I'm very pleased to announce that after 10 a LOT of hours invested that I am very close to closing up this old broken site and forum.
I am going to need some volunteers to try out the new forum before it goes live. I'm not quite ready to do a "public beta", but need some testers.
If you are will to help, please contact me at my temporary email of beachcats@thebeachcats.com and mention you saw this post.
I realize the forums have been in such a mess that not many are checking here, so if you know how to contact other members who would be willing to help please share this info with them.
I'm looking into signing up for a bulk email service like MailChimp, SendGrid, or Brevo in order to contact the rest of the registered members when there is more to check out and when the new site is launched. so if you have any tips on the best of those paid services to use please let me know.
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
Join the discussion at the all new TheBeachcats.com Forums HERE.
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/forums/site-talk/
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Completely New TheBeachcats.com Coming Soon!
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- Rank: Administrator
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- Last visit: Mar 11, 2025
- Posts: 3456
Posted: Jan 26, 2025 - 07:11 PM
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- Rank: Mate
- Registered: Jan 14, 2004
- Last visit: Jan 26, 2025
- Posts: 878
Posted: Jan 26, 2025 - 11:47 PM
This is GREAT news! Awesome Damon. I can volunteer to test out the new site or help out where I can.
Thanks
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Philip
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Posted: Jan 27, 2025 - 11:51 AM
Happy to help. I've gained a lot here. -
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Posted: Jan 27, 2025 - 02:43 PM
Thanks Philip and westmatt! I've received four other offers of support this morning by email.
I'm very close to launching the staging site with the all new forum. I've spent the last dozen days (and nights) getting the forums migrated to a forum software called WPForo. There is a lot of beachcat history and content that I couldn't bear to lose.
19 Forums, 8,504 Topics, 75,700 Posts, 37,700 Members
The forum is by far the most difficult migration, I'm also working on a new:
- Classifieds: I've identified two systems that would work and am doing test migrations to see which works best. The current classifieds are still working and still very active.
- Photo Album Archive: The old photo albums at https://www.thebeachcats.com/pictures won't be needed in the same way on the new site, since it will have the ability to upload images in a post, but the content has to be saved for posterity. It contains 24,502 photos in 1,618 albums and uses nearly 6 GB of storage. I've already successfully migrated this to a modern responsive photo gallery called Piwigo.
- Calendar: Surprisingly hard to find web software that offers the same features as the one from 22 years ago but that is done.
- News articles: These have been migrated to WordPress blog posts successfully. Will make it so much easier to create news articles about the beachcat world.
Lots of other odds and ends and to migrate but I feel more confident now than ever that it will happen.
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
Join the discussion at the all new TheBeachcats.com Forums HERE.
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/forums/site-talk/
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- Rank: Mate
- Registered: Jul 29, 2015
- Last visit: Feb 03, 2025
- Posts: 601
Posted: Jan 28, 2025 - 10:00 AM
Email sent
Whoo hoo! 600th post. I'm catching up to the spammers.
Edited by tominpa on Jan 28, 2025 - 11:02 AM.
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Tom
NACRA 5.7 (1984 Sail 181)
Pennsylvania
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- Rank: Lubber
- Registered: Jul 03, 2009
- Last visit: Feb 03, 2025
- Posts: 52
Posted: Feb 03, 2025 - 02:04 PM
Thats great news. I'd be glad to help.
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Cameron
Tornado (Marstrom) USA 851
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Posted: Feb 03, 2025 - 05:52 PM
I am logging in now.
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Tom
NACRA 5.7 (1984 Sail 181)
Pennsylvania
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- Rank: Administrator
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Posted: Feb 04, 2025 - 02:42 PM
We've had great response and feedback so far. About a dozen members are taking a deep dive to try and make a new better TheBeachcats.com for all of us.
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
Join the discussion at the all new TheBeachcats.com Forums HERE.
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/forums/site-talk/
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- Rank: Mate
- Registered: Oct 26, 2016
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- Posts: 235
Posted: Feb 14, 2025 - 02:53 PM
Very keen on trying it out, seeing the new hotness.
I'm a seasoned computer geek if that helps. How does one get to try?
- emailing Damon
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Posted: Feb 20, 2025 - 11:05 AM
Martin, I sent you the test site info on the 15th, have you had a chance to take a look?
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
Join the discussion at the all new TheBeachcats.com Forums HERE.
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/forums/site-talk/
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- Rank: Lubber
- Registered: May 03, 2005
- Last visit: Mar 05, 2025
- Posts: 24
Posted: Mar 05, 2025 - 10:38 PM
Damon,
Just now seeing what you are doing with the site. Holy cow that's a lot of work!! Thank you so much for keeping this going and making it even better. We sure appreciate this.
Regards, mark -
- Rank: Administrator
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- Last visit: Mar 11, 2025
- Posts: 3456
Posted: Mar 11, 2025 - 06:28 PM
Thank you! Up till now I've only been sharing the URL of the new site under construction with those that have emailed me direct. I've have just moved the under construction site to it's real server on a staging URL. Anyone still reading these forums is welcome to come try out the replacement forums and event calendar.
I have migrated all the existing site members (usernames) over but not password to keep things secure. To create a password for the new site go to the login page at
https://thebeachcats.tempurl.host/sign-in/
and use the "lost password" link to create a new password with your existing username.
Once you are logged in you can try out the parts that are ready.
If you have information for Catamaran related events, please add them to the calendar.
https://thebeachcats.tempurl.host/submit-event/
So when we go live there will be a nice list of upcoming events.
I've already added the ones for OSYC.com since I do their website and have all the information needed.
Take a look here
https://thebeachcats.tempurl.host/all-events/
One very nice feature of the new calendar is the permanent list of venues that will be created as events are added. This will allow clubs and locations to link directly to their own events.
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/catamaran-venues/
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/event-organizers/
As always, any feedback is welcome. Discuss the new site in the new Site Talk forum:
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/forums/site-talk/
Thanks for your patience and understanding during the migration.
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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN
Join the discussion at the all new TheBeachcats.com Forums HERE.
https://thebeachcats.temp…l.host/forums/site-talk/
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