OK, so this WILL be the official thread for the annual ACUF webathon. I want to give some back story to this site and lend some transparency to the donations.
When Harris first bought AC, a group of us (the moderators and some others) began talking about the possibility of starting a board in case AC was shut down quickly. This was in no way a reflection on Harris. We just knew little about them and it happened suddenly. We knew that if AC was shut down, we would all be have difficulty. But, if we could "go down together," it would be easier to deal with. Time went by, and the thought died out and no other site was started.
Then, I believe some time in late June 2019, Harris announced it was closing the board effective "very quickly." The moderators and I talked and rather than make it a group effort at the time, I just started putting things in motion. There just wasn't enough time.
I hosted an encrypted site on Bluehost.com, obtained a domain name, and then went about hiring (OK begging to work for free) Ruben. Ruben was one of the moderators and top poster at
UBB Central. UBB Central hosted the original ACUB only the host admin for AC wasn't quite the same as Ruben. Whenever I needed help with the ACUB, I would go over and post a question there and many users with help just like on this board. Ruben was usually the one who answered. While I do most of the day to day stuff with the board, Ruben does all of the behind the scenes work. There is a rather complex control panel and the need to work with code that I can't do. Basically, I did the grunt work. Ruben set up the site. And, while I can't give out any information, we have Ruben to thank for preserving the old posts. You will also notice that the site just looks cleaner, is compatible with smartphones and just magically seems to have the right version. AC generally didn't fall behind more than two or three upgrades.
Somewhere in July 2019, the board became a reality and the first new post was made. It has been a smooth ride since that time.
So for the transparency: Bluehost charges $311 a year for hosting the site. That is with all the security one would want, i.e. https:// etc. I send a little (I mean little) something Ruben's way. This idea for contributions was recent and it was more to allow those who wanted to contribute up to $20 more than the site would go under unless all of us pitched in. I feel like it will be more like our board this way. So, my idea is run an ACUF webathon every July. So, far we have five contributions for $100. Any amount over $300 will go to thanking Ruben. The names will stay anonymous. Ruben and I have toyed around with a few ideas.
So, bottom line is I started and underwrote the forum, Ruben develped and made the forum and continues to be its only support staff, and all the AC users have, as usual, breathed life into the board. Sharing knowledge, ideas, thoughts on medicine and life in general and just being around for all of us. I would recommend you go back in the July 2019 posts both before and after the transition. It's like going from the last episode of M.A.S.H. to the new episodes of Scrubs. Well time for me to start and thread and either vent, complain or bitch about something. I hope the word bitch makes it through. Ruben has censored a lot of words that I use everyday.
