Moving Forward!

I wanted to post up and thank you all for the patience as we had to make some difficult decisions and choices over the past month to get Z31Performance not only just "back up and running", but begin the process of improving the experience here.

First of all, I want to directly thank our new forum adminstrator for stepping up and taking over the reins of the actual administration of the forum. He is a trustworthy, dedicated IT Professional who has been a forum member for many years. He has a username already on the forum, but is very much not one to share the limelight and simply wants to focus on the technical aspects of the forum. He has the same vision as us - in keeping this a resource that allows the community to continue to access information, develop ideas, and share our joy. All of this in a far more permanent, easy to index space outside of Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram.

As you can see, the forum has migrated to the latest and greatest version of vBulletin 5 - this is the forum software that we had purchased for a few years, but was only fully implemented after the administrator change in the past few weeks for reasons beyond our control. This will likely cut down on the issues where the forum was taken down due to malicious intent, although script kiddiez probably won't ever stop trying. (for the lulz of course.)

Ever since our purchase of Z31Performance in late 2012 from Jason Butts (and let me be clear, we purchased the domain and forum database directly from Jason) - we have endeavored to make sure that this forum was run free so that members never had to pay out of pocket. ASCO has always covered the significant cost of the Virtual Private Server we utilized - and we will work with our new administrator to continue doing that. We will work to develop more things like stickers and shirts to allow you to spread the word, but our intent is never to have our hands out - the community built this place, it shouldn't have to pay for rent.

Lastly, I want to point out that there was indeed a forum administrator change and it was directly due to the actions that crippled the forum for the past month. These actions found the database wiped from our server, installed elsewhere and pointed at a different domain name. That's correct - the .NET domain change was done not as a precursor to the vb5 installation (which was what reason was given - notice that .COM is working just fine right now?), but so that the forum database could be used as a pawn in a dispute. I've decided against my better judgement to let that individual maintain their individual forum account because I did, until recently, consider that person a friend, and they have contributed to the community outside of maintaining this forum. However, they are not in any way affiliated with the Z31Performance forum in any official capacity and will never be again.

As far as the above matter, this will be my only statement on the matter, and as far as we are concerned, we are happy to be moving forward with a fresh new focus!

Enjoy the Ride!
-Zack