LES Platform Updates - 28th June 2026

AnthonySmith · June 28

Bit of a fresh update.

All of this is in the dev version not here yet.

The support ticket system has been replaced, it is built into vanilla now.

When you open tickets, all mods/admins get a notification, you could get an answer from anyone.

Final tweaks done to the new themes, and now the framework for adding new themes is finished, which gives a lot more flexibility than the standard vanilla system, so I might do a phpBB-style view at some point, too.

Link sharing is almost done (Hacker News Style)

New user gate almost done, new users will have to do an intro post etc before they can see or access certain areas. I am making this deliciously tempting for spam bots. Negative karma in here from older accounts will auto-ban the users.

Cloudflare Turnstyle is replacing the user registration manual approval system.

I am targeting the end of next week to get V2 live.

somik · June 29

@AnthonySmith said:
Cloudflare Turnstyle is replacing the user registration manual approval system.

Huh? No KYC validations? No asking for personal details? Are we even a real hosting forum?

MichaelCee · June 30

Amazing. I always neglected the old ticket system. Will HESK be deleted? (For my autistic data tracking purposes)

Also it's still June not July! (RE: title)

AnthonySmith · June 30

@MichaelCee said:
Amazing. I always neglected the old ticket system. Will HESK be deleted? (For my autistic data tracking purposes)

Also it's still June not July! (RE: title)

Yeah it will be deleted pretty quickly after V2 goes live

2nd time I have made that mistake thanks haha

AnthonySmith · June 30

Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Poster side:

c1vhosting · June 30

@MichaelCee said: Amazing. I always neglected the old ticket system. Will HESK be deleted? (For my autistic data tracking purposes)

Why don't you like HESK?

c1vhosting · June 30

@AnthonySmith said: Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Is there a beta mode available for users ?

AnthonySmith · June 30

@c1vhosting said:

@AnthonySmith said: Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Is there a beta mode available for users ?

There was going to be, but I am just going to skip past that and save a few weeks of feedback I probably cant implement anyway and push it to live pretty quickly, hopefully Thursday if life allows it.

Then, if there are any big issues, I will deal with them

c1vhosting · June 30

@AnthonySmith said:

@c1vhosting said:

@AnthonySmith said: Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Is there a beta mode available for users ?

There was going to be, but I am just going to skip past that and save a few weeks of feedback I probably cant implement anyway and push it to live pretty quickly, hopefully Thursday if life allows it.

Then, if there are any big issues, I will deal with them

Seems reasonable

msatt · June 30

Sorry - I don't understand 'Upvote this post to reveal its contents' - so we are voting for something we can't see ?

AnthonySmith · June 30

@msatt said:
Sorry - I don't understand 'Upvote this post to reveal its contents' - so we are voting for something we can't see ?

there will be a ```karmagate tag for the content in the post you want hidden.

WSS · June 30

@AnthonySmith said:

@msatt said:
Sorry - I don't understand 'Upvote this post to reveal its contents' - so we are voting for something we can't see ?

there will be a ```karmagate tag for the content in the post you want hidden.

That's the most Reddit coded thing I've observed, and I don't mean that complementary.

MichaelCee · June 30

@c1vhosting said: Why don't you like HESK?

I don't not like HESK. It was just an extra step to deal with tickets

Not_Oles · June 30

@AnthonySmith said: push it to live pretty quickly, hopefully Thursday if life allows it.

Like everyone else, I look forward to the new LES2. But, in case anyone might get a little nostalgic, I thought to post a screenshot of the LES I have been seeing up to now: my Chromebook's dark theme, and lots of zoom to address my visual challenges (the right hand column renders on the bottom, below the fold). Thanks to Ant for all the work on the new LES!

AnthonySmith · June 30

@Not_Oles said:

@AnthonySmith said: push it to live pretty quickly, hopefully Thursday if life allows it.

Like everyone else, I look forward to the new LES2. But, in case anyone might get a little nostalgic, I thought to post a screenshot of the LES I have been seeing up to now: my Chromebook's dark theme, and lots of zoom to address my visual challenges (the right hand column renders on the bottom, below the fold). Thanks to Ant for all the work on the new LES!

You might enjoy the new vBulletin Dark theme then, no side bar at all.

mikho · July 1

@AnthonySmith said: Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Poster side:

If you don't like the offer, will it be possible to change the upvote to a downvote?

AnthonySmith · July 1

@mikho said:

@AnthonySmith said: Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Poster side:

If you don't like the offer, will it be possible to change the upvote to a downvote?

Yes

rpqu · July 1

@AnthonySmith said:

@mikho said:

@AnthonySmith said: Karma gate plugin done, still testing end-to-end currently enabled for offers and sub categories in dev version of LES.

Poster side:

If you don't like the offer, will it be possible to change the upvote to a downvote?

Yes

lol

Customer: The discount code doesn't work/OOS * downvote *
The host: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

havoc · July 1

Hey @AnthonySmith you should sign up for one of those buy me a coffee platform things.

Not willing to whitelist all google ads internet wide & dns adblock means I can't do it selectively. But happy to float some quid your way given viable means. (hell if you send me uk bank deets i'll do that)

AnthonySmith · July 1

@havoc said:
Hey @AnthonySmith you should sign up for one of those buy me a coffee platform things.

Not willing to whitelist all google ads internet wide & dns adblock means I can't do it selectively. But happy to float some quid your way given viable means. (hell if you send me uk bank deets i'll do that)

Hey much appreciated, trying to stay away from donations, don't worry about the adblocks I also adblock.

Once I get LES V2 up I will have reduced the costs by about 70% I recon so less important in the short term.

Not_Oles · July 1

@AnthonySmith said: trying to stay away from donations

Many people want to send you money.

But you want to stay away from donations, because, if I understand right, donations are "sales" and thus create an obligation to pay VAT.

I don't know much about UK law. But it's really hard for me to understand how donations here at LES could be deemed anything other than gifts. And I don't understand how gifts could be within the scope of VAT.

Can anyone please link to an opinion from a UK court holding or that a gift of funds might make "a director of a VAT-registered limited company" and/or the gift recipient limited company itself liable for VAT?

Does anybody have a copy of Trafalgar Tours Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise, apparently a leading case from 1990, a bit too early to be publicly available for free, apparently holding that VAT liabilities must be determined by the true economic reality and full value of transactions?

Taking a quick look around, some of the cases seem to involve a company providing free services that generally are subject to pricing being required to pay VAT on the value of those services. But that's value flow in the opposite direction to the subject of interest here, which is the public providing gifts to to a company and receiving "nothing" in return, receiving no special privileges, receiving no tag, receiving nothing not available generally to anyone and everyone for free without any gift/donation.

Given what little I can understand about the Trafalgar opinion without actually reading it, applying the "true economic reality and full value" test to gifts/donations to LES probably gives zero. Thus, following Trafalgar, donations to LES seemingly could not be subject to VAT.

I wonder what precedent Ant's attorney relies on to say that LES donations might be subject to VAT?

Thanks!

ahnlak · July 1

@Not_Oles said:

@AnthonySmith said: trying to stay away from donations

Many people want to send you money.

But you want to stay away from donations, because, if I understand right, donations are "sales" and thus create an obligation to pay VAT.

I don't know much about UK law. But it's really hard for me to understand how donations here at LES could be deemed anything other than gifts. And I don't understand how gifts could be within the scope of VAT.

Can anyone please link to an opinion from a UK court holding or that a gift of funds might make "a director of a VAT-registered limited company" and/or the gift recipient limited company itself liable for VAT?

Does anybody have a copy of Trafalgar Tours Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise, apparently a leading case from 1990, a bit too early to be publicly available for free, apparently holding that VAT liabilities must be determined by the true economic reality and full value of transactions?

Taking a quick look around, some of the cases seem to involve a company providing free services that generally are subject to pricing being required to pay VAT on the value of those services. But that's value flow in the opposite direction to the subject of interest here, which is the public providing gifts to to a company and receiving "nothing" in return, receiving no special privileges, receiving no tag, receiving nothing not available generally to anyone and everyone for free without any gift/donation.

Given what little I can understand about the Trafalgar opinion without actually reading it, applying the "true economic reality and full value" test to gifts/donations to LES probably gives zero. Thus, following Trafalgar, donations to LES seemingly could not be subject to VAT.

I wonder what precedent Ant's attorney relies on to say that LES donations might be subject to VAT?

Thanks!

I imagine it's the fact that it's in return for providing services that his company otherwise sells, which would potentially be enough to make HMRC want to take a very close look. It also rather depends on the VAT scheme he's operating under. Sure, you could take it to court if you felt strongly enough and wanted to invest the time and money arguing the toss with HMRC but I can completely understand his lack of enthusiasm for that particular path.

It's all a bit beside the point though; he's already made his position clear and it really doesn't matter if he only thinks it because a wood nymph told him so - internet lawyering him is probably just adding stress to the situation for no benefit.

AnthonySmith · July 1

@Not_Oles I took advice from my accountant, he said no, he made valid points, we work on a merchant of record system which is very different and by design, I trust him, simple.

I am not going to argue this at the high court for £50, even if I am right or wrong and actually beyond that it was your comments in your previous objection to adverts that made me sure that taking donations from members would be a huge mistake.

I am not going to take donations.

A lot more is going to change, mostly back to how it started, how it is is not bad it's just different, if that results in a community fork I am supportive of that and won't take it personally lowendworld.com was available last time I checked and LEW has a nice ring to it.

When I pass the leadership on again (when not if) it will change again,and that's ok.

Encoders · July 2

btw is it normal to get logged out from LES so frequently? usually, i only had to login once every few weeks, now it's like i'm logged out daily.
there's a fair chance my IP drastically changes since i'm behind cgnat though

AnthonySmith · July 2

@Encoders said:
btw is it normal to get logged out from LES so frequently? usually, i only had to login once every few weeks, now it's like i'm logged out daily.
there's a fair chance my IP drastically changes since i'm behind cgnat though

Nothing has changed in that regard so it's probably your CGNAT

mikho · July 2

@AnthonySmith said:
@Not_Oles I took advice from my accountant, he said no, he made valid points, we work on a merchant of record system which is very different and by design, I trust him, simple.

I am not going to argue this at the high court for £50, even if I am right or wrong and actually beyond that it was your comments in your previous objection to adverts that made me sure that taking donations from members would be a huge mistake.

I am not going to take donations.

A lot more is going to change, mostly back to how it started, how it is is not bad it's just different, if that results in a community fork I am supportive of that and won't take it personally lowendworld.com was available last time I checked and LEW has a nice ring to it.

When I pass the leadership on again (when not if) it will change again,and that's ok.

If you, and others, still want to donate.... I'll setup a page and let you donate me a cup of coffee .... It's kinda expensive being addicted to coffee...

somik · July 2

@mikho said:
If you, and others, still want to donate.... I'll setup a page and let you donate me a cup of coffee .... It's kinda expensive being addicted to coffee...

If you are making your own coffee, it shouldn't be that expensive. Good luck if you only drink specialty cafe's cups of coffee...

mikho · July 2

@somik said:

@mikho said:
If you, and others, still want to donate.... I'll setup a page and let you donate me a cup of coffee .... It's kinda expensive being addicted to coffee...

If you are making your own coffee, it shouldn't be that expensive. Good luck if you only drink specialty cafe's cups of coffee...

I buy whole beans from the store and grind them myself. Prices have more than doubled in the past few years. Even if it's cheaper than shop-bought (and tastes better), it is still expensive

AnthonySmith · July 2

@mikho said:

@somik said:

@mikho said:
If you, and others, still want to donate.... I'll setup a page and let you donate me a cup of coffee .... It's kinda expensive being addicted to coffee...

If you are making your own coffee, it shouldn't be that expensive. Good luck if you only drink specialty cafe's cups of coffee...

I buy whole beans from the store and grind them myself. Prices have more than doubled in the past few years. Even if it's cheaper than shop-bought (and tastes better), it is still expensive

I started buying extra toothpaste, and tin foil, kitchen roll and TP every time I shop now, stuff that will last forever or 10+ years because its gonna be 4x or 10x the price by then and I can store it easy, along with a 4ltr bottle of vegetable oil (I have about 400 ltr now), I only cook with butter, but if the SHTF I can at least run my car on the oil, I know it will destroy it within a few thousand miles but its better than nothing.

I feel like we are heading into a very civilised apocalypse right now.

The papal magnets have been placed, and we are all heading in the same direction (if you get that reference, you are awesome)

bikegremlin · July 2

@AnthonySmith said:

@mikho said:

@somik said:

@mikho said:
If you, and others, still want to donate.... I'll setup a page and let you donate me a cup of coffee .... It's kinda expensive being addicted to coffee...

If you are making your own coffee, it shouldn't be that expensive. Good luck if you only drink specialty cafe's cups of coffee...

I buy whole beans from the store and grind them myself. Prices have more than doubled in the past few years. Even if it's cheaper than shop-bought (and tastes better), it is still expensive

I started buying extra toothpaste, and tin foil, kitchen roll and TP every time I shop now, stuff that will last forever or 10+ years because its gonna be 4x or 10x the price by then and I can store it easy, along with a 4ltr bottle of vegetable oil (I have about 400 ltr now), I only cook with butter, but if the SHTF I can at least run my car on the oil, I know it will destroy it within a few thousand miles but its better than nothing.

I feel like we are heading into a very civilised apocalypse right now.

The papal magnets have been placed, and we are all heading in the same direction (if you get that reference, you are awesome)

Old diesels (like mine LOL) run on vegetable oil just fine.
Some hunters used that because it is now cheaper than diesel fuel in Serbia.

Popcorn smell is a nice extra.

AnthonySmith · July 2

@bikegremlin said:

@AnthonySmith said:

@mikho said:

@somik said:

@mikho said:
If you, and others, still want to donate.... I'll setup a page and let you donate me a cup of coffee .... It's kinda expensive being addicted to coffee...

If you are making your own coffee, it shouldn't be that expensive. Good luck if you only drink specialty cafe's cups of coffee...

I buy whole beans from the store and grind them myself. Prices have more than doubled in the past few years. Even if it's cheaper than shop-bought (and tastes better), it is still expensive

I started buying extra toothpaste, and tin foil, kitchen roll and TP every time I shop now, stuff that will last forever or 10+ years because its gonna be 4x or 10x the price by then and I can store it easy, along with a 4ltr bottle of vegetable oil (I have about 400 ltr now), I only cook with butter, but if the SHTF I can at least run my car on the oil, I know it will destroy it within a few thousand miles but its better than nothing.

I feel like we are heading into a very civilised apocalypse right now.

The papal magnets have been placed, and we are all heading in the same direction (if you get that reference, you are awesome)

Old diesels (like mine LOL) run on vegetable oil just fine.
Some hunters used that because it is now cheaper than diesel fuel in Serbia.

Popcorn smell is a nice extra.

I have a Volvo XC70 D5 and everything I have looked up tells me its gonna block the injectors in no time no matter what I do, I am not sure how much of that is just trying to put people off slipping the off few ltr in to the car But it's getting towards 200,000 miles now, might even hit 200k this month, so I don't know how much I care.

LES Platform Updates - 28th June 2026

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