I know not everyone is going to agree with this, but from my perspective the changeover to the new software is going well. There are a number of improvements, such as the ability to easily (very easily) post photos, increased speed, and, of course, the “like” button.
One improvement that no one has mentioned, though I’m sure I’d hear about it if it went the other way, is the decreased ad presence. Yes, the ads rotate, and some might find that annoying, but there is much less space devoted to them – only one ad in the header as opposed to two and no ads along the side of the pages. This was the most difficult aspect of the change, as I worked hard to keep the bulletin board from becoming cluttered, while still providing value to our advertisers.
What I’m Working On
We have a work order started with Vbulletin to find out how to allow users to select their own styles. For some unknown reason it’s not working. I can change the style globally and was planning to try a style out this weekend, but I’m going to hold off on that for a bit, as it would just be a waste of effort if VB can get the user styles working.
One of our IT guys is looking into getting the users’ location displayed in the avatar section.
What Won’t be Done
Although it would be nice to have some of the old navigation buttons and options back, changing such items is beyond the scope of what we intend to do. Yes, some other sites have customized their buttons, but it’s not an easy task and complicates things when it comes time to upgrade. That was what ended up killing the old site; we had so much customization done that we couldn’t update. This left us in “non-supported” limbo and made us easy targets for hackers and bots.
One improvement that no one has mentioned, though I’m sure I’d hear about it if it went the other way, is the decreased ad presence. Yes, the ads rotate, and some might find that annoying, but there is much less space devoted to them – only one ad in the header as opposed to two and no ads along the side of the pages. This was the most difficult aspect of the change, as I worked hard to keep the bulletin board from becoming cluttered, while still providing value to our advertisers.
What I’m Working On
We have a work order started with Vbulletin to find out how to allow users to select their own styles. For some unknown reason it’s not working. I can change the style globally and was planning to try a style out this weekend, but I’m going to hold off on that for a bit, as it would just be a waste of effort if VB can get the user styles working.
One of our IT guys is looking into getting the users’ location displayed in the avatar section.
What Won’t be Done
Although it would be nice to have some of the old navigation buttons and options back, changing such items is beyond the scope of what we intend to do. Yes, some other sites have customized their buttons, but it’s not an easy task and complicates things when it comes time to upgrade. That was what ended up killing the old site; we had so much customization done that we couldn’t update. This left us in “non-supported” limbo and made us easy targets for hackers and bots.
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