You'd each get x-amount of invite codes and they'd replenish themselves ever x-days. (I can muck with those.)

Guests would need an invitation code in order to register. I can also replenish codes if there's an influx, though I doubt there would be much of one, but you never know. I'm thinking that some folks who aren't really 'goats' might want to visit, as I will probably share this site on a couple of other link aggregation sites.

It'd cut down on abuse/spam. It'd make the site a member's only type of site, which might turn some people off - or it may just make them want to join and participate.

I'm really indifferent, but think it's a nifty feature. As this site isn't about me, or necessarily even about what i want, I'm going to toss this at the community (such as it is.)

I'll be making zero changes until after the poll has expired. The poll is open for 14 days. Anyone can register in that time, regardless of how the poll ends up. I have confirmed and tested the modification and it will work with this site and with this theme. Please add any comments you can think of, with regards to this subject, as a comment to this thread.

The cassette (I seem to recall they're officially called 'compact cassettes) overhangs from the blue to the white.

I have grown fond of it. It's trivial to change, 'cause Ol' Buddha is getting better at image editing. But I kinda like it.

I even made that cassette image in GIMP! Damned right, I did. Well, more accurately I added the text and was able to manipulate the text to appear centered. That took surprisingly few tries, like just three or four. I didn't even have to close GIMP and start over again!

Anyhow, I kinda like it.

The theme you should see, as the site currently looks, should be the final theme tried!

I should explain...

SMF, that's the software that runs this forum, has a theme system and a plugin system. The default theme kind of sucks and I am just not skilled enough to modify it. I don't have the required skills, nor do I feel compelled to learn them. 'Snot what I enjoy doing.

The thing is, the plugin system uses a fancy 'find/replace' mechanism. That's handy, but many themes deviate so far from the core/default theme that they simply don't have the text to find/replace with. So, getting the plugins to work is a herculean task and one I'm absolutely unwilling to do.

I pretty much tried dozens of themes. You may have seen them. As it is, this needs more customization, but it's progressing nicely. The damned image up there at the top needs to be shrunk by like 8 to 10 pixels. I will eventually get there, but it's now time to extend the functionality and check stability. Then I can worry about cosmetic issues.

Wow... That was a pain in the ass. I so hope I'm right and that this theme is the one that'll work for us. If not, I'm gonna be grumpy as all hell - or just not add features that I'd have added.

I need to go back and change group member colors. I'll get there.

Because I have severe time restrictions, and not much assistance from the peanut gallery, there will be no "Grand Opening."

Instead, I'll roll out features as I go. For now, I'm going to get the basic functionality working and I'll then continue to improve the site as we move along.

If you'd like to request features, offer to help, or can think of anything to add to this project, let me know.