NO current or future plans to migrate this forum platform away from vBulletin 4, or to adopt vBulletin 5.

However, I did want to give all of you a bit of insight into my long-term thinking. It is important to devote time to think about future plans, investigate alternatives and potential routes to take this great site into the future, and to stay abreast of current trends in forum platforms.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

I will be taking the site off-line late tonight (Central Time) for 30-40 minutes to do a software upgrade to vBulletin 4.2.0, Patch Level 3. This is intended to fix a number of security issues.

The site is currently running on Patch Level 1 (I skipped PL2, which has been out for a few months).

Please be patient with the down-time. it should be very routine, however. Sometimes I get it done in less than 20 minutes.

Now that vBulletin Version 5 Connect is rolling out (it's currently on Beta 16 I believe), more information is coming out about it, and vBulletin's forthcoming support for version 4.X, which this site is based on. vBulletin's official position is that is intending -- very soon -- to curtail active support and development (and patching) for version 3.X. 3.X is the software that sites like Benzworld.org and MBWorld run on.

vBulletin has also said that it will continue active development and support for version 4.X (what this site uses). However, I am skeptical of this. I have already seen that vBulletin is putting all of its future development eggs in the version 5 basket, and in recent months has relegated new feature/functionality on version 4.X to the back burner. This is fine with me, as there is a very active "mod" scene for version 4.X, and vBulletin will continue to support the product for at least the next 3-5 years in terms of security features and perhaps with a few new features thrown in here and there.

Anyway, off my soapbox with regard to vBulletin. We have a strong and solid forum platform well into the future, and everything I said in the above post rings 100% true.

Thanks for your support!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Trae]

I WAS going to have a late night epiphany about the 500E, but now everyone will have to wait. . . . .
Actually, everything I know about the 500E can be traced back to the contributors to this site. Keep up the good work!

 

[gerryvz]

Upgrade complete ... success.

Thanks for your patience !

 

[gerryvz]

Added a few new smilies today, in the interest of keeping things fun & interesting:









Enjoy!
Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Jelmer]

You forgot the secretly added

 

[gerryvz]

Yes ....

 

[gerryvz]

Another new graphic for the site .... taken from a real-life one !!

 

[gerryvz]

Over the past week or so, I noticed that the aforementioned "Post Thanks" modification notification that let one know they had received a kudos (see this post) was not showing up. I disabled, removed and re-installed the Post Thanks hack software, which seems to have re-enabled the notification function. It seems that the latest update to the vBulletin software had somehow disabled the notification. In any case, all seems to be working OK again....

Also, tonight I updated the VaultWiki software from version 3.0.19 to 3.0.20, which was a moderate bug-fix that also remedied an obscure security issue.

In the past couple of weeks, you may have spotted some additional, new "smilies" that I have slipstreamed into the mix, as well.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Jelmer]

While converting JordiC's Excel sheet to a basic Wiki page, I found out there's no standard BB way to create tables with. I have taken the liberty of enabling HTML for the Wiki (see: http://www.500eboard.com/forums/showwiki.php?title=Suspension_and_Steering_Parts_List).

This will hopefully make is easier and more tempting for people to create their own Wiki pages.

HTML is still disabled for the rest of the forums, of course.

 

[gerryvz]

Yes, that was a good move to enable HTML for the Wiki pages -- it will increase flexibility and allow more complex tables and entries to be created (off-line using text- or HTML editors if desired). I have created some tables (for example, for the bulb charts) using the standard included BB tools but they are limited in look and feel.

On another note, it looks like we'll cross the 2,000 user threshold by this spring, possibly before the end of March. That's great because when I moved from 500ESpot.com (phpBB software) to 500Eboard.com (vBulletin) in July of 2011, we had around 650 users. So we've tripled that number in 1.5 years.

500Eboard was started [from the ashes of 500Ecstasy] in December of 2008, so the site just celebrated its 4th birthday last month.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

It was nice to see that we crossed the magic 2,000 registered member barrier over the long US holiday weekend. Come quite a long way from "zero" users on the night of November 30, 2008 when the 500Eboard.com first went live, on the phpBB forum platform. 2,000 members is a milestone I didn't expect to hit for quite some time into the future.

When we [finally] migrated to the vBulletin software (and back to the 500Eboard domain from the interim 500Espot.com) on July 17, 2011 (just 1.5 years ago!) I brought over 637 members, and about 1.3 GB of photos and document attachments. Boy was I stressed out not to lose any of our precious info.....or member.

The current size of just our photo/document attachment database is nearly 4GB now, and our post database is nearly 100 MB!!

I fully expect that we'll be pushing -- if not being over -- the 2,500 member mark by our second anniversary on vBulletin/500Eboard.com domain this summer.

Also, interestingly, I'm very pleased to see that 500Eboard.com is now on the first page of Google rankings when you type in "Mercedes 500E" (actually #5) into Google. Just a few months ago we were buried down on page 2 of the Google search rankings.

Thanks everyone !!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Russell R Coe]

No thank you Gerry. Even thou I do not post here very often I look at the site daily and have learned so much about keeping my 500E going strong, even with 226000 miles on the clock.

Long live 500E's/E500's

Russell

 

[szvook]

500eboard...there is no substitute. Great job, Gerry.

 

[Trae]

We all know that this does not just HAPPEN. Thanks for your hard work!

 

[emerydc8]

Thanks, Gerry, for the time you put into this site. It has been invaluable, even to E420 owners.

 

[gerryvz]

Tonight, or over the next day or two, I plan to update the Tapatalk plugin to the newest version. I've had some problems in the past with updated Tapatalk plugins when they've become available, so I've had to revert back a couple of times to an older version that works well. I've given them about a year to get it right, so I'll try an upgrade again.

The site might be down for 10 minutes or so while I upgrade the software for the plugin, but generally speaking the site should remain up and totally functional while the upgrade is being made. This will not affect the overall vBulletin site software in any way -- just the Tapatalk stuff. For background, Tapatalk is a plug-in piece of software that allows folks with mobile devices to view and participate on 500Eboard and other forums based on common forum software types, using phones and tablets (iPhone, Android, etc.). 500Eboard is registered with Tapatalk so that Tapatalk software users can access 500Eboard with full functionality.

Cheers,
Gerry


P.S. We're up to more than 2,100 members and over 40,000 posts, in nearly 3,900 threads. I expect we will eclipse the total membership/thread/post size of 500Ecstasy (at the end of its ~7-year run) in about a year from now -- in some measures less than a year from now. 500Eboard was officially started on December 1, 2008, about 3 months after I moved to Houston from Portland.

 

[emerydc8]

Congratulations on eclipsing 500Ecstasy. I keep getting the popup message on my Blackberry that tells me that Tapatalk is available to use on this web site but have never downloaded an app in my life and I'm reluctant to do so. As far as the BB goes, what does Tapatalk do for me that I can't do with the BB browser? Just curious. Does it make it easier to read?

 

[gerryvz]

It's an optimized experience for mobile devices is all. A bit streamlined but generally pretty functional for reading and posting on the go.

 

[bing]

I've got tapatalk downloaded on my BB but prefer browser and just zoom it.

 

[emerydc8]

That's what I've been doing too. I'm looking forward to seeing the new BB Q10 with the physical keypad. Despite the fact that the bias press has pronounced the new BB's DOA, I hear the new Z10 browser is actually better than Apple or Samsung.

 

[gerryvz]

DISCLAIMER: Non-cell-phone and mobile device owners who are members of this forum, need not read the information below. Just skip to the next post/thread. Thanks !!


I have found that whenever a company tries to shrink a "PC" type experience down onto a mobile or handheld device, it never works well. Also when you have stylus input or physical keys on a handheld device. it's just not natural and doesn't really work. Microsoft has tried to do this at least three times by shrinking Windows down to mobile devices - think Pen Windows (remember that?), Windows CE, and Windows Mobile (as in recent years Windows phones). Just doesn't work.

Same thing with browsers and software. You can't take Microsoft Office and shrink it down so that it works exactly the same on an iPad or an Android device. Just doesn't work. Same with a browser. You have to make tweaks and compromises for the mobile form factor. Hence, the rise of web apps and optimized Android and iPhone apps that are designed for the ground up for a single purpose.

You have to have an interface that is designed for the ground up to present information specific to a small screen, and accept natural input (touch, gestures). I know a lot of folks swear by their Crackberry keyboards, and get quite adept at using them. But QWERTY keyboards (whatever the size/type/form factor) are and never have been optimized for data input. In fact, the QWERTY layout was originally designed for typewriters to LIMIT speeds so that typists didn't make mistakes. It's time that keyboards go the way of the dodo bird, IMHO.

This "single purpose" type of app is what Tapatalk is. It's not as rich and pretty as the web version of vBulletin (which does display in most browsers, even on mobile devices), but Tapatalk is optimized, streamlined, and functional and works well for fast checks of messages, quick posting when waiting in lines, etc. Try manipulating a browser on your iPhone while waiting in line to read your 500Eboard. Clumsy. Tapatalk can be operated with one hand - four fingers and your palm cradling the phone, and one finger operating the Tapatalk interface.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Just a quick note of advance warning to folks - on this coming Sunday night I will be performing a softare upgrade at approximately 11PM CDT (6AM Central European Time, 9PM PDT) to move our vBulletin installation from version 4.2.0 to 4.2.1. This is a significant bug-fix patch for the software.

Also, I never installed the updated version of the Tapatalk plug-in as I had earlier indicated I would do. I will take this opportunity of a software update window to do this, so the site may be down for as long as an hour, although I expect 30-45 minutes is all.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Software successfully updated to vBulletin 4.2.1. Upgrade took around 30 minutes.

Also updated the Tapatalk mobile software, and have finally installed/enabled "push" notifications to mobile devices.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

All,

I had a slight issue after updating the Tapatalk (mobile device access) software, based on a known conflict with the Wiki software. It was an issue by where forum posts were not being displayed, and you'd just get a blank screen on your mobile device. PMs and other functions worked as intended.

I was able to patch the Tapatalk code with some additional PHP and I think we have resolved the issue. The forum threads are now loading on my devices, and I have already received several "push" notifications on my mobile devices that I have gotten PMs, etc.

Let me know if there are any other issues.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

I will be making some updates in the next couple of days to the Tapatalk software (which enables optimized forum access from mobile devices such as iPhones, Android based phones and tablets, iPads, etc.) as well as to the Wiki software.

A major new version of the Wiki software has been released, version 4.0. I am going to evaluate it to see whether it offers compelling new features/benefits that would make it worth paying for an upgrade, or not.

In addition, per my previous note posted some time back about the latest version of the vBulletin forum software being released, I still have not seen a compelling reason to upgrade from this version (which is still actively supported by vBulletin, though not to the extent that it was) to the new version. I am also monitoring the maturity of other top-tier forum software such as Xenforo, which was created by the original authors of vBulletin.

Again, no plans to migrate or change platforms, as this vBulletin has been working well for us. But it's always good to keep abreast of what's out there and what's coming down the pike. We've enjoyed plenty of success with vBulletin over the past two years as this forum has grown.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Looks like we're on track to hit 2,500 members during the month of August. We hit the 2,000 mark back in February 2013, FYI.

Also ... for a limited time only ... I have brought back a nostalgic piece of this site's heritage.... see if you can determine what it is !!

Enjoy !

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[KarlC]

Looks like we're on track to hit 2,500 members during the month of August. We hit the 2,000 mark back in February 2013, FYI.

Also ... for a limited time only ... I have brought back a nostalgic piece of this site's heritage.... see if you can determine what it is !!

Enjoy !

Cheers,
Gerry

Did I just see Scott floating at top of this site ??? Will we be seeing more nostalgic pieces of this site's heritage ???

 

[gerryvz]

If you scroll down to the credits at the bottom, there's some verbiage lifted verbatim.

I was kind of thinking of using the dark-blue 500Ecstasy "skin" for this site because its so legible ... JUST KIDDING !!

 

[gerryvz]

Did I just see Scott floating at top of this site ??? Will we be seeing more nostalgic pieces of this site's heritage ???

The early contributions of 500Ecstasy are also well represented in the "smilies" provided in this site. We carried over quite a number of the original, now-classic 500Ecstasy "smilies" -- although I have also taken the smilies in a new, unique direction by adding dozens of other/new ones.

My goal with the 500Eboard smilies has been to have smilies available for everyone ... embracing nationalities by having certain countries' flags, personalized smiles to certain members (Jelmer and GSXR come to mind) as well as certain "memes" that seem to crop up here on the board, such as the 'mushroom' battles.

Cheers,
Gerry