After much thought and hesitation, I have decided to pull the plug on MNSubaru. At this point, I think the last day the site will be up will be July 31st, 2022. Reasoning behind the move is that we just don't generate the traffic anymore. No traffic, no ad revenue, no income. I just received our 1st adsense payment of the year, so it has taken 4 months to generate over $100 to trigger the payout. That is the first major issues that plays into the next issue. This play is old and in need of an update/upgrade. Other than the security updates, that is all that has happened to place in a few years. What really needs to happen is a complete server refresh along with upgrading to the latest and greatest Xenforo. Unfortunately with the Xenforo update, we lose almost all of our add-ons and styles. The new version of Xenforo also requires major upgrades to PHP, MySql, and everything else.So to really bring this place up to date, it is a complete server refresh to allow the Xenforo update and then I would have to find replacements for the add-ons the allow us to do what we do. Biggest one being the shoutbox. All of that leads to a lot of time and work for a website that is a shell of itself. Daily users and posts/replies and doesn't justify the work involved to upgrade everything much less pull in the revenue to pay for itself. We average about 40 people a day and 5 posts a day. So we just don't have the active user base that we have had for many many years (close to 20). And with that, I have decided that it is time to close doors. Old school forums like this are just not active anymore with all the alternate places to chat. We also don't have the user base that that kept the forum alive with posts, pictures, event recaps and event planning. I would like to thank everyone that has kept this place moving in the right direction over 20 YEARS. Such a incredible run. Everyone should be proud that of all the people and ideas that have come and gone over 20 years. So with a heavy heart, MNS's last day is July 31st, 2022. Thanks to everyone. Russ
Thank you Russ for pulling all of the strings over the years and for keeping it up for the past few years. We all saw the drop in traffic happen awhile ago. So thanks for letting it go this long! I’ve made a lot of friends and consider many on here family. It has been great to be able to be a part of it since 2007! Thanks for all of the memories!!
Any way to keep the content live even if it's read-only? I'm pretty new here, relatively speaking, but I've found there's tons of great content. I've also noticed mnsubaru.com ranks high in search engines. It would be a bummer to have that all go to the ether.
Dang! End of an era. Thanks Russ for all you have done. A few of my favorite memories thanks to this club.
Thank you Russ for running this forum and letting it live as long as it has! I also want to thank the rest of the MNSUBARU community for sharing your builds, adventures, thoughts, and friendships! It's been a great time! Thank you to everyone here!
All of the tech speak is over my head and I definitely don't understand what all is involved in keeping this place afloat, but damn this sucks. I quit FB somewhat recently and this has been my lone means of "social media"/entertainment and Subaru information for a while now. And since Craigslist has steadily gone down the sh!tter thanks to FB marketplace, this is also my main source for used parts. I know there's probably much more to it than just the money side, but if that would help I'm sure I and the others that are still regularly active wouldn't mind pitching in. I don't think there's a better picture that can be posted to represent this whole thing than that Titanic one posted above. We're going down and we're gonna ride it til the end... RIP.
Another one bites the dust. Lot's of great memories here, all the drama and entertainment. Here's to all of you, all my Australian lesbian brothers and sisters. Now Free 3van!
Oh man! I have not and will never be on Facebook. Is there a viable alternative of some kind? Do we/can we create a group on NASIOC or ClubWRX?
Nasioc is pretty dead too, there's active content but it's mostly off topic politics threads and bro will these wheels fit my 22 wrx?
I wonder if MNsubaru could be served by a free board like: https://www.forumotion.com/ https://www.proboards.com/ Example: https://www.forumotion.com/directory/cars/car-brand/subaru
converting forum software to forum software isn't always the easiest (The data isn't necessarily like for like) and can take a lot of effort to move. edit: I looked into it when I almost inherited/bought Eurowerks years ago.
@WRX1 I offered before, and it still stands, I have hosted space and domain services. I don't mind dropping this to read only for preservation and holding it for a year. Would need to know about DB sizing and traffic rates and stuff. Hit me on a PM if you are interested. Otherwise, this has been my home for nearly 20 years now. And you guys gave me a home to call home when I moved here from California back in 2004. I am going to miss this place, and all the memories. I met @Aegis here, and we married years ago. It will always be a major part of my life. Thanks again Russ, and all of you MNSubaru members, for making an awesome place to meet and talk cars over the last 20 years.
What a bummer, but I totally understand. Last year I remember a few of us donating to keep it alive for another year, I knew it wouldn't be long. I'm so glad someone on nasioc pointed me in this direction back in 2013. I've learned a lot, and met some cool people along the way. I'm hoping something else will come from the ashes of MNSUBARU!!! I've also been a member on Outback.org, which is super busy. Reminds me of MNSUBARU back in the day. Tons of postings. Anyone with an outback, come on over! Even if you don't have an ob, no big deal! Thanks Russ for runn6the site. We all appreciate it greatly!
8 1/2 years ago, @SubieDave introduced me to my wife. Wouldn’t have met her without meeting him through the LaXCruise here. I owe a ton to this place! That reminds me, Russ, I have some “sticker sales” profits that I need to get to you.
Gonna miss this place for sure. I was just a young pup when I joined you crazy mf'ers at a Firestone meet 12 years ago! Always felt welcome with my innocent little N/A bugeye.
It was a good run. Thanks for keeping it going as long as you did, Russ! There's some good tech in Facebook groups, but not a community like this. I've seen some builds and tech information on Instagram, but that also has it's limitations. I dug through what's left of my photobucket...and found a few group pictures from the Duluth cruises and Ice races.
Ah, the “good ol days”. Where is a picture of Jason filling his car with gas and a cigarette? And the ice races in Orr were epic. So many good times!!
Ice races were definitely a good time. Many good times, in generally with this group. Whether it be an official meet, or unofficial meat.
https://mnsubaru.com/threads/2011-lax-cruise-fotos-videos.35860/#post-611689 *edit* added url... Is that the day Ray's red shoes became famous?
Who has the cache of pics from the cruises, like Taras deepthroating corndogs? We should just make this into a mega-memories thread.
I don't Facebook. And as an information security identity architect, I advise you to also not be on Facebook.
@WRX1 if you pop back in, hit me up. I cleared a database and have hosting storage to run MNSubaru in perpetuity, in read only mode, for probably a decade at least. I can also have a chat room set up in short order.
Make MNSubaru great again! (By archiving the history and resources while the answer is clear and obviously presented).
FYI, I am sitting on mountains of disposable income. And piles of unused compute resources. I can run this place AD FREE for a long ng time without donations and without any other support. Even in full open mode (not read only)
Not sure if it will cause more harm than good (I've been drinking) but be sure to @WRX1 and let him know that you want him to transfer the database and forum data to me if you want this place preserved. I am ready to host with minimal downtime for the transition.
