So I've been wanting to try minecraft out, and I have this new iPhone that needs apps. I've heard that the minecraft pocket edition is a bit lacking, but it's only $7, which keeps me from spending too much money when I've already spent way too much this month.

Is the pocket edition any good?

Some of you here probably already know about Simmania.org, which is a simcity, Cities XL, and Minecraft community with an active chat community as well. It's been around for quite a while and has developed a pretty nice, small community atmosphere. Simlink and I are currently administrators over there, and invite anyone who has an interest in Simcity or games of that genre to come check us out.

Of course if you have your own communities, feel free to promote them in this board as well! We want to check them out!
-Darth

So imageshack apparently just radically changed their policies. Now you will get a 30 day free trial (which probably has already started for you if you have logged on recently) and after that, you will be required to pay $2/month to continue to use their services.

I'm honestly a bit disappointed. I'm considering getting the subscription, to preserve my existing images and for consistency, but it is a major putoff for me. Anyway, if anyone is looking for a simple, free image host, someimage.com might be worth looking at. I plan on moving some stuff over there very shortly.

What are your thoughts?

So I just got an iPhone 4. Yes, the model that was released nearly four years ago. I got a used one in an effort to avoid using my contract's upgrade, as I plan on switching providers this summer.

Anyway, does anyone actually still use the iPhone 4? It's a considerable upgrade from my current phone, but it's still four years old.

For those of you who watched last night's debate, what did you think? Who do you feel "won" the debate?

Be sure to vote in the poll! Feel free to add your thoughts below.

Makestation's blue color scheme shall be replaced soon. I've recently purchased a theme from Audentio, and plan on customizing it over the next couple of weeks. Makestation is going to have a completely fresh look and feel altogether, and I think you guys will love the changes.

I also plan on tweaking the existing theme a bit, and maybe even releasing it down the road. It was designed exclusively for Makestation, but I have a feeling we'll be done with it once the new one rolls in. (Chances are, I'll tweak the original "submatrix" rather than the "2014 dev" version that we're currently on. )

Anyway, anyone have any suggestions for the new site design? Feel free to post them here!

So when was the last time you ever used a VHS player?

It's been years since I've even had one, so I have not used one in a while. I actually do not have a blu ray player yet though. Maybe when I get my laptop...

Unless you're going the free forum hosting route, the costs of running a forum can go through the roof pretty quickly. With cheap hosting and a decent domain provider, you should be able to get hosting + a domain for around $70/year, which isn't bad, but that doesn't include any costs for premium themes, plugins, etc...

Personally, I'm budgeting around $100/year for the hosting + the domain, and an additional $50-60/month for plugins and themes. ($17 spent already for 2014 )

What do you typically budget for your forums and websites?

Are you looking for a high-quality, inexpensive webhost with a good reputation? There are a few hosts that I have some experience with that I can very strongly recommend. Of course I always recommend doing your own research to ensure that you find something that works for you, but the following may be worth taking a look at.

Shared Hosting: T1hosting.com

T1hosting is probably by far the best low-cost budget host that I have found as of yet, and has great uptime, reliability, and service. Their gold plan currently offers unlimited domains setup and 1TB of bandwidth for $5/month if paid annually. (Yes, some hosts offer "unlimited" bandwidth, but few of them will actually stick to that if you start using a lot of bandwidth. )

They also have some very inexpensive plans. A quick look at their homepage, and you can literally pay less than $2/month for sufficient hosting for not just one, but multiple websites. Not a deal that's easy to find with many webhosts. If you're looking for the best "bang for your buck," I'd strongly recommend taking a look at their plans.

VPS hosting: Ramnode

Makestation is proudly hosted with Ramnode currently. They are a highly reliable unmanaged VPS provider with great packages, uptime, service, and support for a very low cost. I host quite a lot on this server, and it has never had any issues whatsoever. All I can say is that I'm quite impressed. It's definitely worth a look.

Free forum hosting: Icyboards

Icyboards one of the best free forum hosts that I have found to date. They offer a wide variety of plugins, great uptime, high performance, etc... and allow you to upload your own themes and edit your templates. They even allow you to move the ads around so that they look good with your theme! Now that's something you don't see often.

In any case, Icyboards is a pretty solid free host. If you don't want to go the paid hosting route, they are worth looking at. Createaforum.com and smfnew.com (which is now under new ownership) are both worth looking at as well if you prefer SMF-based hosting.

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If you have any good experiences with any webhosts not listed here, feel free to post your experiences below to help the community of fellow webmasters here!

-Darth

Awful at intros. The name is Chris, I take pictures.