So, I made some quick banners that people can use on forums/websites/myspace/ect to advertise YF. You can use them anywhere and they don't need credit. =]

1,



Code.


2,



Code.


3,




Code.


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Code.





If you'd like to contribute a banner to support Yaoiforum, then either IM it one of the staff or post it here and we will add it too the list.

Now, we all want you to have fun and enjoy yourself - but, please, obide by these rules;

• No flaming others.
• Do not use abusive language directed at other members.
• We will not tolerate racism, homophobia or any forms of insults on other members.
• Do not use chat speak. We don't ask that you type correctly all the time, but we don't tolerate things like "hi how r u 2day?"
• Do what the staff tells you to do. We ask things of you for a reason.
• Please don't spam.
• Try not to double post. Of course, in some cases it is tolerated, but this doesn't mean at all times.
• Try not to use too much space when having a signature - if it's too big, one of the staff may IM you to make it smaller, so make sure you correct it.

Also, considering this is a Yaoi site, we do have some rules on how this is run.

• No shota/Loli [This means underage stuff. Yes, even in cartoons it is still considered intolerable]
• Put ratings on all your topics dedicated to pictures. [Please be aware there will be younger members who won't want to see full on action.]
• Try to remember to post the correct things in the correct topics

And, remember this -
You need TEN posts before you can view/post in the gallery sections - this includes Yaoi/Hentai/Yuri AND Photo Album.


Yaoi - Male on male action.
Yuri - Female on female action.
Hentai - Male on female action.
Furry - Animals.

Shota - Underage boys [NOT tolerated]
Loli - Underage girls [NOT tolerated]


[This list will be updated, so you know what is and what isn't. If you have a new status, please IM me and I will add it.]

I added a little link thingy at the top of each skin.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
---> [Click here to donate to Zetaforum, so that this space doesn't turn into some random advertising space. So just simply click [here] or [here] or.. well you get the point.] <---
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Or if you already know how to use paypal, send it to nsstrunks@hotmail.com

If you still want to donate but can't use paypal (for whatever reason), then please PM or email me so that we can talk out some other way to send money from point A to point B.


And remember, server payments are due at the 6th of every month.

.:Donatees:.
July 2007 (6-7-07 ~ 7-6-07)
DuoinChains

August 2007 (7-7-07 ~ 8-6-07) (Server paid for, woo!)
Kami's Butterflies
Amane
SKB

September 2007 (8-7-08 ~ 9-6-07)
DuoinChains

Why am I classed as unregistered?

So, it's came apparant in the "Fanfiction" topic that the reason the old YF got so many people is because it was the first on the list when typed in to "google."

Unfortunately, ours isn't even there at all. Is there anyway we can change this?

And does anyone else have any idea's or possibly anywhere we can advertise? I've tried advertising on a few sites, but the ones with a lot of members won't accept explicit material - so basically, the yaoi/yuri/hentai sections are a rule breaker for advertising there and won't permit it, [which is silly if you ask me.]

Anyways, if anyone has any idea's on advertising, please say here! And if you can wear the banners that we've provided, please use them.

Thanks guys.

Should we have a seperate place for creative writings? Like, yaoi fanfiction and then subforum one for hentai/yuri and other. Ect.


Thoughts, guys?

Right, so we have a new skin, new name, new banners, new alterizeations and we're a new forum! But, what do you think would benefit here so we can get major advertising on the go?

As the forum progresses, the staff will probably discuss other aspects of the forum such as a place for graphics, it's own place for yaoi fanfiction/ect.

So, does anyone have any opinions on the place?

We've practically got a banner for each skin, a new appearence, arrangements and a new name. So, this is why we ask for anyone here to spread the word that yaoi forum is back!

We want to get old/new members coming here. Soon, I will send out a message on the myspace bulletin [because I have a few of the old members there] informing them of this. I'm also IMing people as a reminder and will start advertising shortly!

So, this is a request to everyone out there, if you have time or if you can, to just set a small reminder that yaoi-forums back in business.


Thanks!

Yep, we've got a new skin - looks similar to the other but we all agreed it appeared smoother and was nice use of colours/ect. This may not stay as the default, but for now we're going to use it just so we can move on forwards!

Some new skins to choose from, so make sure you tell us your opinions on which you like/don't like.



And, since the skins are up, this means a banner competition.

If you're interested in the banner competition, read below.

• The banner needs to be 100 x 700. - But if the skin is slightly different, check out the dimensions or IM me.
• They MUST match the skin you're doing it for. Designning a orange and blue banner for a black and grey skin doesn't work!
• They must feature some theme of yaoi. This doesn't mean it needs to be two guys making out - no, it just means it should feature a anime boy of some sort. If I get IM's where there is no anime boys, they will still be featured in the competition.
• Make sure it has Yaoi Forum on it, it doesn't matter about any other text - but people need to know where they are.
• Can we please refrain from adding water marks? This means adding your name at the bottom. You will still get credit in other ways, so don't worry.

So, IM me your banners so I can get them out. I'll give everyone some time and in the mean time, I'll design some banners and put them up - this is so we can get advertising.

If a skin has a banner, don't worry! You can still design one for that skin! It's more than likely one of mine that's been stuck on for the time being. Also, there are FOURTEEN skins to choose from, so consider this when creating it.

Also, since many aren't active here yet and we want to get this sorted, post the entries here and we'll probably decide amongst staff on what goes where and what gets used. Submit ALL entries here [or if you'd rather, IM them too me.] and if you want to give opinions on what you like best or thoughts, then do so! All members comments will be taken in great concideration when we're deciding the overall formats.

So, I opened a topic called "proposals", so go check it out for the full story on why/whats happening. I figured I'd use this topic to describe whats going off and any changes that's been made, so keep your eye on this page to see how the forum progresses.



Anyways, a few of us have agreed that the forum needs some changes and I've offered to help out - and now I'm apart of the admin team.

No changes have been made up to yet, but we have plans for a new skin. [We're hoping to get that up ASAP.] and other new skins to pick from, also.

We're looking for new banners and a compeitition will arise soon, so hopefully you'll make a quick stop there and possibly make your own banner for the competition or just to vote.

Possible new areas added and some taken away? Depends on what gets decided when we're arranging things, based on post counts and activity.

Name change. - Hopefully, we will change the name to yaoiforum instead of zetaforum. This is because it gives the forum a much needed spark, which is a FOCUS. Obviously, the forum won't be entirely yaoi [because I know there's a few that come here that aren't interested in that stuff, myself included] so there will still be general chat places too.

Other changes will be made, but obviously we still have to discuss/plan them. We're still in the early stages, so any other alterations will be notified in here or in another topic if need be.


Chow!

There actually would've only been ~6 hours of downtime earlier in the week if I hadn't forgotten to move ZF's DB over with the rest of them... CPanel doesn't have ZF under any specific user, so when I go to move the accounts from server a to server b, it completely passes over this DB. I had forgotten about that, and didn't do it manually before all the other crap started.

Anyways, the reason(s) for the past couple days of downtime...

As you guys may have noticed, over the past couple months there have been spotty downtimes here and there and times where the server was working but was borked in some way, shape, or form. So last week, I was talking to another couple people that I host and had come to the conclusion to move servers in search of a better host. After a day or so of researching varying places, I decided to go with PC-Core. Right now, I am VERY pleased with them.

I had started moving all the files/databases over on... Tuesday I believe it was. And for the most part, had everything online late the same night. Would've been up earlier if Reyva's DNS would have simply of decided to die, instead of reviving itself every 10 minutes. Which made a lot of resolvers have to pick between the old IP and the new IP, 50/50 shot of getting one or the other :D

After a day or two of being on the new server, my old host (Frantech) finally got their act together and fixed my CPanel/WHM license. Oh yeah, I had forgot to mention, I was without a license for CPanel/WHM for around 2~3 weeks prior to me moving. Which made server administration a complete pain in the arse, since the entire web server is based off of it. With the new license I was able to power the server on and get everything straightened out so that I could have it running without causing any problems to the new server; DNS, for example.

*thinks for a second* Where was I... uhh........

O yes, since CPanel didn't move the DB over everyone trying to access ZF got a DB error. I wasn't told of this until Thursday... So when I went to grab the database from reyva... I couldn't. Reyva was offline. Last I checked, it was online since CPanel had been relicensed and it was behaving itself (for the most part), so I run over to Frantech's IRC channel to check out WTF was going on. Boy, did I walk into one hell of a mess.

To sum it up, someone (an ex-business partner of Fran/Frantech) walked into the datacenter, had the rack opened (since he still owned servers/hardware in there, his name was on the list of okay people to access the rack), took out ~23 harddrives from several servers, and walked out of the datacenter with them. He's currently holding around 15 of them for ransom, the others belonged to people that were not apart of Frantech, but had hardware in the same rack.

Why was I able to grab up the database from Reyva even though there was stuff stolen? Because he didn't take the harddrives out of the linux node, which Reyva is running on. Yesterday, the datacenter moved the linux node's server to a completely different rack and had it setup/running for us earlier this morning.

Once I get the full story posted up, I'll link you guys to it.

The downtime was only supposed to be for a few hours, but for some stupid reason WHM didn't want to move ZF's database over to the new host. I had assumed that WHM would do it -right- and move everything, and went ahead and shut off the old box (So that I could give the IPs to the new box without having DNS propagate all over again).

Well... the next day, or two days after or something. Alan alerts me that ZF is down, so I go to look and see a DB error. "Oh, something's borked. *goes into WHM to fix it* ... [five minutes later] OMFG THE DATABASE DOESN'T EVEN FECKING EXIST?!?!"

So I go to pester the server owner to give a temporary IP to my old box so I could manually transfer the DB/www/whatever WHM FORGOT to move. And well, I found out that changing the IP on a box isn't a walk in the park, which is why it took so long to get ZF back online.

Anyways, it's back, and nothing lost. :D Woo

Okay folks, vote away and please feel free to expand on your answers, the more feedback we have the better we'll be able to make the forum.

Just letting you guys know that I'm moving the entire webserver from Yggdrasil (current server) to Reyva (new server) sometime tonight/early tomorrow morning.

If you can't access ZF, it will be because of that. The DNS change should take no more than 24 hours to fully propagate.

Unfortunately we had a bit of downtime there for a few days. No, this was not planned. No, I couldn't get the board back online sooner. Yes, it's still going to be online.

I was notified Thursday, Sept. 17, that the box/dedi had gone up in price by $20 USD per month. This was also the day that the box went offline. I quickly paid the extra $20 when I was notified about it, however, it still took them till today to get the box back online. I was pestering my reseller, the one who I pay for the box, everyday since Thursday about him contacting the data center to get them back online. He put in several support tickets about it, but unfortunately it still took the data center a while to respond (Weekend partying?).


Anyways, plans for the future:
I will be renting/buying a VDS, from the same reseller that I'm currently with, either later this month, or early next month (See bottom note 1). I'll use the VDS to host all the sites (nsstrunks.com, ZF, worldofisya) on this new VDS. The reason I'm switching over is because it will only be $50 USD per month instead of the current $100 USD per month. The new specs are as followed:

• CPU: Fair share of a 2.4GHz Quad Core (Intel I think)
• RAM: Dedicated 512MB
• HDD: 20GB
• Connection: 1GBit uplink (Wiki Definition)
• BW: 300GB per month (Though I'm pretty sure I could talk him into 500GB)

Now to answer the questions such as "Dedicated ram?" "Fair share CPU?"

I was mentioning earlier going for a VDS, or Virtual Dedicated Server.

Which is why it'll be cheaper.


Note 1