Your Help Needed - Evalutating NEW Forum Software

[Nifty]

Hi Friends!!!

We need your help!

We've been running TEG on some pretty old software. Over the years there have been some great advances in forum software. We've tried to keep up by hacking away at this software, but that's proving harder and messier as time goes by. We want to do all we can to support our wonderful community and our amazing staff and make everything easier for everyone in the long term.

I'm personally VERY involved in the forum software space and have kept a close eye on the changing landscape for years. We've been evaluating another forum platform that is very popular and robust. The forum system we're looking most closely at is called XenForo and is not the same platform that BYC is on. We've been playing with it for a while and we think it looks great!

Here's where you come in: I recently purchased a forum that is running the Xenforo software so we could kick the tires. So far we're really impressed with the software, but we need your help to do even more robust tire kickinating!

Here's what we'd like you to do:

1) Go to http://RemodelForums.com/
2) Browse around and create an account
3) Start a new "introduction thread", maybe upload a picture or three
4) Play around with all the various features, PM's (called conversations over there) etc.
5) Come back here and tell us what you think, ask questions, etc.

We've done a test conversion and so far it's worked great! Users, passwords, threads, posts, PMs, etc. all converted. There are some things that may be frustrating with a move and we know change is hard and very few people like change... but we're pretty confident that this has the potential to be a HUGE benefit to our community and we'd love your feedback and support!

Thanks everyone, we look forward to your replies!!!

 

[dickiebird]

I'm a member of another forum that uses the XenForo platform and I don't like it at all.
I used to spend quite a bit of time posting there but have just about quit even checking in.

THANX RICH

 

[Nifty]

Thanks for the feedback!

What didn't / don't you like about it? Feel free to PM me if you'd rather talk there or link me to the site.

We've had a handful of people testing the other system and so far the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. With that said, we definitely would want to avoid any hiccups / problems, and some things that might be problems may have ways we can tweak and fix them.

 

[journey11]

Checking it out...

 

[897tgigvib]

I'll try it more in the morning after my coffee is kicked in. I looked at the one page in another tab. So far my only thing is the contrast is weak for my eyes, but I know that colors and fonts should be an easy tweak fix.

More trying on it in the morning.

Oh, will all the old posts and threads from here be saved and added to it at least as archive?

 

[Nifty]

but I know that colors and fonts should be an easy tweak fix.

Oh, will all the old posts and threads from here be saved and added to it at least as archive?

Yes we'll completely have customizable colors. Those are just the ones on that site.

Yes, for sure all the posts, threads, Private Messages, subscriptions, etc. will absolutely be imported over!!!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

went over to check it out but don't have much time to really sign up or post stuff yet. but looks interesting for a forum! i'm working on fixing our old house so it will probably come in handy to read and contribute to a few subjects.

 

[NwMtGardener]

It seems pretty straightforward so far. Easy to join and find your way around. I'm not a fan of how we upload pics here at TEG, seems so slow and cumbersome to me, so even though i didnt post any pics @ the remodel forum, i feel like anything would be an improvement over what we have now!!

I really like that you can like posts!! One thing i really like about TEG is how our Recent Posts works - as far as how the unread posts are bold, and when you've read them they stay in that same place, just aren't bold anymore. That's pretty much exclusively how i read posts here. But i noticed the remodel forum worked differently - the New Post tab at the top - once you've looked at the post, it disappears from that tab. I do see the recent posts tab over to the right, Which is handy, but it only seems to hold the 5 most recent posts. I guess i would want THAT to be a tab at the top as well, like we have here.

OHH wait, just found another button that says Recent Posts, and looks familiar - bold and not bold. Can you put THAT just right on the main menu bar next to New Posts? As of now, the only way once you're in a thread to get back to Recent posts is to go to New Posts, then back to Recent. At least from what i can see.

Overall i like it! They need to get some more great members like we have here!!

 

[Nifty]

Pic posting here is a nightmare!!

(I can say that since I'm the one that helped develop it)

The new system will have super easy image uploads! Even drag/drop and copy/paste of images right into your post. See more info about this here

The benefits on the back-end are vast (for example WAY better spam prevention tools ) but also way more / better features for users, for example:

Auto saved drafts of every post: Say you're typing something and your computer shuts down or you accidentally close your browser. A draft of your post is automatically saved in the background and you can restore and edit / post it if you like!

Much better WYSIWYG editor (linking text, bold, etc. is much better)

A "responsive" design that will make the site beautiful on mobile devices (not implemented on the remodel forums site, but coming. You can test out what mobile would kinda look like at the link here )

"Watch" an entire forum section: Say you're really interested in one particular section of the community and want to be notified when there are new posts to that section. You'd be able to subscribe to an entire section and get notifications when new topics are posted!

Threaded Private Messages (called "Conversations"): Instead of every message being in a new row / line-item in your inbox, you can have a threaded conversation with a person (or multiple people). This really helps keep the inbox clean and makes it easier to keep track of conversations.

... and much more.

Again, we have enough experience in these things to know that:

1) People hate change
2) Change is never easy
3) Everything won't work perfectly
4) A handful of things won't be better... some may be worse

Honestly, I'm dealing with this right now with a house move I'm in the middle of. I'm actually kinda regretting moving into a bigger / nicer house since I don't love change, moving is a pain, and certain comforts I'm use to may be lost. With that said, I know the long-term benefits of moving into the nicer house will be good for me, my wife, and our daughters. The exact same thing applies here... a move would entail some pain points, but if we feel a move would be best for the long-term of our community, we'll probably want to push through the initial pain to get more pleasure in the long-term.

 

[so lucky]

I like it pretty well so far. One thing I can't find is a way to disable the e-mail alerts when a new post is added to something I commented on. I'm sure it can be done........
I stated on SS that I like the fact that the italics and underline features work, which I have never gotten to work on here.
Another thing, when I answered Canesisters, the only option I saw was to quote her with my answer. I will have to check things out more. Consider, please, that I am tech handicapped, lol!
And, what about emoticons? Are they available?