Well, we have been running VB since the early stages of 3.0 back in 2004. Over the past 6+ years there have been many changes to VB some that have been good and some that have been bad. More and more lately the VB changes have added addition bloat and just have flat out not worked. Most recently, VB released their latest release 4.1.4. With this release, they have included the new CKeditor. This new editor allows chrome/opera/safari users to also use the wysiwyg editor. There was also about 250+ bugs fixed with this release along with some of the asset manager fixes (pic uploading). That is the good stuff.:laugh: The bad stuff is so bad, that at this time we will not be updating. The bad consists of some MAJOR issues. Such as to make a post/thread on ANY mobile device, you need to click the editor change button (from wysiwyg to std and back again) just to post something. So you have to click a button a couple of times BEFORE you can make a post. This update causes all kinda of havoc with tapatalk. It basically wrecks the whole site to mobile users, something that I don't want to deal with. Along with this bloat, VB is adding more and more useless (for us) features. Most of which are so integrated into the code, that it ends up being something that just takes up resources (slows the site down), while providing us no benefit. So a while back I picked up a Xenforo license. I have been messing around with the software on and off for the past couple of months, but this latest VB "upgrade", I have determined that I might be moving MNSubaru to this new platform. With this move, it will open the door for MNS to rework the new software into something that we can fully utilize without all the extra bloat that doesn't get used. So what I am looking for from you, is what you would like to see in the new site. I have heard through the grapevine that some of you are not happy with the site whether it is how it is run or the colors/options we have. Now will be the time to express your concerns and opinions on what you would like to see. MNSubaru is a user driven community and I would like to get as much feedback from everyone as I can. This is your chance to influence what options the new site will have along with possible new features that will help keep the community thriving. So please, let us have it. Colors, features, and ideas. Things you like, things you don't like. Once we have the features that you guys/gals would like to see and get everything working properly, I will make a announcement and invite a few beta testers into the new site to check things out. This is going to be a HUGE change, so it is not something that will be happening in the new week or 2. I would hope that by the end of July I will be able to get a couple of beta testers onto the new site to help look for bugs and then roll out the new site sometime after that. Thank you The moderation team
Here are a couple of screen shots of some of the themes that I have been working with so far. Dark Light Russ
Well, any of the older VB3.x series is no longer supported. And going back to anything in the VB4.x series is actually just going backwards. And for what it is worth, the amount of work it would take to revert back to a unsupported VB3.x series, we can just do that work with Xenforo. With the XF change, it will be light years ahead in forum software. Most (probably 70%) of the VB add-on developers have already jumped ship to XF. At the end of the day, I don't have to really do anything. That doesn't help get rid of the bugs and currently VB is more inclined to add "features" than fix stuff. I figure it would be nice to have a bit of a change of pace. I am looking for a new software challenge, so switching the forum software fulfills both of those items (for me). This also gives everyone in the community to voice their opinions on what they would like to see happen with the site and we can try and roll those ideas into the new site. This is just as much your community as it is mine. I just keep the website/server stuff up and running. I would like to include everyone in the decision making process. Russ
I'm not big on the dark themed forums. A white background makes for easier reading and a much cleaner look. I think a nice rally blue color with yellow highlights and a white background would look pretty sweet. Very Nasioc I know, but very Subaru for sure. Maybe the silver they used on the last WRC cars?
i dont care what you do with the site as long as i can still shoot the breeze about subarus and keep up with what is going on in MN. you could make it look like candyland for all i care. seriously though, for me the appeal of the site is the information and members so they way it looks and functions really does not matter to me. i do like having the option of the something like the VB4 default appearance.
For those who don't like the dark theme, you can change it in your Settings. Scroll down to "Forum Skin" and change it there. I'm using the "default" theme. The white background is easier on my eyes. Here is a suggestion to the topic. Pictures should be allowed back into the signature lines (or a larger signature space). I know it floods the threads, but I like how it helped to create character in the forum and allowed one to provide a little more information about their likes or on whatever is meaningful to them. With the new rules, people were creative enough to use a funny snippit of dialog or contain it with thoughtful quotes, but to me its limiting. On the other hand, if signatures could be disabled when using the "print thread" feature, that'd be nice too.
Allowing images in sigs almost invariably leads to shenanigans. I get what you're saying with wanting to add a little "flava" to your posts, I'm just not sure image sigs is the way to do that. I have yet to hit a car forum that allowed them and make it more than 30 minutes without disabling signatures entirely because it's so obnoxious. Xenforo has a feature where you can pop up a user's profile as an overlay without leaving the thread by clicking on their name. I wonder if we could do something with that...
^ So if there is the ability to disable pictures why would you care if they allowed them? Why not just do it if people like it, then they can get their little enjoyment off of it.
There will definitely be at least 2 themes. With XF, the theme stuff is a bit easier, so with the dark theme, there is 4-5 different color options (blue, red, yellow, orange, and green). The light theme is something that I just pulled and added to start messing around with. Once we get the main features of the site in place, I will get at least a dark them and a light theme in place before we start some of the beta testing. Thank you, but I would still like to make this place a comfortable place to be and have some of the features that you would like to use. For me, a big feature will be the donation system. The current one automates everything, so it takes little to no work to keep it updated. The other is the chat system. It doesn't get use a bunch now, but I have some plans to get the chat system rolling a little more. Russ
Hey Russ, I've never used XF but would it be possible to run a frame with the chat channel running or at least the current list of users in the chat. Right now I don't bother using it because every time I clicked on it there where no users, so now I don't even bother clicking on it. If it was live in a frame or if it told me there were people in there, I would definitely use it more often.
Depending on the chat system I use, it will have a box in the sidebar showing who is currently in the chat. We have it listed in the "site stats" on the bottoms of the forum listing page, but since people haven't been using it there is never anyone listed. Russ
I appreciate the two options on color schemes, and as previously stated, it's just nice to have a place to come learn/talk Subaru, and see what kind of stuff people are doing to their cars, and seeing their projects. I am not by any means good with computers and software, so some of this is a little foreign to me, but if it makes it easier, cleaner, and more efficient, then I am all in! Thanks for the hard work - Julian
That is just a old version of VB. 3.8.5, then to get to the latest version you will need to spend another $100. Then it is still EOL. Except vb3.8.x is EOL, so there are no more updates, fixes, or support. That is not the chance I want to take with the traffic that we are currently running. Russ
Ok, well I am going to start moving forward with converting over to Xenforo. Along with this conversion, there is going to be some changes to the site/rules/the way we opperate. 1 - old/un-used user purge. The total member count is going to change. Basically, if your user account has not logged in in the past 2.5 years (since 1-1-09) and the account doesn't have any posts, it will be purged. I have tested it on my dev site and it will purge about 800 user accounts. It is like trimming off the extra fat. 2 - attachment purge. We are currently running q little over 5gb worth of attachments site wide. The mod group is currently doing the math on what is going to be a fair attachment size (per attachment) and a total user allotment on space. With the community getting as large as it is, attachment size and space is something that we need to keep in check. Our server only has 20gb of total storage and I want to reduce the total attachment to less than 20% of our total storage space. We also have to keep plenty of space for the the site itself to continue growing. 3 - Turn off the blogs and remove a few unused user access levels. Since there is only a few of use that are using the blog feature, I will be shutting them down. Along with that, I will be eliminating a couple of account access levels. This is more of a house keeping/clean up thing. 4 - just a general clean up. I am going to start cleaning up some of the "random" stuff we have within the site. This is just going to be a general clean up to help reduce our footprint on the server and help streamline the import process to the new software. About 2 weeks ago, I did a full site backup and a did a VB to XF conversion. On my dev site it took about 10-12 hours to do the full import. My dev box is a bit faster than the current live site (dev box has a slower proc but more memory). My overall plan is to start streamlining the live site for the conversion. Hopefully I will be able to get all of that done this weekend. Then I will be moving onto getting the new XF site up to speed. Getting the modifications made to the new software to make the site usability about the same as here. Once I get all the finished off, I will move into finalizing the themes. I hope to open the dev site to a few beta testers by the end of the month. With any luck, XF will be releasing their first major update to 1.1. I would like to go live with XF as soon as I can test the new site with the 1.1 update. If all goes as planned I would like to do the live site changeover some time in August. Along with doing the site software changeover, I will also be updating all the underlying software. Basically the server has been running for the past 2+ years without any downtime and updates. So I will be doing all the php, apache, mysql update to get everything to the most current and then do the switchover. Overall, I hope to get everything done in a day or so. Yes, that means MNS might be down for more than a day, but I think everyone will be able to manage. And once we go live again, we will be a much leaner and snappier website ready for more future expansion. I will continue to post updates on my process and try to keep everyone informed about any downtimes as this process takes place. Thanks Russ
