Forum upgrade?

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Brian G Turner

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Have you considered upgrading the forum software, to something like Xenforo?

At the moment I get almost zero notice of anyone interacting with me on the forums, something that is normal in xenforo.

And you're still running vb4, which it's difficult to say anything positive about - except that it's not vb5!

Just suggesting you consider it, as after being on other forums, the forum software here feels very creaky by comparison. Though I'm aware that few people enjoy change and that some members may become apoplectic if you change a single HTML element...
 

Maryn

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Y'all kickin' in the big money and creating an investment portfolio with guaranteed return to make upgrades possible?
 

AW Admin

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Have you considered upgrading the forum software, to something like Xenforo?

At the moment I get almost zero notice of anyone interacting with me on the forums, something that is normal in xenforo.

You need to turn on Notifications. Yours are not on.
Click Settings (Top right)
Scroll down to General Settings in the sidebar on the left
Click General Settings
Scroll to the section headed Messaging and Notification
Click Email Notifications if you want to be automatically emailed when you receive a PM.

You may also want to consider Thread Subscriptions; see FAQ: Everything You Wanted to Know About Thread Subscriptions.

You may have also missed the Notifications menu on the top right.

And you're still running vb4, which it's difficult to say anything positive about - except that it's not vb5!

Just suggesting you consider it, as after being on other forums, the forum software here feels very creaky by comparison. Though I'm aware that few people enjoy change and that some members may become apoplectic if you change a single HTML element...

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for a free forum staffed by volunteers. It means a great deal to us all, I know.
 

AW Admin

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I have three other forums I'm regular on and they're all on vbulletin. It's so much more responsive, I always miss a lot of functunality here.

What functionality specifically are you missing?

I've been slowly, carefully modifying various options since the April upgrade, and am open to suggestions that are doable and won't cause problems.
 

Brian G Turner

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Cheers for the reply - I'm not actually referring to email notifications, though.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for a free forum staffed by volunteers. It means a great deal to us all, I know.

I'm a new user offering feedback, highlighting that you're running legacy software. I agree I could have been less brash and more diplomatic about it and I apologise for not being so. My main point was simply how lacking the vb4 user experience is compared to more more social platforms.
 
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Jo Zebedee

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What functionality specifically are you missing?

I've been slowly, carefully modifying various options since the April upgrade, and am open to suggestions that are doable and won't cause problems.


The main things that I find not as user-friendly on vbulletin (and when my main forum switched I was kicking and screaming because I could see nothing wrong with it - and the legacy system was very similar to AW's now):

The ability to tag people within posts. It means if I know someone is a specialist in a particular field and may not have seen something, I can alert them. It also builds a sense of community, as there's a lot of flow between members.

The alert system is much more interactive. I'm alerted if I'm tagged, if someone quotes me, or if someone replies to a thread I've been on. I know I can do some of that here, but on xenforo it's all gathered in one neat little pull down menu.

The profile page and alerts are really user friendly. Here, I sometimes get a bit muddled.

I can also see at a glance which threads I've been active in - and that's really useful on a big forum when similar threads can come up from time to time.

A couple of the forums I know of on xenforo, if it's useful to look at how it works and what's available, include sffworld, sffchronicles.com, and best fantasy books (the forum bit, not the main page.)

i have no idea how hard it was to update to the new software, though - although sffworld did it so quickly I missed it!
 
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MacAllister

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Thanks for the feedback, folks.

We appreciate it, and we'll factor the information into our ongoing process here. :)
 
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