Cpvr

It’s a good niche, as there are a lot of people using AI. The market is still booming, and the industry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I think it was a great choice. There hasn’t been a forum in that particular niche, aside from Reddit, which is a great sign! Stay focused and keep striving!

Xenforo has released its first “have you seen” post relating to 2.4. https://xenforo.com/community/threads/add-on-update-notifications.227134/ Once we roll out XenForo 2.4 here, resource authors will find that we have added a new field to resources in add-on categories that will allow you to fill in your add-on ID. When you install XenForo 2.4 on your own forums, your forum will now periodically call back to XF.com with a list of your installed add-ons and their versions and report back with the latest version available in the Resource Manager. Where there is an update available, as demonstrated above, this will be indicated in your add-ons list. Update checking can be enabled under "Basic board options". Subject to time constraints, we are looking to add the following additional functionality either before or shortly after the release of XenForo 2.4: Improved notifications Custom update checking URLs for developers to populate in their addon.jsonfile so if the canonical source of your add-on is on your own website, we can request version details from there rather than our resource manager One-click install of upgrades (for free add-ons)

I’m currently listening to Honesty by SBE Kp, [MEDIA=spotify]track:7KW9hHg7IVf9X3TsE2lATI[/MEDIA]

US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Congressman Jerry Nadler of New York have called on government bodies to investigate what they allege is the “predatory pricing” of .com web addresses, the Internet’s prime real estate. In a letter delivered today to the Department of Justice and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the Department of Commerce that advises the president, the two Democrats accuse VeriSign, the company that administers the .com top-level domain, of abusing its market dominance to overcharge customers. In 2018, under the Donald Trump administration, the NTIA modified the terms onhow much VeriSign could charge for .com domains. The company has since hiked prices by 30 percent, the letter claims, though its service remains identical and could allegedly be provided far more cheaply by others. VeriSign is exploiting its monopoly power to charge millions of users excessive prices for registering a .com top-level domain,” the letter claims. “VeriSign hasn’t changed or improved its services; it has simply raised prices because it holds a government-ensured monopoly.” “We intend to respond to senator Warren and representative Nadler’s letter, which repeats inaccuracies and misleading statements that have been aggressively promoted by a small, self-interested group of domain-name investors for years,” said Verisign spokesperson David McGuire in a statement to WIRED. “We look forward to correcting the record and working with policymakers toward real solutions that benefit internet users.” In an August blog post entitled “Setting the Record Straight,” the company claimed that discourse around its management of .com had been “distorted by factual inaccuracies, a misunderstanding of core technical concepts, and misinterpretations regarding pricing, competition, and market dynamics in the domain name industry.” In the same blog post, the company argues that it is not operating a monopoly because there are 1,200 generic top-level domains operated by other entities, including .org, .shop, .ai, and .uk. Though far from a household name, VeriSign takes in about $1.5 billion in revenue each year for servicing its particular section of the Internet’s inscrutable plumbing. In their letter, Warren and Nadler allege that VeriSign has exploited its exclusive right to charge for highly sought-after .com addresses to juice its revenues and drive up its share price—all at the expense of customers for whom there is no viable alternative. The letter claims that separate agreements with the NTIA and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit established by the Commerce Department to oversee the web’s domain name system, have allowed VeriSign to establish monopoly power. The former sets how much the company can charge its customers for registering .com addresses, while the latter assigns VeriSign as the “sole operator” of the .com domain. The letter also alleges that VeriSign might be in violation of the Sherman Act. The NTIA’s decision in 2018 to lift the price cap imposed on VeriSign also benefited ICANN, which in its role as overseer can reject price increases proposed by domain registry services. ICANN signed an agreement with VeriSign in 2020, sanctioning the maximum allowable price increases in return for $20 million over a five-year period. Thus, allege Warren and Nadler, “Verisign and ICANN may have a collusive relationship.” In June, a coalition of activist groups wrote to the DOJ and NTIA to express similar allegations. “ICANN and VeriSign function as a de facto cartel, and the NTIA should stop sanctioning the ‘incestuous legal triangle’ that serves as a shield to deflect overdue antitrust scrutiny into their otherwise likely illegal collusive relationship,” the coalition claims. The group urged the government to “stop this cycle of exploitation” by refusing to renew the relationship between the NTIA and VeriSign. Neither ICANN nor the NTIA responded immediately to requests for comment. The NTIA has since indicated that it will renew its agreement with VeriSign. However, the terms of that agreement are up for review on November 30, before the start of Trump’s second term, leaving the outgoing Democratic administration with an opportunity to put in place pricing rules that will apply for a six-year period, as a parting gift. In an August letter, the NTIA told VeriSign that it “had questions related to [the company's] pricing” and wanted to “discuss possible solutions.” VeriSign said it welcomed “an opportunity to have this important discussion.” But Warren and Nadler are now publicly pressing the NTIA to make sure that customers cannot be overcharged by VeriSign—and pressing the DOJ to review for potential antitrust violations, too. “Verisign has squeezed customers to enrich its investors while doing nothing to improve service,” they claim. “NTIA and DOJ should take action to ensure that over the next six years, VeriSign’s consumers are charged fair prices for .com registration Source: https://www.wired.com/story/elizabeth-warren-calls-for-crackdown-verisign/

Tagging the third spot

The song that makes me cry is “see you again” by Whiz Khalifa. It makes me miss my dad and my cousin everytime.

Hey [mention=112]ccc[/mention] welcome to the community!

I’m currently listening to Cant relate by Toprankgang.

What are some of your all-time favorite movies or TV shows? My all-time favorite movies are Scarface, Jack Reacher, Mission: Impossible, and John Q. As for TV shows, some of my favorites are Sons of Anarchy, Mayans MC, Jack Ryan, Yellowstone, and Mayor of Kingstown. What about you? What are some of your all-time favorite movies and TV shows?

PHP 8.4 introduces several new features and enhancements aimed at improving usability, performance, and developer productivity. This new php update will contain the following updates: 1. Asymmetric Visibility This new feature allows developers to define different access levels for reading and writing properties. For example, a property can be publicly readable but writable only within the class. This enhances control over object properties and is particularly useful for encapsulation. 2. Array Helper Functions PHP 8.4 introduces several native array utility functions: • array_find(): Finds the first element that satisfies a given condition. • array_find_key(): Retrieves the key of the first matching element. • array_any() and array_all(): Check if any or all elements in an array meet a condition, respectively. These functions make array manipulation more intuitive and eliminate the need for third-party libraries. 3. Improved String Handling New functions like mb_ucfirst, mb_trim, and grapheme_str_split improve support for multi-byte and internationalized strings. These updates help developers handle complex text processing tasks with less custom code. 4. HTML5 Support PHP now includes a \Dom\HTMLDocument class for native HTML5 parsing, making it easier to work with modern web structures while maintaining backward compatibility with older parsing methods. 5. Lazy Object Initialization Native support for lazy objects allows developers to defer object instantiation until they are accessed, improving performance and reducing memory usage in resource-intensive applications. 6. Exit and Die as Functions The exit() and die() commands are now treated as proper functions. This improves consistency and allows these commands to support features like named arguments and strict typing. 7. Bcrypt Security Update The default cost for bcrypt hashing has been increased from 10 to 12, making password hashing more secure by requiring more computational effort for cracking attempts. 8. Implicit Nullable Types Deprecated: PHP now requires explicit nullable type declarations (?TypeName) instead of inferring nullability from default values. This change reduces ambiguity and ensures clearer code. 9. Object-Oriented API for BCMath: PHP introduces an object-based API for BCMath, allowing arithmetic operations with overloaded operators. This simplifies numeric computations compared to the previous functional approach. 10. Hooks in Interfaces: Interfaces now support property hooks, improving flexibility and enabling direct property definitions within interfaces. These updates collectively aim to streamline development workflows and modernize PHP’s feature set. Php 8.4 will be released on November 21. https://stitcher.io/blog/new-in-php-84

I’ve never fully understood this, but it seems to be the norm across nearly every forum network out there. A company or person buys a community, puts no effort into fostering activity or curbing spam, and then lets it languish into a ghost town. Why bother acquiring a forum if you have no clue how to manage or sustain a community? And how do you just abandon it to rot in the void? I’ve come across countless forums snapped up by companies like Internet Brands or Vertical Scope, only to watch them deteriorate into nothing but spam-filled wastelands with zero moderation or care. Don’t they realize when a forum is completely lifeless? Is it even worth keeping the lights on for a site that’s entirely inactive? It’s baffling how these companies or people can be so utterly clueless about the very industry they operate in.

Lillyray has chimed in how this new policy will effect a lot of websites in the rankings: Early thoughts about how Site Reputation Abuse will impact the SERPs: Obviously, the biggest players have (finally) been removed from top positions for all kinds of high-volume keywords. Many of the same sites that people have been complaining about being able to rank for everything for the past couple of years. This frees up a whole lot of SEO opportunity, visibility and traffic for other sites not engaged in Site Reputation Abuse, such as specialized product review/affiliate sites, plus informational publishers. Think Nerdwallet, Investopedia, Tech Radar, Tech Crunch, Nolo, Bankrate, etc. The providers that the affiliate sites linked to - like insurance companies, VPNs, etc. - will probably see improved rankings as well. Beyond that, this change will absolutely benefit Reddit and Quora even more, as Google has been showing a ton of forum results & "Discussions and Forums" for review & comparison content. I'm already seeing Reddit take top positions where Forbes ranked before. Ecommerce sites will likely benefit as well, especially if they have blogs and upper-funnel content that answers questions previously targeted by the penalized publishers. (See Purina example below, and don't ask me why Purina Arabia ranks #1 in the US 😅) Also, small sites like law firm websites, government websites, and other "authorities" will gain rankings lost by many YMYL queries where these big players ranked on top for years.

I’m currently listening to Puzzle Pieces by LBS Kee’vin. [MEDIA=spotify]track:66gxBAd0vQSrKu4IDnKcMc[/MEDIA]

YouTube has provided an update on the roll out of its new “Hype” option to help amplify smaller creators, while it’s also implementing a change to its Member Hub layout designed to encourage channel subscriptions. First off, on Hype, which YouTube initially announced at its “Made on” event back in September. Hype will enable fans to allocate “hype points” to videos from emerging channels, which will then help those clips get more reach based on that interest. As you can see in this example, certain videos will be eligible for Hype points which will enable viewers to highlight clips that they think deserve more exposure. As per YouTube: “If a video’s been out less than 7 days from a creator with under 500,000 subscribers, you can “hype” it, and go beyond liking and sharing. The more hype it gets, the higher it climbs on a new leaderboard with the top 100 hyped videos from the week.” YouTube users will be allocated a certain amount of Hype that updates regularly, and will be able to give videos “hype” up to three times per week. YouTube’s also looking to let people purchase additional “hypes,” with a portion of that revenue potentially going to the creators. Which could be a good way to help highlight emerging artists, and share top clips, though it’s still a while off being available to all users. YouTube says that it’s now testing Hype with “a small number of creators in Brazil”, before an expanded roll out in the new year. That initial test will provide YouTube with more feedback on the process, enabling it to refine and improve the Hype system to optimize its delivery. But eventually, it could be a valuable tool to help showcase emerging content in the app, and get more people looking to the next rising voices. On another front, YouTube’s also testing out a redesigned “Member Hub” on the channel membership page. As you can see in this example, the updated membership tab will make it easier to see what exactly you’re getting from your memberships, and to upgrade your subscription in-stream. YouTube says this will better highlight the perks of being a channel member, while also streamlining your membership settings. Finally, YouTube’s also rolling out an update that’ll make it easier to access its text formatting options within the “Description” fields in YouTube Studio: Creators will now be able to access bold, italic, or strike-through text via icons in the bottom left-hand of the description tab, enabling further, simple customization of your video info. YouTube says that this has been launched to all creators on mobile, and is in the process of rolling out on desktop. Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-launches-the-first-stage-of-its-hype-creator-amplification-option/733521/

Contests are a great way to attract new members, especially referral contests and posting contests. Sharing buttons can also help grow your forum, particularly if your users are active on social media. Encouraging them to use these buttons is essential for increasing visibility and expanding your audience. However, users may sometimes overlook sharing buttons. It’s a good idea to guide them by suggesting they share content they enjoy on their social media pages. This, in turn, can help your forum gain visibility on social media and potentially attract more members.

If I see beans on a pizza, I’d literally throw the pizza on the floor.

I’m currently listening to Freestyle finale by Lil Keke feat Big Pokey. [MEDIA=spotify]track:6iju9ZgV7TgW9sX3oUGgKs[/MEDIA]

Starting a new forum can be challenging. What strategies did you use to help your forum grow in its early days? What are some of the tactics that you have utilized to help you grow your forum?

Good morning!

Hey [mention=110]mickjav[/mention] welcome to the community!

Google has implemented a new site reputation policy and it’s now in effect. The updated policy language as of now is. Site reputation abuse is the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site's ranking signals. https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/11/site-reputation-abuse Forbes and a few other sites have received manuel actions for violating google’s new reputation policy thus far: Forbes advisor has been completely deindexed for violating google’s new reputation policy. https://searchengineland.com/google-site-reputation-abuse-policy-now-includes-first-party-involvement-or-oversight-of-content-448432

Unfortunately, there isn’t a free plugin available for a shop for xenforo.

If you’re looking for a high-quality shop plugin for XenForo, one of the best options is DragonByte Shop. It’s a feature-rich and versatile add-on that allows you to create a customizable shop system integrated with your XenForo forum. Key Features of DragonByte Shop: • Flexible Item Selling: Sell a variety of virtual goods, such as user upgrades, permissions, or even digital downloads. • Usergroup Permissions: Override any user group permission, including those from custom modifications. • Points System Compatibility: Works seamlessly with virtually any points modification, allowing you to integrate it with your forum’s existing economy. • Customizable Configuration: Offers unprecedented control over shop settings and item behavior. Their add on can be found here: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/dbtech-dragonbyte-shop.5869/

I’m currently listening to Poverty skills by LBS Kee’vin [MEDIA=spotify]track:7Jht5jx9GG3VGCSixGIkpA[/MEDIA]

Promoting a forum on Reddit can be a powerful way to build your community and attract engaged users, but success requires a thoughtful, authentic approach. Reddit is a platform that values meaningful contributions and discourages blatant self-promotion, so understanding its culture is essential. Start by familiarizing yourself with the platform and identifying the subreddits most relevant to your forum’s niche. Use Reddit’s search features to locate communities that align with your interests—whether it’s gaming, fitness, photography, or another topic. Prioritize subreddits with active, engaged members over those with high numbers but low activity. Review the rules of each subreddit carefully, as many have specific guidelines about self-promotion or dedicated threads for sharing content. Before posting anything about your forum, invest time in becoming an active member of the community. Contribute by joining discussions, answering questions, and sharing valuable insights. This helps establish credibility and trust, making users more receptive to your eventual promotions. Instead of jumping in with links to your forum, focus on engaging genuinely and positioning yourself as a knowledgeable and helpful participant. When you’re ready to share your forum, create posts that provide value to the community. Instead of directly promoting your site, highlight the unique content it offers, such as guides, tutorials, or interesting discussions. For example, if your forum focuses on photography, you might share tips or insights from a popular thread and invite the subreddit to weigh in with their opinions. Asking for feedback on your forum’s features or content can also be an effective, indirect way to spark interest. Comments can be an equally powerful promotional tool. If you see a question or discussion relevant to your forum, provide a detailed answer and include a natural mention of your site if appropriate. For instance, you might say, “We recently explored this topic on our forum and found [key insight]. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out.” The key is to keep the focus on helping others, rather than pushing your forum. Some subreddits offer additional opportunities for promotion, such as weekly self-promotion threads or “share your work” posts. These can be excellent places to share your forum without breaking community rules. Additionally, if you have expertise in your forum’s niche, consider hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) to share your knowledge and subtly mention your forum as part of the discussion. If you have a budget, Reddit’s ad platform can amplify your reach. Ads allow you to target specific communities, demographics, or interests, making it easier to connect with users likely to benefit from your forum. When crafting ad copy, focus on how your forum adds value, keeping the tone aligned with Reddit’s preference for authenticity and usefulness. It’s essential to measure the results of your efforts to understand what works best. Use tools like Google Analytics to track traffic from Reddit to your forum, and monitor engagement metrics like upvotes, comments, and click-through rates. Be prepared to adjust your strategy based on feedback—whether that means refining your content, targeting different subreddits, or tweaking how you frame your posts. Above all, avoid common pitfalls like over-promoting or ignoring subreddit rules. Reddit users can quickly spot insincerity, and spamming links will likely result in negative reactions or bans. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content and building genuine connections. While Reddit is an excellent platform for promoting a forum, it should be part of a broader strategy. Combine your Reddit efforts with promotion on other platforms to diversify your traffic sources and sustain growth. With patience and a community-focused mindset, you can successfully use Reddit to drive traffic to your forum and build a loyal user base.