Post #774512 by hanford_lemoore on Sun, Mar 26, 2017 6:48 PM

Hey everyone!

I'll try to address some of the comments in this topic. First off, for those who don't know, I'm the cofounder and current owner on Tiki Central, but I've been hands off for it for more than a few years now. So here it goes:

How much longer can Tiki Central last?

It is in no danger of disappearing. While I have not done much to advance the tech, I have definitely kept the lights on, worked on anti-spam hacks when required, and have kept the information it holds continuing to be available to the public a main priority.

I have had many offers to sell TC, and I've always refused. I can't help but think about Dana Countryman's Cool & Strange Music magazine, a magazine he put a lot of love into. He sold it to someone whose intention was to keep it going ... but another issue never, ever came out.

I don't want to sell TC to someone with good intentions, and then be handcuffed when they screw it up somehow. Besides, I have never fully felt like Tiki Central was mine to sell. The website belongs to me, but it's not what makes it special.

But what about the images that were lost?

Another example of not-being-in-control coming back to haunt us. We were using Shutterfly for image hosting, which was all well and good. But then Myspace happened, and people were posting Shutterfly links on Myspace, and it was driving up Shutterfly's bandwidth costs. So Shutterfly changed how their URLs work and broke all of our images.

Also, we've had other people hosting images with their own galleries, who eventually shut it down and all those links broke too. There's even been other Tiki forums that people invested years of their lives in, that apparently the owners just shut down abruptly, and everyone lost thousands of posts and photos.

I don't ever want that to happen to TC because I sold it or gave it to other people. And AFAIK we've not lost any images that were uploaded to Tiki Central proper.

So, why doesn't it work well on mobile? Why have you not upgraded it?

So, when I said I wanted to keep it myself so nothing happens to it .... I don't mean literally nothing. But the web has grown beyond what it used to be and I simply don't have the coding skills and the time to give it the proper attention it deserves.

But on the flipside .... there's something to be said for keeping things the way they are. When the heyday of the Tiki Bar faded, their decor got "updated" and themes changed. Even our beloved Trader Vic's in Emeryville painted the ceiling white in hopes to lighten the decor and attract more of an audience. And even when I made tiny changes to TC, I heard grumbling from some users (I remember a font size change that pissed a lot of people off, for example)

So in a way I've come to view Tiki Central in the same light as classic Tiki Bars. It's something that should remain a product of its time, representative of its own heyday. It should get proper upkeep, but not change significantly from what it has always been.

What would you think if you came to visit your favorite Tiki Bar, and low and behold, it looked totally different? How would you feel?

Now, what would you think if you came to visit good ol' Tiki Central, and low and behold, it looked totally different? what then?

**But Hanford, Websites aren't like physical spaces. In the web you can have multiple views ... **

Yes, I'm quite aware of this ... I mean, hey, I'm writing the questions as well as the answers here. :) I do think there's a way to make Tiki Central mobile friendly and add modern features without changing the spirit of the site.

But those changes that Tiki Central desperately needs must be well thought out, property planned, and expertly executed, or else Tiki Central will be like a dreaded Tiki Bar remodel.

The work it needs isn't as difficult as some make it sound. Tiki Central is kind of built on an ancient structure, but the data itself (images and posts) are all in a format that is very well understood. It it not a herculean task to modernize it and move it to a better platform.

However, it's also not trivial. It's not something that is achievable in a few weekends of spare time. And again, it's something I don't want to put in the hands of others without my oversight.

But in short, it needs to be done right.

It's something I want to do eventually, but I don't have a timeframe. But in the meantime I definitely will not abandon it.

I hope this quells any fears you have. While I don't post here anymore, I wouldn't be the same person without the ohana of Tiki Central, and all the amazingness it has brought me. I have made a lot of good friends here and it has changed my life, and I and Haka will keep it running as best we can.

Mahalo!