UtaForum 4.0 Kickstarter!

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Hey everyone, we have some big news tonight. To be honest, the staff and I hadn't entirely planned to work through this for a little while longer, but the recent troubles with MyBB and the crash helped us to make our final decision on what direction we want to take UtaForum.

Hentai's explanation below is far more detailed than mine and describes the chain events that led to this decision, but in light of MyBB's troubles, we the staff have decided it's time for a change... and that change this time will be to a more stable and secure commercial forum software: Xenforo.

But in truth, we need YOUR help in order to do this!

We have started a Kickstarter project in order to raise the needed funds for the switch. The final goal is $200, which will cover the Xenforo software license, an important upgrade, as well as any excess fees Kickstarter will withhold at the end.

Full details can be found on the project page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2019000933/utaforum-40

Any amount helps! We truly appreciate it.
 

Lolitas-modesty

Momo's Minion
i donated 25$ hhh i hope thats enough to help! I also chose no reward because idk i don't really want anything since this forum really helps me out a lot. So ye! :D
 

Hentai

Technical Admin
Administrator
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Once again I would like to thank everyone for their continued support.

This was something that was requested multiple times but also something we did not feel comfortable going ahead with till we knew the Kickstarter was going to be fully funded.

The ability to contribute via PayPal.


This will be done by our new UtaForum HQ subsite. The purpose of UtaForum HQ beyond being another message outlet that will be mirrored in the Announcements section of the board is to be a sustainable way to fund-raise. This is NOT a 'donation' system, this is an ecommerce solution to purchase voting tokens. As with before you will be able to earn these tokens for FREE so do not feel pressured to buy them now.

The above was necessary because when we move to XenForo not only is there a large licence fee ($140) but there is a smaller ($40) renewal fee if we would like to receive the latest updates. Down the road, when it is time to renew, or the community finds a XenForo Add-On we would like to licence, we needed a sustainable way to fund-raise without having to ask for 'donations'.

That being said future "Voting Token" fundraising events won't be the [K-Edition] listed. Only people who back our Kickstarter or purchase via HQ during our Kickstarter campaign (HQ sales close on July 26) will recieve the Limited Edition [K] Forum Badge once we move to UtaForum 4.0. So there is still some level of exclusivity for people who back us right now.

One of the advantages of backing us through UtaForum HQ is the funds become immediately available to the UtaForum staff. In comparison Kickstarter & Amazon Payments may take up to 45 days (after the Kickstarter closes) to finish processing and pledges.

Right now I have 30 tokens in the inventory. If we can sell these and raise the $140 required I can begin the transition to XenForo immediately and not have to wait for the slow Kickstarter funds to come through and can make the transition immediately. We would then dedicate any KS funds raised for the stretch goal add-ons we want, which are not as immediately important as the main licence.

No, don't cancel your pledge to back us via PayPal just so UtaForum 4.0 comes out faster, we don't want to fall under our $200 and fail, remember Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing crowdfunding platform, its one of the reasons we choose it. That being said modifying one's pledge is easy enough.
 

Mako

"it"
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
RE:

Hey, I donated $3 (hopefully it got there and i didn't just waste my very little money owo), I know it's not much, but I didn't really have much money on my card anyway. I would've given way more if I did, but hope that helps even a little bit. ^u^




maybe i'll donate that bigger amount when i do get more money, hopefully i'll just get it before the deadline <w<
 

Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
RE:

Congrats on getting 150% of your funding goal! Sorry I was too late to do anything, though..
 

Tema

Living Katsudon
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Zokune93 said:
Congrats on getting 150% of your funding goal! Sorry I was too late to do anything, though..

It's not too late if you want to give something~ There's 20-some days left, and there are still a bunch of add-ons the forum could get if people donate more. I'm saving up to get the heck out of Dodge or else I'd double my pledge because ahhh some of those stretch goals are shiny
 

Hentai

Technical Admin
Administrator
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
RE:

I would like to personally thanks Adlez27 & Cheese for being the first to back us via PayPal over at UtaForum HQ. I will also personally be contributing $40 toward the transition. With my own contribution along with the other PayPal contributors our pool of funds immediately available is approx 1/3rd of the way toward the XenForo licencing costs. If we can raise the rest of the required funds I can begin the transition immediately.


Also through Kickstarter we have raised 114/300 or 37% of the way through all stretch goals. While we did reach our goal of $200 our stretch goals total to approx $305. We don't need all of them, but many of the stretch goal add-ons represent significant Quality of Life improvements for UtaForum as a whole.

If we are unable to raise the $305 needed for all of the stretch goal plugins then the feedback from [Poll] Stretch Goals: XenForo Add-Ons will help decide how we allocate our funds. So I encourage everyone to vote on that thread.

Finally I would once again like to encourage everyone to support us on Thunderclap. We are 19% toward reaching our goal with almost 6000 social reach. Every little bit helps and all contributions toward our social media campaign are appreciated.
<iframe frameborder='0' height='540px' src='https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/13243-utaforum-4-0-the-utau-forum/embed' width='250px'></iframe>
 

XJM

Teto's Territory
RE:

I have been awfully busy, lately, and finances have not been all there, but with my current venture, if it is possible, I would love to be able to contribute in the future.
 

Hentai

Technical Admin
Administrator
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Video Blog #2 Out:
[video=youtube]http://youtu.be/LLkkdpEGajI[/video]
 

Mako

"it"
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Hi hi, it's me again~

So apparently the $3 (actually 3 euros!) that I donated before didn't appear in the Kickstarter. You know why? It's because I actually didn't have $3 on my credit card after all and I didn't even know about it. It just showed that I backed it up, but couldn't give the amount because I didn't have it. :D

So, since I got some more money on my card, I decided to donate $5 this time, but kept the $1 reward of just the badge, cause eh. :shy:

Also, only 35 hours to go~ :D
 

Hentai

Technical Admin
Administrator
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Euphoria.exe said:
Hi hi, it's me again~

So apparently the $3 (actually 3 euros!) that I donated before didn't appear in the Kickstarter. You know why? It's because I actually didn't have $3 on my credit card after all and I didn't even know about it. It just showed that I backed it up, but couldn't give the amount because I didn't have it. :D

So, since I got some more money on my card, I decided to donate $5 this time, but kept the $1 reward of just the badge, cause eh. :shy:

Also, only 35 hours to go~ :D

The reason it doesn't show on your CC is because Kickstarter charges NOTHING unless it is a success and not until the VERY END.

Less than 24 hours to go! I personally won't be back in town till Monday but I will begin testing DB imports then.
 

MystSaphyr

Procrastinator Extraordinaire
Administrator
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
RE:

Thanks so much, everyone! As you may have seen, the Kickstarter has ended and we absolutely blasted through many of our stretch goals!

We'll have kickstarter.utaforum.net set up soon so you can see exactly how much has been raised total and where we'll be applying the funds once they process.

Again, thank you all so much, and please stay tuned for what's to come!
 
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